Real Health Co.

Adding nuts, seeds and some punchy vitamin C berries to your breakfast is something many nutritionists suggest. But how do we add these?
Muesli is expensive, especially for people with coeliac disease. You get the double whammy of that health price tag.
A great and affordable option are premixed bags of seeds. Swipe left to see the one I buy.
It costs a bit more than a bag of muesli, but lasts you 10X longer. I just add 2 table spoons to my gluten free weetbix each morning.
💚 Adding some great Fibre from the dried fruit, as well as antioxidant vitamin C.
💚 Stool bulking with the chia seeds and buckwheat buckinis.
💚Plant proteins, only a little but, always good to know where you can get these, and that is seeds!
💚Helps our omega3 ratio, as the seeds are full of healthy fats that we need more of.

Another options is going to a low waste store and mixing some of your favorites there.

You can also use it as trail mix for active days out (without the chia seeds maybe 😉).

June 21-27 marks International volunteers week. If you don't already know me, my names Cat and I am the person behind Real Health Co.
A few facts about me:
📸 I do not like having my photo taken.
🐕 I looove dogs.
🍑 I love food (obvs) and I love to volunteer.

While studying nutrition at Curtin University we were actively encouraged to get involved in the community, especially through nutrition programs like Foodbank Australia and our local councils. These are integral to many people, even more so now. And the volunteers who help are just as important.

Thanks to uni, volunteering has been a big part of my life since 2017. Having spent the past couple months as a welfare needs assessor with Queenstown Lakes District Council and Volunteer South: Central Lakes. The rewards have been wonderful. It has really kept me going during lock down and beyond. If you are finding you have more time on your hands then give a few of these organisations a buzz to see if they need a helping hand. The biggest gift you can give is your time.

Queenstown based:
Happiness House Queenstown-Community Support Centre
Baskets full of blessings
Salvation Army
Family Works - Buddy Progamme Wakatipu

Wanaka based:
Community Networks

Australia:
Food Bank

Equally, if you are struggling with your health, and need a helping hand with nutrition. Give me a buzz, I'm always happy to help, and sometimes a formal session can be skipped, we can just have a good chat about food and a few steps to get you going in the right direction. Right now we need to focus on people helping people.

Please tag other charities in the comments.

Happy Start to the ski season! At least in the southern hemisphere.
Check out the new blog post on vitamin D levels. Unless you're going up the mountain every day without sun screen (don't do that), you may be at risk of vit D deficiency in the south island (south of Hamilton). https://therealhealth.co/vitamin-d-when-to-supplement/

🏳️‍🌈🌈Happy Pride month 🏳️‍🌈🌈
Inclusive language is so important. Especially in health narratives. This is integral for all parts of society but especially parts of society that are marginalised. Who are marginalised?
LGBTI+ people
People of colour
Migrants
Refugees
And many more people who do not fit the white, cis narrative.

When people are not represented or respected in societies narratives, it is extremely damaging to their mental health but also has knock on effects on physical health.

At Real Health Co we fully support movements for social justice. And cannot emphasise enough the importance on educating ourselves on how to be an ally.
#🌈

Happy Global Running Day for yesterday! 🎽👟 With what's happening it felt weird to post yesterday.

On June 3rd thousands of people laced up together to run 5km or more. Here's the run I managed to stomp out, that Lululemon Athletica Queenstown ambassador and educators put together for locals to enjoy.

If you smashed out a run, remember to have some carbs to wolf down within 2 hours, to reload those muscles with glycogen. I had this epic friand waiting in the car.

A quick note on exercise. Exercise is only an effective tool if you enjoy it. Habits have to be enjoyable. Instead of exercising because you have been told it is good for you, try and find the exercise for you! It can be anything that involves movement. I like running, therefore I run. But its definitely not for everyone.

Studies have shown that exercise is beneficial and becomes a life long habit when there is a level of enjoyment. So find what's for you!

May it be running, pole dancing or a brisk walk every day, but the key message over all is move, in an enjoyable way, every day.

New post, Vitamin D and winter. Do you need a supplement?

Vitamin D & Winter - Real Health Co Vitamin D - when to supplement? The unique vitamin created in your skin from sunlight, that also acts as a hormone, is less available in foods. Most people get enough with safe exposure to the sun.

Winter fruit

It's a time where we maybe need to move away from our favorite bananas if things are a bit financially tight.

So what else can we have for winter fruit. It's a great time to try out beautiful grapefuits as well as mandarins and oranges
🍊
Kiwi fruit, as well as passion fruit, persimmons and tamarillos are also in season.
🥝

Who's been watching the leafy greens get more and more expensive?

Winter, leads to some foods becoming out right unaffordable for many. Boo-urns

🌱 This is a good time to try sprouts. What are sprouts? Sprouts are seeds that have germinated. Most common in the supermarkets are bean, pea, vegetable, leafy green and seed sprouts such as alfalfa and radish.

There is some evidence around sprouts being more nutritious, because of the chemical changes during germination. However considering the time between farm to table, as well as level of germination, this increased nutrition maybe negligible.

Sprouts are also affordable, last well in the fridge and often can be found on special in the super markets.

Sprouts are more nutrition for less $. Leafy greens are nutritious, but you get 120 g of spinach for $5-6
While you can buy 120 g of sprouts for $2-3. Simply more bang for your buck.

A great winter salad is grated beetroot, sprouts, and ricotta seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

⚠️Important to note, because of how sprouts are germinated, in warm, wet environments they can have an increased risk of food borne illness. As such pregnant women, infants, elderly people and immuno-compromised people should be cautious in consuming these products. If keen on sprouts consider cooking to a temperature over 70 degrees for prolonged periods to reduce risk.

A few other good options for adding more greens to your meals in winter.

🍃Frozen Spinach - goes well in curries, stews, and slow cooked meals.
❄️Frozen peas and edamame - a great source of plant proteins and nutritionally superior to fresh peas.

As we know we should all eat the 🌈 so here are a few more colourful options.

Remember it is a great time of year for beetroot, squash, pumpkin, kumara/sweet potato and everyone's favorite brussel sprouts.

Vegetables, to peel or not to peel?
In the Real Health Co household, we usually don't peel our vegetables. They get a good scrub in the kitchen sink and then cooked to perfection (usually), roasted, chucked in soups or made into curries. And if they can be eaten raw, we do that also.

Why not? Are we crazy?😝

Well not really, as with everything we discuss there is proper science behind what we say.

🥔 take the humble potato, if you leave the skin on, it is rich in vitamin C, potassium and fibre.

All other fruit and vegetables fibre content is higher when you leave the peel on. Why do we want more fibre?

Fibre is really important for:
- regular bowel movements
- reducing bad cholesterol
- managing blood sugar levels
- feeling fuller for longer

Sometimes there is more fibre found in the skin, than in the rest of the fruit or vegetable. Like wholegrains have more fibre, and therefore more beneficial, whole foods are where it's at.

In general people do not eat enough vegetables, fruit, and fibre. So this could be helpful to reach fibre goals. Aim for your 5 and 2 and if possible, then don't peel, just give it a thorough wash with water and pat dry.

Squash and pumpkins of all varieties are great winter veg. As winter progresses you may notice more in the shops and the price drop.

🎃 Full of vitamin A, C and carotenoids, pumpkins are good for your skin, hair and eye health as well as supporting bone health.
The brighter the yellow, the more carotenoids a pumpkin has!
🎃 Also a source of folate, vitamin E and potassium.

Beetroot is in season, a versatile vegetable full of fibre, folate, iron and vitamin C. Although we don't normally recommend juicing your veggies, over eating them, beetroot has been associated with some interesting effects on blood flow which can be beneficial to exercise.

Beetroot juice contains nitrates, these nitrates boost nitric oxide, in the blood.
Nitric oxide is a vasodilator - meaning:
♥️ It increases blood flow
🔁 Increases gas exchange
💪Strengthens muscle contraction
😴 Reduce muscle fatigue

The addition of 250mL or 1 cup of beetroot juice (or the dried form 400mg NO3-) 1-2 hours before exercise may produce significant results. Studies did find that age, trained status and type of exercise impacted if the beetroot had an effect.

The good news is you don't need to buy supplements if you already have a juicer. Give it a go and see if you find any improvement in your sport.

For example, no effect was found in kayaking and rowing. Effects were usually found in running and cycling.

⚠️Warning: when not to take beetroot juice/supplements. If you have low blood pressure, this can cause your blood pressure to drop to dangerous levels.

I get asked a lot if coconut oil is better than olive oil. Here is your answer.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled clinical trials finds coconut oil raises LDL-cholesterol (which has been long known), but key, has no benefit on glucose control, body weight or inflammation. By all means use it in your cooking for biscuits and curries where it works for the taste and consistency you're after, but a health food it is not. You suck coconut oil and olive oil totally owns you https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.043052