Table of contents for Issue 187 in WellBeing

The COVID-19 origin story Partly due to a scientific study that was, after criticism aplenty, withdrawn before publication, there has been a theory going around that COVID-19 was engineered in a lab. Let’s put that to rest. Viruses produce spike proteins that they use to grab onto and penetrate host cells. The COVID-19 spike protein shows evidence of natural selection, not genetic engineering. Secondly, the backbone, or molecular structure, of COVID-19 is different from known coronaviruses that infect humans. If you were making a virus to infect humanity you would use the backbone of a virus known to cause illness. Lastly, shortly after the epidemic began, Chinese researchers sequenced the genome of COVID-19. DNA sequencing has shown that COVID-19 did likely originate in bats but jumped to humans via the…

Sambucus is a genus of flowering plants with about 30 different species (including an Australian variety), all commonly called elder. Sambucus nigra is the main European variety. Both the flowers and the dark purple berries are used for culinary and medicinal purposes. Elderberries have an extensive history as one of the oldest medicinal herbs recorded. In 400 BCE Hippocrates called the elder tree his “medicine chest”. Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Galen all considered the elder one of nature’s greatest healing plants. Traditionally, elderberries were used to relieve a broad variety of everyday complaints such as toothache, ear and eye problems, wounds, skin burns, colic, worms, dysentery, arthritis, rheumatism, fevers and even epilepsy. Today, there is research indicating a variety of effective uses for this plant. Active ingredients Elderberries are a concentrated…

Please share with us your love for the ocean and surfing Surfing and the ocean have been a huge part of my life from the very beginning. I began surfing the nose of my dad’s surfboard at the age of five and grew up in a family and community of surfers. Most days after school we were on the beach and my father threw me in the deep end, taking me out to the reef breaks off Nusa Lembongan from a young age. My very first job was filming for surfing coach, Martin Dunn. He and my parents supported me to open and operate the Saltwater Surf School while I was in Year 12 and studying psychology at university. Where has surfing taken you? Surfing has taken me around the…

Home should feel like a haven. However, if yours is a place of unease or your life is in a fragile state generally, it’s still possible to cultivate a more emotionally secure and supportive environment, says Anthony Ashworth, a holistic building and vastu feng shui consultant, shaman and teacher. It’s important to note that WellBeing spoke to Ashworth before the COVID-19 outbreak. Change the program A common fear for many at home is crime, with statistics showing it’s particularly prevalent for less powerful groups, such as the elderly, women and ethnic minorities. Fifty-eight per cent of Australians surveyed by Roy Morgan in 2017 felt crime was a growing problem in their community. In reality, data shows crime has dropped. Constant news and social media on our devices feed such fears,…

Have you felt those earthshattering, spirit-crushing days of heartbreak? No matter who you are, where you’re from, it’s an inescapable reality of the human condition … heartbreak. There’s a reason why they call it that, right? Physically and emotionally you feel it directly in the heart and lungs. Sometimes it feels like an elephant is sitting on your chest and you become short of breath. Some people develop a form of heart disease which mimics the symptoms of a heart attack, aptly named “broken heart syndrome” (a disease experienced predominantly by women). Jade Clark, Chinese medicine physician from the White Owl Clinic says from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective we also feel heartbreak in these physical and energetic places. “Lung energy deals with the grief that comes from a…

Do you sit for prolonged periods? Sitting at my computer, after 30 minutes I feel tension in my eyes, jaw, neck, shoulders, arms, fingers, back and hips and a numb feeling in my lower limbs. If I’m not mindful, my old mates migraine and sciatica could revisit. Being sedentary for prolonged periods contributes to both physical and psychological issues. Stagnant circulation, constant compression, sustained tension and lax or imbalanced musculoskeletal strain lead to pain and problems. To curtail and counter this I close my eyes, breathe deeply, stretch and shift to a fit ball, standing desk or a kneeling position. Mini sessions of exercise refresh my body and mind. Blood rushes back, joints realign and muscles stretch. How much do you move? Our increasingly sedentary society has screen time stealing…

If the first thing you do in the morning is check your phone or switch on the television, then you’ve no doubt been waking up to a barrage of cataclysmic news: bushfires tearing through drought-stricken land, half a billion animals incinerated, images of windswept, desolate paddocks and desperate farmers, drinking water shortages, flash floods and dust storms, scorching temperatures and rising oceans. The stories are all too familiar; indeed, it’s been a difficult couple of years to hide from climate change. To read the news is to be filled with existential dread. Will the town you live in be ravaged by bushfires? Will your children spend another summer inhaling hazardous-quality air? Should you have children at all? This sort of daily uncertainty about the very safety of your future has…

It would be hard to recall a worse summer than the summer of 2019–20: whole swathes of the country choked in noxious smoke, a tourism season turned desolate and image after image of fires ripping through land, homes and wildlife with ruthless efficiency. While city dwellers cancelled summer road trips and piled outside to the sound of tripping office fire alarms, while they ushered their children indoors to escape the hazardous air quality, rural communities on the front line of the fires lost everything: their homes and spaces, their wildlife, their livelihoods, their safety and peace of mind. The fires arrived after unprecedented back-to-back droughts, which themselves had plagued rural towns and villages for years, resulting in crop failures, ravaging ecosystems, laying waste to farms and cutting water supplies completely.…

Planetary magic has become increasingly popular as more and more people learn about practitioners from the medieval and earlier periods, who were both astrologers and magicians. Historical texts like The Picatrix have been translated into English and are more widely accessible. The Picatrix is not a book for the faint-hearted, but for those already well versed in astrology and magic it can be an insightful tool for enhancing your life through planetary magic. Ancient astrologers honoured the seven visible planets. Each planet is associated with unique topics and experiences in life. Two common areas in life that I get asked about a lot — and that you might be interested in too — are finances and abundance, as well as relationships. These topics are linked to the two helpful planets,…

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ, PENGUIN From cars designed around the body of a “Reference Man” to speech recognition software trained on recordings of male voices, this book uses data to expose a male-biased world. Campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez has put together an exhaustive dossier on databased gender inequality, arguing that the lack of “big data” on women renders half of the world’s population invisible. Perez demands urgent action through a powerful force: facts and figures. Invisibility takes many forms, both subtle and ubiquitous, but what is odd about women’s invisibility, Perez argues, is that women are not a minority, yet they live in a society built around men. This is a man’s world, we learn, because those who…

EMA TAYLOR is a naturopath, clinical nutritionist and certified fertility awareness educator. For more, visit emataylor.com or @ emataylornaturopathy on Instagram. “The goal is to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) regularly so that the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) is not your dominant state.” We live in a busy and fast-paced world and are juggling far more day-to-day than ever before. Over time, the perception of pressure, high stress and an ever-growing workload can take a big toll on your nervous system and in turn your entire body, manifesting as fatigue, lowered immunity, poor sleep, irritability, weight gain, digestive dysfunctions, hormonal imbalances and premature ageing. Supporting your nervous system is therefore fundamental for vibrant health, happiness and longevity. Stress triggers the sympathetic nervous system (also known as…

To save the world, we could plant trees. Trees can absorb the CO2 and the pollutants from air and soil, and cool the world with dappled leaves. Their susurration, that gentle sound of rustling leaves, calms us, soothes us and gives us joy. More trees mean food for wildlife, home for wildlife large and microscopic. They give the best of foods, from the almonds I have for breakfast to the avocados for lunch and the apples and oranges I eat during the day. And no, I don’t think the people of the world are going to plant enough, not even to counteract all the trees being chopped down or poisoned. As a gift to the earth, to us and to future generations, please plant trees. I’ve just planted eight trees.…

DR MICHAEL ELSTEIN is a Sydney-based anti-ageing physician and writer. He is the author of three books including his latest, The Wellness Guide to Preventing the Diseases of Ageing. He has also designed the app The Diet Guide to Ageing Prevention. “Even when you aren’t fasting, these mental and physical advantages are preserved and enjoyed.” Men are insatiably competitive, and by men I mean me. As I no longer engage in competitive sports I figure that ageing is the last frontier where I can assert my pre-eminence over any other man who dares to claim that he knows more than me about cocking a snoot at the powerful forces that suck the juices out of our ebbing hormones as the passing years race relentlessly into decades of endless physical and mental…

I had been working for a university for nine years. I had a manageable mortgage on my shoulders and plenty of good friends, and I came from a tight Italian-Australian family where your “business” is always going to be their “business”. Caring about what people think has been hardwired into my brain from birth. I was 37 and lonely. I’ve never been thick-skinned enough for dating apps — I knew I was so easily replaceable by another woman one swipe away. And it appeared the men I met were single for a reason. Most of my friends were married or in couples and had started having kids. This meant that my social circle of people to go out with was getting smaller and smaller. As much as I love a…

It’s time to get real about our society. In the spirit of being real, let’s acknowledge that I am writing this at least six to eight weeks before you are reading it, so the COVID-19 landscape may have changed somewhat in that interval. This, however, is an editorial that can’t be written without acknowledging COVID as surely the most significant and transformative event of the last century. It is not the death toll or job loss that are COVID’s major legacy, although the importance of the human loss and the suffering cannot be overstated. Even beyond the sadness and grief it has caused, what COVID has glaringly laid bare is the reality of the world that we have built. As the virus has sliced its way across the globe, it…

Words of support In uncertain times, emotional support from others is very important. However, how much comfort your words offer friends and family depends on the words you choose. In a new study of almost 500 adults, researchers found that social support does alleviate emotional distress, but how that support is delivered matters. If a person is feeling distress telling them what to feel with phrases like “Don’t worry about it” or “Just forget about it” won’t help. Instead, what distressed people need is for you to encourage them to talk about their own feelings and come to their own conclusions. A successful approach recognises the distressed person’s feelings and explores why they feel that way. The kind of language they recommend includes, “I’m sorry you are going through this,…

The olive tree is indigenous to the Levant, in the Eastern Mediterranean, but is now grown and used extensively throughout the world. The first Spanish settlers introduced the tree to America. Since ancient times, the olive tree has been utilised for its many medicinal properties. Active ingredients The primary constituents of the leaf are the secoiridoids — oleuropein mainly — plus polyphenols, triterpenes, including oleanolic acid, and the flavonoids rutin, quercetin and diosmin. In the plant, these give the tree resistance to damage from pathogens and insects. Therapeutic uses Cardiovascular Olive leaf extract has been shown to improve cardiovascular function by a variety of mechanisms: it reduces platelet aggregation and is powerfully anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. Its anti-atherosclerotic effects are apparent in those consuming a high-fat diet, with supplementation over six…

Ashleigh Holmes is a fourth-generation artist based in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. She has been painting for as long as her hands could hold a brush. An abstract, expressionistic painter, Holmes’ work is redolent of North America’s mid-century colour field painters. In contrast to the severe and obsessive formalism that defined that period, however, Holmes’ compositions are gentle, dreamy and inviting — speaking to the laissez-faire cultural climate of northern Sydney’s beach-bound suburbs. Light-hearted yet graceful, Holmes’ paintings express visual poetics of the feminine, composed with characteristically soft palettes of predominantly neutral tones. This piece, titled Fiore Reflection, captures the spirit of springtime, layering warm, neutral tones inspired by nature as it comes into bloom. There is a soft femininity present in the work; blankets of gentle pinks,…

Grapes are a delicious sweet treat that are full of flavour and refreshing on the palate. They can be enjoyed on their own, or crushed or pressed and made into wine or grape juice. The seeds within the grapes can also be compressed to make a light, luxurious oil that’s a perfect pampering product for those who embrace natural beauty. Grapes are grown on a perennial woody vine and can be found in regions with warm temperate climates, like New Zealand, Australia, Italy, parts of Europe, North Africa and regions within Asia. Each grape contains about four seeds, and when pressed around 14–20 per cent of oil is extracted. The oil has culinary uses as a healthy cooking oil, and it can also be found in lotions, serums, creams, shampoos…

Almost any food and fresh produce item you can think of is at your fingertips, regardless of the the time of year. This doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that it’s what your body or the planet needs when it comes to abundant health and good nutrition. Produce grown and eaten seasonally also means it is grown locally, reducing the environmental footprint of transporting food, supporting local economies and farmers and creating greater connection to the land and community. Foods produced and consumed in season are more nutritionally dense and maximise flavour. Eating for the season is nothing new in the food world, yet it’s easily forgotten. As winter arrives, it’s time to revisit the incredible benefits of eating for the season and dive into some of winter’s great staples: root crops.…

Your children want to communicate with you. Communicating is how, as human beings, we make connections. It’s how we learn, how we grow, how we become a part of the world. As their parent, you are the one person they will want to share this journey with. “We all need someone who understands,” says infant specialist Magda Gerber. But over time we can sometimes lose this connection, and it often happens at a moment when it’s most important to be able to hear what your children have to say. In an increasingly digital world, experts warn that children’s ability to communicate is being put under pressure, and that now is the time to start developing communication habits and skills that will last a lifetime. Parenting and childrearing expert Ron Taffel…

Corporate. Social. Responsibility. Three words that, each on their own, are perfectly intelligible but, until recently, when placed together as a phrase became like something from a Lewis Carroll poem: nonsense. “Corporate social responsibility” as a phrase has been as oxymoronic as “gourmet cheese in a can”, “wise lycra fashion choices” or “must-see reality TV”. Today, however, corporate social responsibility (CSR) not only makes perfect sense, it is imperative to our way forward as a society. What is it? In truth, CSR is about engaging with reality, the reality of the nature of a corporation. Dr Attracta Lagan is a leading Australian business ethicist who has advised boards and CEOs in both the corporate and not-forprofit sectors. Lagan says, “Businesses have powerful impacts, social and environmental, beyond financial results, and…

It’s the perfect way to spend a chilly winter’s evening: snuggled up around the campfire, feeling cosy and warm, and deep in conversation with a few favourite friends. There’s something delicious in your mug, a soft glow from the fire, and a distinct feeling of contentment among your happy crowd: all of it classic hygge, the distinctly Danish philosophy for living. Pronounced “hoo-gah”, hygge translates as “cosiness of the soul”, and it’s all about relaxing in one happy, shared, indulgent moment. To cultivate hygge, the Danish believe that you need to make time for activities and rituals that connect you with others, awaken and indulge your senses, and make you feel peaceful and content. One of the best places to cultivate hygge is in nature, so this winter take a…

If you love Japanese food but feel intimidated by the difficult techniques and hard-to-source ingredients, you are who Aya Nishimura, the Japanese-born food stylist and home economist, had in mind when creating Japanese Food Made Easy. Within the beautifully styled pages of her new cookbook, Nishimura proves that all you need for delicious Japanese food at home are well-selected ingredients and some straightforward methods. Nishimura covers all bases, with healthy and fresh recipes for favourites including ramen, gyoza, teriyaki, tonkatsu and sushi. Expect back-to-basic methods such as how to make steamed rice properly and recipes worthy of a showy dinner party. Beef Tataki (Seared Beef Fillet) This is a super-easy, delicious meal for entertaining. The key is using the tail of a beef fillet, which is thinner (and much cheaper),…

Waimete Honey Co Waimete Honey Co is a family-owned and run company located in the remote alpine region of New Zealand’s South Taranaki countryside. Beehives are located in such a remote area that they produce some of the purest, cleanest and most potent manuka honey in all of New Zealand. Add to toast, tea and even DIY face mask recipes for extra nourishment to your skin routine. Waimete Honey is available exclusively at Woolworths or online. W: waimetehoneyco.com Cheeki Insulated Coffee Mug Whether you’re a matcha morning person or a flat white fan, a BYO Cheeki insulated coffee mug will keep your brew nicely warm for up to eight hours. The unique pop-up lid is 100 per cent leak-proof and every Cheeki product is toxin-free. W: cheeki.net.au Dilmah Dilmah infusions…

We are halfway through the year and one of the most challenging resolutions I set for myself this year was to slow down. I have to admit, as a mum, a wife and a full-time worker, I’m guilty of going through life on autopilot, at times working for hours on end and not giving myself any time to breathe. If this sounds familiar to you, one of the simplest ways I found to help switch off and slow down is to take the pressure off (literally). My slow cooker makes winter days for families that much easier. It gives you one less thing to think about, provides nourishing meals that are simple to prepare and allows you to have more time for other activities. Slow cooking is a traditional method…

KAREN GOLDRICK is a holistic veterinarian at All Natural Vet Care, Russell Lea, Sydney. T: 02 9712 5844 W: naturalvet.com.au “This indicates that the [TCM] formula may not be appropriate for all people, and may be less suited to older people with a tendency to be chilly or have poor digestion of food.” I’m writing this in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, and by the time you read this, hopefully COVID-19 is starting to be contained. One thing that has struck me is an article I read about a Traditional Chinese herbal formula that locals are using to try to protect themselves from infection. A few news outlets have reported that people in China are queuing up to purchase Shuanghuanglian oral liquid, sometimes known as double yellow oral liquid,…

A 55-year-old woman presented to the clinic. She had had the odd aches and pains, with stiffness in the joints making it more difficult to get out of bed in the mornings, but she recovered quickly once she was moving around and had no problems during the day. This had been recurring over the last couple of years, nothing that concerned her greatly. Then after a severe attack of the flu, in bed for a few days off work, she woke up one morning in so much pain she could barely move. Her joints were swollen, and it felt like every joint in her body was on fire. Her energy had also dropped away to almost nothing. When she came to see me a few weeks later, after she had…

Let’s take a breath together. Lately we have sailed through some rough seas. Life, as we comfortably understood it, changed right before our very eyes. And changed rapidly. I was due to get married in March. We spent the Sunday before our wedding date clearing a paddock in Byron Bay’s hinterland, getting it ready for our ceremony. Everything was going according to plan, including the weather. Then, just 48 hours later, we found ourselves breaking the sad news to our friends and family: our wedding was on hold indefinitely due to the coronavirus outbreak. But our love, we soon learned, was stronger than ever. The postponement of our special day got me thinking. Forget the party. What if, when two people are about to get married, they have to face…

Coral reef “A-listers” Coral reefs around the world face intense pressure due to overfishing, pollution and climate change. In a new study, researchers assessed 1800 tropical reefs around the world. They found that just 5 per cent of the reefs studied meet the combined goals of providing enough fishing stocks, and maintaining biodiversity and a viable ecosystem. These reefs are what the researchers call “A-listers”: they have it all. However, creating nofishing marine reserves around reefs with low human pressures gets more reefs onto that A-list. Additionally, some reefs under more human pressure could get onto a metaphorical B-list that would make them more viable if fishing restrictions were put in place. Managing fish communities, not just coral communities, is central to maintaining multiple goals of biodiversity, fisheries and functioning…

Is it possible to whiten your teeth naturally? Avoiding coffee and red wine is, dare I say it, a boring and bleak way to keep your choppers pearly white. But getting teeth professionally whitened can be an expensive and often daunting process. We test out a few natural teeth whitening practices and see how they stack up against their clinical counterparts. Activated charcoal Activated charcoal is a fine-grain powder made from wood, coconut shells and other natural substances that have been oxidised under extreme heat. When added to toothpaste, the activated charcoal claims to bind to stains, tartar and bacteria and absorb surface stains. I used an activated charcoal toothpaste twice a day for one month. Thankfully, the taste wasn’t one of chargrilled sausages; instead it was a minty flavour…

“It is now almost impossible to imagine a time when Attenborough wasn’t on our screens, narrating — in his signature comforting drawl — the epic fight between bison or the silent stalk of Africa’s biggest cats.” David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough is one of Britain’s most beloved figures; a broadcaster, natural historian and, at 93, a global superstar, his reign in the public eye has been defined by environmental benevolence. Attenborough’s epic series about the natural world have been broadcast around the globe, making a name for him as the father of our planet. Travelling from the icy Edens of Antarctica to the momentous plains of Africa’s Serengeti, his documentaries established a new genre of wildlife film. It is now almost impossible to imagine a time when Attenborough wasn’t…

Cold, crisp mornings slipping into woolly socks and oversized jumpers, big pots of soup bubbling away on the stove and slow evenings huddled by the fire sipping hot cacao; there’s no denying the idea of winter is very romantic. While the chilly change in season brings so much beauty, it does come with its challenges as cold temperatures, low humidity and gusty winds can be harsh on the body. The rapidly changing temperatures from heated indoors to cold outdoor environments have been shown to affect the skin’s capillaries, and prolonged exposure to wet weather can strip the skin’s barrier function, leading to dry, sensitive, chapped skin and lips, brittle hair and cracked nails. If you suffer from skin conditions such as eczema, rosacea or dermatitis you may also experience a…

With a smile that lights up her whole face and a down-toearth nature that you can’t help but adore, Lola Berry is the embodiment of health and happiness. The street-style meets bohemian vibe to the bestselling author, yoga teacher, nutritionist, podcast host and co-founder of her very own coffee company blends effortlessly into the mix of Torquay locals surrounding her getting their morning caffeine hit. We’ve just practised a heart-opening yoga sequence and have made a pit stop at the café next door. Berry apologises for being on her phone as I order our long blacks. “Sorry mate, I’ll be done in two secs.” She’s writing an Instagram post to her 121,000 followers about a podcast episode that’s just gone live where she interviewed friend and fellow nutritionist, Jessica Sepel,…

When her boyfriend of six years called time on their relationship, despite it being a fairly amicable split, Elise Baldwin struggled to find the words for what she was feeling. “Especially the guilt and shame about being dumped — that was really hard to talk about,” she says. Fortunately, Baldwin received lots of support from her friends and family, but that’s not always the case. Dean Talbot was also in a six-year relationship; however, he was the one who broke it off. He shared many mutual friends with his ex-girlfriend Anna and says he didn’t receive much support when the relationship ended. “I was distraught, confused and maybe a little numb,” Talbot says. “I still loved Anna but as a close friend, not a romantic lover. I didn’t want to…

Like the golden fault lines running through kintsugi, just as we are broken, we can be repaired — and the manner of that repair, the learning in that growth, becomes a strong and beautiful part of who we are. Kintsugi is the ancient art of fixing broken pottery with gold. Dating back to the 1400s, it was thought to be the invention of Japanese shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who charged his craftsmen with finding a more thoughtful, aesthetically pleasing way of fixing a broken tea bowl, rather than the traditional method of using ugly metal staples. Using precious metals, including gold, Japanese craftsmen started to bond together pieces of pottery by drawing attention to, rather than away from, the breaks, which in turn had the effect of making the break the…

Australia’s native forests have long been a stage for adversarial confrontations between loggers and protesters who engage in blockades and who are willing to lock on to equipment in order to immobilise it. They represent two divergent polarised viewpoints: one reductionist outlook that sees trees as a resource to be harvested, and another holistic perspective that views them as part of an ecological whole and a home to biodiversity. Recently scientists and some of the media have been emphasising the role of the world’s forests in connection with climate change. Intact tropical forests are carbon sinks, although if they degrade they can become net carbon sources and pose an additional threat to a stable climate. The logging of forests contributes to climate change due to the release of the carbon…

If the events surrounding COVID-19 have taught us nothing else (and they have offered lessons aplenty) they have shown us how easily we take things for granted. Joni Mitchell put that simple truism into lyric form when she sang, “You don’t know want you’ve got till it’s gone”, and COVID-19 showed us that something as fundamental as social interaction can be taken away in a heartbeat. Appreciation is a powerful mental state and an under-practised skill, so let’s take a moment to acknowledge a ubiquitous food, probably underrated by many due to its very commonness, the rhizome we all know and love: ginger. A world of appreciation What do ancient Chinese sailors, Jacobean English taverns and ancient Roman banquets have in common? No, the answer isn’t “pigtails” (although the judges…

“The best thing for being sad is to learn something,” said Merlin, in TH White’s book The Once and Future King. “You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies … you may miss your only love, or see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics … but never let yourself be tortured by fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.” I’m walking parts of the South West Coastal Path in southern England. Around 630 miles long, it is the country’s longest waymarked National Trail and home to legendary King Arthur and Merlin the Magician. It’s my fifth week of travelling solo, so I’m looking forward to the camaraderie of a group walking tour along this majestic coastline, making connections and finding comfort in my surroundings. Our group…

The olive tree has been used medicinally and as a prominent food source over many continents for centuries. It has even been reported that Neolithic peoples from the Mediterranean region cultivated the olive tree as far back as 8000BCE, so it’s no surprise that the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest diets in the world. The Mediterranean diet is described as a lifestyle full of fresh produce like vegetables, fruits, wholegrains, legumes, nuts and extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO). EVOO is the main fat source and cooking medium in the Mediterranean diet. Using EVOO in cooking and preparing food has been shown to increase consumption and improve the taste of vegetables and legumes, leading to a more nutritious and antioxidant-rich diet. No wonder there is so much research surrounding EVOO…

ALEXX STUART is a passionate educator in the space she calls “living a low-tox life”. Through her speaking, workshops, e-courses and online community, she helps people make the best new choices for themselves, their family and the planet. W: lowtoxlife.com “Less ‘stuff ’ doesn’t just mean saying no to the cute homewares bowl you didn’t really like or need a year later; it’s fundamentally changing the way you do things and prioritise what’s ‘important’.” When we have existential threats around us, it’s easy to be pulled into a panic spiral, and the danger is that “saving the planet” never feels like a concrete thing we can actually have a hope of doing. But as with all the best advice on the topic of achieving goals, it comes down to what my…

It would be beyond understatement, bordering on parody, to say merely that 2020 has been an eventful year. The bushfire crisis in southeastern Australia and the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the fragility of our climate, our health and healthcare systems, and driven home the essential value of home and wellbeing. Many people throughout Australia have already begun to shift their thinking around aligning their investments to match their values and ethics — a majority of Australians expect their savings and super to be invested responsibly and ethically, and would consider moving to alternative providers that invest in such a fashion, according to new research commissioned by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) (responsibleinvestment.org/aus-consumer-research). Thus far, investments that consider environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues in their processes have performed…

CHRISTINE BROADBENT views astrology as a healing art, offering in-person readings in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland and phone or Skype sessions world-wide. Now available for booked sessions at Lotus Health in Sydney’s Neutral Bay. Christine also leads workshops and embodied astrology retreats in Australia and New Zealand. For details visit astrologyspot.com.au or call 0402 664 101 Cancer This solar cycle is extraordinary, with Jupiter and Saturn opposite your sign, and July 5 a lunar eclipse in Cancer/Capricorn. This climax of a fated cycle ends no easy or ordinary 18 months. Your New Moon in Cancer on July 21 is time to ring the changes. Compassion towards yourself, no matter how blocked your good intentions may be, is a good start. Since Venus enters Cancer August 8, your social and family life…

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE PRACTITIONER STRESS FREE MANAGEMENT p (02) 9609 4881 e info@stressfreemanagement.com.au stressfreemanagement.com.au COUNSELLING & PSYCHOLOGY THE INDIGO PROJECT p +61 2 92125469 e hello@theindigoproject.com.au theindigoproject.com.au EDUCATION SYDNEY INSTITUTE OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE 502/25-29 Dixon St, Haymarket NSW e administration@sitcm.edu.au p +61 (2) 9212 1968 sitcm.edu.au AUSTRALIAN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE SOCIETY Suite 12/27 Bank St, Meadowbank NSW 2114 p 1800 456 855 e info@atms.com.au www.atms.com.au HART LIFE COACHING Suite 12/27 Bank St, Meadowbank NSW 2114 p 0414 364 494 e anne@heartlifecoaching.com.au hartlifecoaching.com.au MASSAGE & ORGANIC BEAUTY SAGE BEAUTY 292 Campbell Pde, North Bondi NSW 2026 p 02 9130 7064 e info@sagebeauty.com.au sagebeauty.com.au SKIN HEALTH EXPERT EVA KARPATI 17 Bay Street Double Bay NSW 2018 p 02 9363 2395 e skinclinic@karpati.com.au karpatiskinclinic.com.au DENTAL DR SCOTT MAKIOL BIODENTISTRY p 07 3848 2320 biodentistry.com.au…

Fruit and vegetables Fruit Apples (Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Jonagold, Jonathan, Lady Williams, Pink Lady, Red Delicious and Sundowner), cumquats, custard apples, grapefruit, kiwifruit, lemons, limes, mandarins, melons, nashi, oranges, pears (Beurre Bosc, Josephine and Packham), persimmons, pineapples, pomelos, quinces, rhubarb and tangelos. Vegetables Asian greens (buk choy, choy sum, gai lan and wombok), avocados, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, okra, olives, onions, parsnips, peas, potatoes, pumpkin, shallots, silver beet, spinach, swedes, sweet potatoes, turnips and witloof. Indoor activities • Bake your winter blues away! Turn to page 60 for delicious recipes using root vegetables • Have you ever tried knitting? Nothing beats a chunky knit blanket by the fire • Why not macramé your way through winter? •…