Jessie Denmeade Clinical Naturopath and Herbalist

Magnolia has been shown to increase Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDFN) expression.

BDFN has an important role in the central nervous system. It is involved in the development and maintenance of physiological brain functions. Lower levels of BDFN are shown to reduce neurogenesis (the production of brain cells) and may be linked to anxiety and depression. Chronic stress has the ability to reduce BDFN levels and cause both structural changes and cell damage in the brain. Magnolia can be our ally in helping to reduce and even repair the damage caused by long term high levels of stress.

Willpower Is A Muscle
If you think of willpower as a muscle, it is easy to see that it can fatigue with excessive use. It seems we can only exert strong willpower on three to four things a day, after which time it becomes difficult to apply. Essentially, if you have to use willpower all day, your resolve to make change (which requires willpower) becomes diminished. You may be able to relate to this. You wake in the morning and declare to yourself that you are going to/or not to [insert behaviour] (e.g. go for a run this afternoon, not have that afternoon coffee, not drink today) and all seems well; however, you get to the end of your work day and you’ve not followed through on your resolve that seemed so strong in the morning. Instead, your work day used up all of your willpower and it was easier to fall back on the old habit. “I’ll do it tomorrow” you decide.
Like a muscle, willpower can be strengthened with practice. Perhaps most importantly, it is worth noting that willpower is stronger in the morning. Understanding this (and the components of habit formation) can be used to strengthen willpower; helping replace undesirable habits with more beneficial habits, as well as to help create new positive habits.

How decisions become habits

Everyday, as we go about our lives, our brain is activated, and there are thousands of electromagnetic signals and impulses that process and control what we do. As we repeat patterns, we reinforce and strengthen the neural pathways. Researchers at Duke University found that approximately 45% of what we do daily is habit. A habit is a behaviour we once made a decision on and learned, but then eventually stopped thinking about consciously, and instead continued the behaviour automatically. The three parts of the brain that are involved in the creation and ex*****on of habit are:
• The decision making region; the prefrontal cortex (PFC);
• The region that holds the pattern behaviour; the limbic system, specifically the basal ganglia; and
• Our reward regions.
When habit behaviour occurs, the neurological studies show that the decision-making process powers down. For most of the day we are largely on autopilot, rather than in decision-making mode. This is important as the ‘powering down’ eases pressure and stress on the nervous system, saves physical, mental and emotional energy, and frees up our brains for thinking about other things, as well as freeing up space for willpower.
More on willpower to come...

Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend a minimum of 5-6 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit every day, for adults to maintain good health.
A serve of vegetables is 1 cup and a serve of fruit is half a cup.
Only 7% of Australian adults meet the recommended 5-6 serves of vegetables daily! Only 1 in 2 consume the recommended 2 serves of fruit, and just 1 in 20 meet the dietary guidelines for both fruit and vegetables. This will be severely compromising their nutritional status and therefore overall health and resilience.
It might seem like a lot of veggies, but if you make a big beautiful salad, delicious veggie stir-fry or soup, you'll be surprised by how easy it can actually be to reach those guidelines. Try finding new and creative ways to increase your vegetable intake on a daily basis...
-grate carrots and zucchini into your next lasagna or beefy bolognese,
-roast root veggies and put them with leafy greens for warm and filling salads in the cooler months,
-snack on capsicum, carrot and cucumber sticks with hummus or beetroot dip instead of biscuits between meals.
So count up your daily intake of veggies and fruit and see how you compare. Then set yourself the goal of 5-6 cups of vegetable per day, and find out what works best to help you meet the Australian Dietary Guidelines, and maintain optimal nutrition.

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“Individually we are one drop. Together we are an ocean” Ryūnosuke Satoro

There is power in community. We have more in common with each other than we have differences. Ultimately, we all have the same needs. Come together and be an ocean ♥️🌊

Cinnamon and hibiscus (rosella) tea

I started making this for someone with high blood pressure and sugar cravings. Hibiscus acts as a hypotensive (as well as being rich in antioxidants) and cinnamon works on the cravings. We have been monitoring their blood pressure closely and it’s coming down significantly (we’re also doing other dietary, nutritional and lifestyle interventions). This tea is delicious, so compliance isn’t an issue 🤩

To make, add a few cinnamon quills to a saucepan with about a litre of water. Bring to boil and then turndown to simmer for 10-15mins. Then turn off the heat and add 2tbsp of hibiscus tea. Allow the hibiscus to infuse for a further 10-15mins and then strain the herbs out of the tea. This is one days dose of tea and will equate to about three cups. It’s also yummy cool with a squeeze of citrus 😍

Fun fact: If you're going to be increasing your protein intake, it's also a good idea to increase your intake of non-starchy vegetables (like greens, cucumber, zucchini, celery, etc.). As our body breaks down protein, it produces uric acid. So eating these alkalising vegetables will help to balance your systemic pH

Enjoying the glory of the winter garden with this little legend looking on. She always finds a place to sit and watch while I w**d or mulch. So much good medicine in spending time outside, growing things, with your animal companions.
Thank you for capturing me and my girl

This is your friendly reminder to go outside and connect with the natural world today. Wild nature is the best, but even just sitting in your courtyard or the park, catching some sun, listening to some birds, feeling the hum of the planet that is our home. This is so good for your nervous system. It’s soul medicine 💚

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I had to prune the Tulsi bush and couldn’t possibly drink that much tea. So I made smudge sticks ☺️ very rustic “organic” smudge sticks.

The beauty of smudging...indigenous cultures around the world, have their own unique version of smudging. Different plants and resins are used in different parts of the world, but the cleansing power of smudging has been embraced and utilised for millennia around the globe. In Australia, Aboriginal Australians would use eucalyptus and melaleuca. In South America, Palo Santo was favoured. In North America, white sage was a favourite. In the Middle East, it was Frankincense and Myrrh. Traditionally, smudging has been used to cleanse a space, item or person of negativity/negative energy, and to help transition people into the next life, as well as cleanse the air of bacteria or ‘bad humors’. I love to burn frankincense resin or white sage, especially when I’m cleaning the house. In the modern world, smudging is often used to improve mental focus and clarity, improve mood and sleep quality, increase energy and relaxation, as well as shake off an argument or bad mood. If you don’t already, I would highly recommend integrating smudging into your morning ritual or cleaning regime.

Bliss balls make it easy to eat a whole food diet and enjoy your treats at the same time. They’re the perfect blend of minimally processed nutrient density, and versatile, easy-to-make delish ❤ these are a zesty citrus apricot that I’ve been working on, with my old favourites black sesame cacao and cranberry fudgy choc.
Thanks so much to for taking these photos and making my bliss balls pretty 😘

Still loving this book after nearly ten months. Some of its recipes have become staples in my household. So much practical wisdom can be found in its pages, with really clear guidance for the different stages of the postpartum journey. And it’s been written by two lovely local women with years of collective experience in this nutritional and postpartum space 🙌🏼

May is Mental Health Awareness Month
Let’s talk about how Inflammation Influences Mood

Stress and mood disorders can trigger inflammation in our bodies AND inflammation negatively influences mood. It’s a bi-directional relationship. Therefore, interrupting this relationship can massively improve mood-based disorders. Many studies have shown that people who’ve been diagnosed with major depressive disorder have significantly highly levels of circulating inflammatory markers.
This makes sense when we think about how (from a natural medicine perspective) omega3 fatty acids and magnesium are in the front line when it comes to managing mental health disorders, and both of these have an anti inflammatory action in our bodies.
An anti inflammatory diet, full of healthy fats, fruit and vegetables, lean protein and whole grains, is a great place for us to start when it comes to supporting our mental health.

“All real change happens outside of the comfort zone”.

Feeling inspired by a share from on a great zoom call last night…to find those edges and lean into them. That’s where the growth and magic really is 💚

photo by .rice.hayes 📸 thanks Han ♥️

The weirdly similar structures of chlorophyll and hemoglobin via rainmaker1973 on Twitter (X).

The major difference is that chlorophyll has a magnesium ion in the spot where hemoglobin has iron. Magnesium makes plants green, while iron makes blood red.

This is my first Mother’s Day as a mother. It has been the most love filled and beautiful time of my life. From the epic process of birthing him into the world, to the thrill I get seeing him every morning, watching the breath rise and fall in his beautiful little body. I am so grateful for the journey I am on. The way my son has cracked me open and taught me so much about love…how to love freely and fiercely.

But if I’m honest, I’m really struggling to feel celebratory, with the awareness that there is only one maternity hospital left in all of Gaza, delivering 1500 babies a month, and that the area where the hospital is is now under fire.
Knowing that 10,000s of mothers have lost their children in the last six months, and that 10,000s of children have lost their mother in the same time frame. I struggle to get my head around how unbelievable fortunate I am to wake safely beside my baby everyday, while so many mothers have had their babies torn from them in acts of war and won’t ever see their babies again.

I know that it doesn’t do to compare. That there will always be people less fortunate than myself. But it is honestly undermining my ability to revel in the joy of how glorious my motherhood has been.

I also want to acknowledge all of the mothers who have lost…either in utero or through stillbirth, SIDs or even later in life. We see you, we love you, and you are still a mother.

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ mothers are so blessed.

Pumpkin is the quintessential autumn vegetable. Its vivid orange colour is an indication of its beta carotene content…the nutrient precursor to vitamin A. Our body uses zinc and protein to convert beta carotene from our food into active vitamin A, which is such an important nutrient for maintaining healthy mucus membranes…like the inside of our lungs. As we’re coming into winter and “cold and flu season”, nature is allowing us to stock up on those protective nutrients at the perfect time 🥰 eating seasonally makes sense for so many reasons. Go make that roast pumpkin soup 😋

Spoons made by Chris Topher

Three unexpected ways to get better sleep

1. Get some sun
Watching the sun rise, being out in the sun during the day, and watching the sun set, all help to inform your circadian rhythm of when you ought to be wake and when you ought to be asleep via melatonin production.

2. Eat dark chocolate
Cacao is one of the richest natural sources of magnesium, which helps our bodies relax and is also a nutrient required for the production of neurotransmitters essential to quality sleep … don’t eat it late in the day as the caffeine could have the opposite effect.

3. Shinrin-yoku…forest bathing
Coined by the Japanese, research has shown this practice reduces cortisol and blood pressure, soothing the nervous system to support quality sleep.

Mindfulness has been getting a lot of attention on social media lately, but it is hardly a fad, and has been around for thousands of years. Put simply, mindfulness is immersing yourself in the current moment, and blocking out what is happening around you. Here are 5 quick mindfulness exercises to get started.

Breathe consciously
Take 10 minutes to breathe. Close your eyes, focus on your breath, and acknowledge your thoughts without labelling or judging. The secret is to not be too strict on yourself.

Focus on details
Observe a small, inanimate object for 5 minutes. Pay attention to every single detail, as though that object is the only one in the world.

Eat mindfully
Pay attention to how you chew, and all the textures and tastes, and remember to pause to breathe between bites. Pay attention to the food, and the sensations of eating, including when you feel “full”.

Test all 5 senses
Think of 5 things you can see, 4 you can feel, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, and 1 you can taste. This is a great way to calm yourself down in moments of stress.

Go for a mindful walk
Leave the iPod behind, and be present in the moment. Concentrate on all the sensations you feel, focusing on your breath and your environment.

Photo by .rice.hayes

The Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen 😊 in an ideal world, we would all only eat organically grown food. However, this simply isn’t possible for most of us. When choosing what foods to buy, it’s worth noting those that use the most harmful chemicals and have the highest amounts of residue. The Dirty Dozen are the twelve foods that we should always aim to buy organically grown. The Clean Fifteen are those with the least residue or chemical use and therefore the best to choose when we can’t afford to purchase all organic.
Thanks from for putting this so clearly on one page in .

Autumn is officially underway 🍁 Here's a list of the fruits and veggies that are now in season!

Life is full of ups and downs. There are times in life when everything seems to feel just a bit too hard. Stress creeps in from all different angles and starts chipping away at your mental wellbeing.

I’m feeling inspired to share 5 small changes you can start working into your life, to support you through the highs and lows of modern living.

Skip the scroll:
Go a whole day without social media. Catch up with some friends in real life, or simply spend time with yourself, free of expectations and comparisons with others. Read a book, get outside, but whatever you do, don’t scroll.

Move your body:
Try a new local fitness class, follow along to a YouTube yoga class, or go for a walk with a friend. However you choose to move, commit to doing at least one hour a week.

Cook up a storm:
Cook yourself at least one fresh meal, bonus points for every ingredient that comes from the “fresh” section of the supermarket.

Press pause on processed foods:
Take note of how much of your diet comes straight out of a packet, and try to reduce this where you can. Opt for less processed options, even if that is simply switching white bread for wholemeal.

Lose the booze:
Reduce your alcohol consumption as much as possible. Try swapping the mid-week wine for a mineral water with a squeeze of lemon to start.

photo by .rice.hayes

Daily gratitude helps you to fall in love with the life you already have

Birthday cake baking…grain free dairy free vanilla custard sponge cake. Being gluten free doesn’t mean you have to miss out on anything. The transition to gluten free can feel daunting at first, but it’s honestly not an issue once you’ve got your head around the basic sources of gluten. There are substitutes for everything. I was so hesitant to commit to going gluten free when my specialist first told me I had to…I started, then I’d have some sourdough, then I’d start again 😂 but I honestly feel 100% better. I’ve been gluten free for a very long time now and I want for nothing and would never go back.
If you have any questions about going gluten free or would like some support in getting started, feel free to put your questions in the comments below and I’ll share all my learning with you.

I love this 🤩

EXACTLY😍!!!

I would just like to acknowledge, that while Christmas is “meant” to be a time of celebration and sharing, for many among us, it is the most lonely time of year. It can be a time when the pain of loss of someone (a friend or family member) or something (a relationship or living arrangement) can be at its most acute. It’s also time when feelings of inadequacy can be felt most sharply. Maybe it’s not having the means to deliver the version of Christmas that capitalism has sold us, or not being able to provide Christmas in the way it “should be”.

Please be gentle with yourself and with each other. Not just your friends and family, but those working in retail, those sharing the roads in holiday traffic, with everyone. Many will be hiding their pain and fragility behind a hyper functional exterior. So please, let’s give the gift of compassion and gentleness this Christmas. And let’s make it through to 2024 ❤️

photo .rice.hayes

December whispers 🌿 enjoying the early mornings and the afternoon storms of lush summer days. Wishing everyone a fulfilling holiday period ❤️

For those with seasonal allergies …
Did you know that eating raw, unprocessed honey from your local area can increase your tolerance to the seasonal allergens of pollens? The raw honey contains micro particles of pollen from the plants that the bees used to make the honey. Like immunotherapy in modern medicine, eating this honey introduces your immune system to these tiny pieces of pollen derivatives, supporting your body to develop a tolerance through desensitisation. The pollen exposure in the honey is not enough to trigger allergies, but is enough to allow your immune system a safe introduction to the allergens.
Just another reason why eating local really is the best 😊🐝🌼

We are all one ❤
Thanks for the inspiration.