Here's a few ideas to optimise your health:
Always buy plain yoghurt and sweeten it yourself with your fruit of choice. It's not strawberries they are using in your 'strawberry flavoured' yoghurt. Jalna and Barnhoffen are reasonable supermarket brands.
Always read the ingredients panel on packaged food not just the nutritional panel.
Never use microwaved popcorn, it contains chemicals that are likely carcinogens (linked to cancer). Pop your own or else the Coles brand Cool Pak (blue and white wrapper comes in packs of 10) is a better option and has no nasty additives like most of the brands on the market.
If you need to prioritise what you buy organic and what you don't - make sure you don't compromise on your chicken and eggs.
Don't be fooled by the term "free range" it's really of no value thanks to the recently tweaked (April 2017) definition of no more than 10,000 hens per hectare with "regular and meaningful access to the outdoors". But this only applies to their grazing area and there's no required amount of time outside. So the reality is still woefully overcrowded indoor areas, leaving the hens prone to disease and stress. You need to look at 'stocking density'.
Choice recently listed 'stocking density' numbers for Australian providers - get familiar with the suppliers of eggs with low stocking density where you shop.
Watch out for sulfites (220 - 228) they are added to dried fruits and coconut - always check your ingredient label to find the brand that doesn't include sulfites. Especially important for asthmatics, allergic and sensitive individuals.
Always use butter instead of margarine.
Cooking with oils requires understanding 'smoke points' destroying a delicate oil by overheating it is bad for your health. Olive oil and nut oils are good healthy options, but can be easily destroyed - add them at the end of the cooking process. Use saturated fats to cook with such as butter, ghee or coconut oil - they all have high smoke points.
Smoothies are one of the best things for fussy eaters, use colourful cups and straws for kids, get them involved and pack in lots of nutrition. You can blend up nuts and seeds to ensure you have enough protein element
We are overfed yet undernourished. A simple rule of thumb is JERF - Just Eat Real Food.
Keep it simple and see if you can eat fresh, local and seasonal.
Avoid artificial sweeteners completely - this means diet drinks. These chemicals are even worse for you than the sugar in the original drink.
Stop eating lite and skim products - they have more sugar than full fat versions. Eat foods as close to their natural form as possible. Sugar is what makes you fat.
Grate your own cheese - there's an anti-caking agent in pre-grated cheese.
Get more protein into the children - they have double the requirement we do and most of them don't eat enough.
Avoid the boxed cereals for breakfast try eggs, porridge or smoothies instead.
Vegemite has msg in it, it's banned in Denmark! Consider how often your kids are having it.
Chocolate Moove is full of nasty ingredients one of which is banned in 5 other countries but not Australia.
Strawberries and/or tomatoes can cause a red rash around children's mouths.
Coconut oil is anti bacterial, anti viral and a medium chain triglyceride (MCT) great for weight loss and many other uses such as oil pulling, skin and scalp care.
Onion and garlic have natural anti bacterial properties and are good at breaking down mucous.
Improve your milk choice - for cows milk choose full fat organic, preferably unhomogenised such as Udder Farm. For non dairy options look at rice milk, oat milk, almond milk, quinoa milk, hemp milk, coconut milk. I like to rotate these alternatives, some are higher in protein and some are higher in calcium than others.
The most humble of the super foods are - broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts - great at helping the body to detox.
Add flavour to cooking using herbs, spices, lemon, himalayan salt. Avoid packaged sauces and gravies.
Labelling - this can be a nightmare. If you are gluten free, especially coeliac you need to be careful to look for the 'gluten free' official label and/or read the actual ingredients. For example Sakata crackers have a diagram and a gluten free with an arrow pointing to the cracker on the packaging. However if you read the ingredients of the flavoured crackers you'll see they are in fact not gluten free.
Always buy plain yoghurt and sweeten it yourself with your fruit of choice. It's not strawberries they are using in your 'strawberry flavoured' yoghurt. Jalna and Barnhoffen are reasonable supermarket brands.
Always read the ingredients panel on packaged food not just the nutritional panel.
Never use microwaved popcorn, it contains chemicals that are likely carcinogens (linked to cancer). Pop your own or else the Coles brand Cool Pak (blue and white wrapper comes in packs of 10) is a better option and has no nasty additives like most of the brands on the market.
If you need to prioritise what you buy organic and what you don't - make sure you don't compromise on your chicken and eggs.
Don't be fooled by the term "free range" it's really of no value thanks to the recently tweaked (April 2017) definition of no more than 10,000 hens per hectare with "regular and meaningful access to the outdoors". But this only applies to their grazing area and there's no required amount of time outside. So the reality is still woefully overcrowded indoor areas, leaving the hens prone to disease and stress. You need to look at 'stocking density'.
Choice recently listed 'stocking density' numbers for Australian providers - get familiar with the suppliers of eggs with low stocking density where you shop.
Watch out for sulfites (220 - 228) they are added to dried fruits and coconut - always check your ingredient label to find the brand that doesn't include sulfites. Especially important for asthmatics, allergic and sensitive individuals.
Always use butter instead of margarine.
Cooking with oils requires understanding 'smoke points' destroying a delicate oil by overheating it is bad for your health. Olive oil and nut oils are good healthy options, but can be easily destroyed - add them at the end of the cooking process. Use saturated fats to cook with such as butter, ghee or coconut oil - they all have high smoke points.
Smoothies are one of the best things for fussy eaters, use colourful cups and straws for kids, get them involved and pack in lots of nutrition. You can blend up nuts and seeds to ensure you have enough protein element
We are overfed yet undernourished. A simple rule of thumb is JERF - Just Eat Real Food.
Keep it simple and see if you can eat fresh, local and seasonal.
Avoid artificial sweeteners completely - this means diet drinks. These chemicals are even worse for you than the sugar in the original drink.
Stop eating lite and skim products - they have more sugar than full fat versions. Eat foods as close to their natural form as possible. Sugar is what makes you fat.
Grate your own cheese - there's an anti-caking agent in pre-grated cheese.
Get more protein into the children - they have double the requirement we do and most of them don't eat enough.
Avoid the boxed cereals for breakfast try eggs, porridge or smoothies instead.
Vegemite has msg in it, it's banned in Denmark! Consider how often your kids are having it.
Chocolate Moove is full of nasty ingredients one of which is banned in 5 other countries but not Australia.
Strawberries and/or tomatoes can cause a red rash around children's mouths.
Coconut oil is anti bacterial, anti viral and a medium chain triglyceride (MCT) great for weight loss and many other uses such as oil pulling, skin and scalp care.
Onion and garlic have natural anti bacterial properties and are good at breaking down mucous.
Improve your milk choice - for cows milk choose full fat organic, preferably unhomogenised such as Udder Farm. For non dairy options look at rice milk, oat milk, almond milk, quinoa milk, hemp milk, coconut milk. I like to rotate these alternatives, some are higher in protein and some are higher in calcium than others.
The most humble of the super foods are - broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts - great at helping the body to detox.
Add flavour to cooking using herbs, spices, lemon, himalayan salt. Avoid packaged sauces and gravies.
Labelling - this can be a nightmare. If you are gluten free, especially coeliac you need to be careful to look for the 'gluten free' official label and/or read the actual ingredients. For example Sakata crackers have a diagram and a gluten free with an arrow pointing to the cracker on the packaging. However if you read the ingredients of the flavoured crackers you'll see they are in fact not gluten free.
