Category Archives: Health and Well-being

Submissions to family violence royal commission reveal a fragmented system

On Monday, the public hearings for Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence began. The public hearings follow the completion of community consultations and the close of written submissions in late May. Nearly 1000 Victorians – advocates, experts and policy stakeholders – provided submissions to the commission. They called for change in the justice, health, social […]

No so cashed up

In early May, 2015, news services reported that Denmark, one of those wacky Scandinavian countries that just seems to be obsessed with being progressive, would allow retailers to only offer card payment, and allow them to ban cash as a means of transaction. For quite a while, Scandinavia has been all about a cashless society. In […]

Australia’s Hate-Love Relationship with Alcohol

In the 2015 Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) Annual Alcohol Poll, 34 per cent of Australians said that they drink to get drunk, 43 per cent said they had vomited as a result of drinking, and 75 per cent said Australia has a problem with excess drinking or alcohol abuse. But in the same […]

Kids with ADHD at higher risk of becoming obese and inactive teens

If you have had close connection to a child with ADHD, then intuition says that all of that unfocussed physical activity should surely translate into a lower body weight. Showing that intution is not always right, tracking of the health and weight of children with ADHD into adolescence has surprisingly found that these children are […]

Treating gestational diabetes with a high blood pressure diet

A diet first designed to help treat high blood pressure has shown some promising results in improving pregnancy outcomes in women with gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes (GDM) is a form of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy, affecting around 8 percent of all pregnancies. The high blood sugars from the diabetes can result in the developing […]

Is there anything to fear from acrylamide in food?

You may have seen some recent press over a Food Standard Australia and New Zealand survey of acrylamide levels in our food supply. Acrylamide is a chemical that forms naturally when certain starchy foods are cooked and is part of the reaction that causes food to brown. Foods such as potato chips, bread, some breakfast […]

Can't find time to exercise? The solution is right in front of you

Being more active is a goal of most people. Despite best intentions though, a busy life can make it seem just all too hard to find the time to fit in some exercise on top of all the other demands of life. Now new research has given some clear pointers to just where people ‘find […]

One diet to rule them all

How is a person to make sense of the conflicting nutrition messages they read and hear about each day? Despite a wide range of contradicting nutrition and diet messages, there are common themes that overlap across all of the popular diets – themes that give you the keys to long-term health in a simple-to-understand message. […]

Weekend cheaters weigh less

For those following a strict diet to lose weight, a new study proposes that there may just be merit in the idea of ‘weekend cheating’ in loosening the bounds of food self-control. Making concerted dietary changes and having them stick long term to help with weight loss is tough. Just how many people fall off […]

Being active improves cancer survival odds

Evidence continues to grow that physical activity after a cancer diagnosis is linked to a better survival outlook. Being physically active is now recognised as a potent ‘cancer-preventing’ habit. Some estimates link regular physical activity to as much as a 20 to 40% lower risk of colon and post-menopausal breast cancer and a potential benefit […]