Health Hub

Having a Dry July has great health benefits. We've brought together a collection of articles that could help you with your Dry July.


Managing Sugar Cravings

By Peter Rule on

We all seek the taste of sweet foods naturally in our diet, however it can be easy to crave excess high sugar foods for many varied reasons.

We have 5 basic recognised tastes – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (savoury) however we can become imbalanced in our food choices due to stress, low energy, eating on the run, looking for psychological reward or treat or nutritional deficiencies, just to name a few.


We have 5 basic recognised tastes – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (savoury) however we can become imbalanced in our food choices due to stress, low energy, eating on the run, looking for psychological reward or treat or nutritional deficiencies, just to name a few.


When assessing a person’s current eating plan, it is not uncommon to discover the following habits which can cause imbalances and sugar cravings to occur:

  • Missing breakfast
  • Added sugar in breakfast cereals
  • Lack of protein and/or excessive complex carbohydrates during meals
  • Dependence on alcohol, consuming 1-3 units per night
  • Coffee and tea with sugar or chocolate (45-50% refined sugar) mid-afternoon or after dinner

If some (or all!) of these eating practices sound like yours, keep reading for 10 tips to help regain your balance.

Top 10 healthy tips to manage sugar cravings

  1. Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner more slowly, with small healthy snacks in between if hungry
  2. For breakfast, enjoy protein rich foods such as eggs, yogurt, chia seeds or muesli with nuts 
  3. For lunch and dinner, fill your plate with healthy foods, low in carbohydrates (vegetables and salads) along with a palm sized portion of lean protein (fish, chicken, lean meat, eggs, tempeh or legumes
  4. Before reaching for chocolate when you need a pick me up snack, try a small handful of raw nuts and seeds with a few raisins for sweetness, hummus with veggie sticks or a small tub of yogurt
  5. Eat a variety of whole real foods with good fibre to increase consumption of nutrients, the feeling of fullness and to improve metabolism
  6. Cravings can sometimes be caused by slight dehydration so make sure to drink plenty of water throughout your day
  7. Add some cinnamon to your cooking or tea. Cinnamon is excellent for insulin efficiency and used for treatment of Diabetes, metabolic syndrome X and insulin resistance
  8. Try Licorice tea, as it has a sweet taste and is an adrenal tonic which is helpful for low energy levels
  9. Eat fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, kefir or probiotic foods which provide beneficial bacteria to the gut and can assist in reducing sugar cravings
  10. If stressed – practice deep abdominal breathing, become mindful of stress related eating habits and distract self with a walk, get out into fresh air, drink water, talk to someone or book a Golden Door Retreat and come and do all of above!


Always speak to your doctor before changing your diet, taking any supplements or undertaking any exercise program. The information on this site is for reference only and is not medical advice and should not be treated as such, and is not intended in any way as a substitute for professional medical advice.


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Eat well to make the most of Dry July

By Anne Finch on

Taking a break from booze is absolutely one of the best things you can do for your health. Not only are you giving your liver (and other organs!) a break, but you can expect these benefits:

  • Better sleep – alcohol might help us fall asleep, but it leads to poorer quality sleep 
  • Less bar snacks – drinking stirs hunger, and can also lead to sub-optimal food choices (I’m looking at you late-night doner kebab)
  • Less hangover remedies – greasy bacon and eggs, sugary drinks and fast food are pretty common on Sunday morning, meaning the effects of your weekend drag on
  • More movement – not being glued to the couch recovering means more opportunities to get out and about

If you’re looking for even more ways to treat your body right, we’ve got...

Read more…

10 Tips for Eating Out

By Olivia Horvat-Benson on

It can sometimes be a bit “too hard basket” to eat out when you’re on a “diet” or a specific health/food plan that limits what you can eat/drink, not to mention socially isolating; But it need not be like this. Firstly you need to remember that if you are on a “diet” or a specific plan, whether you’ve done it yourself or a healthcare practitioner has advised you of it, the intention for it was clearly to maximise optimal health, so it was a choice and when you make a choice you can’t say that you are missing out, because you’re not. All this means is that you’ll need to think outside the box a little from what you would normally opt for.

Here are some tips to help you.

1) Read the menu thoroughly & ASK questions.

Fancy words and...

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Junk food cravings? We’ve got your back

By Anne Finch on

Cravings are pretty common when we make changes to our diet. It’s a classic response to telling ourselves we can’t have something! Here’s our top tips for dealing with cravings.

1. Investigate your craving 

Cravings can make us uncomfortable, so our instinct is to fulfill them at once. Next time, try taking a minute to think about what you really want. Are you tired and looking for a pick-me-up? Are you genuinely hungry? Or bored? Try and meet the underlying need of the craving, rather than a using a Band-Aid solution. If you’re tired, a brisk walk is invigorating (especially in the cold weather!). If you’re hungry, eat something satisfying rather than junk food that will leave you peckish again in half an hour.

2. Distract...

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