By Jackie Brygel She may have been the first of the top 12 to be eliminated from Australian Idol, but talented 18-year-old singer Ashleigh Toole promises we certainly haven’t seen the last of her. How are you feeling? You must be more than a little disappointed. Yes, I definitely am very upset, but these things […]

An impish black kitten called Cleo holds the key to happiness for a family, in this exclusive extract from a story by Helen Brown. Download your exclusive extract from Cleo: How An Uppity Cat Helped Heal A Family by Helen Brown here.

Download your exclusive extract from Pearl In A Cage by Joy Dettman here. About the author: “What we remember from childhood we remember forever – permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen,” observed prominent American short story writer and novelist Cynthia Ozick. Glimpses of the landscape of Joy Dettman’s early years reveal how her permanent […]

Do you always feel hungry, or do you feel as if you’re always eating? Hunger is a complex feeling which can be easily influenced by many factors. Read on for practical tips to help you curb your appetite without starving. Understanding when we are truly hungry is important not only if we want to lose […]

Once upon a time, it was only the famous and very rich who enlisted the help of personal trainers to help keep them in shape. But these days, personal trainers are popular with a wide variety of people. “Personal trainers are now very accessible and are considered to be effective,” says Lauretta Stace, Chief Executive […]

A sweet tooth can be harder to tame than a nicotine addiction, says Pamela Allardice. Here’s what you can do about it. The average Australian eats over 27 kilograms of sugar a year; and that’s without counting added sugar, courtesy of sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup, which is found in many processed foods. This avalanche […]

In some countries they’re banned. In Australia, our federal government is advocating the reduction of them in our food supply. So what are trans fats? And why do we need to avoid them? Trans fats are formed when an unsaturated fat (a good type of fat) undergoes a process called hydrogenation. This changes it from […]

Love your heart. It seems a spoonful of strawberries makes the cholesterol go down. According to a new study published in Metabolism, eating strawberries daily caused a significant reduction in LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol. Even better, the participants’ LDL levels were less prone to oxidation, the chemical process that really damages your heart and arteries. Another […]

Sweet… Dark chocolate can help you eat less by curbing your cravings for sugary, fatty, or salty foods, say researchers from the University of Copenhagen. Their study set out to find whether eating milk or dark chocolate had any effect on hunger levels and on the amount of food eaten. Sixteen men were enrolled in […]

More than half of the nation is not healthy, with 54 percent weighing in at an overweight or obese level, but one in six obese Australians believe their weight is in the healthy weight range, a new study had found. Researchers commissioned by the Heart Foundation and insurer Zurich interviewed 1200 respondents aged 20 and […]