Australian lifestyle habits: 5 ways they do things better in Oz

Insider's new wellness columnist, model and nutritionist Sarah Ann Macklin, on what we can learn from the Australians  
Sarah Ann Macklin1 January 2019

I've just returned from two sunny weeks in Southern Australia, hitting up Sydney, Adelaide, McLaren Vale, Kangaroo Island and Melbourne.

As a nutritionist and model, I normally feel ahead of the game when it comes to wellness, but the Australians seem to be leaps and bounds ahead of the UK, adopting an LA-style culture of healthy food, drink and exercise.

Here are five simple ways I think the Aussies do it better.

There are farmer's markets (everywhere)

I loved how many farmers markets I saw in Australia. Even in the smallest towns such as Willunga (where I stopped at en route to the magnificent wine district McLaren Vale), I'd pass markets selling organic fruit and vegetables that had been grown within 20 minutes of the seller’s home, a large variety of homemade dips (half which were completely new to me), organic wine, fresh vegetable juices, locally sourced meat, and even homemade crackers.

Kombucha on sale at a farmer's market (Sarah Ann Macklin)

There were also plenty of prebiotic foods on sale, like sauerkraut, kombucha, and kimchi. People were turning up with mini trollies to bulk buy all their fresh produce for the week ahead.

A lot of healthy eating comes down to preparation. I loved seeing people buy seasonal vegetables and loading up on sauerkraut from their neighbours, instead of popping to the corner shop to buy fruit and veg that had been flown halfway across the world.

Exercise is a daily habit

Exercise and movement is a big part of Australian daily life, whether it's long runs, sessions in the gym, swimming, surfing, rowing (there was a lot of this on the Yarra River in Melbourne), or simply walking to work. There wasn't a day I spent in Australia when I didn’t pass at least five different types of sporting teams - from run clubs to park yoga sessions.

Sarah gets into the outdoor lifestyle (Sarah Ann Macklin)

Working out every day in Australia helped set me up for the day ahead, but it was also a good way to feel more at home. The gyms I visited were built around socializing; friends gather there before and after work, instead of meeting at the pub.

Cities which embrace exercise encourage people to participate - Australia definitely spurred me on to improve my own fitness routine.

Plant-based menu options are plentiful

In the last decade there's been a boom in plant-based eating in Australia, and an abundance of options popped up on every menu I saw, like the vegan breakfast bowls at Jamu Juice in the central food market in Adelaide, the Reuben Sandwich (which uses corn tempeh as a replacement for beef) at Power Plant in Melbourne or Colonel Tso's Cauliflower at Don't Tell Aunty in Sydney.

There seemed to be a wider variety of plant-based options available than in the UK, where you're more likely to see the same oaty option for breakfast or risotto for dinner.

Colonel Tso's cauliflower on the menu at Don't Tell Aunty in Sydney (Sarah Ann Macklin)

Great coffee is a given

I thought I knew good coffee until I visited Melbourne. The café culture there is like no other, with the best places hidden on the laneways. I was tipped off by some locals to visit a hole in the wall expresso bar in a subway underpass called A Cup of Truth.

As people in Melbourne don’t like to wait for their coffee, the owners have created an honesty system to speed this up called 'the cup of truth' - visitors pay for their coffee straight into a pot so the baristas don't have to deal with the cash register. Would this work in London?

The laneways in Melbourne (Sarah Ann Macklin) 

It's all about clean cocktails

This I love. The 'clean' part doesn't mean non-alcoholic (otherwise known as mocktails), it just means drinks which aren't overloaded with refined sugar, adding to that dreaded hangover and increased waistline.

At Sydney cocktail bar Don’t Tell Aunty I tried their signature drink, which contains Blanco tequila, Mezcal, Aperol, lime and fresh beetroot. The bar's owner, Jessi, told me clean cocktails were going to be even bigger in 2019.

New York luxury gyms and workout classes

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