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Welcome to The Weekly Motivation by Steph Polson, your go-to podcast for quick bursts of inspiration, accountability, and support. Every week, I’ll share practical tips, uplifting messages, and the encouragement you need to go beyond your goals. It’s about more than just achieving a goal—it's about the ongoing journey, building emotional resilience, and staying accountable along the way."

In this short episode of Change Your Mindset, Beat the Sick: What to Do When You Feel It Coming, you’ll discover my #1 mindset and action to help beat sickness before it takes hold. If you’re starting to feel under the weather, learn one key tip to support your immune system and prevent a cold or flu from taking over. Tune in for actionable advice to stay healthy and strong, no matter what season it is.

The Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council’s Whole Grain Week is here! We’re bringing you Karlu Chu, The Healthy Grain CEO to take us on the journey of BARLEYMAX® and show us why this whole grain really is a superfood.

We cover:

• About Karlu Chu, CEO
• BARLEYMAX® cultivated by CSIRO
• What is BARLEYMAX®?
• BARLEYMAX® growers
• Use of BARLEYMAX® in food products
• The scientific evidence of BARLEYMAX® and gut health
• Elevate Food Co
• Collaboration in the journey of BARLEYMAX®
• Global Health Trends

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“BARLEYMAX® is a whole grain which has more than 30% fibre and 16% plant protein and also 4 types of prebiotics including fructans, arabinoxylans, beta-glucans and also resistant starch.”

“We are bringing to the consumers here a more complete set of products which are 100% BARLEYMAX®. So consumers can get their BARLEYMAX® in bread, in cereals or as a snack or salad topper.”

The Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council’s Whole Grain Week is here! We’re bringing you Jessica Ferguson, the Weet-Bix™ Dietitian to answer your top questions about Weet-Bix™.

We cover:

• What are Weet-Bix™ made of?
• What does 100% wholegrains mean?
• How many wholegrains in Weet-Bix™?
• Why you should eat wholegrains
• How many wholegrains to aim for each day
• Nutrition & health benefits of Weet-Bix™
• Dietitian’s top ways to eat Weet-Bix™

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“We can look at what Aussie’s are purchasing and when we look at the most recent data we see that only 1/3 of the recommended daily serves of grains and cereals foods were actually those that were whole grain or high in fibre. This is quite low and a steady decline from the previous 3-4 years.”

“Weet-Bix can be that vehicle to top with your favourite chopped fruit, milk of choice, low fat yoghurt, sprinkle of nuts and seeds and you pretty quickly have a well-rounded brekkie.”

The Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council’s Whole Grain Week is coming soon (next week!). We’re bringing you Elissa Price, PhD Candidate at the University of New South Wales to discuss her research findings on ultra-processed foods (UPF) and whole grains.

We cover:

• What is food processing?
• Why are foods processed? Is it always bad?
• What is an UPF?
• The latest evidence on UPFs and health
• Regardless of how whole grains are processed, what does the research tell us about whole grains and health?
• Can UPFs be part of a healthy diet?
• Elissa’s three key takeaways on UPFs and whole grains

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“They categorise foods based on the level of processing and that UPF is that more extreme group of processing. They define an UPF based on the nature, extent and purpose of the food processing and are identified foods that have gone through more extensive processing.”

“Higher ultra-processed food intake and worse health outcomes. Some of those being obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, irritable bowel syndrome, depression and all-cause mortality. There is a lot of research happening in this space and a lot of links being made.”


References

Whole-grain health benefits

Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet, 2019. 393(10184): p. 1958-1972.

UPF health associations

Taneri, P.E., et al., Association Between Ultra-Processed Food İntake and All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Am J Epidemiol, 2022.

Martínez Steele, E., et al., Dietary share of ultra-processed foods and metabolic syndrome in the US adult population. Preventive Medicine, 2019. 125: p. 40-48.

Lane, M.M., et al., Higher Ultra-Processed Food Consumption Is Associated with Greater High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein Concentration in Adults: Cross-Sectional Results from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study. Nutrients, 2022. 14(16): p. 3309.

Beslay, M., et al., Ultra-processed food intake in association with BMI change and risk of overweight and obesity: A prospective analysis of the French NutriNet-Santé cohort. PLOS Medicine, 2020. 17(8): p. e1003256.

Nova UPF subgroup associations

Mendoza, K., et al., Ultra-processed foods and cardiovascular disease: analysis of three large US prospective cohorts and a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, 2024. 37.

Chen, Z., et al., Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: Three Large Prospective U.S. Cohort Studies. Diabetes Care, 2023. 46(7): p. 1335-1344.

Cordova, R., et al., Consumption of ultra-processed foods and risk of multimorbidity of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases: a multinational cohort study. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.

Nova UPF whole-grain exclusion

Price, E.J., et al., Excluding whole grain-containing foods from the Nova ultraprocessed food category: a cross-sectional analysis of the impact on associations with cardiometabolic risk measures. Am J Clin Nutr, 2024.

Nova and ADG discordance

Nguyen, H., et al., Extent of alignment between the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the NOVA classification system across the Australian packaged food supply. Nutr Diet, 2024.

Join us for a conversation on alternative proteins through the lens of nutrition and health.

We cover:

• What are alternative proteins?
• What are complementary proteins?
• Mainstream media on diet, health and alternative proteins
• Are conventional processed meat products (e.g. sausages, bacon) improving the nutritional profile of their products?
• Food Frontiers position on the ultra-processed foods
• How alternative proteins could be positioned within the Australian Dietary Guidelines

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“We are told constantly through dietary guidelines and information that comes out of health associations that processed meats are very bad for us. And it’s gone to the extreme in some cases - state governments in Australia banning the use in school canteens of some of the processed meats. As by definition they are heavily processed, they have all sorts of processes involved in the production of that product that we now understand are detrimental to health and in some cases carcinogenic. ”

“I think we are going to see the growth of portfolios within government that have a clear focus on food systems because it is going to become essential. We are seeing in Australia the pressure on our food systems that are coming from climate change, particularly areas that have been impacted by food and draught.”

To drink juice or not to drink juice? Tim Cassettari has been researching juice for the past 3 years, so we are in excellent hands as we cover the latest research on juice and health.

We cover:

• Why study juice?
• What do dietary guidelines say about juice?
• The latest research
• Health benefits and health risks of juice
• The effect of juice on satiety & weight, dental health, brain health, gut health
• The optimal amount and type of juice
• What about pulp?
• The different types of juice processing and their effect on health
• Why might 100% juice have health benefits?
• How concerned should we be about sugars?
• What to look for on the label
• Practical considerations of juice
• Bigger picture health & nutrition learnings that can be taken from juice

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“Under extreme conditions juice can lead to worsening to some markers of dental health but we don’t actually have evidence to say that’s the case in normal circumstances.”

“100% juice can also improve markers of cardiovascular health and help to lower markers of chronic inflammation.”

“We now have 19 randomised controlled trials comparing 100% juice to non-calorie beverages, so that could be water, an artificially sweetened beverage. There is not one study that shows any change in body weight with 100% juice. ”

It's Women's Health Week and mental health always matters! Join us as we discuss what the evidence says when it comes to nutrition and depression & anxiety. We also look at a new study that was published in the Lancet comparing lifestyle (diet and exercise) and psychotherapy interventions.

We cover:

• WHO definitions of depression & anxiety
• Rates of depression & anxiety in NZ and Australia
• Mediterranean diet & mental health
• New Lancet study around nutrition & mental health

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“Across Australia and New Zealand, rates of depression and anxiety are ever-increasing.”

“Overall, research shows that diet is important to mental health, the same way it is to physical health. Eating healthier positively impacts mental wellbeing, such as improving depressive symptoms.”

“Over eight weeks they found that those assigned the lifestyle intervention had a 42% reduction in symptoms of depression and a 37% reduction in the psychotherapy program.”

References
https://theconversation.com/food-and-exercise-can-treat-depression-as-well-as-a-psychologist-our-study-found-and-its-cheaper-235952

What exactly is the Mediterranean diet? Easy adjustments you can make now to reap health benefits

It’s Women’s Health Week and Clare Goodwin, the PCOS Nutritionist and founder of Ovie is here to answer your questions on PCOS. We cover it all, including how PCOS affects weight and fertility.

We cover:

• What is PCOS?
• How common in PCOS?
• Does it matter if someone remains undiagnosed?
• Causes of PCOS
• Main symptoms of PCOS
• How PCOS affects weight
• How PCOS affects fertility

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“For years and years women have been treated like hypochondriacs and so a lot of that stems from this women not being taken seriously with pain, especially period pain and being told that this is normal when it is absolutely not. And thinking we need to dull down our symptoms.”

“PCOS isn’t a particularly well named syndrome as a lot of the emphasis gets put on the “cysts” on the ovary which are just follicles and just a symptom of what was going on.”

“We know that insulin and testosterone both cause body fat gain in females. So then we have this weight gain, and with this we get more testosterone and more insulin resistance, and this again causes more weight gain. And so it is this vicious cycle and in our body there is no negative feedback loop for this.”

References

https://www.ovie.io/