I’m constantly torn between wanting to share authentically on my social media platforms and not wanting to share at all - mostly in fear that I will offend someone or be “called out” by someone who doesn’t agree with me. The people pleaser in me fights hard to keep me from saying my truth some days.

Most of the time, when I am writing a long post or caption about a topic of nutrition that may or may not be polarising, I end up deleting it and going about my day, not offending anyone but also not connecting with like-minded folks. Is that easier than the feeling of debating a random stranger? OR worse, losing the respect of someone I know?!

I have struggled in my business to find a reliable source of income in private practice (as a nutritionist), and every time I have attempted to “find my niche” and “speak to my ideal client,” I end up not really knowing who I’m speaking to at all.

I guess I’m afraid I will share something that will make another woman, mum, person going through life feel like they aren’t doing the “right” thing - I’m afraid all I am doing by sharing my truth is adding to the noise that is already really fucking loud out there. We have so much health information at the tip of our fingers, in this tiny computer we can’t live without, and although this so readily available, I don’t think we are healthier for it.

I once shared a post about making your Weetbix (weetabix for the UK folks) a little healthier by adding chia seeds, hemp seeds and fresh or frozen berries - and I was DM’d by a former student peer about how Weetbix was a UPF and totally unsuitable as a breakfast option - I should know better, surely?!

I also got a DM from a friend thanking me for the tips because her kids will only eat Weetbix for breakfast, and she was worried they weren’t getting enough nutrition and was going to implement my tips immediately. Obviously, the negative comment stayed with me far longer, as we do as humans, we remember the negative shit more than the positives - why do we do this?!

I’m afraid if I share my opinion on a hot topic (like - supporting breastfeeding and nourishing the mother by encouraging closeness, not bottle and formula feeding to give mum a break), I will be cancelled by the “fed is best” folks — but I am also afraid that if I never share my honest and true thoughts, I won’t build an authetic community, I won’t have a voice, and I won’t resonate with anyone let alone my “ideal client”. So you see, my dilemma leaves me in a bit of a limbo - not all in, but not tapping out either.

Sometimes I wonder if I even want to continue building my business at all in this landscape of health and wellness.

As a new mum who has had the privilege of being off work for a year now to be at home with my daughter, I don’t think any job will be as valuable to me as this time spent at home.

But I am really passionate about nutrition, wellness, holistic health and alternative medicine. I do want to connect with like-minded individuals who want to learn, who want to feel inspired, who are eager to learn from me, and I love the feeling of helping women feel more in tune and aligned in their bodies.

So, I need to start sharing authentically, feel the fear and do it anyway. Hopefully, I don’t get cancelled.

I started experimenting with herbal and alternative medicine before I studied nutrition at university, and I always enjoyed the feeling of comfort a cup of lemon ginger tea brought when I was unwell.

When I started at university, I was learning all about how different foods have different properties, vitamins and nutrients that support different areas of the body systems. I was enamoured by that knowledge.

Food is medicine had a bit of a controversial resurgence with critics claiming medicine is medicine, food is simply food, but I think what Hippocrates meant when he (allegedly) said food is medicine is that food affects our bodies in ways that heal, and those healing properties of food are a form of medicine or medical treatment.

I understand it’s a phrase that might oversimplify a complex and nuanced health care system yada yada but if we look at some of these examples, I think we can agree - food has a place in medical therapy;

Vitamin C - essential to ward of scurvy, supports immune function by protecting the life of our white blood cells (who fight disease!), enhances iron absorption and gives you a little glow. Antioxidant protection, it basically improves the lifecycle of your cells and protects against oxidative stress (caused by our environment and worsened with chronic disease)

• present in citrus fruits, most concentrated in leafy greens, capsicum (peppers - sorry, I’m in Australia!), and our native fruits - kakadu and davidson plum.

Vitamin D - lovingly supplied by our gracious sun, vitamin D supports our immune system by creating antimicrobial proteins that kill germs, it enhances the body’s response to germs when it binds to immune cells, reduces inflammation, and strengthens our cell barriers to germs, keeping them out and us unbothered.

• present in: eggs, dairy, fish and if you leave your mushrooms bottum up to the sun for 20 minutes before cooking with them, they absorb vitamin D from the sun and can boost their vitamin D content by 40%. Very cool, funghi, very cool.

Zinc & Iron

I’m popping these two minerals together because I don’t want to rample on too much - zinc is essential for our innate immune cells - macrophages, natural killer cells (they literally kill cancer cells, so quite important). It shortens infection periods and is essential in wound healing in skin - that’s why it’s always in nappy rash creams.

• oysters, pumpkin seeds, leafy greens and whole grains

Iron carries oxygen around our body which gives us energy, life force, vitality. Iron also is essential in creating macrophages, the immune cells that fight germs, improves NK cells fighting abilities, and it helps our body keep making our long term immune cells - our B and T cells.

• red meat, chicken, eggs, dairy, dark green leafy vegetables and molasses

Unless you want to take these vitamins and minerals in a pill form supplement, you need food rich in these nutrients to support your health wellness. For me, knowing that food provides me such essential nutrients to support my immune system and overall well-being, it’s a no-brainer; food IS medicine. It’s a part of my toolkit for keeping well. If i’m unwell, it’s a part of my first aid kit to healing.

Is it really so controversial to suggest consuming homemade chicken soup when you are unwell, giving your body nutrients to help it fight the infection, resting, and calling that medicine?

All that to say - here are a few foods I always keep on hand in our home:

Honey - I always always keep local, raw honey and usually I also keep a jar of manuka honey or a medicinal honey containing a high level of antimicrobial content. This can be meausred in UMF or MGO. If we’re talking MGO, I have honey at 1500+MGO - this is our medicinal honey, a spoonful with a sore throat, a fever, a cold sore, any signs of feeling run down - it is not a honey for hot drinks! Honey is a superfood, using local raw honey reduces allergies like hayfever, and it has significant antimicrobial and antiviral properties. This is perfect for a viral infection that cannot be treated with antibiotics.

Chicken stock/broth - usually every week or every second week, I get a whole chicken to roast, we enjoy the meat and then I use the bones and carcass to make chicken stock. It keep about 5 days in the fridge, or it can be frozen for 3 months. I use this stock to make soup, cook grains like rice or quinoa, in rissoto or in pasta sauces. It’s so incredibly rich in protein, collagen, gelatin, foods that health the gut lining which in turn supports immune function.

Tea/Tisane - I always keep a few fresh herbs like thyme, fresh lemon and ginger, turmeric to add to hot water with some dried herbal or green tea. Herbs like echinacea, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon balm all support our body to rest, heal and lower inflammation. I love a good chai which combines black tea with ginger and cardamom, star anise and honey.

Dark Chocolate - this one might be a little surprising, I always keep some dark choccy around - 70-80% cacao, the antioxidants and polyphenols are real - as high if not higher than green tea!

Fresh fruit and vegetables - this is a bit of a no brainer, obviusly I’m going to recommend eating an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables. I think a lot of people avoid fruit out of wanting to avoid sugar, but whatI have found is the more fruit you have, the less processed and refined sugars you crave. Fruit has a very well regarded place in my home, I enjoy fruit daily, it provides a touch of sweetness and a tonne of nutrients like vitamin C and antioxidants. I really love a good stewed fruit compote, especially when treating illness - stewed apples with a little cinnamon and star anise - provides pectin, a prebiotic fibre that feeds beneficial gut microbes. Served alone, on top of porridge or with a little crumble.

There are so many foods I love - foods like cheese, butter, homemade bread, crepes, medjool dates, berries - I could go on and on but the ones I’ve listed above really serve a purpose beyond taste and flavour.

Food is definitely medicine in our home.

I was asked to do my OGTT - the glucose tolerance test in pregnancy - early, because I had a high BMI. I did my test at 11 weeks and was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. This test measures 3 things: fasting glucose, and your glucose levels 1 hour and 2 hours after a drink of 75g of sugar. I had a fasting glucose of 5.4 mmol, and the cut-off for diagnosis is 5.3mmol so just over. My glucose after the drink was normal.

Interestingly, my fasting glucose levels were the most challenging to maintain throughout my pregnancy, whereas I managed my post-meal levels very well, which aligns with my test results. The fasting levels are usually the hardest to keep controlled with diet alone, but I was determined not to use medication, as I did not want to risk my planned low-intervention birth.

As a nutritionist, I knew I had the education and resources to have the best diet possible to manage my GD. I met with the hospital diabetes team, which included a meeting with a registered nurse and diabetes educator, and the hospital dietitian. I was given some handouts, educational material and a sample meal plan.

To say the hospital guidelines are outdated is an understatement. I was unpleasantly shocked at the information provided to expectant mothers with GD - the meal plan was clearly funded by the big food industry, there were recommendations for Nestle products throughout, as well as recommendations to keep carbohydrate intake up to 9 serves per day!

I honestly believe that if I followed their guidelines, I would have ended up with rising glucose levels and would have been quickly placed on medication.

To be clear, I am not against using medication when it’s needed. If there is a genuine need, and diet and lifestyle changes do not shift the needle, it is a useful tool. However, it does change your birthing options, and it does require a higher level of intervention from a hospital policy perspective.

What they do not seem to tell you is that the risk of intervention increases when you start on medication. The risk of induction, for example, of extra monitoring during labour, and the risk of hypoglycemia in your newborn.

There is so much conflicting information out there. When it comes to my clients, I tell them to listen to their intuition, listen to their body, how it feels eating certain foods, and follow that guidance. I used a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) for most of my pregnancy to learn which foods spiked my blood sugars, and I was able to learn a lot from this. I recommend it if you can afford it.

When it comes to a balanced plate with gestational diabetes, you want to focus on protein, healthy fats and whole grain carbohydrates (not refined carbohydrates). Fruit is a great snack and dessert option, as it has fibre that slows the glucose, and it has a natural sweetness that satisfies those sweet cravings.

Sample Meal Plan

Breakfast:

• Bircher muesli or overnight oats with berries (fresh or frozen)

• Eggs on sourdough toast with avocado

  

  Lunch:

• Cold pasta with protein source: tuna / steak / chicken / tofu / tempeh

  

• Wholegrain Salad

  

  Dinner:

• Bahn Mi Bowls with protein of choice: chickpeas, chicken, pork, tempeh

• Hot honey beef bowls with sweet potato

  

  Snacks:

• Vegetable snack plate

• Fruit platter

• Wholegrain cracker and hummus or cottage cheese

• Date and dark chocolate slice (this one is quite decadent, I posted the recipe on my profile)

At the end of the day, if you want to prioritise balanced blood sugars with gestational diabetes, you need to focus on whole foods, not eating from a packet. You need fibre, fats and protein to balance whole grain carbohydrates, you need a variety of fruits and vegetables, and you need to eat enough to support your amazing body to grow your bebe and thrive during pregnancy.

Balancing blood sugars over the day also requires consideration of exercise; walking after meals helps a lot, as well as managing stress and sleep if possible.

If you are looking for more personalised support with gestational diabetes or pregnancy nutrition in general, I am consulting online once again for limited spaces in the week. Please book a complimentary discovery call, and we can discuss what 1:1 support would look like for you.

Ellie x

If you can stock your freezer, I highly recommend doing so. You can do a combination of ready-cook meals in individual portions, big lasagne bakes, and even prepared mixes (uncooked) that you just chuck in the slow cooker.

Another tip is to organise a meal train, or have someone organise it for you - you can do this at a baby shower - essentially everyone is assigned a meal and a day they drop off to you so you don’t have to cook in those first precious days. Let the meal train folks know that you might not be up for a visit, but they are welcome to drop food at the door in an insulated bag.

Okay here are my top 10 recipes for postpartum nourishment - these are gentle on digestion, support soft bowel motions, are anti-inflammatory and support milk production.

Chinese 5 Spice Beef Short Rib

Get some beef short ribs from your butcher and ask them to slice them into smaller pieces - they do this on the bone saw you can’t do it at home.

In the slow cooker, making sure all that marrow is going into the sauce towards the end. Serve with jasmine rice and steamed leafy greens like pak choy or bok choy.

Chicken and Feta Meatballs

Mix together chicken mince, diced red onion, greek feta, finely chopped mint and parsley and 1 egg - roll into balls and cook on a medium heat on the pan in extra virgin olive oil for 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Serve with rice, greek salad, grain salad or have as a snack on it’s own.

Whole Grains Salad

Use brown rice, pearl barley, tricolour quinoa or pearl cous cous as your base - then combine with roasted beets, roasted carrots, silverbeet and a tin of brown lentils. Drizzle with olive oil and goat’s cheese.

Porridge

Oats are a galactagogue, meaning they support breast milk production. In those early newborn days, it’s essential to have bebe on the breast to encourage milk to come in; the oats in the porridge are like a gentle hug to support this, rather than the magic ingredient for milk. Made on your milk of choice, with a dash of vanilla pods, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a pinch of sea salt.

You could also make overnight oats as a meal train option. This just means soaking the oats in milk overnight. I like to add chia seeds as well.

Banana Bread (or muffins)

One-handed snacks are essential in the early days (and let’s be honest, in the later days too). Banana bread or banana muffins can be a great option - breastfeeding requires a LOT of energy and makes you ravenously hungry! If you’re visiting a new mum, make sure you bring a snack with you to offer her and the family.

Zucchini Slice

Similar to the banana bread, the one-handed snack strikes again - this time with a little more sustenance. A good zucchini slice with feta, eggs and sesame seeds on top has protein, carbs and healthy fats for sustained energy. For some people, garlic and onion can trigger gas in their bebe, if this is the case, use garlic and/or onion-infused extra virgin olive oil in the recipe for a flavour bomb, without the upset tummy.

Slow-cooked chicken curry

Using a jar of curry paste can really speed up this dish - I often just chuck some chicken thighs, curry paste and a can of coconut milk in the slow cooker for a couple of hours, and the chicken is shredded to perfection. Add veggies in the last 20 minutes to ensure they don’t go soggy. Soft pull-apart meat is perfect for postpartum; it’s easy on digestion, and the protein and iron in the meat support the body.

Chia Pudding

Another overnight preparation, chia pudding can be served as breakfast, a snack or as a sweet dessert with added honey or maple syrup. Combine chia seeds with milk of choice, vanilla seeds, cinnamon and grated ginger (the warmth of cinnamon and ginger is to combat the cold pudding; warm foods are traditionally recommended in postpartum)

Chocolate Date Slice

Now, if mama has had heaps of dates in pregnancy to prepare for labour, she might be sick of dates, but this slice is decadent, indulgent, while stabilising the sugars with healthy fats from the nut butter and fibre from the dates.

Use good-quality dark chocolate, pure nut butter, and medjool dates. Flatten the dates, add the nut butter spread and melted dark chocolate. Set in the freezer.

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

There’s nothing more nourishing than chicken soup. A good broth as your base can be made with the bones of the whole chicken. If using store-bought, get a good-quality bone broth - one that is jelly. Combine with LOTS of lemon, ginger, leek, fresh herbs like thyme and bay leaves. The orzo pasta adds a carbohydrate source, which is really important for energy. If you don’t have orzo, you could serve the lemon chicken soup with sourdough bread.

If you have a friend or family member who is welcoming a little one to their world, one of the best things you can do is cook for them. They will appreciate any gift, but being there with nourishment is one of the best gifts you can get.

If you are looking for in-depth, personalised nutrition support, I am consulting online and soon to be in person (if you’re a Gold Coast local). You can visit my website to book a free discovery call if you are interested to learn more.

Between supplements, anti-inflammatory diet, Pilates/ exercise classes and gym membership, treatments like acupuncture, pelvic floor physio, GP visits, mirena insertion (why does this cost so much?!) and generally the amount spent on pain relief - it’s expensive to live with chronic illness.

I am getting my mirena IUD in tomorrow, 8 months after having my baby girl, and I’m getting my IUD to protect against endometriosis regrowth, and protect my fertility for another baby.

The mirena itself is $31.60, it was recently put on the subsidised pharmaceutical scheme (PBS), the pain relief my GP recommended was $100 (not on the PBS), the appointment for insertion is about $300, with around half back from Medicare. Then it will be about $130 to remove it when I want another bebe.

When looking into the endometriosis and pelvic pain centre the Albanese government have funded millions of dollars for, and while I can’t speak for the centres across Australia, the one on the Gold Coast has a bulk billed initial appointment with a nurse, not a GP, the allied health services within it aren’t bulk billed, the wait list for a public service laparoscopy is still months, how is this any different to the landscape 3 years ago? My understanding of $30 million being used to fund endometriosis clinics had me thinking diagnosis and first line treatments (like mirena, physio) would be covered, silly me!

I was truly taken aback at the cost of pain relief for my iud insertion, how is it pain relief is not subsidised for women getting an IUD? Especially when the IUD is recommended as a first line treatment for endometriosis. Yet again, women’s health is underfunded and under resourced.

One thing I can do is utilise food and my diet to benefit my health rather than further harm it 🙏🏼

Anti-inflammatory, healthy fats, protein, and fibre provide the foundation for endometriosis friendly diet 💞 it is something I will be focusing on in my new community nutrition clinic coming soon in person to the Gold Coast ✨

To be clear: I think custard can be part of a balanced diet, I just don’t think it’s appropriate to recommend it as a source of calcium.

I see this alllll the time in nutrition and public health handouts. Fruit and flavoured yoghurt recommended instead of just plain natural yoghurt and — my personal favourite - MILO (chocolate milk) recommended as a snack with low fat milk on my handout of diet recommendations for GESTATIONAL DIABETES.

That’s a snack with 4 teaspoons of added sugar - recommended by the hospital health professionals and dietitian - for a pregnant woman with insulin resistance and clinically diagnosed gestational diabetes.

I’m going to detour here but stay with me:

As health professionals, we do continuous professional development as part of our registration, we need 30+ hours minimum CPD to stay registered- this keeps us relevant and up-to date with the latest research in our field.

I keep up with multiple organisations to achieve CPD, both in more natural health organisations and dietetics organisations - these organisations provide lunch and learn webinars, succinct articles regarding the latest research offerings and more in depth symposiums or conferences.

I get an email last month about bone health in perimenopause and I think great, that’s something I’m really interested in, let me read more — the whole article is citing recommendations for perimenopausal women to have an extra serve of dairy every day, from 4 to 5 serves, and there’s research regarding dairy’s calcium and vitamin D benefits. I think, okay, what about our lactose intolerant women? They recommend lactose free dairy. No mention of calcium from other food sources.

At the end of the email that cites all these amazing benefits for perimenopause and bones from eating dairy products, there’s a big logo “presented by DAIRY AUSTRALIA” — okay, now I understand why the article is so positive. It’s been sponsored by the dairy industry. It’s advertising.

But it’s covert advertising — it’s advertising disguised by health professionals, making it seem not like an ad, but a public service announcement.

I’m not just focused on dietetics here either — I recently watched a webinar from a Naturopath, about supporting egg quality through diet for fertility. This webinar was presented as an approved CPD, from my association body. It talked a lot about CoQ10 and its benefits for oocyte (egg) quality, supported by research.

At the end, it was recommending these very high doses of upiquinol and CoQ10, which are expensive supplements — it was of course, a supplement brand sponsoring the presentation. To top it off, the naturopath presenting the webinar declared she was on the board of the supplement company sponsoring the webinar. Of COURSE the company sponsoring a presentation is going to recommend their product!!!

Obviously, I appreciate there are some products that are genuinely beneficial and brands need to advertise. It just feel SO icky, when it comes back to healthcare recommendations.

As a nutritionist, I want my recommendations to come from independent, quality research, clinical guidance and I want my clients to trust the information I’m giving them!

I see health and medical professionals defensively arguing that “Big Food” isn’t paying them to recommend dairy or meat, which is true - those Big Food companies do not pay individual health professionals, but they are lobbying government organisations and getting their products in our nutrition guidelines, and they don’t get that for free.

When I was studying Nutrition and Dietetics at university, Nestle was still a major sponsor of the Dietetics Association of Australia. Since 2018, they have changed their sponsorship model and no longer have Nestle as a corporate partner, but its roots remain. Clearly - as its products are still widely recommended in public health handouts (see above: gestational diabetes sample meal plan).

I felt like what I was learning at university was in contrast with what I felt was transparent health care. On one hand, I was being taught to discern research, who funded it and how it might be biased. On the other hand, it was glaringly obvious the bias was in-house.

I made the switch to becoming a Clinical Nutritionist instead of a Dietitian, to provide a more holistic, whole person approach to healthcare. It’s definitely not without fault — the alternative healthcare arena is a an unregulated one, but it is, I feel, more aligned with my personal and professional values and healthcare philosophy.

I will always advocate for transparency, I will always choose intuitive healthcare. I am guided by my holistic education as well as scientific research, but I also appreciate traditional wisdom. I will educate myself on new research, and use discernment, clinical experience and the experience of my peers and colleagues to guide my practice.

When people ask what is the difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist? Depends on who you’re asking!

While the conversation about UPFS and their impact on health grows, I wanted to get clear on what exactly a UPF is and how I can better educate my clients as a nutritionist.

My husband was eating some sea salt chips (crisps) the other night, and the ingredients listed were: potato, sunflower oil, sea salt. It honestly didn’t seem too bad to me!

Now, I think of chips as a processed food; I don’t think of them as a healthy snack. However, the ingredients listed are technically mostly whole foods. So do they come under the category of a UPF?

There was a big meta-analysis study undertaken, which found an increased risk in chronic health diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease with increased consumption of UPFS; however the study also stated that those results varied up to 50% depending on how the researchers assessed UPF consumption. Different studies had different ways they assessed how much UPF a participant was eating, and those methods can have wildly varying results. The researchers on the meta-analysis also comment on the fact that most studies they included in their research do not specify the kind of foods contributing to UPF intake: depending on the classification, it could be soft drinks, packaged snacks, cookies, flavoured yoghurt or breakfast cereal.

Now there’s breakfast cereal, and there’s breakfast cereal, you know? I’m not putting Frosties and Fruit Loops in the same category as muesli.

In the NOVA classification of foods, canned vegetables and cheese are a class 3 processed food, and “packaged snacks” are a class 4 ultra-processed food. So, where would a Babybel fall? It’s a packaged cheese, so is it a UPF or not? Or how about hummus with crackers? Is that as unhealthy as another packaged snack option - a packet of Shapes chips?

Yoghurt and cheese, as well as a can of chickpeas or lentils, being considered processed foods, do make it confusing as to whether these are truly healthy options.

In the NOVA classification, a UPF does not include any whole foods in the ingredients list, but rather a cocktail of ingredients typically artificial in nature (sweeteners, colours, emulsifiers, additives) to make the food hyper palatable. They are “designed to be convenient, ready to heat or ready to eat”.

So I ask myself, is the microwave brown rice a UPF? Does that have the same negative health effect as a Dagwood dog or a deep-fried Mars bar? More importantly, which foods are classed as UPF in the research informing health information?

There’s also the classification that UPFS are “highly processed through industrial techniques”, “formulations of ingredients typically containing no whole foods”, “include ingredients not used in home cooking” and “a UPF is a food you wouldn’t be able to recreate in your own kitchen”.

So why is freshly baked bread sometimes considered a processed food?!

Why is butter?

Why are potato chips that have three ingredients, that we all probably have in our kitchen: potato, oil, salt - why are these considered a UPF when by definition they can be recreated at home? They contain whole food ingredients (potato)? And yet, I’m not going to recommend my clients include potato chips as a healthy snack, because they are high in saturated fat, refined carbohydrate and devoid of fibre.

And yet there are “health foods” claiming to be better for you that actually contain a lot of these ingredients NOVA would classify as a UPF.

It’s these topics of nutrition that make it so hard, I think, for anyone to know what is healthy or not these days.

In my own research, I still haven’t got a clue what is defined as a UPF or not - but I use discernment to assess the health rating of the foods I consume and recommend.

My general go-to? If it’s a fruit or vegetable - go for gold. The limit does not exist. I think it’s pretty hard to over-consume fruits, even if they do contain *gasp!* natural sugars. Unless you have serious IBS and fibre is an issue, you can’t go wrong with adding more veggies to your plate.

UPFS tend to have higher amounts of saturated fat, refined carbohydrates, aka they are high in sugar, and they are usually low in fibre, low in nutrients — it’s these hallmarks that constitute a food being a less healthy option in my opinion.

Health claims on packaged food tend to be a red flag for me personally. I don’t see fresh fruits and vegetables making bold claims about health benefits - these marketable foods can make health claims based on the fortification of foods, but just because a food has added iron, it does not make it a good source of iron.

Interestingly, a lot of UPFS use seed oils, which have a very bad reputation in the wellness space for being toxic; however, the research on seed oils, specifically canola oil itself, is largely positive for health. Could it be that seed oils are used in UPFS, but it’s the combination of ingredients that makes the end product unhealthy, not the individual ingredients?

There is so much nuance and context in these health and wellness discussions, I really don’t think it’s black and white — for now, I’ll stick to enjoying a variety of foods, mostly fresh, always delicious.

My dad always shopped at the farmers markets growing up. We wouldn’t get everything from there, but most of our veggies, fruits and especially lettuce always came from the markets. When I moved out of home, I started going to the Sunday markets to meet up with dad, get my groceries and have a coffee and a catch up. Nowadays, I don’t always catch up with dad at the markets but I have continued to go — where I live on the Gold Coast, we are lucky to have multiple days of markets so there’s always options.

We go every Thursday morning before my husband starts work, to The Coolangatta markets - we have brekkie, get our fresh produce, usually some brekkie before sitting under the big tree and listening to live music while we eat.

Now — what I love about the markets and why I think it can prolong our life — not only are you getting the freshest produce, grown locally, but it’s the sense of community.

You speak to the honey man, and he can tell you how he keeps his bees, what is blooming, how floral this batch will be.

One of the produce stalls I shop at sells purple sweet potato, it’s marked where it comes from (a farm 30 minutes away) - and because I wasn’t sure how to cook it the first time I purchased, the girl working offered some tips - I went back the following week with feedback on what I found worked / didn’t work - this sense of community and exchange back and forth with strangers is quietly comforting.

I have interactions like this with so many of the stall holders - the dairy farm where I try new cheeses, get my kefir and jersey cow milk from. The guy who makes tempeh in his shed and told me how to cook it so I actually like it.

Sharing exchanges like these is so beneficial not only for mental health, as a new mum who spends a lot of time with a baby — talking to adults is therapeutic! But it’s that sense of community and belonging that really provides longevity.

In all the blue zones — the zones known for the largest percentage of centenarians in the world — there are different diets, from Mediterranean to Japanese, different faiths and purposes in life. One thing that links every blue zone is community. From Okinawa to Sardinia, Ikaria Greece, to the Californian community out in Loma Linda — a sense of community is one of their pillars.

Not to mention — the fresher the produce, the more nutrient dense the food so it’s really a no brainer. Shopping at the farmers market could prolong your life!

If you are in my area and would like to check some of the markets out please visit - it’s so important we support our local growers and build a strong community.

See you there!

Tuesday - New Brighton (NSW)

Wednesday - Murwillumbah (NSW)

Thursday - Coolangatta (QLD)

Saturday - Burleigh, Palm Beach, Helensvale

Sunday - HOTA, Robina, Nerang

This morning I made a kind of congee porridge for the first time using left over rice and chicken bone broth. Whenever I cook a roast chicken I always use the bones and carcass to make a bone broth or stock - it has so many uses as a base and nutritional benefits. I save a few veggie scraps like carrot tops and onion skins, chuck them in with the bones and 2L of tap water (our filter is one of those ceramic ones that takes forever to fill so I usually just use tap but use filtered if you have it!). Cook on the stove for 2-4 hours, or in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours - this produces a beautiful gelatinous broth that turns slightly jelly once cooled. It’s this gelatin that is beneficial for the immune system, gut, and offers protein.

For the congee: I added about ¾ cup of leftover cooked jasmine rice with 1 cup of bone broth, cooked on the stove for about 30 minutes. If the liquid evaporates, just add a touch more - you want the rice to soften completely and the dish is a little soupy. I added grated garlic and ginger, and served with mushrooms cooked in ghee and soft tofu.

Our girl doesn’t have teeth yet so she kind of just sucks the juice out of the mushrooms until they break apart and I take them away as I don’t want her to try to swallow them. She seems to love sucking them especially as she is teething, I think the texture must help her gums.

She didn’t really eat that much so I offered some natural yoghurt with squashed blueberries and raspberries and she ate most of that! She loves berries this little one!

She doesn’t always eat much, most of it goes in the chair, on the floor or all over her hands and face but hey - she’s experimenting! And I love that she is willing to try new foods.

I will keep sharing what we are trying 🤗

It can be hard to know just how much she’s actually consuming so I do try to give her some spoon fed meals, but it is so MESSY 😳🤦🏻‍♀️ she has to touch the food on spoon before trying to put the spoon on her mouth - cue porridge goes everywhere but her mouth 😅

I love the independence and intuitive nature of BLW but have to say, the mess is hard to deal with sometimes! Food on the chair, on the floor, on clothes, on limbs, on me, in bébés hair, on the side of the kitchen island bench, on the couch - food EVERYWHERE!

But - research shows the mess can help reduce fussiness later on and I have to say, she does try everything I offer which I love ❤️

Lucy’s plate: mashed sweet potatoes & purple potatoes, fermented veg, steamed broccoli, carrot and asparagus + steamed salmon.

We had brekkie out, I got Bircher muesli which came with poached pear: I cut off some of the sides and Lucy munched on the core. It was cold and hard so her teething gums loved it!

Fruit rainbows are always a winner - I’ve only tried a little golden kiwi for Lucy as green kiwi is a little more acidic. She had some pineapple core once and she got a pretty red rash on her face from the acidity so be careful with acidic fruits!

While I would love to support local Australian farming, I cannot support the Tasmanian Salmon industry due to the environmental and animal welfare impacts - look into it ( https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-20/dead-salmon-in-tasmanian-fish-pens/104954444)

We buy NZ Salmon, Norwegian or wild caught Alaskan salmon if we have it now, and often go for wild caught Aussie or NZ snapper instead. Snapper is leaner than salmon, but still offers some omega 3 benefits with DHA and EPA, this essential fatty acids we love from fish.

SO how much did Lucy actually eat of this delicious dinner? Maybe half? She uses her hands for most of her meals with finger foods, and little spoons for mash or soup.

I love to give her a variety of foods and let her choose what she wants to eat and when, tonight - she saved the mash until last.

I don’t finish with a sweet/ dessert, she’s too young to know about dessert and I don’t want to give her that association of having sweet foods after savoury - this is all a big experiment!

As is so much of parenting 😅

I have always wanted to breastfeed. I’ve been lucky enough to have been able to with my daughter, and hope to continue breastfeeding as long as we can/want to.

From the first day my daughter was born, and even now, she is a real boobie monster! Cluster feeding? More like feeding 24/7 is what it felt like! I couldn’t leave the house in those first 6-8 weeks without needing to breastfeed, sometimes even on a half hour walk I would stop to feed on a bench. Feeding at cafes, on the grass having a picnic, at the beach, on a plane, at a shopping centre - you get used to whipping a boobie out when your baby is crying pretty quickly! Now 7 months on, I care less about feeding in public - you have to do what you have to do - but I still on multiple occasions have found myself going back to feed my daughter in my car, just out of comfort of needing a back (breastfeeding on a bench with no back support and strong letdown is not a good mix), or needing no distractions for my FOMO baby.

When I heard about the GP who was asked to leave the Virgin business lounge whilst discreetly pumping under her jumper I was honestly flabbergasted - every now and then, just when you feel settled and like the world isn’t a shit show, you hear stories like that one and all of a sudden, feeding in public feels daunting again.

In Australia, 96% of mothers initiate breastfeeding, but by 3 months postpartum only 39% are exclusively breastfeeding and that number drops to 15% by 5 months.

Breastfeeding is so beneficial to mother AND baby - it’s clear most mothers want to breastfeed since they start, but for multiple reasons, they aren’t continuing and social structures to support breastfeeding are crucial if we want to improve these statistics.

The windy season is here - and here’s what is in season (in Australia) over the next few months:

🍓strawberries ~ you might have noticed these beauties are coming down in price, they are in season and beautiful. Tip for buying good strawberries is to smell them; if you can’t smell anything, you probably won’t taste anything! Also, Farmers Market strawberries always beat supermarket berries IMO 🍓

🥑 Avocados - goodbye Shepards, hello Hass! Thank goodness our creamy avos are back - polyunsaturated fats and fibre in avocado make this a superfood, fats in food help us absorb fat soluble vitamins, like vitamin D 🙏🏼

🫛 peas, snow peas, leafy greens like silverbeet and rainbow chard are all in season at the moment - leafy greens have calcium and magnesium, both essential minerals fir bone health and our nervous system.

🍏🍐 apples and pear - I love these stewed with cinnamon and star anise for a prebiotic treat. Stewing apples brings out the prebiotic fibre pectin which supports our gut lining. Add to a little natural yoghurt or kefir for the ultimate pre and probiotic treat 🍐🍎

🍊🍋🍋‍🟩 citrus fruits - great to squeeze on top of wilted leafy greens to boost iron absorption thanks to their vitamin C content.

🫜 beetroot - bake your beets low and slow for the juiciest roast veggie, sweet and earthy, these beets are great for cardiovascular health as they contain nitrates that benefit our heart and circular system.

🥔 new potatoes ~ I have been loving having a mix of white potatoes (usually Dutch creams but I love kipflers too when I can find them), sweet potato 🍠 and Japanese or Hawaiian potatoes ~ these are a purple sweet potato, more starchy but so colourful and earthy in flavour. When you cook and cool potatoes, they create resistant starch fibre which is a prebiotic that promotes the gut to create butyrate - a short chain fatty acid that helps with inflammation, reducing leaky gut, improves mental health and lowers risk of bowel cancer.

A few more:

Rhubarb, broccoli, spring onion, cabbage, brussel sprouts, asparagus, leeks, parsnips and carrots 🥕 coming later in the season: MANGOES 🥭😍

Bon appétit ~

Ellie x

Depending who you ask, seed/vegetable oils can be;

➡️ Inflammatory, they CAUSE inflammation in the body

➡️ Anti-Inflammatory, they PREVENT inflammation

➡️ High in Omega 3 fats, our health promoting fats

➡️ High in Omega 6 fats, which contribute to the inflammation

➡️ Optimal for heart health

➡️ The absolute worst thing you can possibly do for your health

Some of the concerns around seed oils are how the are processed or extracted - unlike olive oil which is pressed from the fruit, seed oils like sunflower oil, canola or soybean are usually extracted using a chemical solvent such as Hexane.

Despite a lack of strong evidence for the extreme toxicity claims against vegetable/seed oils, I tend to believe where there’s smoke there’s fire — but it’s important to think about where we find vegetable oils. Usually found in ultra processed foods which we know, with strong evidence to back it up, DO cause inflammation - but is it because of the seed oils or because of any of the other emulsifiers, trans fats, added su gar or additives present in UPF? 🤔

Would the same be said if cold pressed canola oil was used in a homemade vinaigrette, on a salad or drizzled over roast veggies?

Despite toxicity claims, the evidence for canola oil is actually extremely positive - with benefits for heart health, as well as canola oil specifically being high in Omega 3 fats.

🫒 As a nutritionist, I still recommend extra virgin olive oil as my first choice for oil. I use it raw in dressing, for roasting, frying and baking - I find it so versatile and the health benefits are irrefutable.

What do you think? Do you find the evidence for or against seed oils compelling?