Is Your Food Making You Sick?

Is Your Food Making You Sick?

Gut Bacteria & Your Food Is the food we’re eating on a regular basis the reason why we get sick? If we change our food, could we change the state of our health? Can we also affect our moods by making changes in our diet? I firmly believe we can. The collective human microbe colony weighs about 1 and a half kilos – as much as our brains! Bacteria outnumber our human cells by 10 to 1 and live predominantly inside our gut. Gut bacteria, also known as the Microbiome (pronounced micro.bi.ome) lives off of the food we eat. The problem is that certain foods feed good bacteria

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Coconut Chocolate Cake with Creamy Chocolate Frosting [Recipe]

Coconut Chocolate Cake with Creamy Chocolate Frosting [Recipe]

Coconut Chocolate Cake (or Cupcakes) REAL FOODIE FRIDAY Soft, spongy and chocolaty! Who doesn’t love a good chocolate cake? Especially when it doubles as moist and delicious cupcakes! This one just happens to be dairy free, gluten free, naturally sweetened and absolutely delicious. We serve this recipe as cupcakes to all the raw and healthy chocolate workshop students on arrival and they love them! Perfect treat for the whole family and easy to make – especially the creamy frosting on top! I also like to make two separate cakes and join the two cakes together as a double layer with frosting in-between, which is what

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Nutty Choc Granola Recipe

Nutty Choc Granola Recipe

Nuts for Chocolate Granola! I confess I’m a little late to the granola making party. Funnily enough I used to the love the cardboard boxed stuff years ago, and probably in retrospect had a mild addiction to the apple and cinnamon flavour. Granola wasn’t something I ever got around to making myself until a few weeks ago, after a rather inspiring episode of “Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen” on the Food and Lifestyle Channel. We loved this recipe so much I’ve made several more versions with various nuts, seeds and spice combinations. I first ate it with greek yoghurt, then coconut cream, pure cream, and also

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Is Stress Causing Your Weight Gain?

Is Stress Causing Your Weight Gain?

Stress and Weight Wars A 2011/12 Queensland Health report revealed an average 57.3% of adults who are overweight or obese. On average, only 56.6% of adults reported getting sufficient physical activity, whilst 15.6% of adults reportedly drink alcohol every week. Eight in ten people with weight problems also suffer from chronic stress and some form of mental health issue. Why? Because our bodies react to stress and emotional trauma by packing on the pounds to protect us. When we experience stress of any kind – real or imagined – our thoughts contribute to the intensity of emotions we feel. If

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RAW Salty Caramel Tart [Recipe]

RAW Salty Caramel Tart [Recipe]

RAW Salty Caramel Tart OR Slice!! NB: This post was originally created for my 40th Birthday give-away in 2014. Time for a joyous celebratory recipe in the form of my  Raw Salty Caramel Tart (or Slice)  Recipe taken from my popular raw, dairy, gluten and refined sugar free, “Healthy Chocolate Delights” whole food sweet treats eBook! YUMMY 🙂   Base: 1 1/2 cups hazelnut meal 1/3 cup cacao powder 1/4 teaspoon rock or Himalayan salt 8-10 medjool dates (soaked in hot water for 5 mins and pitted) 1/4 cup desiccated coconut Alternative Non-Chocolate Base: 1 cup almonds 3/4 cup pepita seeds 1/4

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The Slow Down Diet / FREE Eating Psychology Online Conference

The Slow Down Diet / FREE Eating Psychology Online Conference

2nd Annual Eating Psychology Online Conference It’s a sad fact that every single one of us has something negative to say about our bodies at one time or another. For many people, especially women, it’s an everyday never-ending torrent of disgust, shame and hatred. Another huge challenge is food and eating – what to eat, when, how much….. so many negative and worrying thoughts about our bodies, food and eating. I know all too well what this destructive relationship can do after spending over 15 years battling an eating disorder. It’s dark, painful and lonely. I don’t want that for anyone

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Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.

Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.

Eat (Real) Food I love to tell people about food designers, because most people haven’t even heard of the term, let along know it’s actually a job title. Food designers are a food manufacturer’s secret weapon. Their job description is to create the perfect ratio of fat, sugar and salt in a food product that will create opiates in the brain to have you craving more! Big fast-food companies rely on these food designers to create great wealth in their business at an even greater cost to public health. People restricting themselves on one diet or another especially find these

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My Easy Roasted Salted Caramel Macadamia Nuts

My Easy Roasted Salted Caramel Macadamia Nuts

Caramel Macadamia Nuts Recipe I love Macadamia nuts. Always have since I was a child. We often travelled up to the Sunshine Coast where my Grandparents lived, not far from the Big Pineapple tourist attraction and alongside the Macadamia Nut Factory. Macadamia nuts are buttery, crunchy and flavourful natives of Australia, although they are also cultivated in Hawaii and several other tropical climates. They’re rich in monounsaturated fats (great for heart health), plus high in fibre and flavonoids (antioxidants). I love them roasted – crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. This scrumptious little recipe is something I put together

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Gluten Free Grain Free Banana Bread Recipe

Gluten Free Grain Free Banana Bread Recipe

Banana Bread! Banana Bread! Oh, I do love a moist, soft and tasty banana bread. Especially when it fits under the category of clean and healthy eating, holistic living and gluten free, grain free. (Dairy free too if you prefer it). Banana bread is a scrumptious comfort food on a cold day when warmed with grass-fed butter on top and a cup of herbal tea! Am I making you hungry? Better get to the recipe quickly then! This recipe was one that I adapted from the lovely Jane at Marinya Cottage Kitchen, who adapted it from another blog, Sleep Love Eat. My recipe takes

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How Food Can Improve Your Mood

How Food Can Improve Your Mood

Improve Your Mood with Food Are you finding it hard to juggle the daily demands of life, work and family on top of balancing your eating habits? You’re not alone. Many of my busy clients struggle to get going in the morning and don’t take time to give themselves a nourishing head start. Unfortunately this regular denial creates a cascade of cravings and energy dips for the rest of their day, ruining their healthy eating intentions. When the brain is lacking nutrients, it often overrides the conscious mind by reaching for convenient, packaged and processed foods to ensure it gets

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Reflections on Food Addiction From a Recovered Former Addict

Reflections on Food Addiction From a Recovered Former Addict

Food Addiction & Recovery Yesterday I was making some Dark and Milk Raw Chocolate for the gift boxes at this Saturday’s Raw and Healthy Easy Chocolate Delights workshop while watching my eating psychology videos. It got me thinking about how much my relationship to food, my body, sugar and eating has changed over the years from the tormented and distressed fear of weight gain, endless restriction, obsession and confusion I lived with in every waking moment…. I had no respect for hunger, fulfilment, boundaries, needs, nourishment or awareness. I really didn’t know what the hell I was doing back then because

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How to make the most Tastiest Healthy Basil Pesto (Recipe)

How to make the most Tastiest Healthy Basil Pesto (Recipe)

Basil Pesto Recipe I LOVE making my healthy pestos and dips! Who needs the unnecessary oils, preservatives and sugars in commercial dips when it’s so easy to whip up your own and bump up your nutrient intake. I just love being able to walk out the backyard and pick from our ever-growing herb and vegetable garden and mix them with some beautiful cold pressed macadamia, coconut or olive oils, nuts, seeds, apple cider vinegar, garlic, citrus juices and good old cracked pepper and sea salt…. YUM! Even though it takes time and devotion to keep nurturing your garden, the rewards

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Do You Have to do This at Parties?

Do You Have to do This at Parties?

Do you BYO Gluten-free to a Party? Over the weekend we spent time in Brisbane celebrating a close friends 40th Birthday. Turns out, my gluten-free dairy-free double layer Coconut Chocolate Cake was a delicious lifesaver for a Celiac guest at the party. She had brought her own container of fruit salad and drank several mugs of tea while others drank alcohol. She politely thanked and refused every single tray of food (mostly fried pastry assortments) that came around in front of her. She smiled with patience every time, never getting annoyed or frustrated, even after the dozenth time she was offered a serving of gluten.

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Lose the Stress and Lose the Weight

Lose the Stress and Lose the Weight

Mind-Body Weight Loss If you’re stressed out, worried, fearful or lonely, the impact on your health is immediate and the hormonal imbalances created are the same imbalances that cause food cravings, which also lead to weight gain. This stress, tension and fear might be a demanding job, a hectic family life, an abusive spouse or any of the millions of emotional challenges we all face in life—but the biochemical result is the same. Your hormones become imbalanced, your food cravings increase, and you’ll very likely gain weight. As time goes on, your cortisol levels rise, your blood sugar sky-rockets, your

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Healthy Raw Chocolate Workshop in Toowoomba!

Healthy Raw Chocolate Workshop in Toowoomba!

Easter is Coming! For real. I remember walking around the local supermarkets in January seeing chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies already lining the shelves, right alongside the leftover Christmas chocolates…. Now that Easter is really coming, it’s time to get educated about what chocolate actually is, and how you can make the most of its’ naturally occurring nutritional benefits before roasting and processing destroys most of them. easy personal loan bad credit So here I am pleased to announce that the 3 hour Easy Chocolate Delights workshop has been updated and now offered in the MindBodyFood Kitchen at Highfields. This means reduced cost, smaller

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