The popcorn range on our supermarket shelves has expanded it seems this year. I have reviewed a number of different brands to show which is the best choice, with Messy Monkeys coming out on top.  Read on to find out why.
Of course popping corn yourself and giving to the kids in reusable containers saves you money, reduces packaging, and will almost certainly be lower in fat and salt.
These popcorn brands do provide some fibre at around 8-9% and a slightly better choice for kids' lunch boxes than chips.
Just to compare:

• Messy Monkeys popcorn has 9% fibre, 22% fat and 350mg sodium per 100g.
• Grain Waves chips have 6% fibre, 21% fat, and 390mg sodium.
• Smith's crisps have 3% fibre, 34% fat, and 550mg sodium.

Remember we are aiming for <10% fat and <120mg sodium per 100g, although no popcorn comes close to these guides!
Messy Monkeys Lightly Salted Popcorn has the lowest fat and salt that I have looked at.

​The next brands of popcorn are similar- Snackers and Cool Pak. They have 26% fat and 700mg sodium.

This pack of Cobs popcorn has 3 flavours inside- all with 23% fat and 300mg sodium. However the "Lightly Salted, Slightly Sweet" packet has 16% sugar. All the other savoury popcorns I looked at have only 0.1-2% sugar.

I was asked about the sugar in breakfast cereals, so I have been shopping and busily reading labels to show the difference between them. Here are the top 4 sugary cereals with 1 sugar cube= 1 teaspoon of sugar = 4 grams. I chose to use per 100g to display, as the serves listed on cereal packets are very small and unrealistic. Remember we are looking as a guide for foods with <10% sugar.
Coco pops is 37% sugar, Crunchy Nut Cornflakes is 32%, and both Nutrigrain and Milo cereal are 27%. 

You can see that Corn Flakes and Rice Bubbles are not very high in sugar, both about 7-8%. But they don't rate as an everyday choice because of their low fibre content. Corn Flakes are 4% fibre and Rice Bubbles are only 2% fibre. In contrast both Carman's berry bircher muesli and Weetbix are 11% fibre.
Like my Facebook page for continued food reviews based on people's questions and comments- keep your thoughts coming!

Thanks to all my supporters, clients, colleagues, friends and family who have helped me achieve so much in my business in the past 10 years!
My business started with one clinic half a day a week 10 years ago. Now I work every day, in five towns, six medical centres, five aged care facilities and one private hospital.
My amazing 12 year old daughter Emily made a perfectly coloured fondant cake complete with my logo, to celebrate my business’ 10th birthday.
Here’s to another 10 years of helping people eat well.

In my last blog we looked at how to read food labels, looking at the sugar and fat using the 100g column.
It is also helpful to look at the sugar in the per serve column for some foods. It is useful to know that 1 teaspoon of sugar weighs 4 grams.
If you look at sugar per serve below, you can see that a Nescafe cappuccino sachet has almost 1.5 teaspoons (5.5g) of sugar per cup. This surprised me as people may also add their own sugar to this coffee, not realising that it already contains sugar.

The Ingredient list also gives us clues about about how much sugar is in food. Ingredients are listed in descending order. In the regular coffee sachet, glucose syrup (a type of sugar) and sugar are listed as third and fourth in the ingredient list.
In the Butterscotch sachet below you can see that sugar is listed as the first ingredient in this sachet, which means it is the most prominent ingredient, before even coffee! 

The sweet coffee sachet below has more sugar at almost 2 teaspoons per cup.

The skim sachet has the same sugar as the regular sachet, almost 1.5 teaspoons per cup, but also has less fat than the regular sachet.

Finally, the butterscotch latte sachet below has nearly 3 teaspoons of sugar per cup, with sugar is listed as the first ingredient.
Knowing how to spot the sugar in food helps us make informed decisions about what to eat and drink.

Reading food labels can be confusing and time consuming! By the time we weigh up health concerns, whether our family will eat the food we buy, and the cost of food, we can all get overwhelmed when grocery shopping!
Here's my top five tips for reading food labels to make the whole process easier.

1. There are two columns on a food label- per serve and per 100g.  Use the per 100g column initially. This means you can compare foods as all the amounts are the same. Often the serve definition will change between brands and this makes it hard to compare them.
2. Aim to buy food with less than 10 g of fat per 100g (or less than 10%)
3. Aim to buy a food with less than 10g sugar per 100g (or less than 10%). In the Weetbix label below, we see it is both below 10% for fat and sugar.
4. Choose food with the least salt possible.
5. Check out the Health stars- the more stars the healthier the food. 

There are other words listed below for fat, sugar and salt to watch out for on the Ingredient list as well, and some targets for what to aim for in your total fat, saturated fat and sugar intake. 

In the last blog post we looked at the how of eating, now we'll look at the where to eat. Leading such busy lives means we often eat on the run- in the car, while getting dressed or even standing in front of the open fridge door.
It is difficult to focus on enjoying food and eating more slowly when we are rushing around. Eating while sitting down at a dining table or breakfast bar not only helps us eat less but is better for our digestion!
Avoid eating

• at your desk
• when walking
• on the lounge in front of the TV
• in bed

If you have to eat in an office, try to eat away from your actual desk and computer in a separate area.
All of these tips help us to be more mindful of what and how much we are eating. This, in turn, helps us enjoy our food, stop eating when we are full and eat less.

Often weight loss information focuses on what we should be eating. But looking at How, When and Where can really transform someone's eating for the better.
So, how should we eat?

• We should eat slowly- it takes 20 minutes for our brain to register that we are full. Eating slowly gives or brain time to catch up with our stomach. If we eat quickly we might not feel full and then over-eat, and then feel really full later!
• Try chewing 5 times before swallowing.
• Eat with cutlery not your fingers. We take smaller mouthfuls when we cut up our food with cutlery.
• Avoid distractions when eating so you can focus on your food. Switch off your phone and TV to eat.
• Sit down to eat and look at your food- what are the colours on your plate?
• What does your food smell like?
• Notice the texture of your food- is it crunchy or creamy?
• Taste your food- is it tangy? Spicy? Salty? Sweet?

Our family are quite experienced in travelling for sport particularly for athletics. Here is the food I packed for our regional athletics trip for the weekend for two of our kids, who were competing in Wollongong last month. With state athletics coming up this weekend in Sydney, it is a good time to plan the food you will take with you.

Most food groups are covered here. The protein is in the quiche (eggs), the nut bars and the tuna with crackers. Protein helps muscles repair after exercise and should be eaten 1-2 hours after exercise for the greatest benefit.
The carbs are in the cereal, wraps and hot cross buns and of course, the snakes for the car trip. Carbs provide energy for active kids and are a good source of fibre.
And then there's the ultimate training and competition food for energy- bananas.
​
Planning the food you will pack for travelling helps your athletes to perform at their best! It is less likely to be high in fat or salt than take-aways. High fat foods cause tummy upsets and salty foods make us more thirsty.
Make sure the food you pack is food they like and have tried before. There's nothing worse than them feeling sick in the stomach after eating something new just before competing, especially remembering the nervous energy that might be present.
​Packing food also saves money as well- you don't need to depend quite so much on the junk food available on the highway!
Our hope is that our kids enjoy their sporting events and do their best!

One in 70 people have coeliac disease but 80% of people remain undiagnosed. The symptoms vary and you can use the assessment tool below to work out if you may be at risk. It only takes a few minutes.
Bread makers, gluten free hampers and cookbooks are available for some great competitions through Coeliac Australia to celebrate Coeliac Australia Week. Check out their website or follow them on social media!