Podcast Episode #7

By Guy Lawrence

Eat fat to lower cholesterol… What about dairy, is it healthy? Can I run an ultra-marathon or CrossFit on a low carb/ high fat or paleo diet?

These are just some of the questions we cover in this episode of The Health Sessions as we catch up with Nora Gedgaudas, best selling author of Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet. I’ve time coded the bullet points so you jump straight to the bits that interest you most in the video. But when you’ve got the time, it’s well worth kicking back and watching the whole video as the content is invaluable!

Download or subscribe to us on iTunes here.

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Growing bodies need nourishment, not chemicals.

180 Nutrition Monkey Bites are made entirely from nutritious, all natural, whole food ingredients. The kind that comes from Mother Nature, not a factory. They are free of nuts, gluten, fructose and chemicals, making them the perfect, school-safe snack, ready to pop in your kids lunch boxes today.

 
They’re chock full of protein, fibre and healthy fats and available in 20 x 15g bites specifically designed for your kids lunch boxes.

The 180 Monkey Bites will help you:

• Choose an alternative to many of the processed kids snacks
• Add more protein and good fat to your childs diet
• Cut your kids intake of foods packed with chemical nasties
• Fuel your little monkey through the day

Real ingredients you can trust

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  Grass Fed Whey Protein Isolate

  The body does not store protein, and is essential for your little monkeys whilst they grow and develop. Whey protein isolate (WPI) is a fantastic source of protein for kids. Learn more about protein here or the WPI whey protein isolate here.

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  Flaxseed

  180 contains a perfectly balanced quantity of Flaxseed in it’s formula. Flaxseeds are a great source of fibre, lignans, protein, omega 3, vitamins, and minerals. The importance of these nutrients is paramount and you can learn more here.

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  Sunflower Kernels

  Are rich in Omega 6 fatty acids. Health benefits include anti-inflammatory properties and aid cardiovascular health from its vitamin E content. Also contains magnesium and selenium, a trace mineral that is of fundamental importance to human health. Read more here.

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  Coconut Flour

  Made from certified organic coconut flesh. It is very high in natural fibre, and has a delicious sweet taste. High in protein, gluten free and zero cholesterol. Making it the perfect ingredient for flavouring. Read more here.

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  Cocoa

  Not only does Cocoa taste rich and delicious, evidence points to the use of raw cocoa in a medicinal capacity for over two thousand years, including treatment of fatigue, fever, heart pain, shortness of breath, kidney & bowel complaints. Read more here.

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  Chia Seeds

  Were originally farmed by the Aztecs over 3500 years ago. They have been ‘rediscovered’ and modern medicine has acknowledged Chia seeds as an excellent source of protein and that is jam-packed with amino-acids, Omega-3 fatty acids and anti-oxidants.

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  Pepita (Pumpkin seeds)

  Pepitas are an excellent source of minerals, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, protein, monounsaturated fat, and zinc. They are a celebrated food of the Native American Indians who treasured them both for their dietary and medicinal properties. Read more here.

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  Sesame Seeds

  Sesame Seeds are packed full of nutrients, antioxidants, vitamin B1 & vitamin E. They contain high levels of phytochemical antioxidants that help protect the body from free radicals, which have been implicated in development of cancer.

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  Psyllium Husks

  Rich in fibre, Psyllium Seeds and their husks have long been enlisted for great digestive function, which aids regular bowel movement. Read more here.

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  Inactive Brewers Yeast

  Not to be confused with Bakers Yeast, Inactive Brewers Yeast is extremely rich in B-complex vitamins which support your body’s metabolism and energy production. The Amino Acids in inactive brewer’s yeast are essential to support the building and repair of tissues, bones, muscles and cartilage.

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  Stevia

  This natural herb from South America is used as a sweetener, with the added benefit that it has zero calories, negligible effect on blood sugar and none of the nasty side effects of the artificial sweeteners used in some of the leading nutritional supplements.

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  Coconut Oil

  The naturally occurring fat in coconut oil is actually good for you and provides a number of profound health benefits, including an excellent energy source, boosts immune system  and helps stop sugar cravings.

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  Tahini Paste

  Made from ground sesame seeds and contains virtually zero measurable trans-fat or cholesterol, tahini is a great high source of vitamin A, magnesium, folate and calcium, and is especially abundant in phosphorus and potassium.

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  Organic Rice Malt

  A natural binding ingredient where the low GI carbohydrate from the brown rice releases energy over a longer period of time. Contains no fat or cholesterol of any type and is 100% fructose free.

Leading high street kids snack bars commonly use the ingredients below:

Whole white rice, sugar, salt, barley malt extract, vitamins, minerals, glucose, fructose, hydrogenated soyabean oil (antioxidants [320, 306, 304]), glucose solids, invert sugar, humectant (glycerol), gelatin, flavour, salt, emulsifiers (472e, 472a), colour (carmine), skim milk powder.

So what’s the answer?

With the majority of kid’s snacks filled with sugar and processed carbohydrates, there are not many answers other than fruit. Whilst fruit can be a good option and provide fibre, it lacks the protein and healthy fats that your little monkey needs.

With alarming statistics now showing that if current trends in childhood obesity continue, by the time our children reach the age of 20 they will have a lower life expectancy than earlier generations.

By Guy Lawrence

‘For all but the last few hundred years (a heartbeat on the genetic evolution time scale), really sweet foods have been difficult to find.’ – David Gillespie

Sugar… It’s a delicate topic. Unless you’ve been living in a cave lately, you will know that sugar has been copping a lot of flack from the media over recent times (and rightly so I feel). But even with all this media attention, it still washes over many people’s heads and gets thrown into the all too hard basket, with my mate included.

I’ve been guiding my mate now for quite some time with the misconceptions of weight loss and his health kick. He felt that eating fruit salad would help his weight loss plan, counting calories and drinking diet sodas was a healthy choice, following the food pyramid was  beneficial and hours and hours of running a week was going to improve his health. Then I challenged him and his way of thinking and asked him to reconsider his approach, and thankfully he has so far.

We caught up for a cuppa and a chat recently, and as he puts a great big spoonful of honey in his tea, he looks at me and says “this is ok isn’t it? I mean, it’s natural right?”

He then tells me he’s stirring lots of agave syrup into his porridge in the morning too. O’ dear… Continue reading →

Do you have cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure or any other chronic disease for that matter? Did you know that 180 is nutrient rich, low GI, high fibre/protein and gluten free? This means that due to these factors our supplement is often recommended by nutritionists to help resolve a variety of health issues, and it could help you.

Here’s how our natural protein supplement can help you

Overwhelming evidence from a variety of sources, link most chronic diseases seen in the world today to physical inactivity and inappropriate diet consumption, and this is our belief too. Sadly we live in a society where we generally only treat the symptoms of ill health, not the cause.

And the cause being mainly the choices we make on a daily basis, from the foods we eat and the activities we do. It is now well recognised that anyone suffering from a chronic disease should be looking at a low Glycemic Index diet.

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  Tania Flack – Naturopath, Sydney

  In a market flooded with protein powders and supplements that are filled with artificial flavourings and chemicals it is great to find a product that I can reccomend to my patients that is based on quality natural ingredients and manufactured to the highest standards. The usual Australian diet is high in refined carbohydrates which encourages an unhealthy muscle to fat ratio which ultimately contributes to many disease processes. Helping patients balance their protein to carbohydrate intake makes a big difference in their health as does the extra boost in nutrients, essentials fatty acids and natural fibre that 180 nutrition provides.

  I would recommend 180 nutrition to anyone who is interested in maintaining a balanced diet and achieving optimal health. Visit Tania’s site here.

Learn more about the problems with High-Glycemic (GI) Carbohydrates?

The problem with an excessive High-Glycemic Diet, is it raises blood sugars too rapidly, and this is the number one culprit in nutritionally caused health problems. And our society is loaded with High GI foods.

Hi GI foods create an acute excessive insulin response. Insulin is an essential hormone for life, yet acute, chronic elevation of insulin leads to hyperinsulinism, which has been positively linked to Diabetes, obesity, elevated cholesterol levels, blood pressure, mood dysfunction and most chronic diseases.

We recommend a Low-Glycemic approach to food. By doing this, it will have a positive impact on your insulin response and your over all blood sugar levels.

What foods should I be eating?

In plain English, it should be organic when possible, all your garden vegetables, especially greens, certain low GI fruits (berries are good), unprocessed meats, nuts, seeds, little starch and NO SUGAR!

Food is perishable, and not made to be processed, it was designed that way. Anything with an extra long shelf life is probably processed, be suspicious. Modern diets are ill suited for our genetic composition. Evolution has not kept pace with the advances in agriculture and food processing resulting in a plague of health problems for modern man.

If you follow these simple rules to food, and combine them with exercise, you’ll be amazed with the results. Your body will be extremely grateful.

What foods shouldn’t I eat?

High GI foods for a start, they include rice, bread, candy, potato, sweets, sodas, anything that has white flour or sugar in it, and most processed carbohydrates. Processing can include bleaching, baking, grinding, and refining.

Think like a Caveman. If it wasn’t around back then, the chances are, you shouldn’t be eating it now.

Be Inspired

Be prepared to be inspired with the video below which is an interview with my good friend Kelli. She talks about how she’s winning a battle with cancer through lifestyle choices including food and exercise.

View our latest blog topics

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• Does DNA testing hold the key to the perfect diet? The results
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• We chat to Nora Gedgaudas: Primal Body, Primal Mind. Beyond the Paleo diet
• Why I eat Superfoods: An elite athletes perspective

In theory, the low GI diet sounds like the perfect weight-loss strategy for people with diabetes. But in practice, the interaction between the foods a person eats and the body’s response is complex and not always easy to predict.

In healthy individuals, the digestive system begins breaking down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars after a meal. In order to maintain a healthy blood glucose level, cells in the pancreas release a hormone called insulin, which signals other cells to absorb and store sugar. If blood glucose levels begin to get too low, another hormone called glucagon signals for sugar to be released.

In people with type 2 diabetes, this process does not run smoothly – cells do not respond correctly to insulin’s signal to absorb sugar, and blood glucose levels can rise dangerously high and stay that way after a meal. Eventually the cells that secrete insulin wear out, and less and less of the signal is released.

The theory behind the low GI diet is that if individuals only consume foods that contain low levels of carbohydrates and sugars, the body’s blood glucose level will not increase to such extremes. This will put less strain on the cells that produce insulin, which may recover with time.

To determine the GI rating for a particular food, researchers fed people servings of particular foods after a period of fasting and tested blood glucose levels every 15 minutes for two hours. Those results were then compared to the changes in blood glucose when a person consumes the same serving of a reference food. Foods with a ranking of 55 or lower are classified as “low GI;” a score of 56 to 69 is “medium GI” (bananas); and 70 and above is considered “high GI” (potatoes and white rice).

Some examples of low GI foods include dried beans and legumes, such as kidney beans or lentils; non-starchy vegetables; many milk products; most fruits; whole grain breads and cereals; and meats and fats, which do not contain carbohydrates.

Although foods are assigned precise scores, a myriad of factors can change their true GI content. Factors such as how the food is cooked, how ripe it is when it is eaten, the fat content of foods that are eaten with it and more, can influence a food’s glycemic index. Although a food’s glycemic index can give a dieter an estimate of how it compares to other items, it may not perfectly predict the effect that food will have on blood glucose levels.

To help stabalise your blood sugar levels. Include 180 natural protein superfood in you daily diet.

You can read the full article here.

By Guy Lawrence

Don’t shoot the messenger here, but this one is SO important. But firstly lets eliminate a common point of confusion. There is glucose that is manufactured in the body, which is ever present in the blood and essential as the brain wouldn’t function without it. Continue reading →

By Guy Lawrence

With the season to be jolly already upon us, this may not be the most well timed topic, but what the heck! I guarantee it will take more than a blog post to make us worry about the christmas pudding and multiple drinks we stuff down over the silly season.

But hopefully it well get you thinking of the changes you may make in the new year…. Detox anyone???

Over the last century, along with a technology boom, there’s been a major shift in the foods we eat. With more and more demands now put on us daily than ever before, convenience has risen above nutritional. So for the greater good of mankind, well any one who reads this anyway, I’ve decided to delve into and philosophise slightly on carbohydrate over the coming posts. Hence the technical term below.

hy·poth·e·sis

1. a proposition, or set of propositions, set forth as an explanation for the occurrence of some specified group of phenomena, either asserted merely as a provisional conjecture to guide investigation (working hypothesis)  or accepted as highly probable in the light of established facts.

Perception

Every day we get bombarded with some form of advertising. You can’t even go in a public toilet these days with out a sales pitch staring straight back at you, with many many claims about that particular product/service. But the one thing I’ve quickly learned is that marketing is perception. Once ones mind is made up, regardless of the quality of the product, it is perceived a certain way, and it takes a lot of convincing to change this. It’s clear to see many companies play on this big time. Continue reading →

By Tania Flack

What is Insulin Resistance?

Many factors contribute to insulin resistance (IR) including poor diet and stress. It develops over time as the body gradually looses the ability to control blood sugar levels effectively. Muscle, fat and liver cells slowly become less sensitive to insulin which is used to transport glucose into the cells for energy. When a person becomes insulin resistant the body produces more and more insulin in an attempt to compensate for the cells lack of response.

Insulin is produced in the pancreas. The pancreas can eventually lose the ability to keep up with the body’s ever increasing demand for more insulin (as the cells become less sensitive to it), when this happens it marks the transition from insulin resistance to type 2 diabetes. Continue reading →