Intermittent Fasting vs. The Mediterranean Diet – What’s Best?

In a previous article we examined the Ketogenic Diet (Keto). Outside of its limited use in clinical settings, Keto meets all the criteria to be considered a ‘fad diet’. At least according to Dietitians Australia that is! Keto has rigid rules regarding what can and cannot be eaten. It exclusively blames carbohydrates (carbs) for our…

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Keto and the Danger of Fad Diets

Former American President Benjamin Franklin famously stated that: In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes. We could safely add ‘…and the proliferation of fad diets’ to this quote! As long as we have a problem with overweight and obesity, we’ll have an abundance of fad diets. This is certainly the case in…

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How Do You Change ‘Bad’ Habits?

Recognised as the ‘father of western psychology’, William James observed that: “All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits”. Whether we realise it or not, most of what we do occurs on autopilot. Our actions are rarely the product of conscious decisions and choices. Rather, they’re the…

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Vitamins and Minerals – Do We Need to Supplement?

Pharmaceuticals are very big business. In 2022, the global pharmaceutical market was estimated to be worth $1.48 trillion (US). There’s a heck of a lot of zeros in 1.48 trillion! Expressed numerically it looks like this – $1,480,000,000,000. One and a half thousand billion dollars…per annum…Wow! ‘Big Pharma’ is somewhat of an understatement. The nutritional…

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Dietary Fat – Health Risk or Super-Nutrient?

Where protein is widely acclaimed and carbohydrate maligned and misunderstood, fat is the ‘chameleon’ macronutrient. One day it’s an under-rated super-nutrient, the next its linked to a variety of serious diseases. The ‘black or white’, either it’s good or bad, framing doesn’t help anyone. It simply encourages us to take a position on one side…

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Carbohydrates ‘Carbs’ – Friend, Foe, or Both?

In contrast to the widely acclaimed macronutrient protein, carbohydrates (carbs) tend to be misunderstood and frequently maligned. We have a huge array of ‘low carb’ diets, food products and supplements. Big alcohol cashes in on the carb-bashing to sell a range of ‘low carb’ beers, wines, and alcopops. But are alcoholic drinks and foods really…

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Diet Plans and the ‘Cult of Expertise’

One of the questions most frequently asked about our Weight Management programme is: Will it enable me to write diet plans? The short answer is no. In terms of the interventions within the programme, we discourage dieting and the writing of ‘diet plans’. It’s a legitimate question though which requires unpacking. First up, there are…

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Is Food Addiction Real?

When talking about ‘food addiction’ I’m generally met with one of two responses: Interesting, I hadn’t thought about it like that – how does it work? What nonsense – how can you be addicted to something that’s essential to life itself. The first response encourages learning. It enables us to consider the modern food environment…

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Protein – How Much do You Really Need?

If one macronutrient is believed to be superior to all others, it’s protein! We have a huge array of ‘low fat’ and ‘low carb’ diets and food products. We don’t have any diets, food products or supplements that make a point of presenting themselves as ‘low protein’. How well do you think ‘high carb’, or…

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Multi Vitamins

multi-vitamins-personal-training

A regular advertisement screening on New Zealand TV for a multi-vitamin product asks the viewers: “Do you feel tired and run down?” Viewers are lead to believe that this could be due to a vitamin deficiency. It doesn’t consider the possibility that being tired is a completely normal consequence of: A busy, stressful day Skipping…

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