Coco's Blog

Latest guide

Salt, sun and chlorine: a summer hair care routine for swimmers

11/11/2026

Summer in Maroubra means early swims at the beach, laps at Des Renford and afternoons at Mahon Pool. It also means hair that feels like straw by February. Salt water, chlorine and strong sun each damage hair in a different way, and together they leav..

Read the guide

Fermented foods for beginners: kombucha, miso, sauerkraut and how to start small

11/11/2026

Fermented foods are some of the oldest foods there are. Long before fridges, people kept cabbage, milk, soybeans and tea from spoiling by letting friendly bacteria and yeasts get to work on them. The result was tangy, salty, fizzy food that lasted fo..

Read the guide

Active B vitamins explained: methylfolate, B12 forms and how to read a B complex label

11/11/2026

Pick up two B complex bottles on our shelves and the labels can read like different languages. One lists folic acid, cyanocobalamin and pyridoxine. The other says methylfolate, methylcobalamin and P5P, and usually costs more. Both are B vitamins. The..

Read the guide

Healthier Christmas baking: simple swaps for flour, sugar, butter and eggs

09/11/2026

Christmas baking is half the fun of December: shortbread for the neighbours, gingerbread with the kids, a fruit cake that somehow lasts until February. It is also the time of year when someone at the table is gluten free, someone is cutting back on s..

Read the guide

Turmeric or curcumin? How to choose a supplement your body can actually absorb

09/11/2026

Turmeric is one of the most asked about supplements on our shelves, and one of the most confusing to buy. One bottle says turmeric, the next says curcumin, a third adds black pepper, and the prices range from a few dollars to well over fifty. The sho..

Read the guide

Bloated after the Christmas party? What actually helps your digestion over the holidays

09/11/2026

Between the work party, the long lunches, the leftover pudding and the one more drink, December is hard work for your digestion. Bloating, heartburn and that heavy, overfull feeling are some of the most common things people ask us about at this time ..

Read the guide

Pink, Celtic or iodised? How to choose a salt, and why iodine still matters

09/11/2026

Walk down the salt section of any health food shop and you will find pink salt, grey salt, flaky salt, black salt and, somewhere near the bottom, plain iodised table salt. Each comes with its own story about minerals and purity. The truth is simpler ..

Read the guide

Packing a summer first aid kit: the basics, the natural extras and the bluebottle rule

09/11/2026

Summer holidays in Australia come with their own small injuries: sunburnt shoulders, mozzie bites, a grazed knee from the rock pool, a bluebottle at the beach, a stubbed toe on the camping trip. A well packed kit means you can deal with the little th..

Read the guide

Eating plant-based? The six nutrients worth keeping an eye on

05/11/2026

A well planned vegan or vegetarian diet can meet your needs at every stage of life. The key word is planned. Most nutrients take care of themselves when your plate is full of vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, but a handful are harder..

Read the guide

Prenatal vitamins in Australia: folic acid, iodine and the rest of the label

05/11/2026

The prenatal shelf can feel crowded when you are trying to conceive or have just found out you are pregnant. There are formulas for each trimester, for breastfeeding, with ginger, without iron, and with folate in three different forms. Underneath all..

Read the guide

Muesli or granola? How to read a breakfast cereal box in under a minute

05/11/2026

The cereal aisle is full of words that sound healthy: wholefood, ancient grains, no refined sugar, high protein, keto. Some of these products make a good everyday breakfast, and some sit closer to a biscuit. The difference is printed on the side of e..

Read the guide

Henna and plant hair colour: what to expect before you mix the first batch

05/11/2026

Plant hair colour has a loyal following. People come to it after a reaction to a salon dye, during pregnancy, or because they want to stop putting peroxide and ammonia on their scalp every six weeks. It can give rich, glossy colour that lasts. It als..

Read the guide

Thoughtful Christmas gifts from a health food shop: Coco's list for 2026

05/11/2026

A good present is something the person would love but would not buy for themselves. That makes a health food shop a better place to shop for Christmas than it first seems. The shelves are full of small luxuries: proper chocolate, honey with a story b..

Read the guide

Vitamin D in a sunny country: why so many Australians still run low

19/10/2026

Australia has some of the strongest sunlight in the world, so it surprises people to hear that low vitamin D is common here. In the Australian Health Survey, close to one in four adults had a vitamin D level below the healthy cut-off. Most of those c..

Read the guide

Do you need a greens powder if you already eat your vegetables?

19/10/2026

Greens powders have gone from health shop niche to the most talked about scoop on social media. The pitch is simple: a spoonful a day covers the vegetables you did not get around to eating. The truth is a little less tidy. A good greens powder can be..

Read the guide

Oat, almond, soy or coconut? Choosing a plant milk for coffee, cooking and kids

19/10/2026

The plant milk fridge has grown from one or two soy cartons to a whole wall: oat, almond, cashew, macadamia, coconut, rice, pea, tiger nut and blends of all of them, each in a regular and a barista version. They are not interchangeable. Some are clos..

Read the guide

Shopping gluten free in Australia: labels, oats and the flours worth knowing

19/10/2026

Some people eat gluten free because they have to, and some because they feel better for it. Either way, the shopping is easier once you know how Australian labels work, where gluten tends to hide, and which grains and flours can stand in for wheat wi..

Read the guide

Sunburnt anyway? A calm guide to after-sun care, and when to see a doctor

19/10/2026

It happens to the most careful of us. A cloudy morning at the beach turns into a scorcher, the sunscreen stays in the bag after a swim, or a patch of back you could not reach turns pink by dinner. With the warmer months back in Sydney, here is how to..

Read the guide

Coco's new online shop: Maroubra's organic health food store, now easier to shop from anywhere in Australia

14/10/2026

Since 2014, Coco's Wealth of Health has been the organic grocer and health food shop at 936 Anzac Parade, Maroubra. In that time the shelves have grown to around 5,000 products, from pantry staples and snacks to supplements, natural skincare and low ..

Read the guide