Helen Medlyn

14 September 2008

As seen in the award winning Sunday Star Times Escape section.

2009 winner - Health Section Qantas Media Awards.

Helen Medlyn is a New Zealand opera singer, actress and dancer. She was made an Arts Foundation of New Zealand laureate in 2002 and is a regular guest artist with opera companies and orchestras throughout Australasia, Asia, America and Britain.

9am: When I’m in work mode, I have two meals a day. If I’m home or in accommodation where I can cook, I’ll have a breakfast of scrambled eggs (which I am a queen at making) with two slices of toasted, buttered Vogel’s Soy & Linseed bread. This is washed down by my one coffee of the day - I take it industrial strength! If I’m touring and don’t have cooking facilities, I’ll head for my favourite cafe in whatever town I’m in for eggs on toast and a double shot flat white.

3.30pm: My second meal involves veggies, fish (I’m a pescatarian) and fruit. It could be either a salad of mixed greens (always around 100g which is a fair whack), a couple of acid free tomatoes, chopped veggies and herbs, with some tinned or smoked fish, or it might be steamed veggies with grilled or lightly fried fresh fish or shellfish.

Whatever the meal, it will always end with a piece of fresh fruit. After a performance I like to quaff a glass of wine and have six or eight crackers, each laden with a generous wad of Kikorangi cheese, or I might have a couple of handfuls of roasted mixed nuts. Scrumptious! When I’m working, the water intake is pretty good, around four litres a day - but on a normal day, I’ll admit I come nowhere near taking in the magic eight glasses. Rarely do I feel I need to have a snack, but if I do, I’ll have a mug of instant miso soup or some raw veggies or an apple.

I eat a lot of raw stuff and take four supplements a day to keep me strong and stressless: Red Seal’s Garlic, Vitamin C, Echinacea & Zinc, Healtheries Iron & vitamin C, Healtheries Olive Leaf High Potency and Healtheries St John’s Wort. But I have a confession to make, I don’t do any exercise. Oh yes, I warm up my voice and I’ve been known to stride off to the theatre, but the only time I breathe heavily and sweat (well, with my clothes on!) is when I’m rehearsing or performing.

Jacquie says:

A major drawback to eating only two meals a day would be the long periods that Helen’s body goes without nourishment. It’s common for women to under-eat and lose precious muscle and bone over time. This can leave us weighing the same but with a higher body fat percentage. Including nutritious snacks would help preserve muscle and bone, top up nutrient requirements and stabilise energy levels. When it comes to supplementation, the biggest mistake we see in our clinic is people using four to five individual products without a broad spectrum multivitamin. Vitamins and minerals work together as a team in the body and if one team member is off sick (missing), then the other team members can’t do their job properly.

Each week a nutritionist from Real Nutrition looks over a celebrity's diet. For award winning health articles and a really good read - check out the Sunday Star Times each Sunday.