What is Healthy Eating Club (HEC)
HEC is headed by a medical nutritionist, Professor M Wahlqvist, and nutrition scientist/dietitian, Dr A Kouris-Blazos. It provides a short on-line course in healthy eating, an on-line 6 week wellness program, internet TV channel “Healthy Moments”, downloadable dietary assessment tools, authoritative fact sheets, latest in nutrition research (monthly newsletter), PhDs in nutrition, books, CDs, exercise videos, recipes and more. HEC is also concerned with eco-nutrition i.e ways in which we can help the environment/universe through our eating habits. For more information about HEC, see below.
Why become a member?
This site is different from most other nutrition web-sites in that it has at its helm Australia’s most respected medical nutritionist, Professor Mark Wahlqvist. His role as editor-in-chief, not only ensures that the content is accurate and up-to-date, but also provides the opportunity to canvas some of his visionary and cutting edge ideas.
The healthy eating club or HEC is also different from other sites because it is not JUST a web-site. It is a club, because a club environment lends itself to facilitating changes to one’s food habits through interaction with other members both virtually and through organised functions. The HEC uses novel methods to help members achieve their goals.
- The club is a group of individuals who subscribe to and encourage a universally safe, nutritious and sustainable food supply.
Its members respect food cultural difference and enjoy its celebration. - The club welcomes food cultural advancement and fusion and wishes to network this vision.
- The club provides up-to-date reliable food and health information with resources and feedback to develop healthy eating patterns amongst its members and throughout society.
- Its approach is not one of diet dogma and self denial, but of health improvement through the small steps, of great consequence, which “lifestyle synergy” allows. The club’s endpoints are well-being, health and longevity.
The HEC book gets members underway with this philosophy and approach which combines the great lessons of human history with the best of modern science and technology.
Download a copy of the HEC book here (in PDF format).
HEC members will learn to:
1. Optimise their health and well-being through the understanding that it is possible to be healthy without weight loss, diet dogma and self denial.
Through his experience as a physician and understanding of the scientific literature, Professor Wahlqvist has identified small, but significant, dietary and lifestyle changes that one can make simultaneously in order to minimise disease risk. He has called this “lifestyle synergy” consisting of “small synergistic steps”.
- Members will be able to join the on-line 6 week wellness programs with each week featuring a “synergistic step”.
- Members will be able to become “health-watchers” by using the HEC scores assessing health and well-being and the unique HEC dietary assessment tools which include the HEC pyramid and food variety score. These tools will provide early health and nutrition “alerts” which may otherwise go undetected.
2. Eat better and with greater enjoyment by learning about the food secrets of long-lived food cultures.
Through the internationally known research experience of HEC nutrition experts, such as Dr Antigone Kouris, club members will gain insight and understanding that different food cultures can lead to similarly good health and long life expectancies. The HEC will help members effect health change by incorporating the “best” of food cultures associated with longevity. The “best” may be in the form of traditional recipes or in the form of “fusion” recipes which the HEC has access to.
3. Eat in a way which is friendly to the environment
4. Make informed food choices by understanding the latest discoveries in healthy eating
- The HEC website is the only website currently offering on-line reputable courses for the general public in nutrition. Through our experienced academic lecturers and teachers such as Dr Gayle Savige, Dr Antigone Kouris, club members will have access to interactive course modules which will help them understand the principles of good nutrition and healthy eating.
- The HEC website also offers access to on-line nutrition books written by Professor Mark Wahlqvist, discussion board, a newsletter and access to radio/newspaper interviews/lectures and seminars conducted by Professor Wahlqvist.
- Another novel feature of the HEC is that it will give members access to findings on healthy eating reported in past and present PhDs from around the world. This service also provides a great opportunity for PhD students to publish their thesis on the internet and make it internationally accessible via a reputable site – as opposed to gathering dust on a University shelf.