Health

Seeing as better nutrition and improvements in medicine mean that we’re probably eventually going to live for longer, it’s good to know that we’re going to feel happier as we grow older. According to reports presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in August 2009, adults in their eighties are generally more […]

Plant sterols (also known as phytosterols) are natural substances that can help lower your cholesterol. They exist in wood pulp and leaves, but are also found naturally in certain foods such as vegetable oil, nuts, legumes, corn, fruit and vegetables. You can obtain higher levels through enriched margarine spreads. How do they work? When consumed, […]

Starting your day with a good breakfast is one of the best health decisions you can make. Breakfast literally means “breaking your overnight fast”. Remember it could be at least 10 hours since your last meal, so it is important to refuel your body ready for another day. Enjoying breakfast can help lift your mood […]

Next to checking e-mail and chatting to friends, the third main reason Australians use the Internet is to find information on health-related topics like diseases, treatments, nutrition, stress management, and drugs. However, health websites can contain information that is, at best, biased towards the sponsoring manufacturer’s products and, at worst, downright dangerous. Here are 10 […]

Forget hours in the gym or trying to find the time to squeeze in an hour-long yoga session, the new Sudoku diet promises to keep you slim and trim without having to leave your chair. But is it all it’s cracked up to be? Research has now found that the time spent doing a difficult […]

With longer working hours, increasingly busy lives and plenty of “eating out” options it’s no wonder we are eating out more often. At times it can seem difficult to make healthy choices when you eat away from home, particularly when you are trying to reduce your weight. When deciding on what sandwich to have, it […]

We’ve spoken with some inspirational breast cancer survivors about their journeys. Plus don’t miss ‘Five things every woman should know about breast cancer’ below. Tanya Downes felt the lump, as she was playing on the floor with her two young kids one Sunday morning in December 2007. “I really thought it was nothing,” she says. […]

Remember being told those things by your mother or teacher? Well, according to new research from the US, they were doing more than just looking out for your back. Psychologists suggest that maintaining an upright posture can make us think more confidently. Researchers at Ohio State University conducted an experiment asking subjects to either sit […]

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 […]

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 […]