Health Articles

Hello, I’m Amina and love living here in the hinterland. I am passionate about Nutrition and anything to do with a healthy diet. Being a mother of two toddlers, of course we must set a good example and plant the seeds for them to grow up healthy and strong. We eat, what I feel is the best, wholesome, natural, home made meals with minimal processed foods.

I do allow a little leeway on occasions for treats wrapped in crinkly paper (only after 8.30pm with a chamomile tea, if you know what I mean).

What really is ‘Healthy Food’?

I haven’t always eaten well, in fact when I look back, with the knowledge I have now of nutrition as a Naturopath, my diet was shocking. But of course I didn’t’ know that then. I thought I was eating well as that’s what the adverts said : ‘diet, light, good for sight, low fat, no fat, good fat, eggs r good, eggs r bad’ depending on the latest fad.

Who are we to believe? Why and how can they say that if it isn’t nutritionally correct? Well the ‘media’ can, and they always have and they always will. It’s all about marketing. There are loop holes and clever marketing tactics for wording and promoting. If we are told something often enough we can believe it. Fortunately, more people are taking an interest in health and nutrition especially in this area. There are so many tools out there to inform us of the right foods to eat and how to minimize food chemicals (additives, colours & preservatives etc).

Processed foods are convenient, especially with our modern way of life where every body is so busy. Even school children get way more homework than we ever did! Together with the latest technology, every thing has sped up including home cooking and very importantly how fast we eat! They say it’s good to chew each mouthful 60 times! Ok realistically, most wouldn’t.

So where do we start? It’s really simple. Lets get ‘back to basics’. ‘Basics’ being our ‘original’ foods, before they have been tampered with. Many people get so concerned with the ‘low fat, no fat’ blah blah that we end up buying into the more processed food, ingesting chemicals providing more harm than good, which indirectly can contribute to obesity and fatigue, what most are trying to avoid anyway.

If we are buying anything other than wholesome organic food, education is a good place to start for the best nutrition. The majority of people need to buy some processed food or else we would spend all day in the kitchen and realistically in our modern lives, which just wouldn’t work. However there are still ways to have a balanced healthy wholesome diet, no matter how busy we are.

First, becoming more aware of what we buy and what it contains is a good place to start. Many people have the misconception that if we can buy it at the store then it can’t be harmful to us. – This is a dangerous misconception!

Here are a few basic suggestions for the next time you plan the shopping:

Check food labels and start to learn about the real yucky additives, e.g. Preservative 220 (Sulphur Dioxide) used in most dried fruits e.g. dried Apricots. It allows the fruit its vibrant colour, quite different from organic dried apricots which are often brown and a lot wrinklier. Recent studies have shown a large correlation between this preservative and eczema and asthma. Ongoing studies are now showing the effect of a very common preservative in bread (calcium propionate, 282) on children’s behaviour. Many other additives can contribute to a vast number of allergy symptoms, digestive ailments (Email me for a list of valuable resources on food additives)
Buy fresh produce as much as possible and opt for organic where you can. We have an abundance of fresh produce sold at a number of markets in this area. Although some market stores may not be 100% organic, they are more likely to have minimal chemicals than products that are mass produced and imported from elsewhere. The more we support our local farmers the cheaper organic food will be. Unprocessed foods are often cheap e.g. Dried beans, peas, flour, and oats, and usually found on the bottom shelves in shops!
Choose meats, eggs and fish from local shops and ask for free range or non hormone fed meats. Our local butchers are very accommodating.

So switch off ‘neighbours’, buy basics, use herbs & spices, a mixing bowl and have chat over a cuppa with old Mavis next door. She’ll tell you how it used to be done!

It doesn’t have to be expensive to eat organic nutritious food but what may be needed is a bit of organization and a few homemade recipe ideas.

For further information and some great recipe ideas, check the website below.

Next Month: Using herbs from your garden to boost up your health.

Amina Eastham Hillier (B HSc) : Naturopathy (Herbal Medicine, Diet & Nutrition, Flower Essences, & Iridology)

Mobile : 0422 408 450

Email : naturopathy@angelmothers.com with any questions

Website : www.angelmothers.com for regular healthy recipes

Amina Eastham-Hillier N.D