Whether you’re after specific advice, or just general information to boost your nutrition knowledge and healthier eating, you’ll get reliable, science-backed answers at Glowing Health Nutrition.
The approach here is to first understand your situation and what you want to achieve, before establishing your goals and providing you with understandable and effective advice.
We’re here to support you to meet those goals, so whatever health aims you have, we’re with you on the journey for as long as you need us.
Achieving good health is a great goal in itself. Many of us want to be healthier but where do you start?
There is all sorts of information on the internet and social media, and some it’s good but some of it’s not. You need advice that’s reliable, safe and effective to help you reach your health goals.
Eating well is a cornerstone of good health and we feel so much better when we do – better mood, better state of mind, feeling fresher and lighter.
It can also help lower our risks of certain diseases like stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, and obesity, and improve our life expectancy.
The question is what is healthy eating – how much of each food should we have, is there an ideal eating plan (or ‘diet’), should we have three meals/day or just graze constantly, and how should we time our eating?
Let’s start with the basics – the Australian Dietary Guidelines are for adults to have at least 5 – 6 serves of vegetables, 2 serves of fruit, 6 serves of grain foods, 3 serves of lean protein and 2½ serves of diary food, every day.
That’s a lot to digest (pardon the pun!), and not easy for many to achieve.
In fact, during 2017-2018, 92% of Australians didn’t have this many vegetables, and currently, we eat less than half that recommendation. This is where trustworthy advice can guide you in the right direction.
“The food and drink that you eat and drink regularly” is the definition of “diet” from the Oxford Dictionary.
Unfortunately, though, it has come to mean something like a magical, short term weight loss panacea.
To be clear, there is no silver bullet for fast weight loss, but eating more healthily doesn’t need to be that difficult. Taking the right steps with knowledgeable support can get you on your way.
Fluids and hydration are an important part of good nutrition, too, and water is the preferred drink for we humans.
It’s free (from the tap), refreshing, carries no kilojoules and is safe across most of Australia.
How much you need will vary depending on your own physiology, activity levels, diet and the weather. Don’t get caught up in slavishly sticking to the standard 2 litres/day – that’s old school and doesn’t allow for variations in your day-to-day needs.
Tea and coffee are ok too, so long as you’re not having too much, but alcohol, soft drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks, fruit juice drinks and cordials really should be limited.
What about red wine you say? Isn’t that good for me?
It’s true that red wine contains a substance called resveratrol, which is found in the seeds and skin of red grapes, and that it shows a lot of health-giving properties, like being heart-protective, anti-carcinogenic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective, but there are also some side-effects and some interactions with medications.
Besides, you’d need to have around 252 litres of red wine to get a single effective dose of resveratrol, and that’s certainly not recommended!
While there are already a number of considerations to improve our eating habits, good nutrition is about more than just what we eat.
The quality and quantity of food at each meal is important, as is the environment that we eat in – the where and the how.
For instance, soft lighting and soft music cause us to stay longer, and eat more and drink more than we meant to in restaurants, and eating while we’re distracted in front of the TV or in a cinema can also cause us to have more than we intended.
Being aware of these, and the multitude of other barely noticeable factors, gives you control of whether you actually want to eat that item at that time, or are just being manipulated into it.
All nutrition advice & consultation conducted by Rick Lapeyre – Principal Nutritionist Glowing Health Nutrition
Rick Lapeyre – MHNutr., BHSc.(Clin.Nut.)
Principal Nutritionist Glowing Health Nutrition.
Rick Lapeyre is a tertiary-qualified nutritionist who brings a wealth of skills and experience to the role.
Rick is a member of the Australian Natural Therapists Association (ANTA), member no. 30053. He is also a member of the Nutrition Society of Australia (NSA).
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