In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on the USA’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of the government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Their nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We now have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation – one if the most disturbing book sI have ever read), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.Let me know your thoughts after you have seen the film.
HypnoBirthing Makes the Media!
I have just had the most wonderful experience – a newspaper wants to feature me and HypnoBirthing! I have already been interviewed and this was one of the quotes:What are the benefits of Hypno-birthing?”From the statistics collected by the HypnoBirthing Institute, we know that caesarean rates are halved! 65% of HypnoBirthing women do not use any pain medication and the epidural rate is decreased by two thirds. I would say that these are very impressive statistics as in Australia we have one of the highest Caesarean rates in the world – 30.8%. That’s double the World Health Organisations recommendation of no more than 15%. In my experience HypnoBirthing promotes a rapid postnatal recovery, facilitates a beautiful bonding experience and returns birth to the natural process it is meant to be.”HypnoBirthing is an incredible tool that I teach people and I recommend that you read more about it here if you are pregnant. Or forward this on to any pregnant friends.I did a photo shoot this morning with the gorgeous Noah Raeburn who was such a star! He slept peacefully throughout the whole shoot and only stirred briefly with the sounds of the shutter. I want to thank Noah’s parents, Ash and Brian, for letting me come to their home and take these photos. I will let you all know when the article comes out!
Easter Bunny Delivers More Than Just Eggs
The Easter Bunny may be delivering more than just a sweet treat over Easter with research finding that consuming just six grams of chocolate per day may lower blood pressure and the risk of stroke and myocardial infarction. German researchers examined the association between chocolate consumption and vascular disease based on food frequency questionnaires and blood pressure measurements in nearly 20,000 people aged 35 – 64 years who were free of stroke and myocardial infarction.After eight years of follow up, those with the highest chocolate consumption (an average of six grams daily) had a 39% lower relative risk of myocardial infarction and stroke compared to those who consumed less than two grams per day.The inverse relation of chocolate consumption appeared stronger for stroke than myocardial functions. Baseline blood pressure measurements accounted for 12% of the lower risk of cardiovascular events, the researchers said. “Flavonols appear to be the substances in cocoa that are responsible for improving the bioavailability of nitric oxide from the cells that line the inner wall of blood vessels” the researchers stated.Participants were asked how frequently they consumed a 50gram chocolate bar from “never” to “five times a day or more”. In a subset of 1568 participants asked to recall their chocolate consumption over a 24 hours period, 57% reported eating milk chocolate, 24% ate dark chocolate and 2% ate white chocolate.So, this research proves that a little bit of everything is ok and eating a small square of dark chocolate every day can be extremely beneficial to your health! SourceEuropean Heart Journal, online 31 March 2010
Aussie retailers ranked in new WWF palm oil scorecard
Six of Australia’s biggest palm oil manufacturers and retailers have been assessed for the first time in WWF-Australia’s Palm Oil Buyers’ Scorecard – giving a snapshot of the sustainability of palm oil in products manufactured and sold by Cadbury, Coles, Goodman Fielder, Nestle, Unilever and Woolworths. “97% of our palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia – places with incredibly important rainforests and wildlife habitats,” said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.”Palm oil growth is now one of the world’s leading causes of deforestation. The choices made by retailers and manufacturers of palm oil have a direct impact on the habitat of endangered species such as the orang-utan, Sumatran tiger and Asian elephant.” Together, the companies featuring in WWF-Australia’s Scorecard account for approximately 70% of the palm oil imported and used in manufactured goods in Australia.Palm oil is the world’s most widely used vegetable oil and can be found in processed foods like chocolate, hot cross buns, biscuits, chips and ice cream. According to figures from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), palm oil can be found in up to 50 per cent of the packaged food products on our shelves. It can also be found in many cosmetics, lipsticks, shampoos, conditioners and moisturisers. In Australia, palm oil is labelled as vegetable oil, offering consumers no way of knowing whether or not their shopping choices are contributing to deforestation and habitat loss.”Australia imports around 130,000 tonnes of palm oil ever year making ‘Australia’s palm oil footprint’ 13,000 times the size of the MCG. We need to reduce the impact of this by using more sustainable palm oil through plantations being certified to the standards of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil,” said Mr Bourne.By working […]
Day 28 of Detox – I did it!
It’s been a few days since I blogged – I was birth support for my friend and we now have one more gorgeous soul in this world. It was an incredible experience for us all and bub is so beautiful!I only just realised that today is officially my last day of detox – 4 weeks gone! I actually feel so good I may continue until the weekend, which is another 5 days. I have a dinner engagement on Saturday and I know I will have a couple of glasses of wine so detox has to end by then.“Retoxing” must be done carefully and it is a perfect opportunity to test what foods agree with your body. So, post detox, reintroduce a new food e.g. wheat, and watch your body for 4 days. Do not introduce any other new food in this 4 day period. Look for signs such as bloating, indigestion, change in bowel habits, headaches, itchy skin or perhaps the return of symptoms that you had pre-detox and haven’t felt after week 1.Any foods that give you reactions indicated that your body does not digest them well, you may have an intolerance or simply it does not agree with you at this point in time.If you are aiming for optimal health, not average health, then you will need to avoid these foods until after your next detox. By then, try a small portion of it and you should be fine. It really helps to keep a journal during a detox and write a summary at the end. All my patients email me food diaries on a weekly basis as well so that I can support them through any food difficulties.The Reiki course was […]
Day 26 of Detox
My little gorgeous niece has learnt how to crawl! I am planning on popping in for a demonstration on the way to clinic so will add a photo of her in action. My brother has been frantically coordinating the expansion of his physiotherapy business. He has relocated to huge premises and is opening on Monday. I will be practising there and also running my HypnoBirthing classes weekly. I am very excited about this as I know he will create an awesome space with a lot of great energy.I stayed up till 1am working, as did my cat Simba (see picture), so I slept until my book keeper phoned at 9am! I haven’t slept in that late for ages but I must have needed a catch up. Apparently it is going to be filthy hot this weekend and I have a Reiki course all day tomorrow so I won’t be able to go to Bondi early morning for my swim. As I missed the gym this morning, I will go for a swim at Golden Door when I arrive tomorrow night.Breakfast was cereal, fruit and yoghurt – for some reason on this detox I haven’t been eating many eggs. I could make frittata for lunch or dinner quite easily as it is a great protein source but eggs don’t appeal at the moment. Lunch was left over salad from dinner which I snacked on between seeing patients.I had a social outing this evening which is probably the first big one for 3 weeks. I felt good about it before I went – I am not tempted by alcohol or bad food. The only thing I was concerned about were the options available for dinner! I […]
Day 25 of Detox
I woke early to go to the gym and felt rather tired for the first time in weeks. I did my cardio which all seemed very difficult and my time on the rower was 10minutes, 48 seconds, which as you know, was not great. Then I realised that I had my period – oh, it all clicks into place now!Day 23 was a shocker for me – unorganised, cranky, I think I cried 3 times in that day and I was so irritated. You know what makes me chuckle quietly? It’s the fact that every time I get my period I have an “ahaa!” moment, like it is so unexpected! I can hear the mental process now “so that explains why I felt so emotional, tired, irrational etc”. It occurs every month but each month it still comes as a surprise. So anyway, I left the gym and came home to do a 20 minute express Pilates DVD (love these when I am feeling lazy) and have a nice breakfast of gluten free cereal, white peach and apple juice.I made a smoothie to take to clinic – a banana, 2 passion fruits, frozen berries, oat milk, flaxseed oil and probiotic. I then had my last watercress soup from the freezer and I had forgotten how nutritious it is. It is packed with antioxidants, minerals and especially iron which I really need right now. I can feel the goodness seeping into my cells! Todays photo is my soup.Dinner was stunning red snapper fillets, which are perfect on the BBQ. Ensure you have a really hot surface, a little olive oil, put the fish skin side up and sear the surface, turn it over just briefly […]
Proof is in the Research – Pthalates are linked to ADHD
Phthalates – the ubiquitous plasticizing chemicals found in bottles, dishes, toys, cleaning and personal care products – are a smoking gun, maybe the next tobacco. They need to be dealt with yesterday because it is children who are most vulnerable to them, and the effects of exposure to phthalates may not surface for years. By then, damage is done.Korean researchers have found a significant positive association between urine phthalate concentrations and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a study of 261 Korean children aged between 8 and 11 years old. Here is the abstract of the scientific article in the peer-reviewed journal Biological Psychiatry.And if you are looking for an overview of the toxic chemicals that surround us in everyday life, then check out the highly readable, utterly shockingly eye-opening Slow Death by Rubber Duck. I have just finished and it made me feel sick, horrified and angry all the way through. Positive action is needed when it comes to industrial chemicals and we are yet to fully understand how they will affect us in the years to come. Anyone seen “The Children of Men” with Clive Owen – it may be our future if we don’t act NOW!Phthalates exposure and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in school-age children.BACKGROUND: Very few studies have examined the association between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and phthalate exposure in humans. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of phthalates on symptoms of ADHD in school-age children. METHODS: A cross-sectional examination of urine phthalate concentrations was performed, and scores on measures of ADHD symptoms and neuropsychological dysfunction with regard to attention and impulsivity were obtained from 261 Korean children, age 8-11 years. RESULTS: Mono-2-ethylheyl phthalate (MEHP) and mono-2-ethyl-5-oxohexylphthalate (MEOP) for […]
Day 24 of Detox
I had a crazy day in clinic today – even my 15 minutes breaks ended up being used for acute phone consults! So it is late and I have just finished writing reports to GPs and psychologists – not my favourite part of being a naturopath but a necessary one.I used about 6 lychees with my cereal this morning along with a kiwi and it was a taste bud sensation. I took left over salad of rocket, sugar snaps, cucumber and avocado for my mid morning snack. All my friends laugh at me as they know that I often eat left over salad before I go to the gym in the morning. It started when I was younger – I have always enjoyed making salads but I always made so much that we never ate it all at dinner.So I would stand with the fridge door open in the morning pondering what to eat for breakfast and the salad would just scream out to me “EAT ME!!!” So I did. I then began researching what traditional cultures ate in the morning and I discovered that the cereal and toast phenomenon was a relatively recent invention. In China they eat congee, in Japan it’s miso, in Greece it’s fetta, olives with coffee etc. So our Western version of toast and jam or cereal with milk is what we feel we are supposed to eat, but is it really the best start to the day? Why can’t breakfast be savoury and more substantial? Have you ever heard of the expression “eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch and a pauper at dinner”? So, if you are getting bored with your breakfasts, think outside […]
Day 23 of Detox
Well, at least I woke up nice and early due to going to bed at a reasonable time for a change. The gym was not as busy and I felt great by the time I was stretching an hour later. Today’s breakfast was muesli, sheep’s milk yoghurt and half a dozen lychees. I love this fruit and just devour them when they are in season.I then went for “coffee” and made the radical decision to have a soy chai latte. Well, never again! It was just like drinking hot milk and did not appeal to me at all. One thing that you need to ask if you are ordering chai is “do you use syrup or do you brew the herbs to order?” I kept having women complain to me that they couldn’t lose weight even though they were taking their herbs and supplements, exercising and eating well. After some investigation work it turned out that this subset of patients were all drinking soy chai lattes! If the syrup is used then this drink is high in calories, about 250 per cup, which takes quite a while to burn off at the gym. So, now I ask them to avoid this drink completely and stick to my herbal tea instead as it contains a little ginger which supports a healthy metabolism.IKU provided a lovely lunch – I adore their cabbage and beetroot salad as just looking at it makes me feel healthy. I then had ocean trout and yellow fin tuna with salad for dinner. Now, a little about yellow fin tuna – this is a smaller, faster growing species than the blue fin tuna. Hence it is a far more sustainable choice to […]
