There will be huge variety at the health exhibition in Dublin's RDS this weekend, with even a workshop for people seeking clarity about their own sexuality, writes Sylvia Thompson.With 200 stands of top products and therapies, this year's Rude Health exhibition is not to be missed
Rude Health, the health show in the Main Hall of the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin, next Saturday and Sunday is billed as a health exhibition for the 21st century.
Formerly called Your Health Show, the annual exhibition organised by the Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS) aims to attract a new generation of "fast-moving, fun-loving, time-strapped and questioning" consumers.
"We wanted to broaden out the show because we were having a lot of the same people coming back year after year," says Erica Murray, owner of the Hopsack Health Store in Rathmines, Dublin, and member of the IAHS.
"In particular, we want to encourage young mothers who are juggling work and the health of their families. And, as we have a big emphasis on lifestyle change, we hope to attract the young, stressed Celtic Tiger cubs who are keen to eat well and live a healthy lifestyle," she adds.
Murray says that the organisers of Rude Health are expecting about 10,000 people to attend the event which has over 200 stands of products and therapies and 50 free talks/sem-inars, demonstrations and workshops scheduled over the two days.
The seminar programme has an impressive line-up of speakers, some of whom are regulars and others who will attend the show for the first time.
The regulars include Prof Jane Plant (www.cancersupportinternational.com) and Bernadette Bohan (www.changesimply.com), both of whom will speak from different perspectives on the role of diet and environmental pollution in certain cancers.
Dr Marilyn Glenville (www.marilynglenville.com), a UK-based nutritional therapist and author, will speak about diet for good pre-conceptual healthcare and the menopause.
And Dr Alex Richardson (www.fabresearch.org) will examine the links between food and learning, in particular the role of fish oils in children with learning difficulties. Another omega-3 expert, Prof Tom Saldeen from the University of Uppsala, Sweden, will speak about the benefits of omega-3 oils for the over 50s.
New this year is a presentation from former school dinner lady, Jeanette Orrey, who has been to the forefront in England in the promotion of healthy school meals.
Orrey will speak about the School Food Trust and the Food for Life Partnership (see www.soilassociation.org). The projects help to set up school and community gardens, bring cookery classes to school children, their parents and grandparents via a mobile cooking bus and offer training in healthy food sourcing and cooking for school dinner ladies.
"In England, there has been two generations of people who have forgotten how to cook and pass on these basic skills to their children. We aim to get all school meals to the standard they should be at and have children value food and where it comes from," she says.
"We've come an awful long way since we started in 2000 but it's not a quick-fix solution. It will take ten years to get everyone growing food and eating and cooking healthy food."
Another newcomer this year is environmentalist, yoga teacher and author, Bernadette Valleley. Valleley will give talks on Sacred Sex - recovering a healthy sexuality and The Young Person's Guide to Saving the Planet. "For the last 25 years, my work has been about raising consciousness about our surroundings and our relationships," she says.
"In the past, we let the church take care of sexuality through its moral guidelines but as society becomes more secular, people no longer have a sense of the sacredness of the earth and sexual relationships."
Valleley says her workshop will be for people seeking clarity about their own sexuality. "We need sex with human beings to heal ourselves and we also need to forgive ourselves for the mistakes we've made and the traumas and distress we've had."
Valleley uses Shamanistic rituals and meditation practices from Kriya yoga in her workshops.
Jason Vale was an addiction psychologist who became so interested in nutrition that he now dedicates all his time to spreading the word about juicing. The self-styled juice expert (see www.juicemaster.com) has turned the simple act of juicing into a successful business, backed by his personal story.
"I was overweight. I had asthma since I was eight and severe psoriasis since I was 15," says Vale who also smoked and drank heavily.
In the past five years, Vale has turned his life around and become a health and fitness guru to the stars. At Rude Health, he says, he will be passing on the simple message, "if you don't look after your body, you'll have nowhere to live".
Vale recommends people replace one meal a day (preferable breakfast) with a freshly made juice made from a healthy blend of fruit and vegetables.
So, will those who attend the Rude Health event come away inspired by people like Jason Vale and ready to turn their lives around?
"There is always a risk that people will go back to their old habits," admits Erica Murray. "However, we feel that if we get one message across to people who come so that they can make one small decision about their own lives to make them healthier, we're happy."
She adds: "What we are doing is encouraging people to take responsibility for their own health while they are still healthy. So often nowadays, people abdicate this responsibility, handing over control to other people.
Put people in the driving seat of their own health and they immediately feel empowered which in itself, benefits their health."
Rude Health is in the Main Hall of the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin, on Saturday, September 1st, from 11am-7pm and Sunday, September 2nd, from 11am-6pm. While admission is €10, people can avail of free admission by registering online. Log onto www.rudehealth.ie