I think good quality protein powders can be beneficial for a lot of people’s diets, but it’s not a necessary supplement for everyone.

For example, a good quality protein powder can really help athletes or avid gym goers, vegetarians or vegans, busy people who struggle to get time for proper meals, and people who are immune compromised.

However the quality of protein powder is paramount! There are a ton of poor quality, highly processed, and artificially-sweetened powders out there that you want to be avoiding! If you’re adding a protein powder into your diet, you want to make sure that it is actually going to be beneficial – you want to ensure it is made up of real, nutritionally-dense ingredients, and is minimally processed.

I have had the pleasure of working with the owner of INCA Organics protein powders and I can hands-down say that INCA Organics is the purest protein powder I can find on the market. It is packed full of nutrients from real food, contains absolutely nothing artificial, and is very minimally processed.

My  favourite is the Organic Natural Whey protein powder – it is just 100% organic whey protein concentrate – absolutely nothing else. Plus it blends really well into my favourite post-run berry smoothie (see below).

The only thing to note is that if you are a drug tested athlete, INCA Organics protein powders are not yet ASADA approved. One of the best ASADA approved protein powders currently on the market is ISOWHEY Sports Refuel and Rebuild – best straight after training.

If you’d like to know more about why we need protein and when and why it could be appropriate to have a good quality protein powder in your diet, then check out my blog post on the INCA Organics website about protein and protein powders.

Post-run Berry Smoothie:

• 1 – 1.5 cups of Nutty Bruce un-sweetened almond milk
• 1 cup of frozen organic mixed berries
• 2-3 heaped tablespoons of traditional rolled oats
• 1 scoop (30g) of INCA Organics Natural Whey Protein Powder
• 3 heaped tablespoons or organic plain Greek yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon of prebiotic fibre (feeds your good gut bacteria)

Blend all the ingredients together, and enjoy cold! If you’re running longer than 10km, then I also add in a banana to this recipe too.

For prebiotic fibre, I recommend Natural Evolution – Green Banana Resistant Starch.

However most hot cross buns are loaded with many types of sugars, poor quality vegetable oil, white flour, preservatives and food additives! They are generally highly processed and are no good for your good gut bacteria, blood sugar levels, energy levels and waistline. The majority of the time they are not very filling, so you find yourself reaching for a second one!

So should you eat hot cross buns at Easter time?

Of course you can! BUT make sure you choose good quality hot cross bun brands that have no added sugars, preservatives or food additives and use good quality flour such as sourdough or spelt, and good quality oils like olive oil or coconut oil.

What to look for when buying good quality hot cross buns:

A great brand of hot cross buns to buy is the Ancient Grains organic wholegrain spelt hot cross buns. You can get these from most health food stores or organic food stores, some local greengrocers, and some IGAs, and online at SunnyBrook Health Store.

I know a hot cross bun with no sugar in it sounds like it won’t be tasty, but trust me if you get a good quality hot cross bun and have it toasted with some grass fed butter and a cup of tea it will be delicious and filling!

My afternoon Easter treat is:

• 1 Ancient Grains organic spelt hot cross bun toasted
• Spread with some organic grass fed butter – the easiest organic grass fed butter brand to find is New Zealand Mainland Organic Grass fed butter
• A cup of organic match green tea – which has lots of polypehnols (a type of antioxidant) in it to feed my good gut bacteria 🙂

Try it out and enjoy how delicious and filling a real hot cross bun is!

Lemons regularly get overlooked when it comes to fruit and vegetables, but this brightly-coloured bitter and sour fruit is a little powerhouse: packed full of hydrating and alkalising electrolytes, vitamins, minerals and trace minerals.

Having a glass of warm water with lemon when you get up every morning is great for re-hydrating your body’s tissues, giving you an energy boost, stimulating your body to clear out toxins, and getting all the systems in your body going. Not to mention waking and warming you up in the morning.

Below is some info explaining how consuming warm lemon water daily can help improve your overall health and well being.

1). Helps to strengthen your immune system:

• Citrus flavonoids and the high amounts of vitamin C found in lemons are antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal. Therefore drinking warm lemon water helps support optimal immune function.
• Citrus flavonoids are also antidiabetic. The flavonoids in lemons act as antioxidants that eliminate free radicals from the body and they have also been found to inhibit cancer cell replication.

2). Assists Digestion:

• The citric acid found in lemon juice stimulates the digestive system by increasing the secretion of gastric juices and bile, and also helps stimulate the contraction and relaxation of the digestive tract. This helps the movement and absorption of food through the digestive tract, as well as promoting regular bowel movements.
• Also if you have no appetite in the morning and find it hard to eat your breakfast, try having warm lemon water 15 minutes before you eat, to help stimulate your digestive juices and appetite.

3). Assists Liver Function:

• The citric acid and other antioxidants in lemons help the liver produce more bile and enzymes, which helps enhance the liver’s function and it’s ability to clear toxins from the body.
• Lemon juice, although it tastes acidic, is actually alkalising once in the body. This helps keep the bodies pH levels higher and in a more alkaline environment, which has been linked to reducing the chance of disease and illness.

4). Skin Health:

• Lemon consumption helps to improve skin rejuvenation, elasticity, and it’s protective properties.  Tt helps reduce skin infections and promotes detoxification throughout the body. This supports healthy skin, and in some studies, has also been found to reduce body odour.
• Fresh lemon applied to the skin can also be used as a body scrub to help remove dead skin cells, and can be used on the scalp to help treat dandruff.

5). Promotes Weight Loss:

• The citric acid found in lemon juice promotes fat burning in the body, can increase a person’s metabolism, and promotes detoxification throughout the body. All of this can help with weight reduction.
• Lemon also contains Pectin, which is linked to reducing hunger cravings.

6). Treats Gout:

• Gout is caused by 2 mains things: an accumulation of uric acid and an accumulation of free radicals in the body.
• Lemons contain high levels of powerful antioxidants that can clear and detoxify free radicals and uric acid from the body.

As you can see there are many reasons to include lemon into your daily diet. My favourite way is to have a 200ml of warm water with ½ a fresh squeezed lemon in it upon waking every morning, 15 minutes before I eat breakfast.

Or you can add lemon into any of your favourite cooking recipes, or use it as a salad dressing base, which will help enhance your absorption of non-haem iron form your green leafy veggies.

If you drink warm lemon water in the morning, ensure you rinse your mouth out with pure water afterwards or drink it through a straw, this is to help protect your enamel, for optimal long-term teeth health!

Happy digesting guys!

Bec

References:

Mohanapriya, M, Dr Ramaswamy, L & Dr Rajendran, R 2013, “Health and medicinal properties of lemon” International Journal of Ayurvedic and Herbal Medicine 3:1 (2013) 1095:1100.

But chances are, if you’ve been to the supermarket recently to buy eggs, there haven’t been any there! We’ve been told this is partly because of labelling reforms for free-range eggs by the ACCC, but what exactly does that mean?

Thanks to greater awareness of animal welfare, more Aussie’s are pushing towards buying free-range eggs instead of “cage” eggs, which is really great – we can eat the food we want, and the animals can still have a great life.

But sadly what we think free-range looks like (chickens freely roaming around a grassy paddock, scratching for worms), isn’t always what happens. Some farms only allow limited free roaming time, and some only allow the chooks to roam around inside a shed – not exactly ideal.

Worse still, some “free-range” egg farms still overcrowd their facilities, with similar numbers to the “cage” farms their trying to differentiate themselves from. Unfortunately Australian government regulations allow up to 10,000 chickens per hectare, where as the CSIRO recommends a maximum of 1500. Why aren’t our pollies listening to the scientists we’re funding?

The main problem is it’s hard for us consumers to know which farms are doing the right thing, and which are just pretending. Luckily the ACCC has stepped up, and will be requiring egg farmers to prominently label their egg packaging with how many chickens they stock per hectare. This will allow shoppers to easily compare between companies, and make an educated choice, especially as the ACCC will be fining farms that aren’t honest about their chicken density numbers (some farms have already received some hefty fines).

These changes won’t be coming in until the end of the year, so in the mean time I would try and look for organic free-range eggs. Raising organic chickens forces farmers to not crowd them in too much, otherwise they might get sick. In general, the more animals packed into an area, the more chance they have of becoming suck. Non-organic farmers might mitigate this by feeding their chickens antibiotic laced grain, but organic farms won’t do this – instead they make sure their chickens have plenty of space to roam.

I’d also recommend checking out this Choice article, which rates egg farms on how crowded they are, and also lists a few to stay well away from.

Also Choice recommends a great free app to help you detect if free-range eggs are really free-range. The app is called CluckAR, it is really easy to use once you have downloaded it, all you do is point your phone at the carton of eggs and it tells you if it is really free-range (less than 1500 hens per square hectare). Awesome!!

Your eggs will taste better in the morning (and be more nutritious!) when you know the chicken that laid it is happy and healthy!