If you have sleeping problems, you’ve probably heard of melatonin.

It’s the hormone your body makes every night to kick start sleep. It’s also marketed as a supplement, to top up your natural melatonin – the idea being, this will give you a better night’s sleep. But taking a hormone is not without risks. Before you consider a melatonin supplement, read on.

Melatonin is activated when it’s dark. Remember, part of your sleep plan is to pull the curtains to make your bedroom really dark. For more information see Healthy Choices Issue No.2 “Are You Getting Enough?” That’s because the darkness signals your body to release melatonin, sometimes called the ‘hormone of darkness’.

Melatonin is released from your pinea…

Athletes need to be able to recover quickly.

Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a professional athlete, you want to perform at your best. Studies indicate that bovine colostrum supports many processes in the body and may offer a solution to natural support for healthy physical performance.

For all sports people strength, speed, endurance, motivation and determination are essential elements to success. Those performing at competition level regularly push the boundaries of their body and mind; they need to be able to recover quickly from intense training, physical injury and prevent illness.

A good diet along with key supplements play an important part in the o…

A healthy brain depends on the right nutrition.

The brain is vastly complex and made up of an estimated 10 billion interconnected neurons which, together with the spinal cord, control every function in the body - from breathing, to learning and memory, to walking.

Signals from the brain to the body are carried along nerve fibres to neurons. As we age, this system can degenerate. But research shows a healthy diet and lifestyle can help us stay sharp.

Healthy brain – Good nutrition

A he…

With so many diets and weight loss programmes on offer, how do you know which one to choose?

A ketogenic diet switches the body from burning glucose to burning fat, ensuring muscle mass and metabolic rate are maintained.

Obviously there are personal preferences to take into consideration, for example, some people are happy to live on one meal a day with two liquid ‘shakes’ making up their other meals. Other people like to actually eat food at each meal. Then there are nutritional and health considerations, for example, some diets have extremely low calories or are based on eating one single food, like the Grapefruit Diet which are not nutritionally sound and may even be detrimental for people with fragile health.

For nearly 2.5 million years man lived in the Paleolithic era and ate a Paleolithic diet.

This diet was full of vegetables and meat with seasonal berries, seeds and nuts. The start of the agricultural age (approximately 10,000 years ago) saw grains being planted and cultivated. The consumption of carbohydrates rose very slowly until the start of the industrial revolution 250 years ago. The industrial revolution enabled crops to be planted and processed on a large scale and food manufacturing became big business, producing lots of processed food and consumable products.

We started getting fatter. The schematic below highlights the number of generations adapted to eating within each of the ages. Unfortunately the extremely fast change in the types of food and food-like prod…

Food additives such as artificial preservatives, colours, flavours and sweeteners have been found to affect children’s wellbeing.

Childhood is a happy, carefree time but not all children are full of joy – some suffer from changeable moods, spells of high and low energy and are easily distracted.
This picture – a challenge to parents – can affect children of any age but commonly takes hold at around 3 years of age. Boys are more frequently affected than girls.

Here are some steps you can take towards your child’s happiness:

A healthy diet

Make sure your child is eating plenty of fresh frui…