ReAL FOOD BLOG
Explore the latest product breakdowns, food label red flags, and clean eating tips — straight from Mandy Sacher and the Real Food Rating team.
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Top Tips for Healthy Snacking!
I often get asked by my clients and at workshops how to encourage healthy after-school or childcare snacking. It’s an ongoing challenge for many families. Children often arrive home from school or activities absolutely famished. Because parents (like me) are so busy, we don’t always have something fresh on hand… meaning that convenience food is…
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5 Ingredients to Avoid in Plant-Based Milks
Supermarket shelves are lined with plant-based milks offering an alternative to cow’s milk. This is great news for families or anyone suffering from a dairy intolerance or allergy. Instead of being limited to soy milk or rice milk, there is now a plethora of options, including almond, cashew, oat, hemp and macadamia nut milk. While this…
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My Top Tips to Overhaul Your Pantry!
I often get asked about snacks and practical ways that parents can ensure that their pantry is healthy and nourishing. Children come home from school absolutely ravenous, and because we’re often busy; we don’t always have something prepared and have to resort to convenience foods. In many cases, these packaged convenience snacks can contain little…
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Food Allergies – What you Need to Know!
Food allergies and sensitivities in children are on the rise, but the good news is there is plenty you can do to help prevent and manage them. Australia is known as the ‘food allergy capital’ of the world. Research indicates that 4-8% of children under 5 years of age have a food allergy, and a…
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Avoiding Fussy Eating Starts in Pregnancy!
Can you TRAIN your child not to be a fussy eater? It starts in pregnancy… We all want healthy children who eat a variety of foods, including broccoli and Brussels sprouts. But raising non-fussy kids can be challenging for most parents. However, there are three early opportunities to influence whether your baby will enjoy a…
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How to Nourish your Baby’s Gut Bacteria
Your baby’s gut is the powerhouse that fuels their every movement as it processes their milk and first taste of solid foods and converts it into energy. Their little gut already contains trillions of microorganisms – such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses – which play a vital role in building and maintaining a healthy immune…
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Starting Solids
Introducing your little one to solid foods can be a time of excitement and new adventure but also one of frustration, stress and confusion for many parents. During the early weeks and months, the tastes and flavours your baby is exposed to will play a large role in shaping their eating habits going forward. While this may sound like…
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Top 10 Causes of Fussy Eating
If you have clicked on this post in the hope that you can find answers on how to encourage your fussy eater (or eaters) to try new food, you are not alone. Around 80 per cent of the parents or caregivers I see in my practice are struggling to increase variety in their children’s diets,…
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Are You Teaching Your Child to Fear Food?
Let’s explore how we can avoid negatively influencing our children without realising it when it comes to nutrition. Before we became parents, most of us were raised on a pervasive diet of images, messages and peer pressure regarding how we should look and ways to achieve it. Whether we grew up watching the 90s supermodels,…