The Healthy Handful
Did you know that nearly 1.9 million Australians are living with diabetes, with type 2 diabetes accounting for 85-90% of all cases? As rates continue to rise, the right dietary approach is more important than ever. On the back of (13-19 July), we revisit a popular episode (originally released in November 2023, as “What’s the best diet for diabetes prevention and management”), with guest Tim McMaster, an Accredited Practising Dietitian with Diabetes Victoria, who shares his expertise on the diabetes dietary recommendations. In this episode, we explore how plant-based dietary...
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Front-of-pack nutrition labelling tools are designed to help consumers make healthier food choices and support a balanced diet. One such tool is Australia’s Health Star Rating (HSR) system, which assigns foods a rating from 0.5 to 5 stars. These ratings are based on the presence of “risk” nutrients (such as saturated fat, sugar, and sodium) and "positive" components (like fibre and protein, and fruit, vegetables, nuts, and legumes). But how accurately does the HSR reflect the healthfulness of products? And how well does it align with dietary guidelines? In this episode, we speak with...
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Linking in with Australia’s heart week, held in May each year, we’re re-releasing a popular episode on how to improve heart health, through diet and lifestyle. Heart Week, which was held from 5-11 May, was a reminder for us all to take stock of our heart health and to prioritise looking after our hearts. We spoke with Associate Professor David Colquhoun about practical ways to help reduce the risk of heart disease – one of the leading causes of death in Australia. Whether you're looking to make changes yourself or to recommend changes as a health professional to your clients or patients,...
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Each year, Australians waste approximately 7.6 million tonnes of food across the entire supply chain - enough to fill a football stadium 10 times - at an annual cost of $36.6 billion to the economy. While much of this waste happens at home, it also occurs in healthcare institutions, like hospitals. In this episode, we speak with Dr Nathan Cook, a dietitian dedicated to creating sustainable food services. Nathan dives into the causes of food waste in healthcare, the ‘categories’ of foods wasted, and most-importantly, some solutions to this critical issue. He unpacks the complexities of...
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Research indicates that the actual kilojoules absorbed by the body from eating nuts is significantly less than the kilojoules stated on food labels. In fact, the 100-year-old system used to calculate kilojoules for food labels, here in Australia and across the globe, may overestimate the kilojoule content of nuts by up to 26%. This raises some questions. Should labels be updated to reflect these findings? And what do Australians think about this idea? In this episode, we speak with Dr. Cassandra Nikodijevic. She shares insights on the digestible kilojoules in nuts – and specifically,...
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Nicole Dynan, dietitian and gut health expert, joined us for a conversation in 2022. The topic was gut health, and it turned out to be a VERY popular episode! Today, the importance of good nutrition for a healthy gut remains as relevant as ever, so we’re revisiting our ‘Nuts and gut health’ episode, during Gut Health Month, which runs across February. In this fascinating deep dive, Nicole shares how food and dietary patterns influence the gut microbiota, and what the best diet for gut health actually looks like. And she busts some common gut-health myths along the way. Of course, we...
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What are Australians actually buying at the supermarket? And how does this stack up against our nation's dietary guidelines? In this episode, we’re joined by Healthylife's Chief Health Officer Simone Austin to unpack the 2024 Living Healthy Report. We learn (a lot!) about Australia's dietary habits - with Simone sharing some surprising insights along the way. Simone breaks down where Australians are hitting the mark, and where we’re falling short. She shares practical tips and 'can do' suggestions to inspire us all toward healthier eating habits. The perfect way to start the New...
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Our 50th episode is a celebration of this milestone, and a wrap of the best of 2024! We reflect on the most interesting (and at times, surprising!) things we learnt in 2024, on a topic close to our hearts: nuts and health. The Healthy Handful podcast host, Belinda Neville, speaks with colleague and Accredited Practising Dietitian Maree Hall, to unpack the key nut research papers published this year, and uncover the most downloaded podcast episodes, most popular webpages, and most loved recipes (plus much more) of 2024! Access episode webpage: About today’s guest Maree Hall is the...
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The population worldwide is ageing, and this is true for Australia’s population as well. One hundred years ago, five in every 100 people made it past the age of 65 years. Today, one in seven people make it past that age. But it’s not all about living longer. We all want to live healthier too. Nutrition expert Dr Tim Crowe takes us through what happens to our bodies as we age – from the inevitable changes that come with ageing, to what we can do to ensure we age in the healthiest way possible. Learn about the key nutrients and lifestyle choices that make all the difference....
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Renowned culinary expert Tawnya Bahr shares her remarkable journey from working as an IT Sales and Marketing Manager in California, to importing condiments into Australia, and eventually becoming one of the most respected authorities in bridging the gap between food producers and the food industry. We discuss how she works closely with local suppliers, fostering a deep connection to the food, and its origins, and to chefs, where she inspires the use of these ingredients (including nuts) to elevate dishes. Plus, Tawnya shares a few of her favourite mouth-watering ways to incorporate nuts into...
info_outlineAbout this episode
For decades, we have been interested in the impact food has on human health, and the relationship between our food choices and the risk of disease. But what impact do our food choices have on the environment?
We speak with Dr Gilly Hendrie, from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), as she explains some recent research - investigating how the typical Australian diet compares to the Australian Dietary Guidelines recommendations, and its impact on diet quality and the environment.
The two research papers, published in Public Health Nutrition, and BMC Public Health, highlight the importance of dietary diversity, and how eating a wide variety of nutritious foods, both across and within food groups, has both human and environmental benefits.
About today’s guest
Dr Gilly Hendrie is a Research Scientist with expertise in diet, nutrition and obesity prevention. Her research focuses on the development and validation of dietary assessment methods, including the development of diet quality metrics to help our understanding of dietary patterns.
Dr Hendrie enjoys collaborating with experts from other disciplines to broaden our understanding of the impacts of dietary patterns on global concerns such as obesity, food security and climate change.
Supporting resources
Towards healthier and more sustainable diets in the Australian context: Comparison of current diets with the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet.
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-022-14252-z
The importance of protein variety in a higher quality and lower environmental impact dietary pattern.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36210777/
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Credits
Host: Belinda Neville
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