Nourish To Thrive Family Nutrition

06/09/2025

Thought for the week 🙂

03/09/2025

Many people see stress as something that just affects how we feel emotionally, but did you know it also has a big impact on our hormone health?

When stress becomes ongoing, it raises our cortisol levels, which can interfere with other hormones like oestrogen, progesterone, thyroid hormones and even insulin. This in turn can affect your energy, mood, cycles and overall wellbeing.

Here are three common signs that stress may be impacting your hormones:

🚩 Irregular or painful cycles
Stress can alter the balance of reproductive hormones, making periods less predictable or more uncomfortable.

🚩 Feeling exhausted, even after rest
High cortisol over time can affect thyroid function and blood sugar regulation, leaving you tired despite sleeping 7-8 hours.

🚩 Mood swings or anxiety that feel out of the blue
Hormones influence brain chemistry. When they are out of balance, emotions can feel unpredictable or harder to manage.

Your body is clever. These signals are not random, they are messages that your body needs more support.

The good news is that small, daily changes can help restore balance. Simple practices like regular breathing exercises, eating balanced meals, gentle movement and prioritising sleep can all reduce the impact of stress on your hormones.

I’ve written a new blog that explores this connection in more depth and offers practical steps you can start using straight away.

👉 Read the full blog post here: https://www.nourishtothrive.com.au/blog-1/the-stress-hormone-connection

01/09/2025

🌟 Nourish To Thrive Quick Tip

28/08/2025

I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve spoken to who have struggled with chronic health conditions for months - or even years - and have been unable to get any real answers (or solutions…) from conventional medicine.

After a while, the painful and debilitating symptoms start to become “normal” for them, but I don’t think it is normal to be in pain, constantly lacking energy or just generally not feeling great on a long-term basis.

My job is to help identify the root cause of each client's health problems and create a treatment plan with solutions tailored to their individual needs.

Clinical nutrition takes a holistic approach to treating a range of common health conditions, including:
• digestive problems (constipation, diarrhoea, bloating, reflux or stomach pain)
• mental health issues (anxiety and depression)
• high cholesterol and hypertension
• weight gain
• headaches and migraines
• hormonal imbalance
• sleep issues
• fatigue
• allergies and intolerances
• blood sugar imbalance
• autoimmune conditions
• thyroid issues
• musculoskeletal conditions (e.g. arthritis, osteoporosis and gout)

If you or your child are struggling in any of these areas – or would just like to feel healthier and happier – get in touch to book a consultation 🙂

26/08/2025

To follow up on the petition I shared last week, here’s a post I wrote a couple of years ago about why I think Australia’s Health Star Rating system is a complete joke.

If you're confused about how the health stars work, you are definitely not alone...

The system was created by the government, in consultation with Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, with the aim of providing "convenient, relevant and readily understood nutritional information and/or guidance on food packs to assist consumers to make informed food purchases and healthier eating choices”.

The creators of the system state that it was designed to compare the nutritional profiles of products within similar categories, however this is not well understood among consumers and the slogan “the more stars, the healthier” leads many consumers to believe that if a product is rated 3.5 stars or above, it is a healthy option.

The health star rating focuses largely on the amount of saturated fat, sugar and salt in a product. These are important factors, however the system doesn’t give any consideration to the processing methods or amount of synthetic ingredients and additives in the product. Given the fact that many people (particularly children) are adversely affected by artificial colours, flavours and preservatives, it seems crazy that additives are not considered when making decisions about the healthiness of foods.

When zero sugar raspberry Fanta is considered healthy (3.5 stars) - despite containing a chemical cocktail of artificial flavours, colours, sweeteners and preservatives - there is something not quite right… 🤔

It seems that dairy products have been treated a little unfairly by the health star system too. Many yoghurts have high ratings but I was surprised to find that Woolworths light sour cream and cream cheese have a rating of 0.5 stars and Woolworths tasty cheese slices are rated 2.5 stars. I understand that cheese and sour cream contain saturated fat but I would rather my kids ate cheese and crackers than a highly processed 3.5 star rated snack food any day!

There is talk of making the system mandatory, but in its current form, that would only make misleading ratings more widespread. It needs a complete overhaul first.

In the meantime, my advice is to ignore the ratings and instead flip the package over and look at the ingredients list. If the product has sugar as one of the first ingredients and/or contains artificial colours, flavours or additives, give it a miss!

21/08/2025

I've signed this petition and I encourage you to sign it too!
The Health Star Rating system in Australia is an absolute joke and needs a massive overhaul.
To find out why I feel so strongly about this, check out my blog post from a couple of years ago 👇
https://www.nourishtothrive.com.au/blog-1/confused-about-the-health-star-rating-system

Sign the petition here 👉 https://www.change.org/p/health-stars-on-ultra-processed-foods-say-no-to-mandating-a-broken-labelling-system/psf/promote_or_share?allow_actions=true&utm_campaign=psf

I’m going to keep this short(ish) because I already did a bit of a ranty post about it this week.

We need help to stop the flawed Health Star Rating System from being made mandatory.

This isn’t about throwing away the system, it’s about fixing it before it becomes mandatory.

We’re standing with one of Australia’s leading paediatric nutritionist from in her quest to have this flawed system undergo a full, independent review and ask that addicted, preservatives and the level of processing be included in the system.

We need to get this to 5,000 signatures in order to present this petition to the Health Minister and show that us mums are serious! Our children’s health is too important.

Please sign the petition - it takes 30 seconds
https://www.change.org/p/health-stars-on-ultra-processed-foods-say-no-to-mandating-a-broken-labelling-system

Thank you.

20/08/2025

Dairy, gluten and a lack of fibre are common causes of constipation, but they’re often not the whole story.

Hydration, the right type of fibre, gentle daily movement, magnesium and even toilet positioning can make a big difference.

In my latest blog, I share what I see working in clinic to support regular bowel movements – without extreme diets or unnecessary food restrictions.

For more long-term or complex cases, food sensitivities, thyroid issues, certain medications and even hormonal shifts in perimenopause and menopause can also play a role.

👉 To find out more, read the blog post (link in comments)