JulieBhosaleAchive

My boys live outdoors. They live in the ocean, the bush, the trees, even just our little back garden. We have not yet taken them to the snowy mountains but no doubt that will also become part of their playground when they are older. It really saddens me to think however that the great outdoors they love so much could no longer be a safe, clean playground for them due to the waste crisis we are facing and our reliance on single use plastics. The thing is while recycling is important it is not enough to stem our plastic output. Every single bit of plastic ever made still exists - while it might break up it does not completely break down. Plastic-Free July is a initiative was started in 2011 in Western Australia and is now an a fully independent not-for-profit foundation. The challenge of Plastic-Free July is to refuse single use plastic for one month. This includes straws, coffee cup lids, plastic packaging - anything that is intended to only be used once and then discarded. I have no do...

It is fair to say I am still in the novice category when it comes to school lunches....our eldest son has just started back but as he turned five towards the end of last year he has been going less than two months. I am well aware of the long stretch of school lunches that lies before me. Already I am not a huge fan....I actually believe that we need to bring back in provided lunches at school BUT that is a blog for another time. What I will openly confess is that no my child does not have 'perfect' school lunches. Getting vegetables in to him at a lunch box is pretty difficult so it is far to say I am always on the look out for creative ways in which to do this! I was very excited to come across these Vitality Wraps (and the amazing Kathryn who makes them) at a business networking event! These genuis wraps are made from actual vegetables!!! In fact check out this impressive ingredients list: To have a wraps made from 63% carrots, 25% linseeds and 10% avocado oil with just a da...

Back by popular demand I have one of my popular product review blogs – this time on crackers! Crackers to tend to be quite a stable food purchase for many families. Little ones like them as they are easy finger food and can be transported without a lot of damage. Crackers are traditionally made from flour. Something you may not know is the holes in crackers are called "docking" holes. The holes are placed in the dough to stop overly large air pockets from forming in the cracker while baking. Oatcakes (as they are made majority from oats) do not need to have these holes. I have strictly reviewed pre-packaged crackers/flat breads/oatcakes on the marker rather than homemade recipes. If you can make your own crackers at home they will typically come up more nutritionally sound than something that needs to be preserved and keep stable on a shelf. Personally, this is something I very rarely have time to do unless I am doing a baking session with the boys - which is more for their l...

Knowing how to correctly store and look after food products can give you a lot of confidence to buy it and use it! Coconut oil will change its state from solid to liquid in different temperatures and how to correctly store it is something I commonly get asked about. My home country New Zealand is typically quite cool, temperature wise, for most of the year with the exception of a couple of months in summer...though this summer is shaping up to be one of the hottest in many years. As a result I am so used to working with coconut oil in solid form, however in it’s natural state in the islands it is always liquid. You may sometimes find it in an almost jelly-like state, somewhere between a liquid and a solid If you check out some of the internet forums on coconut oil and you will see quite a divide on this = some have never seen it solid and some have never seen it liquid. Below are some good guidelines on the storage of coconut oil especially in the warmer months. Shelf Life The great ne...

The rich flavour of tomatoes, high liquid content and soft flesh make them great for turning into a sauce. You would be hard pressed to not find many households with some version of tomato sauce and kids really love it - in fact in terms of per capital consumption it is the leading processed vegetable! For the record too botanically speaking the tomato is termed a fruit due to it plant parts (but it is customarily used as a vegetable). With the increased awareness of the amount of sugar in processed foods however tomato sauce has come into the spotlight. Many of the traditional varieties contain significant amounts of sugar - in some cases it is the first ingredient listed not tomatoes (ekkkk). I have found some supermarket brands contain up to 40% sugar which is unbelievably high and certainly does not help the development of positive food habits especially for our little ones. To give you a little bit more background on how tomato sauce is made - the majority of packaged tomato sauce...

Our first baby turning five was a really big milestone and special day for us. I have always tried to hold parties for the boys but in true working mum reality there have been some times that it has just been too hard (cue end of doctoral thesis and also book publishing deadline as examples). While we are still very much in a busy period (is life ever not busy?!) we did plan ahead for this time as some things need to be booked well in advance AND I just did not try to do everything and have everything perfect. Holding a party at home is just a no-go especially as the boys are bigger, cleaning the house top to bottom is actually mission impossible AND space wise if it rains would be a bit of a nightmare. So we booked a local community at a local park which meant if it rained (which it did!) so the stress-factor was zero. One other planning tip that I found helpful was we had an afternoon party. I had not done this before but it meant that I had time in the morning for preparation which ...

Coconut oil is one of the most contentious foods of 2017- in one breath it is hailed as a miracle cure-all food and the next minute there are reports saying it will us serious harm (largely thanks to an article released in June from the American Heart Association). Maybe it is the researcher in me, always looking for a critical view at both sides of the coin but with few exceptions, I would rarely call a food ‘good’ or 'bad'. This puts a moral connotation on it which stops our ability to assess just what the food is giving us – recently this has very much happened to coconut oil. So let’s unpack the science a bit looking at just what it is coconut oil and what does it provide us. What is Coconut Oil? Coconut oil, or copra oil, is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of mature coconuts harvested from the coconut palm. The oil is extracted using both dry and wet harvesting. What is the Structure of Coconut Oil? Coconut oil is 99.7% fat, and is made up mostly of saturat...

Constipation is very common in babies and toddlers. It is actually one of the primary concerns that parents will go to see a general practitioner or pediatrician about. It is most common in babies around the time of starting solids and for toddlers going through toilet training. For babies, the change in dietary intake can result in changes in bowel motions, which is why I do have a section on this in The Nourished Baby . The process of the gut maturing (which takes two years) can mean that children experience potentially a bit of constipation (and also loose bowel motions) from time to time - our Smushie would go through stages of functional-constipation - and might need a bit of extra help with this and/or potentially they may be having some foods which are causing a little bit of a blockage to occur. In toddlers it is a little bit more complex as dietary changes are a harder (cue toddler-brain) and it can often coincide with toilet training. By toddler-stage children can overrule th...

The humble egg has been subjected to quite a wide variety of opinions when it comes to introducing it to your baby. It is also classified as a 'high allergenic food', being one of the top eight food allergens. Nutritionally, the egg is packed full of important nutrients. It is a complete protein (containing all eight essential amino acids) plus it contains both saturated fat (approximately 1g) as well as unsaturated fat, including your omegas. Eggs have a significant number of vitamins and minerals including selenium, folate, iron, calcium Vitamins A, E, D, B5, B12 and more! When you look at how much goodness eggs can provide to our babies, it is a food we do want to introduce especially in the sensitive period the first year offers for developing food preferences. However, I know it can be quite daunting when there is such conflicting information and worry considering eggs are a top allergen. So below I answer some of the top questions and de-bunk the major myths on introducin...

Reading baby food labels - this is a topic I am hugely passionate about as many of you know! I am really frustrated at the current state of pre-packaged baby food and even more frustrated that we have major health care providers advocating the such food is nutritionally sound for our babies! So for or my brand new book - The Nourished Baby - I conducted my own research and looked at all the baby food products on the market here in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. I spoke on the AM Show on about this (though could have talked for a lot longer!). The major concern for me was finding that 15% - yes 15% of all products (in all three countries) contained ADDED sugar - this means ingredients like sugar cane and juice have been added into the baby food - marketed at baby food for as young as four months old. This is wrong on so many levels. I also found that a huge percentage - over 50% of the products contained fruit. I go into a lot more detail in The Nourished Baby about fruit and why...

Windy babies is a very common concern for new parents. Wind is the the air in your baby's tummy. During feeding your baby may swallow a lot of air along with her milk when they feeds as well as potentially gulping in air when they cry. While all babies can get wind, some will experience this more than others. Your babies gut is very delicate especially in the early new born days as it is very immature. While the organs of the digestive system are fully formed the upper and lower intestine which make up your babies gut take some time to mature - in terms of the bacteria that gets laid down as well as the enzymes that get processed. It is this process that can take longer for some babies. Some babies may also experience reflux - the technical terms for this is Gastroesophageal Reflux There is a valve at the top of the stomach that keeps food from going back up into the esophagus. If that valve is not fully developed, or opens at the wrong time, the stomach contents can move back, or ...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog 'The Healthiest Yoghurt' and it got a massive response. To be honest there were so many different yoghurt varieties in the supermarket in order to do the kids options justice I needed to write an entire blog just on this! If you have not yet read that blog I would highly recommend you do as it will provide some context around this comparison. What I was really looking for in the yoghurt options for children was the sugar content. Children do not need any added sugar in their products - none! Keep in mind these kids yoghurts are what some babies will first taste, what infants and toddlers be given - all during the most important period of time for developing food preferences and tastes. If a baby is given yoghurt with added sugar there is very little chance that they will then have unsweetened yoghurt later on. If a toddler has had sweetened yoghurt for the best part of three years that is habit, a taste preference which is going to be chall...