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.

Why young people are drinking less – and what older drinkers can learn from them

By Dominic Conroy on

Young people are drinking less than ever before. Some reading this will be able to recall the 1990s – the decade of peak alcohol, when drinking was a key part of life for young people. The decade saw the rise of pub and club culture, public displays of drunkenness by young adults and the arrival of new kinds of alcoholic drinks you could buy (alcopops anyone?).

Flash forward to 2020 and the picture is very different. A range of studies from countries where drinking is a big part of the culture confirms a sharp decline in alcohol consumption among young people. Research in Sweden, for example, shows a decline across all types of consumption, from the heaviest to the lightest drinkers. Similarly, rates of binge drinking have gone down and...

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Strawberry & Basil Fizz

By The Mindful Mocktail on

This combination of strawberry and basil refreshing and healthy, plus it tastes great.

Ingredients

3 strawberries, chopped

4-6 basil leaves (depending on your taste preference)

Juice of half a lime

1 tsp sweetener of choice

Sparkling water or kombucha


Method

- Add strawberries, basil, lime and sweetener (if using) to a glass.

- Muddle together for about 1 minute. If you don’t have a muddler, use a wooden spoon or similar - anything that will ‘smoosh’ all the ingredients together!

- Top with sparkling water or kombucha and stir.

- Add ice and garnish and Enjoy!


For more recipes like this, follow @themindfulmocktail on Instagram


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Watermelon Crush

By The Mindful Mocktail on

Ingredients

  • 1 cup diced watermelon
  • 25 mls lime juice
  • 10 mint leaves
  • Splash of apple cider vinegar, optional

Method

  1. Muddle watermelon, lime and optional apple cider vinegar in a shaker or mason jar until all the juice is released from the watermelon. If you don't have a muddler, use the back end of a wooden spoon.
  2. Clap the mint leaves together in your hands to release the scent and add it to the watermelon mixture. Give the mint a gentle press with the muddler.
  3. Add a few ice cubes, replace the lid and shake well.
  4. Strain into a small ice filled glass.
  5. Garnish with a lime wheel and extra mint.


Note: if you don’t have a cocktail shaker, you can blend the watermelon, lime, apple cider vinegar and mint together, then strain into an ice filled...

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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...

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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...

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Beer before wine and you’ll feel fine? No you won’t says new study

By Kai Hensel on

Plenty of us have been there: waking up after a night out with a thumping headache, feeling sick and swearing never to touch alcohol again. If only there were a way to prevent these terrible hangovers.

It isn’t uncommon for us to mix our drinks, maybe a beer in the pub before moving on to wine. Folk wisdom has something to say about this: “Beer before wine and you’ll feel fine; wine before beer and you’ll feel queer.” This idea is very prevalent and versions of it occur in many languages. In my native country, Germany, for example, we say: “Wein auf Bier, das rat’ ich Dir—Bier auf Wein, das lass’ sein.” This translates as: “Wine on beer, I’ll advise you to drink beer on wine.” 

But it turns out that there is no truth to these...

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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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Cherry Burst

By The Mindful Mocktail on

Ingredients

  • 5 cherries roughly chopped
  • 1 lime, quartered
  • 6-8 mint leaves
  • 1 cup soda water
  • Sweetener of your choice to taste, optional (see notes)

Method

  1. Place chopped cherries and lime in a glass. Add a little sweetener if using. Muddle together for about 1 minute. If you don't have a muddler, use the back end of a wooden spoon. The idea is to get it small enough to fit though a straw.
  2. Clap mint together in your hands a few times to release the scent and add to the glass. Give the mint a gentle press with the muddler.
  3. Add ice and top with soda water.
  4. Garnish with lime wheels, mint and/or extra cherries.


For more recipes like this, follow @themindfulmocktail on Instagram

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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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