We all know that the early years of childhood help establish the foundation for a healthy life.

We also realise that dairy foods have long been recognised for their nutritional value during a child’s developing years, as they are one of the core food groups and best known for being a rich source of calcium and the role it plays in building strong bones¹.

But exactly how much dairy does your child need during their different stages of growing up?

We’ve sourced information from Dairy Australia² that shows the approximate number of serves of dairy your child needs each day to meet the Recommended Dietary Intake (RDI) for calcium throughout their childhood.

Each 250mL serve of Pauls Zymil contains around 308mg of calcium, so just one glass and your child will be on the way to meeting their RDI for the day.

1 Dairy Australia:
http://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/Health-and-Lifestyle/Lifestyles-and-Lifestages/Children.aspx

2 Dairy Australia:
http://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/Health-and-Lifestyle/Dairy-Nutrition/3-Serves-a-Day.aspx#How%20many%20dairy%20serves

If you find yourself feeling frazzled, overwhelmed, your body won’t relax or you’re having trouble sleeping, then life’s stresses may be getting the best of you.

Stress is the body’s normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or have upset your balance in some way and is also a sign that it’s time to take action to bring your life back into sync.

There are many reasons why reducing stress is critical to enjoying life. Though most troubling is that long-term exposure to stress may lead to serious health problems¹.

While there are many lifestyle choices you can make to reduce stress, there are some simple choices you can make through your diet to help feel less stressed.

When we are feeling most vulnerable some people tend to engage in all sorts of unhealthy eating habits — which can lead to more stress!

A simple step which can be taken to have you feeling a little better is to remove these detrimental foods from your diet.

Fast Food
Stressed and busy people may be particularly prone to seeking out the more time efficient option of just driving through a fast food outlet, rather than cooking at home. Over the longer term, this is bad as fast foods are often high in fat, sugar and salt, which may contribute to the above effects.

Caffeine
When you’re pushing your limits by burning the candle at both ends, people often find themselves using coffee and other caffeine drinks to get through the long hours. However, having too high an intake of caffeine can lead to some health issues².

Sugar
By consuming food or drinks with high levels of sugar and too little protein, as well as too little carbohydrates, we can experience blood sugar fluctuations. These fluctuations can lead to mood swings, fatigue, poor concentration which further contributes to your stress levels³.

Hopefully by following these tips on foods to avoid in your daily diet, you can feel the positive effects of being less stressed!

1 Better Health Channel:
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Stress_can_become_a_serious_illness

2 Royal Australian College of General Practitioners:
http://www.racgp.org.au/familyhealth/Palpitations_general

3 Health24.com:
http://www.health24.com/medical/Condition_centres/777-792-3728-3729,20360.asp

Winter presents brisk mornings and dark nights that can frustrate even the most enthusiastic fitness devotee. It’s cold and dark outside so often the last thing we feel like doing is exercise.

Do you sometimes feel like there are too many pressures and demands on you? Are you losing sleep by worrying? You’re not alone. Everyone experiences stress at times – and we all need a little bit of it to keep us going. But according to Daniel Amen, M.D., psychiatrist and author of Making a Good Brain Great, too much stress can seriously harm your health.

Some people have tried other ‘replacement milks’ when they find ordinary cow’s milk doesn’t agree with them – like rice milk, oat milk, and even almond milk. So to shed some ore light ion the options available, we took a look at each of these to see how they measure up.

If you’re lactose sensitive¹, eating out or buying processed foods can be a bit of a minefield. Lactose isn’t just found in cow’s milk – it’s also in a surprising number of foods you would not expect to find it in.

Lactose can be present in some processed meats, sausages, hot dogs, sliced meats, margarines, sliced bread, lollies, chocolates, some soups, salad dressings and breakfast cereals particularly as milk powder and milk solids. Yes folks, it’s also found in some brands of your favourite tipple – wine!

And don’t be fooled into thinking that foods labelled ‘non-dairy’, such as powdered coffee creamer and whipped toppings, are lactose-free. They may actually include ingredients that are derived from milk and therefore contain lactose.

Your best bet is to make sure you read food labels carefully and look not only for milk and lactose, but also for words such as whey, curds, milk by-products, dry milk solids, and non-fat dry milk powder. If any of these words are listed on a label, the product may contain hidden lactose.

The other place to keep an eye out for lactose is in prescription and over-the-counter medications. It’s estimated that 20% of prescription medicines and 6% of over-the-counter medicines contain lactose². It can be found in many types of birth control pills, and some tablets for indigestion and stomach upset as well. Unfortunately lactose is not always listed among the ingredients in medicines, so make sure you tell your doctor if you have any problems digesting lactose or dairy foods.

1 Parmalat Australia:
http://www.pauls.com.au/information/information.cfm?/section/2/subsection/8/

2 National Digestive Diseases Information Clearing House:
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/lactoseintolerance/#hidden