Blog | Ideal Nutrition

15Jan 2017 by Aidan Muir

Should You Listen to a Celebrity’s Nutritional Advice?

This is a point that strikes a note with me personally. Dietitians and nutritionists dedicate their lives to becoming experts in nutrition; often in one specific field of nutrition. Yet for some reason, celebrities are the go-to source for diets involving weight-loss, muscle gain or any other result. Every time you walk past a magazine aisle you see a title like “How I lost 10kg” with a picture of a famous celebrity. For some strange reason, people seem to intensely study the miraculous secret that these individuals appear to have discovered. Then they go and tell their friends about this celebrity’s diet and it spreads like wildfire. The reason this issue gets to me, is because it is completely based on anecdotal evidence with a sample size of n=1.…

05Jan 2017 by Aidan Muir

Should You Take Vitamin D Supplements to Reduce Your Risk of Fractures?

Health

To follow up on my previous post on calcium supplementation, this post will be on the effect that vitamin D supplementation has on fractures risk. The majority of our vitamin D comes from the sun and a small amount comes from our diet. Surprisingly, even though Australia is known for its sunny weather, approximately one third of Australians are deficient in vitamin D. With the knowledge that vitamin D increases the effect of calcium, it is common sense to assume that it would reduce the risk of fractures. To make the assumption even stronger, vitamin D supplementation also leads to an increase in bone mineral density. Although in theory vitamin D supplementation should reduce fractures risk, after going through every study in the past 20 years on the subject,…

02Jan 2017 by Alana Willis

2 Tips to Banish Acne with Your Diet

Other

Anyone who has acne can appreciate how difficult it can be to get rid of. Many people, like myself have tried a variety of ointments and skin cleansers with minimal improvements. One largely overlooked strategy to help clear up acne is to focus on diet. To understand the effect of diet on acne, it is important to understand what acne is. Acne is a skin condition, characterised by the inflammation of the sebaceous glands (the small glands in the skin which secrete oil into the hair follicles) which causes the glands to become clogged with dead skin and excess oil. The severity of Acne differs between each individual, most commonly appearing as pimples, black heads and white heads on the face, neck and back. Follow the following three steps…

18Dec 2016 by Aidan Muir

Do Calcium Supplements Reduce the Risk of Fractures?

Health

While I was contemplating what I could write for my first blog post, I was trying to think what I could offer that nobody else in the nutrition world was already providing. The conclusion that I came to was the findings of my systematic review that I did in my final year at university, on the topic of whether calcium and vitamin D supplements reduce the risk of fractures in people 50+ years old. I never published the results and I chose this subject because there had been no clear answer in the research, so I figured that it’s something that I could share that nobody else could. The body of research has had results suggesting that calcium supplementation reduces the risk of fractures and other results showing that it does…

18Dec 2016 by Alana Willis

Should I Go Gluten Free?

GI Disorders, Health

With so many gluten free products hitting the shelves, you may start to wonder whether going gluten free will help enhance your health. However, before you go cold turkey on gluten, are there actually any general health benefits to following a gluten free diet? Keep reading to find out exactly what gluten is and why going gluten free may benefit some people but not others. What is gluten anyway? Gluten is a mixture of two proteins, glutenin and gliadin, naturally found in grains such as wheat, rye and barley. Gluten is also artificially added to many processed foods such as gravy and candy bars. Gluten plays an important role in maintaining a foods shape and structure. For instance, gluten is added to gravy to ensure it is thick and…

18Dec 2016 by Cassandra Bendall

The Survival Guide for Honours: Tips and Tricks

Other

Have you thought about doing Honours? Whether you are a nutrition student or a dietitian, the option to do Honours in Nutrition is available to anyone who has done undergraduate or post-graduate studies in this field. I completed my Honours year in 2016 at La Trobe University and I ended the year with First Class Honours. My thesis was titled, ‘The Effect of the Mediterranean Diet on Visceral Fat in Australian Patients Post-Cardiac Event’, we aimed to explore whether the Mediterranean diet could reduce visceral fat at 3-months and whether this effect was sustained or larger at 6 months in a non-Mediterranean population group. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the AusMed research team, which is led by Professor. Catherine Itsiopoulos, A/Prof Audrey Tierney, A/Prof Mike Kingsley…

15Dec 2016 by Cassandra Bendall

High Healthy Fats Diet Effect on Weight

Body Composition, Health

In the past, high fat diets have been slammed for their ability to increase weight and effect our overall health. Although, diets which are high in fat are often high in saturated fats and trans fats, which have been continually linked to obesity and cardiovascular disease. But what about a diet which is high in healthy fats such polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) and monounsaturated fats (MUFAs)? More recent systematic reviews have highlighted the ability of high healthy fat dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean diet, to support modest weight loss in centrally obese individuals. In addition to this, the Mediterranean diet has also been shown to reduce waist circumference among a Mediterranean population group, as well as also reporting significant declines in body weight after a 5-year follow up period.…

12Dec 2016 by Alana Willis

5 Nutrition Hacks to Ensure Optimal Progress in the Gym

Body Composition

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that getting that muscular, toned body is 80% nutrition and only 20% training, or that abs are made in the kitchen. A proper diet is vital to ensuring that you see optimal progress at the gym. Without adequate nutrition, not only does your body lack the fuel it needs to push through a tough workout, it is unable to effectively recover and grow after each session. This article will outline 5 nutrition hacks to ensure that you are getting the full benefits out of each session. 1) Ensure you are eating enough kilojoules Consuming the correct amount of kilojoules per day is vital to ensuring you are seeing progress at the gym. Consuming too many kilojoules can cause your body to put on weight…

11Dec 2016 by Aidan Muir

Introducing the Ideal Nutrition Blog

News

Ideal Nutrition is a dietetics private practice currently offering dietetic and nutritional services at Xceler8 24hr Fitness in Wagga Wagga. With only one dietitian initially (myself), the practice caters for all goals that can be achieved through nutrition. While Ideal Nutrition is set up so that it can cater for all goals and conditions, my specialties are weight-loss, diabetes and sports nutrition. The goal of the business is to help as many people as possible through improving their nutrition. A key part of achieving this goal is this blog. The Ideal Nutrition blog is an attempt at providing people with an engaging place to increase their knowledge of evidence based nutrition. As well as being a place for people to learn about nutrition, this blog will also feature healthy recipes…

04Dec 2016 by Cassandra Bendall

What Is a Mediterranean Diet and What Are the Benefits?

Health

What is a Mediteranen Diet? The Mediterranean diet is a way of eating based on traditional foods and drinks of the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The archetypal traditional ‘Cretan’ Mediterranean diet was first established three decades ago as a cardio-protective diet in the Seven Countries Study. Keys and co-workers found that residents in Crete in Greece had the lowest mortality from heart disease and this was positively associated with their dietary pattern. This traditional dietary pattern is characterized by an abundance of plant-based foods such as leafy green vegetables, tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs, whole grain cereals, nuts and seeds, olive oil used as the main added dietary fat, moderate amounts of low-fat dairy products, fish and seafood, smaller quantities of red meat and red wine to be consumed in…

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