Latest Articles

Minimise Your Cataract Surgery Recovery Time with These Tips
Health

Minimise Your Cataract Surgery Recovery Time with These Tips

While many people can be fearful and nervous about cataract eye surgery, or any surgery, it’s often the recovery time that some fear the most. The actual surgery can be straightforward, quick, and painless, but then you have to worry about doing the right or wrong things in the days and weeks after the surgery.

However, to ensure your cataract surgery goes off without a hitch, it can be worth doing some of the following things. You may then recover faster and easier than you may have thought possible. 

Use Eye Drops

Immediately after your surgery, your eye doctor will have prescribed you antibiotic eye drops. These are designed to prevent infection and help with internal inflammation. While you might think your body is capable of handling infection risks on its own, it’s essential to use any eye drops prescribed to you – and follow the instructions for their use.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Tips for Picking the Perfect Engagement Ring 
Weddings

Tips for Picking the Perfect Engagement Ring 

Buying an engagement ring, or any jewellery for that matter can take a long time. Unlike your weekly grocery shop, where you know what you’re looking for, the jewellery purchasing process can take a bit longer.

If you need a hand to decide on the perfect piece for you, then read on. Here are some helpful tips that are likely to be useful.

Tip 1# Understand the Four Cs
The “4Cs” refers to a diamond’s colour, cut, clarity, and carat. They are a global standard that helps you assess the quality of the diamond. This standard is universal in any jewellery store you visit. Therefore, you will come to understand how it can impact the price of an engagement ring you are looking to buy.

Diamond colors are graded from D to Z. The less colour a diamond has, the rarer it is, and, often, the more expensive it is.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
5 Ways You Can Finance Your Dental Implant Treatment
Health

5 Ways You Can Finance Your Dental Implant Treatment

We cannot get away from the fact that the cost of having dental implants is high. The specific cost anyone person will pay will depend on the dental practice they use, the specific brand of a dental implant fitted, and most obvious of all, how many dental implants actually need to be fitted. You do not need to be a mathematics professor to know that the cost of a single dental implant is going to be a lot less than a set of dental implants used to replace the full top and bottom rows of teeth.

The cost of dental implants might encourage you to shop around and try to find the cheapest possible dental implant practitioner, but we must add a note of caution here. By all means, look for the best value for money, but, given that you should be looking for dental implants to last a number of years, you must ensure that the dental implant solution you choose is the right one for you.

By that, we are not questioning the professionalism and skills of any dental impact practitioners but instead pointing to the fact that there are different dental implant products available. You also want to ensure that a specific dental implant is one that meets all your criteria with regards to quality and durability.

As far as the amount that you are going to pay, several factors will impact that price, and this could be anywhere from $3,000 to $7,000…per tooth! No small amount for just a single tooth, but if you have a full set of teeth you wish to be replaced by dental implants, then with adults having a total of 32 teeth, we suggest you take a deep breath before doing the multiplication.

If you are still with us, it now comes to the point where you can look at options for funding the procedure. An important point – we are not financial advisors, so this article is designed as general information and not financial advice. You must carry out due diligence and seek professional financial advice if necessary.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Health, Healthy Eating

10 Ways You Can Reduce Your Sugar Intake To Protect Your Teeth

If there is one piece of advice relating to how you can reduce the risk of cavities and loose teeth that every dentist, including the experts at Dentist Perth, have given their patients, it would be to ‘Reduce the amount of sugar you intake’. Of course, knowing what you have to do it is one thing, but for the person who actually has to act the question they have is ‘How do I do it?’ Well, to help everyone who wants to cut down how much sugar they intake, here are 10 quick and simple ways it can be done.

#1 Set The Ground Rules From The Start: The best way to achieve anything is to have a plan in place that you are going to follow. When you trying to reduce sugar, rather than randomly taking actions as you go along, take some time to plan ahead, and think of the times and places times when you might weaken so you can prepare for them.

#2 Set Yourself A Daily Quota: From the outset, you must set yourself a quota of how many sugary foods and drinks you will be allowed to have each day. You also want to include in your quota at what times of the day you are allowed your intake of sugary foods.

#3 Be Accountable: You have a much better chance of achieving your goals if you have someone to support you and to whom you are accountable. It could be your spouse, partner, a friend, a family member, or best of all, someone else who is trying to reduce their own sugar intake.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
6 Reasons Why Ghee is Better Than Butter
Healthy Eating

6 Reasons Why Ghee is Better Than Butter

Ghee (also known as clarified butter) is a staple of Asian and Arabic cooking and is created by separating milk solids and water from the fat in butter. Butter is simmered over heat and as the water evaporates, the milk solids that float to the surface are skimmed off to remove any impurities. The milk proteins which sink to the bottom are also discarded leaving a clear liquid fat which is rich in vitamins. The simmering of the butter creates an aromatic and nutty flavour.

Here’s 6 reasons why nutrient rich ghee is better for you:

1. Ghee is very high in vitamin A as well as containing vitamins E and K. These vitamins are fat-soluble which are stored in the gastrointestinal tract and which help to maintain a healthy metabolism.

2. Ghee is a medium chain fatty acid and, like coconut oil, has many properties which are linked to weight loss. Ghee contains essential omega fatty acids such as CLA (Conjugated Linolenic Acid). CLA has been shown to cause fat loss and improve body composition in research from the Department of Food Microbiology and Toxicology in Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Other studies have shown that CLA content is 300-500% higher in beef and dairy from grass-fed cows, compared to grain-fed cows. These benefits are also gained through the consumption of ghee from grass fed cows.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Why You Should Hire A Professional Agency To Design Your Health Food Store’s Website
Health, Healthy Eating, Marketing, Restaurants

Why You Should Hire A Professional Agency To Design Your Health Food Store’s Website

As the owner or manager of a health food store, we are sure there are many aspects of your business that you need to do yourself, and there are others that you have already outsourced or would like to. If you are considering a new website for your health food store then the professional website designers at www.slinkywebdesign.com.au strongly advise you to add this to the ‘outsource’ column.

You might be thinking ‘Of course they would say that’, however, their advice is given, not simply in the hope that you choose them, but from their experience of clients coming to them in need of help, having first tried to build their website themselves. Not only have these clients got nowhere near to completing their website, but the amount of time they have wasted, which could have been better spent running their health food store, is staggering.

So, assuming you do not want to be in the same situation, let us look at why hiring a professional website design agency is not only the most sensible choice but is also the correct business decision with regards to your completed website being able to help your health food store’s success to grow.

The first benefit is one we have already mentioned and that is time. A web design agency will have experts in each of the fields necessary to build websites and so, rather than you as one person doing it all, they will have an entire team. This not only speeds up the whole process so that your website is ready to go live much sooner, but it means your time is spent doing what you do best…managing your health food store.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Why You Should Use Facebook Ads To Promote Your Restaurant
Health, Healthy Eating, Marketing

Why You Should Use Facebook Ads To Promote Your Restaurant

If you have spent any time considering how digital marketing can help boost your restaurant business, you cannot have escaped the fact that advertising on social media is huge online. The question is which social media channels should you use, and if you were to ask an online marketing agency, they would advise you that Facebook Ads offers restaurants a number of advantages.

The first, and most obvious point about Facebook, is that it is the largest social platform on the internet. As such, logic tells us that in your local catchment area, the chances are that more of the people you would hope to target in any digital marketing ads campaign for your restaurant will be on Facebook than any other social media website.

For example, Facebook has more than double the number of users than Instagram, and more than TikTok, Weibo, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, and Reddit combined. We are not saying you should not consider using any of the other social media sites, especially if you wish to target some of the demographic groups that use them, but any paid advertising campaign for your restaurant is going to be less effective, if Facebook is not included in it.

We mentioned demographics in the last paragraph, and should you choose to use Facebook ads as part of your social media campaign, Facebook’s ability to allow you to pinpoint exactly the audience you wish to target makes it so much more effective.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
How to Add Heat to Your Recipes
Healthy Eating

How to Add Heat to Your Recipes

Using spicy food recipes can be quite beneficial for your health. Studies show capsaicin can work as an endorphin to help with depression. It can also work as an antioxidant that can protect your cells and prevent free radicals known for causing cancer. There also other helpful benefits of spicy food like weight loss and digestion.

However, if you’re not all that creative in the kitchen, then you may be wondering how you can add heat to your recipes. Read on for some helpful advice. You can then create a masterpiece in the kitchen and sit back with a glass of wine and relax.

Hot Sauce

A quick, easy, and affordable way to add heat to your food is a hot sauce. It’s versatile for use with vegetables and meat, and it’s something you can add after the food is cooked if not everyone in your family likes their food to have a kick.

Sriracha and tabasco are popular options, and you can pick these up from your local supermarket. You can even find more comprehensive flavours and heat levels from markets and online.

Hot Chillies

Whether you’re preparing a Mexican feast, or you’re just looking to spice up an ordinary dish, then consider hot chillies. You can pick these up from local food markets and supermarkets, and you can even grow them yourself.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Does Your Hospitality Business Need Digital Marketing?
Marketing, Restaurants

Does Your Hospitality Business Need Digital Marketing?

When it comes to hospitality there are so many options that people can choose from it means this is a very competitive marketplace. If your hospitality business is one that is seeking to compete, then you should heed the advice of hospitality online marketing experts at seoperthexperts.com.au who recommend that hospitality businesses take advantage of the benefits that digital marketing offers.

Obviously, there are multiple ways in which your hospitality business can market itself, but given the ever-increasing use of the internet, especially given recent world events, then any business, not just those in hospitality, needs to ensure that it markets itself and has a presence online. More importantly, it needs to be done in the correct way, which is where many hospitality businesses fail miserably.

Assuming you get the correct advice, and more importantly employ a digital marketing agency that has a track record of results, once your digital marketing campaign is in place, then the benefits will soon be seen. What many hospitality business owners do not realise is that digital marketing has many benefits, beyond simply gaining new customers, important though that is.

Improved Brand Awareness

Few businesses can survive if no one knows they exist which is why digital marketing is much sought after, given its ability to enhance the brand of a business. Not only will the brand become stronger and more recognizable, but that in itself will help to make your hospitality business’s trust level increase, and as you know people like to do business with a brand they can trust.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
How to Pick Drug Rehab Facilities for a Loved One 
Healthy Eating

How to Pick Drug Rehab Facilities for a Loved One 

Once you or a loved one has made the first step in realising a drug rehab facility is a necessity; it’s then time to choose one. What works for one individual might not work for another, so this step is a wholly personal one. What do you need to consider before choosing one? Read on to find out.

Step 1: Determine Your Goals and Needs

Everyone has a different set of goals when it comes to sobriety. Some people need help to get drugs and alcohol out of their system and manage the withdrawal symptoms. Others require assistance with getting through the many trying months of recovery. You may even see the need for a unique drug rehab facility based on what you’re addicted to

Before you start looking at your options, write down what you hope to achieve from the experience. It can matter a great deal.

Step 2: Consult a Professional

Rather than pick a drug rehab facility on your own, enlist the help of a professional. A general practitioner can look at your substance abuse problem and align it with the best type of facility to help. They can also walk through inpatient and outpatient treatment options, your budget, and various programmes that might be available.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Time for Dentures
Health

How to Tell it’s Time for Dentures  

Many people want to hold onto their natural teeth for as long as possible. And, with a regular oral health care routine and dental checks, that’s entirely achievable. However, through life choices and circumstances, sometimes a cosmetic dentist can see the need to offer their patient the option of dentures. At what point do they become a valid option? Read on to find out.

Your Teeth Are Loose

Teeth, naturally, should not be loose. However, gum disease can affect the roots of your teeth, causing them to work their way free. Loose teeth are prone to falling out and cracking, not to mention being more at risk of bacteria settling in and causing infection. At this point, your dentist might recommend dentures.

You Have Red and Swollen Gums

Healthy gums are pink, but unhealthy ones that are showing signs of periodontal disease are red and swollen. Early on, gingivitis can be reversed through oral hygiene and dental cleaning. However, the longer you leave it before taking action, the more likely you are to need dentures as time goes on.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Remove Coffee Stains From Carpets
Sustainability

How To Remove Coffee Stains From Carpets

Coffee is a drink which is loved the world over, but it becomes less than popular when it has been spilt on someone’s carpet, especially if that person is unsure which carpet cleaning method to use in order to remove the stain it has created.

Not only does the colour of coffee make it a particularly unsightly stain, especially on lighter coloured carpets, but with many people having sugar in their coffee, it can create a sticky residue in the fibres of your carpets where the stain is located

The first tip we can give you is to not panic, which unfortunately is what most people do whenever something has been spilt and is now making a stain in their carpet. Their immediate thought is to rush to the kitchen, grab a cloth, and then furiously rub that area of the carpet in the hope than they are removing the stain.

In most instances, they will not be removing the coffee stain, and in fact, are probably making the stain a greater problem than it needs to be. The reason is that by rubbing, they might be soaking up some of the coffee, but at the same time, they are spreading the coffee over a wider area and thus the stain gets bigger.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
In-Chair Teeth Whitening
Health

How to Keep Your Teeth White After In-Chair Teeth Whitening

According to a Journal of Dentistry study, up to 52 percent of survey respondents aren’t happy with the colour of their teeth. If you fall into that category, then you will be pleased to know that your local dentist at Joondalup Dentist can offer a solution.

In-chair teeth whitening is a wonderful option for many people with yellow or stained teeth who want to feel confident showing off their grin. Even for those with permanently stained teeth, dentists can offer porcelain veneers to solve the problem.

However, after in-chair whitening, it’s easy to assume that your teeth will be white forever. You’ve had the treatment; they look fab, so why wouldn’t they look that way forever? Ongoing care is required to maintain your new set of pearly whites. Here is how to keep your smile whiter and brighter for longer.

Take-Home Trays

After seeing your dentist for in-chair teeth whitening, ask them about take-home trays and whether they are right for you. Take-home trays are custom moulds with a bleaching solution, designed to maintain that beautiful white smile.

Unlike over-the-counter whitening trays, those from your dentist are custom-fitted to your teeth, and with a stronger solution for a more accurate and effective whitening experience.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Toilet Paper
Sustainability

Why Your Choice of Toilet Paper Really Matters

Buying toilet paper is something you probably don’t put a lot of thought into when you head into your local supermarket. You grab one packet you like off the shelf, add it to your trolley among the bread and milk, and sustainability might not even cross your mind. However, your choice in toilet paper really matters.

Between 1996 and 2005, close to 11 million hectares of boreal forests in Canada were logged for toilet paper for the United States and the rest of the world. The Canadian boreal forest is valuable for its indigenous people, the climate, and species, and continual logging for pulp for toilet paper has a significant impact.

Therefore, if you can put sustainability to the forefront of your mind, you may be able to consider alternative options for your household’s toilet paper supply. You never know, you could make more of an impact than you first thought.

So, how do you shop for the eco-friendliest toilet paper? There are a few things to consider, which we’ll run through below.

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification

FSC is an organisation that is all about promoting responsible forest management. Be on the lookout for an FSC tick on your toilet paper products, but then consider which category the toilet paper could fall into. FSC mix means the toilet paper can be a mixture of certified forest, reclaimed, or controlled source materials.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Weddings

12 Ways to Ensure Your Wedding Reception is Terrific

Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life and every bride yearns for the best day ever, with no hiccups or incidents, even if they are nervous.  There are many ways you can ensure your dream is granted and one of them is to hire a truly professional dj to make sure the reception swings along in just the way you want.

But that is not the only thing to do. It’s important you organise everything carefully and write it down, so you don’t forget anything or make a mistake. Here are some tips to help your wedding reception be terrific.

  • Start organising early because things get booked out well ahead of time. Even 12 months ahead is not too early to book the venue.
  • The food is an important part of the wedding reception. You want something a little different, but not so different that no one has ever heard of it. This is especially important if the bride or groom come from a different country where the food choices are not easily accessed in Australia.
  • Choose two dishes so guests can exchange with their partner or someone else at their table if they don’t like the one they are given.
  • Before booking the DJ, find out what music he has and if he can get your choice in time if he doesn’t happen to have it.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Healthy Eating, Restaurants

How to Keep Kitchen Floors Looking Spotless

Anyone involved in commercial cleaning, or even responsible for their own household chores, need to know how to keep a kitchen floor clean. In most cases, your health and safety depend on it.

However, in a commercial environment, a sparkling clean floor becomes even more critical. Knowing how to achieve that desired result, and having an effective process to follow day in, day out, can make all the difference. Read on to learn what it takes.

Sweeping/Brushing

During food preparation and food service, a lot of food can drop on the floor. It can then become trampled under foot and flattened into your flooring. Sweeping takes no time at all, but it can certainly make a significant difference to the cleanliness of your floors when it’s not done often.

Make a point of cleaning up after every major food preparation exercise, and during regular checks of the eating area once customers have left. Then, when it comes time to haul out the cleaning liquids, much of the hard work is already complete.

Cleaning Fluids

In the fast-paced food industry, time is of the essence. You want to complete tasks quickly and effectively. Therefore, most of us will be guilty of using our eyes as our measuring tools for cleaning fluids, rather than the directions on the bottle and a measuring cup.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Dental Implants
Health

How to Care for Dental Implants

The Oral Health Tracker national report card in Australia shows that many Australians are not caring for their teeth as they should. Tooth decay is the most widespread chronic disease, and only just over half of Australians are brushing their teeth twice per day, as recommended by dentists.

Even scarier is the knowledge that the average Australian adult is missing around five teeth. That’s why dental implants are growing in popularity, with thousands of people visiting their dentists to perform the procedure and get back that coveted set of pearly whites.

Dental implants are replacement teeth that replace one or more teeth in the front or back. They take the form and function of a natural tooth but are permanently fixed in place, unlike dentures.

While Dental Implant don’t decay as regular teeth do, they do require care and attention. Read on to learn how to maintain your dental implants and why they might be right for you.

Brush

The brushing process for dental implants is similar, or the same, to regular teeth. Use a soft-bristled toothbrush and brush all your teeth, including the implant, twice daily. Dentists recommend brushing for about two minutes, morning and night. (more…)

By The Healthy Gourmet
Photo Booth
Weddings

How the Photo Booth Can Be the Life of the Party

Most people have heard of someone being dubbed the life of the party. A person with such party-going skills is usually a popular addition to any party because he or she simply makes the party more fun to be at. They can stir everyone up and break the ice so people feel more comfortable chatting and laughing with people they don’t really know well. So how can a photo booth be the life of a party?

For some reason, people congregate around it. They hear others laughing as they dress up ready to have their photo taken and it attracts them and they are drawn towards the sound like moths to a flame. If you don’t have photo booth hire on the to-do list for your party, better put it on now.

Once a crowd is standing around watching others have fun and waiting for their turn at the booth, even more people drift over to see what’s going on. They think it’s a good idea to have their photo taken, so they stay there and await their turn. Meanwhile, they are having fun watching all the other people have fun. Before you know it, half the party is going on over near the photo booth.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Improve Your Mental Health
Health

Five Ways to Improve Your Mental Health

Although Australia is one of the more “modern” and “advanced” countries in the world, our culture still has a huge racism problem. This stretches to include everything from casual racism to obvious racial discrimination within many workplaces.

Unfortunately, racial discrimination can have severe impacts on people’s mental health. If you’ve ever suffered such problems, you may have encountered mental illnesses as a result.

And although you should always take steps to ensure racial discrimination is eliminated from your workplace – including seeking legal advice if necessary – it’s also important to keep yourself healthy.

To help you do this, we’ve put together the following guide of five easy ways to improve your mental health and maintain a positive state of mind.

  1. Do Something You Enjoy

If you feel like your mental health is suffering as a result of discrimination (or anything else), you may need to just sit back and relax for a while. One of the best ways to return yourself to a positive state of mind is to spend time doing things you enjoy.

For example, if you love the ocean, you might consider getting out for regular walks, fishing, diving or even surfing if you’re an athletic type. It’s also a well-known fact that simply being out in nature is good for your mental health.

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By The Healthy Gourmet
Wedding DJ
Weddings

8 Questions You Need to Ask the Wedding DJ

Nearly everyone these days considers dj hire to be an important part of organising their wedding reception. The dj can play a great variety of music for your wedding and what you get is the original covers, not someone playing their version of the songs you choose. However, to get the best disc jockey for your needs, you need to ask them these 8 questions.

  • Are you available on the date I’ve set? Naturally enough, no matter how good the dj is he won’t be able to perform at your wedding if he’s already booked for another. That’s why it’s important to start on your quest early – like several months ahead of the date.
  • How much experience do you have? Djs have to start somewhere, but hopefully, not at your wedding. You want someone who has a track record of successful wedding receptions behind him so you can have peace of mind that he will be able to deliver the goods for yours.
  • What kind of music do you play at weddings? The dj needs to play what you want, not what they want. He should be willing to sort out his playlist to include your style and genre of music as well as requests from your guests. Everyone like to listen to their favourite song.

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By The Healthy Gourmet