It's Women's Health Week and mental health always matters! Join us as we discuss what the evidence says when it comes to nutrition and depression & anxiety. We also look at a new study that was published in the Lancet comparing lifestyle (diet and exercise) and psychotherapy interventions.

We cover:

• WHO definitions of depression & anxiety
• Rates of depression & anxiety in NZ and Australia
• Mediterranean diet & mental health
• New Lancet study around nutrition & mental health

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“Across Australia and New Zealand, rates of depression and anxiety are ever-increasing.”

“Overall, research shows that diet is important to mental health, the same way it is to physical health. Eating healthier positively impacts mental wellbeing, such as improving depressive symptoms.”

“Over eight weeks they found that those assigned the lifestyle intervention had a 42% reduction in symptoms of depression and a 37% reduction in the psychotherapy program.”

References
https://theconversation.com/food-and-exercise-can-treat-depression-as-well-as-a-psychologist-our-study-found-and-its-cheaper-235952

What exactly is the Mediterranean diet? Easy adjustments you can make now to reap health benefits

It’s Women’s Health Week and Clare Goodwin, the PCOS Nutritionist and founder of Ovie is here to answer your questions on PCOS. We cover it all, including how PCOS affects weight and fertility.

We cover:

• What is PCOS?
• How common in PCOS?
• Does it matter if someone remains undiagnosed?
• Causes of PCOS
• Main symptoms of PCOS
• How PCOS affects weight
• How PCOS affects fertility

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“For years and years women have been treated like hypochondriacs and so a lot of that stems from this women not being taken seriously with pain, especially period pain and being told that this is normal when it is absolutely not. And thinking we need to dull down our symptoms.”

“PCOS isn’t a particularly well named syndrome as a lot of the emphasis gets put on the “cysts” on the ovary which are just follicles and just a symptom of what was going on.”

“We know that insulin and testosterone both cause body fat gain in females. So then we have this weight gain, and with this we get more testosterone and more insulin resistance, and this again causes more weight gain. And so it is this vicious cycle and in our body there is no negative feedback loop for this.”

References

https://www.ovie.io/

It’s Women’s Health Week and endocrinologist, Dr Megan Ogilvie is with us and flipping the script on menopause. Megan draws from other cultures and looks at menopause through a positive lens. A must-listen for all women that will leave you feeling aspired!

We cover:

• What is menopause? And what is “normal” for women?
• How do you think women should view this time?
• What does this time really mean?
• Menopause myths
• Menopause and belly fat, why?

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“In the 1800s life expectancy was about 45-50 years, we all died of our postpartum haemorrhage having our eighth baby. In 2024, life expectancy for women is about 85 so we can all expect very reasonably to live about 1/3 of our lifetimes in our postmenopausal years.”

“Increasingly, science is showing us that this midlife time that is often the menopausal time for women, is a real window of opportunity to shape their health and wellbeing and therefore quality of life over their postmenopausal years.”

“All of this talk around menopause which is so vast now is mostly good, but it’s a very negative Westernised narrative out there at the moment. It’s all about you’ll get this symptom, this symptom and this symptom then you get old and you become invisible. All tied up with Western ideas of ageing.”

References

https://www.menopause.org.au/health-info
https://erhassociates.co.nz/curated-resources

It’s Women’s Health Week and endocrinologist, Dr Sasha Nair is with us to discuss premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).

We cover:

• What is PMS and PMDD
• Signs & symptoms of PMS
• PMDD the more severe variant of PMS
• What impacts PMS?
• How does PMS typically change throughout life?
• PMS myths
• Management & treatment of PMS
• How to talk to teenagers about PMS

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“Things that may impact your symptoms are basically things that impact your nervous system sensitivity - stress, trauma, sleep deprivation. ”

“PMS varies and is individualised. Sometimes it comes on very clearly at the time of having your period in the beginning, some people start to notice it after a traumatic event. It goes away by definition in pregnancy...”

“The biggest myth is that PMS is normal or you have to put up with it.”

“When you ovulate estrogen is at its highest point and a lot of people feel good at that time. Quickly after ovulation your estrogen drops quite suddenly and you can get estrogen withdrawal symptoms or headaches/migraines, drop in mood and energy…”

Are packaged snack foods creeping into your diet more than you would like? Join us as we look at what we are snacking on, how we are snacking and what changes could be made that take into account the reasons you love to snack.

We cover:

• The Healthylife 2024 Living Healthy Report
• An overview of recommended serve sizes from the dietary guidelines compared to those found on food packets
• Australian’s favourite packaged food snacks
• How snacking has changed across the last 4 years
• How core food groups and their consumption have changed across the last 4 years
• How to improve portion control
• What Healthylife does to help the snacking habits of Australians
• What snacks Simone recommends to children, teens and adults
• The easiest way to select better-for-you packaged food snacks
• Simone’s take on how the population is going to move towards a healthier dietary pattern

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“Definitely biscuits, these are our biggest discretionary “unhealthy” food that people are purchasing, followed by ice cream. ”

“Try and think about snacking as just a smaller meal, because that way you don’t think about it as biscuits and ice cream and chocolate as much.”

“How do we make sure that people are putting fresh produce into their basket? I think alot of that is probably around the misconception that healthy is more expensive. Yes we want convenience, but it is just as convenient to me to peel a banana than open a packet of bisicuits.”

“We seem to have this social status where we talk about discretionary “unhealthy” foods as treat foods. We need to improve our language and embrace that fresh produce taste delicious. But we talk about, you have been really good so let’s have a fast food burger, or chocolate, lollies, ice cream or at a party it is these sorts of foods. We sort of give a status that these foods are better, more rewarding and taste better than the others.

No idea how much dairy you should be having each day? Laura Anderson, Global Head of Nutrition at Fonterra has you covered. This episode explores dairy through the lens of portions, recommended serve sizes and daily targets.

We cover:

• Portions, serve size, serving - what do they all mean?
• Where New Zealanders go wrong with portion control
• Recommended serve sizes of dairy foods
• How do children and adults go at reaching the dairy targets?
• Does portion control matter when consuming milk, yoghurt or cheese?
• Has dairy consumption changed in NZ over the years?
• What role does the food industry play when it comes to portion control?
• Does dairy help with weight loss & weight maintenance?
• Nutrition criteria Fonterra follow when designing new products
• Laura’s top 3 tips on choosing the right dairy products for them and in the right amounts

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“49% of New Zealand adults are consuming the recommended serves of dairy per day (data from a survey carried out by Fonterra).”

“ Most people don’t know that most people who are lactose intolerant can still consume dairy without concerns. Cheese and yoghurt have much lower levels of lactose and milk even when consumed as part of a meal can often be well tolerated. ”

“The serve size of milk is 1cup (250ml), cheese 2 slices (40g), yoghurt 3/4 cup (150-200g).”

The first of three podcast episodes on food portions! To kick us off we have Ashleigh Jones, Nutrition & Health Manager at Lite n’ Easy to give us the facts when it comes to food portions and how to go about portion control (something we could all use a little help with).

We cover:

• Portions, serve size, serving - what do they all mean?
• Where Australians go wrong with portion control
• Does portion control matter when consuming healthy foods?
• What role does the food industry play when it comes to portion control?
• What role does portion control play with weight loss & weight maintenance?
• Nutrition criteria Light n’ Easy follow when designing new products
• Ashleigh’s top 3 tips on choosing the right food portions for you

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“Hyperpalatable snack foods, if you are eating these straight from the packet, which a lot of us are guilty of, you lose track really quickly.”

“ It is up to food manufacturers on what the serving size actually is. It is great to work for a company who is ethical and transparent with how they do things. It would be easy to be a bit sneakier I guess if the company didn’t have the same values.”

“If in doubt measure it out. What I mean by that is if you’re not sure how much cereal or chips, what a serving of vegetable is, it is actually a really good idea to get out the measure cups or the scale (and I am not saying to do this all the time as this wouldn’t be healthy)...”

When hearing milk and gut health in one sentence, many would assume gut health ‘problems’ or ‘issues’. Not today my friends! Dr Emma Beckett walks us through why milks role in gut health is overlooked and the early evidence behind milk and gut health. Emma also busts the top milk myths!

We cover:

• Why is milks role in gut health overlooked?
• What are some unintended consequences of self-diagnosing oneself with lactose or dairy intolerance?
• The top milk myths that need busting this year!
• What is a2 milk and what are its benefits?
• The early evidence behind milk and gut health

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“There is really no data that says avoiding milk helps with weight loss. There is no data that says consuming milk increases weight or causes weight problems.”

“ People don’t feel the impacts of being low in calcium immediately. It’s something where you can go yes I feel better, I cut dairy. It’s not going to catch up on you until later in life when you start having trouble with your bone density. It’s really easy to get caught up in the now and forget about the future when it comes to this food group and food.”

“I would rather be farting in my 30s than have broken bones later in life.”