Mid-June 2021 I had to have knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus (a piece of cartilage in your knee that cushions and stabilizes the joint).

Thankfully it is only a minor procedure, but even so, any surgery causes trauma to the body.

To aid recovery from surgery trauma, and to get you back to life as quickly as possible, good nutrition can play a key role in helping you to heal and regain strength.

You know how we hear things about some new ‘superfood’ that is going to do all these amazing things for us if we buy it and eat it? It’s packed full of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants that will do wonders for our health. Cure everything! Make us live long and prosper. We desperately need it in our lives.

Oh, by the way, you will need to re-mortgage your house to afford to eat it. And it will likely be out of fashion next week when there is something else new, exciting and exotic.

It can be a bit overwhelming and confusing, as to whether or not these fancy foods are all they’re cracked up to be.

It turns out, that there really is no need to get caught up in the hype of unusual, exotic and expensive ‘superfoods’.

Fibre is fabulous, but only if you eat it!

It turns out that most New Zealanders don’t eat enough fibre. The Ministry of Health recommend that adults should be eating 25 – 30g of dietary fibre per day, yet most adults are only eating 20g a day.

Fibre is the portion of vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and seeds that is resistant to digestion and absorption in the stomach and small intestine. However, some can be digested and fermented by the bacteria in our large intestine.

You might think that your gut - from stomach, through small intestine, to large intestine - is simply there just to digest your food, absorbed nutrients and excrete waste.

Now while all of those are vital functions of the gut, research is building to suggest that the health of our gut is actually key to much of our overall health and happiness, including our immunity, resistance to chronic disease and even mental health.

In our gut we carry a unique population of bacteria - called our 'microbiota'.

This microbiota is made up of some very impressive numbers:

• we carry around 2kg of bactera;
• that 2kg is made up of trillions of bacteria;
• they outnumber the cells in our bodies by about 10 to 1;
• more than 1000 different species have been identified;
• we carry about 150 - 170 different species each, which is a unique combination for each of us.

Here in New Zealand, post-Christmas we are (hopefully) well into those lazy, hazy days of summer.

Along with that summer weather, as we move into the new year, comes the messages that after our indulgences at Christmas we now need a 12-week body transformation program or 10-day detox to slim down and get our bikini body rocking!

Personally, I find these messages insulting.

Goodness me! What a crazy mixed-up year 2020 was.

As if normal day-to-day living wasn’t hectic enough, in 2020 there was all the Covid-craziness of lock-downs, working from home and home-schooling thrown into the mix.

The daily routine can get very busy, it can be a struggle to find a work/life balance, leaving little time or energy at the end of the day to plan what’s for dinner. When we are busy it is easy to let healthy eating habits fall by the wayside.

One way to take the pressure off is by planning your meals in advance.

When it comes to nutrition males seem to be mostly left to muddle along. Chances are, they take better care of their car or favorite gadget than they do their body. However, it is important for males to pay attention to their own set of nutritional needs.

When there is a topic that I am passionate about it is hard to shut me up, and going gluten-free is one such subject.

Which is why I develop recipes and run cooking classes all revolving around making gluten-free living as easy and tasty as possible.

I have been lucky enough to be invited as a guest blogger over on the Eat Well NZ blog, talking about what you need to know before you go gluten free.

For even more information on how to live your best gluten-free life be sure to check out the Coeliac NZ website. I highly recommend signing up as a member, for all the extra benefits.

Eat Well NZ is a healthy living blog to guide you in learning to nourish your body and find balance in a world of confusing and sometimes extreme nutritional advice. Nicola Jackson of Eat Well NZ is a Registered Nutritionist, food lover, runner and believer in holistic well being. She posts on wellness, body confidence, body image and skin care; and how you don’t need to quit foods, follow rules, or go to the extreme to be healthy (unless you have a food allergy!).

Pop on over to the Eat Well NZ to read some interesting and informative posts on food and nutrition.

Our usual default for New Years resolutions is to make 1 or 2 that tend to be something along the lines of “lose weight, get fit, get healthy.’ I like the idea of the ‘get fit, get healthy’ part of that. There are definitely things that we can do to ‘get fit’, which can lead into ‘get healthy,’ if that’s what we want.

The Nicole’s Nutrition Kitchen cooking classes are a wealth of information. Nicole brings together years of study (Nutrition at Massey University) and practical application (home-cooking, café cook, gluten-free bakery owner) to give you the opportunity to have your food and nutrition questions answered. It’s also a chance to learn some new tricks and to give you the confidence to try new things in the kitchen.

Don’t you just love summer!?!

Summertime at my place usually comes with a glut of gorgeous summer vegetables. Tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, corn and beans galore! The great thing about so many delicious vegetables is that it is very easy to get the recommended 5+ servings a day. Tomatoes on toast for breakfast, cucumbers and beans with lunch, corn and courgettes for dinner. And they are all great accompaniments for a BBQ dinner too.

In saying courgettes for dinner, I find that you need 101 ways to use them up. They grow like triffids. If you miss picking them - for just 1 day - you end up with more than you bargained for. I regularly find a marrow hidden behind a leaf (or a pumpkin). It does make you have to get a bit imaginative with how to use them.

Iron is an important mineral for our bodies, vital for physical and mental health and well-being. It helps to carry oxygen in the blood, maintains a healthy immune system and helps in energy production. That is why if you are low in iron you feel tired and lethargic, may struggle to fight off colds or infections, and may have difficulty concentrating.

Simply put – dieting doesn’t work.

Though there is a little more to it than that really, but that's the gist of it. A much more sensible option is intuitive eating, which allows you have your cake and eat it.

According to the Ministry of Health there are 28 vitamins and minerals essential to our good health and we should include them in our daily diet. By having a widely diverse diet we can obtain all the nutrients we need. The best foods to get all of these goodies from is one full of wholefoods – fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, seafood, nuts and seeds, eggs, whole-grains and dairy.

Here at Nicole’s Nutrition Kitchen it is all about wholesome home-cooking with simple recipes and practical ideas.

For some people, the thought of making bread or a Smoked Fish Pie can be as daunting as trying to make a restaurant quality gourmet dish. There may be the odd gourmet-like dish here – or what I like to call ‘café-styling-at-home’ – but they will still be easy to put together.

I like tasty food, made from recipes that are easy to follow and use ingredients that are easy to source.

With winter comes one vegetable that has never been a favourite of mine. Apparently they need the cold to sweeten up which is why you only see Brussel sprouts in winter.

The hot summer weather is at an end and so too is the glut of summer vegetables. As much as I love tomatoes and courgettes I really am looking forward to a change.

I enjoy changing my eating to match the different seasons. There are a couple of good reasons for doing this.