We all know how healthy fruit is – packed with vitamins, minerals, fibre. But its important to make sure your fruit intake is a balanced part of your nutrition, not elbowing other important components out of the way. And the way you eat that fruit is important too. Here’s why:

1. Fruit is full of natural sugars. Sometimes it can be surprising just how much sugar you’re getting! Ideally, restrict your total sugar intake for the day to 10% of your calories, or 25g.  Here is the sugar content of common fruits:
1. Banana: 13g sugar in one medium banana
2. Apple: 14g sugar in one medium apple
3. Strawberries: 7g sugar in one cup of strawberries
4. Oranges: 21g sugar in one medium orange
5. Grapes: 19g sugar in 22 green grapes

You can see how just two pieces of fruit is enough, even without sugar that you get from other sources during your day.

2. Be especially rigorous with monitoring your fruit intake if you tend to suffer from thrush, candida infections, or skin fungal infections (fungal infections just love to feed on sugar!)

3. Fruit is full of fibre, especially soluble fibre, which will help keep your bowels healthy and lower your cholesterol – but if you juice the fruit you’ll miss out. Fruit juice is actually a very sugary drink, without the fibre to slow down the sugar absorption. So wherever possible, choose to eat a piece of whole raw fruit rather than juicing it.

4. Eat fruit in season. We are truly blessed with the massive range of fresh fruit available to us, and it changes all year round. Even better, the fruit that’s in season will be cheaper. So don’t feel compelled to stick to the same fruit selection week in week out!

5. When eaten as a snack, add in some protein food like low fat yoghurt or raw nuts. The protein will help slow the absorption of the sugar in the fruit, giving you a steadier blood sugar level.

6. Dried fruit is really concentrated, making it too easy to eat a lot. So always eat dried fruit with other food to avoid a blood sugar ‘spike’.

7. Use your fruit before your fitness training for a carbohydrate boost. Especially important if you do your training before breakfast. After an hour’s training you will need another fruit boost.

Its a cold winters day. You want comfort food - but you don't want a big slab of fat, sugar or salt that's going to undo all your good nutrition work. 

Meet Ratatouille! Made properly, this is an unctuous stew of meditteranean vegetables that you can use in a variety of ways - even dress it up if you like. Its warming, comforting food - exactly what you want on a cold winter's day. Here's the recipe, the instructions and some suggestions for dishes to use it in.

First the ingredients:
two teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
150g brown onion - half cut in small dice, the other half in wedges
four cloves of garlic
200g red capsicum (bell pepper), chopped into thick slices
500g eggplant (eggfruit) cut into large cubes
200g zucchini cut into thick slices
175g yellow button squash cut into wedges
600g ripe red tomatoes cut however you like - it doesn't matter!

How to make it:
1. Saute the onion and garlic gently in the oil until translucent.
2. Add the rest of the vegetables
3. Simmer over a low heat for about an hour, stirring gently occasionally but not often. The vegetables will tend to soften a lot, but you want to retain some large pieces so it doesn't look like sludge.
4. Test and add salt to taste

Now its ready! How to use it:
- as a vegetable base for some char-grilled kangaroo or steamed fillet of fish
- add some cooked chickpeas, or kalamata olives
- pop a poached egg on top and enjoy for breakfast

Ratatouille doesn't seem to freeze well, so make just enough for now, and leftovers tomorrow.

Do you have any variations to share, or your favourite way to eat ratatouille? Leave your comments below!

Although its commonly believed that men just sail through life without the hormone hassles that women get, in fact the bloke in your life, if he’s in late middle age, may be suffering from the same shortage of hormones as a woman does in menopause.

In men, testosterone is a potent driver of their masculinity. It affects muscle development, strength, energy levels, happiness, libido; generally speaking it helps a man feel young and virile. This hormone is why blokes can lift heavier objects, run faster, and talk louder than women!

Testosterone levels peak in a man’s late teens and early 20s, and begins to decline from there. From late middle age onwards, a man may notice that he’s just not so interested in life any more. He may become grumpy, depressed, lose interest in sex, and even find that his performance at sports is declining. On a physical level he may find that he’s putting on weight easily, and his skin is thinning. This doesn’t happen to all men of course, but if the man in your life is showing these symptoms, here’s what he can do:

Hormone testing can reveal whether low levels of testosterone are the reason why he’s feeling older. His doctor can arrange a blood test, or his naturopath can arrange a saliva hormone test.

If his hormone levels are less than optimal, its important for him to assess his diet and lifestyle before reaching for supplements or bio-identical hormones to boost his testosterone level.

A diet high in alcohol, caffeine, sugar and processed foods is not going to help his energy levels, so look here first. Also, daily fitness training will help boost energy too. The difficult part of applying all this is that a man in andropause is remarkably difficult to dislodge from the couch!

Natural therapists use herbs and homoeopathic remedies to treat low hormone levels, along with the improved nutrition, fitness and stress management techniques that help everyone.

So if you believe that the man in your life is demotivated and tired because of low hormones, ask him to visit his health practitioner for a frank chat about testosterone and its effects.

There’s a popular perception that menopause just arrives; but in reality you will probably get several years of warning that its coming soon. If you want to influence how good your body looks and feels after menopause, this is your last chance; it will be much more challenging after the end of your fertile years, when your estrogen levels have dropped.

The ‘perimenopausal’ time of a woman’s life can last for several months or years. It’s the time when your hormonal regulation systems can get a little ‘wobbly’. Progesterone levels can drop, resulting in more intensive pre-menstrual tension and mood swings as estrogen temporarily gets the upper hand. Your periods may become more painful. Every woman is different, so your particular symptoms may vary from these.

But the underlying message you can feel is that your hormonal balance is shifting and waning. Menopause is on its way – and with it the possibility of symptoms such as hot flushes, dizziness, mood swings, more wrinkly skin, and a tendency to gain weight and lose shape.

As you get closer to menopause, your body’s levels of FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) will rise, and this is a good way to measure how your fertility is waning. FSH is a hormone produced by your pituitary gland that tells your ovaries to produce eggs. When your ovaries don't co-operate and release eggs for fertilising, your pituitary just shouts the message louder - it thinks your ovaries just aren't paying attention, when in fact they've stopped producing eggs. Ask your doctor for a hormone profile blood test  that includes when you see her for your annual physical and pap smear.

The decline in your oestrogen levels after menopause makes it more challenging to keep your body toned, bones strong and skin supple. (Estrogen promotes the formation of muscle and a feminine shape, as well as bone formation). But there are actions you can take now to help keep your shape and femininity.

The first step you need to take, if you aren’t already, is to begin weight training, and keep training, even after menopause. Engage a personal trainer for the best results. You won’t turn into a muscle-bound strongwoman, but you will develop a higher ratio of muscle to fat. This will help you maintain your weight and your shape. The gentle pressure this puts on your bones will help prevent osteoporosis too.

Having a rigorous training regime in place will help you now, but will also help minimise the symptoms of menopause. One of the major therapies I use to combat menopausal symptoms in my clients is......exercise! It really makes a positive difference.

Check that your diet is high in vegetables, particularly green leafy vegetables, and lean protein from seafood and kangaroo. A little legumes in your diet every day is good too. Continue to avoid consuming extra cakes and biscuits. This is no time to become a granny who keeps sweet treats in the pantry "for the grandkids". (They won't do well on biccies either).

Natural remedies are available to help keep your hormones more stable during your perimenopause, after you've done testing to find out where your hormones are actually at.

This week I saw the first advertisement for “BPA-free” plastic containers. Its an interesting development from a health point of view, and a marketing promotion you’re likely to see more of in the future. I first came across this concern some 20 year ago, when plastics were suspected of ‘off-gassing’.  As research progressed, concerns about chemicals in our environment increased.

Whether the chemical components of plastic affect your body, particularly your reproduction, is now a fully fledged controversy, with much finger-pointing amongst scientists about whether specific research was properly designed, used a particular variety of rat, whether the testing dose was taken orally or implanted…the list goes on and on.

Differences in research design is one of many reasons why science has been unable to reach a final consensus about the safety of this chemical, and others. (It’s the repeatability of a scientific study that gives it more credibility – where different scientists using the same method reach the same conclusions.)

BPA (its full name is Bisphenol A) is a chemical used in the manufacture of plastic to make it more durable. Other chemicals are used to make plastic more pliable. Other artificial chemicals are widely distributed in pesticides, flame retardants, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. But if they’re a problem is it just one chemical, or lots of different chemicals having a cumulative effect?

In 2007 a large group of scientists sat down to create the Prague Declaration on Endocrine Disruption. They agreed that, yes, there were many man-made endocrine disrupters in the environment, with effects that were not yet fully understood – although it was clear that endocrine disrupting chemicals negatively affect wildlife.

While the scientists are working to find out more, you can help protect yourself from the effects of man-made chemicals like bisphenol-A.

-          stop using cling-wrap, particularly in heating or cooking (e.g microwaving)

-          store refrigerated leftovers in ceramic or glass containers, with a plate sitting on the top as a ‘lid’ if you don’t need an airtight seal.

-          Buy food in glass or ceramic containers where you can. There are concerns that the plastic lining of tin cans may affect the contents.

-          Drink filtered water – basic ceramic filters are very effective and inexpensive.

-          When replacing your cosmetics, see whether a more natural product is available.

-          Source more of your clothing from natural fabrics like cotton and bamboo.

If you want to learn more about man-made chemicals and their possible effect on your body, a good book to read is "Slow Death By Rubber Duck"

What do you do to protect yourself from chemical pollution? Share your tips by leaving a comment below.

hi olwen, love your newsletters...so a question...do you advocate having lime or lemon juice in hot or cold water first thing in the morning?

This question landed in my email in-box this week. Its a great question! Many people like to drink lemon juice in water, and I think its a very good thing if you find it beneficial. Because.....

- overnight you've become dehydrated from 8+ hours without water; so drinking a glass of water first think will help re-hydrate you

- whether its hot or cold doesn't really matter; its a personal preference

- the addition of lime or lemon juice will give you some extra vitamins and minerals.

But I think the most powerful aspect of this routine is....

Choosing to prepare a healthy drink for yourself as the first thing you do is a powerful affirmation of the care you are taking of your body.

In short - its a really healthy routine for you - keep it up!

Do you find that when you’re feeling down, you reach for comfort food – something fatty or sweet like sticky buns, chocolate, desserts? And, what’s worse, you find yourself eating far too much, sometimes even bingeing? Researchers have found that how people feel does indeed affect whether they choose unhealthy comfort food or the healthier options.

The original research article is here http://www.atypon-link.com/AMA/doi/abs/10.1509/jmkg.71.1.194?cookieSet=1&journalCode=jmkg

You can use this information to help you manage what you eat, and become more successful in maintaining a healthy weight.

When you eat sugary or fatty food, there’s a biochemical effect on your brain, producing more happy neurotransmitters. Researchers found that people will actually eat to affect their mood: If you’re feeling unhappy, comfort food will actually help you feel better; if you’re already happy you’re likely to deliberately seek out healthier food choices, in order to maintain your good feelings about yourself.

To make things even more complex, its easier to eat too much of the comfort food when you’re feeling down. The guilt that follows overeating can make you feel even worse!

But there are ways to help manage your food intake when you’re feeling down:

First, measure out your portion so you know exactly how much you’re eating. Choose a smaller portion than what you think you’ll need to eat to feel better. Then walk away from the kitchen to enjoy it while totally focused on the food and how it tastes. (i.e don’t eat comfort food while watching TV, or standing in the kitchen at the fridge door – that’s unconscious eating).

Next, know what’s in that food. Being aware of the calorie, fat and sugar content of your comfort food actually reduces how much you’ll eat. Read the nutritional label. Keeping a food diary of what you eat and your mood can be an effective tool.

Finally, be aware of your tendency to eat more when you’re in a sad mood. Just being aware of your mood can help you make different choices about how you’ll deal with it.

So, feeling down? Wanting comfort food? Measure out your portion of what you want, read the label, focus on the enjoyable food while you’re eating it. Then as soon as you’re finished that portion, change your activity: Going for a walk is one of the best, as the physical activity will also help improve your mood.

For some women, oestrogen can dominate their lives. Although its responsible for a lot of good bodily effects, it can also create havoc when it gets out of control. But there are easy steps you can take to keep your hormones in order.

In women, oestrogen is a 'feminine youth' hormone. Oestrogen is what gives you feminine shape and form; youthful skin, strong bones. It even promotes the growth of skeletal muscle. But the full effects of what oestrogen had been doing for you doesn't become evident until after menopause, when your oestrogen levels naturally fall.

Then, your bones may become more brittle as oestrogen isn't promoting the formation of new bone cells (unless you're stimulating their growth with weight-bearing exercise). Your muscles may shrink (unless you're deliberately stimulating their growth with resistance training exercise). Your skin may become dry too.

During your fertile years, too much oestrogen can cause problems as well. Oestrogen promotes the movement of fluid into tissues, which is why some women report feeling 'bloated' just before their period. Excessive oestrogen can also bring on mood swings. This is where 'pre menstrual syndrome' comes from.

There are actually different types of oestrogen: E1(oestrone) and E2 (oestradiol). The third type of oestrogen, E3 (oestriol) occurs as a result of the first two oestrogens. Each type of oestrogen has different effects, and can cause different problems when out of balance. When assessing your hormones, the balance between these three varieties, as well as your progesterone and testosterone levels is just as important. Assessing balance as well as absolute amounts is the key.

There are some very natural ways to promote a healthy oestrogen balance in your body.

1. The most important? Fitness. Exercise automatically balances your body systems, including your hormones. If you're feeling 'hormonal' and moody, one of the best things you can do for yourself is head out for some vigorous exercise. After middle age, regular resistance training is essential to promote growth of your skeletal muscle. This will not only help you look more toned, but will keep your metabolism running faster too – now its easier to maintain your weight.

2. A high fibre diet is another key strategy. Flaxseed (linseed) is a great fibre supplement, as it contains lignans, a natural substance that will help your body balance hormones. Legumes are a girls best friend when it comes to fibre supplements, as they're a complex carbohydrate packed with vitamins and minerals. Leafy green vegetables and a little soy will provide a phyto-estrogenic boost.

3. Taking time out for yourself is the third strategy. Why? Because stress will very effectively disrupt anyone's hormones. A gentle walk in nature, or meditation, is an effective way to help reduce your stress levels. We all have stressors in our lives – its how we deal with them that will make the difference for you.

When balancing your hormones, its 'back to the basics' first. If you're exercising, eating a high fibre diet and engaging stress reduction strategies, and your hormones still aren't in balance, mother nature has herbs, homoeopathics and nutritional remedies to help bring everything gently back into balance.

Do you find that when you eat out, you eat more food than you do at home? Researchers found that many people do, and were curious to find out why. Their questionnaire, completed by 146 people, revealed some common barriers to healthy eating when dining out. You can read the original research here  http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2010/may/09_0130.htm#table1_down

Here are the common barriers to healthy eating out, and some possible solutions for you:

Many people found they ate more when they arrived at the restaurant ravenously hungry. This certainly makes it harder to choose healthier options, especially in the winter when hot food is more appealing. For many people in the survey, it was their busy lifestyle that got in the way; they just "hadn't had time to eat".

When you're busy its easy to overlook meal planning; but this is one of the key skills that will help you stay on top of things when life is going a little crazy. The solution? Spend 20 minutes before you shop each week to plan your meals, and purchase some key snack items that you can keep on hand in your desk drawer so you don't go hungry.

Being presented with a big plate of really delicious food certainly makes it harder to resist eating too much. If your first thought when the plate lands on the table is "wow, that's a lot" then it probably is an overly large portion size. Sometimes you can ask for what's left over to be packaged as a takeaway for you to take home.

Were you brought up to eat everything on your plate so as not to 'waste' food? If so, you're likely to find it even more difficult to refuse an overly large portion size. Try routinely asking for an 'entrée size' serve of a main meal item instead.

If you're hungry, and tuck into your meal with gusto, you're likely to miss your stomach's cues of "I'm full!" – this can cause you to overeat, then leave the restaurant feeling bloated. Your best remedy here is mindful eating; put your cutlery down between mouthfuls, and really savour the wonderful flavours and textures of the meal that someone else has cooked for you.

Effective portion control is one of the hallmarks of successful weight management – so try these strategies next time you eat out. You might leave the restaurant next time feeling well fed but not bloated or over-fed.

Some people find that although their skin is soft and supple during the warm months, when winter arrives it turns dry. Sometimes it even cracks, particularly on their lower legs. Or their scalp skin becomes dry and flaky. Its itchy and annoying There is a reason this happens, and there is a way you can improve your skin so you don't have to use gallons of moisturiser during winter.

Soft, flexible and healthy skin is due in no small part to a good supply of essential fatty acids in your diet, particularly the omega-3 oils, and a good balance of omega-3 to omega-6 oil intake.

A healthy omega-3 intake is actually measured by ratio, rather than by absolute quantities. In the stone age, when our eating was at its healthiest, our ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 intake was around 1:2. Our modern western diet provides a far less beneficial ratio, sometimes only one part omega 3 to 10 parts omega six. Dry skin is one of the unfortunate outcomes of our modern diet.

In winter many of us tend to seek out comforting, fatty foods – like pastries, meats, chocolate, more cheese, more butter – all rich sources of omega-6 oils. This can cause a big imbalance in your omega-3 intake, resulting in a relative omega-3 fatty acid deficiency, and dry skin.

Your cell membranes are actually just oil molecules floating on water molecules. The better your omega-3 status, the more flexible your cell membranes will be – and the more soft and flexible your skin cells will be too.

By the way, the condition of the skin on your heels is a good indicator of your omega-3 status. If they're dry or even cracked, there's a good chance there isn't enough omega-3 oils in your diet.

Good sources of omega-3 oils are oily fish like salmon, tuna, mackerel and sardines.

Here are some meal ideas to help you boost your omega-3 intake over winter:

-          sardines on toast (with tomato paste is particularly nice)

-          replace your butter with avocado as a spread.

-          poached salmon with roasted vegetables

-          tuna risotto (minus the cheese!)