Maggie's Recipe for Life

Maggie Beer and Professor Ralph Martins have teamed up to fight one of the most debilitating diseases of our later years. Based on the latest scientific research, Maggie has created more than 200 recipes that help provide the nutrients we need for optimum brain health. More than one million Australians are affected every day by Alzheimer’s or its impact on their family but the good news is that you can eat well to age well, from this moment on.

Maggie and Ralph will be in-conversation with Julia Lester to discuss their new book Maggie’s Recipe for Life - and the research undertaken. The proceeds from Maggie’s Recipe for Life will be shared between the Maggie Beer Foundation and the Lions Alzheimer’s Research Foundation.

Maggie Beer AM

A respected mentor to many, Maggie Beer is celebrated for her entrepreneurial skills and natural leadership abilities in the gourmet food arena. Maggie’s fame has been built on a career that spans farming, food production, exporting, food writing and television presenting.

Maggie Beer’s many cookbooks include Maggie’s Harvest, Maggie’s Kitchen and Maggie’s Verjuice Cookbook. As well as overseeing Maggie Beer Products in the Barossa Valley, SA, Maggie appears as a judge on The Great Australian Bake-Off and heads up the Maggie Beer Foundation committed to providing a good food life for all.

Maggie Beer was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Australia, in recognition of her enormous contribution to the promotion of South Australia’s food and tourism industries and her contribution to wellbeing in the community, 

Professor Ralph Martins

Professor Ralph Martins is a Professor of Neurobiology at Macquarie University, NSW, and Foundation Chair in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease at Edith Cowan University, WA.

“I first became interested in Alzheimer’s research when my father-in-law, George, was diagnosed with the disease in his sixties. It was heartbreaking to watch as George transformed from an intellectual giant to someone totally dependent on care in just six short years. It made me determined to fight this devastating disease and thirty-three years later, I am still working towards diagnosing, preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer’s."

Julia Lester

Maggie and Ralph will be in-conversation with Julia Lester. Julia has worked as a Radio Broadcaster and Producer, TV Current Affairs Reporter, Public Speaker, MC of events concerts and conferences, Interviewer, News Journalist, Teacher, Actor and Musician.

In 1985 Julia joined the ABC where she stayed, with a few breaks, for 30 years. During that time, she worked as a Journalist and Presenter in TV and Radio across many areas: interviewer and documentary-maker with ABC Radio National, 7.30 Report reporter, live talk host on 891 ABC Adelaide, Presenter of Classic Drive with ABC Classic FM until her retirement in 2015.

Her interests and areas of knowledge are broad, including politics, music, visual art, literature, ideas, religion, and philosophy. For pleasure she reads widely, performs composes and consumes music, gardens, walks and camps in the bush, travels, visits galleries, has long conversations in cafes trying to work out how the world works. She’s still trying.

Maggie's Recipe for Life

“To have a healthy old age you must act now, whether you are 30 or 50.“I have two great passions – sharing my love of cooking delicious simple food and improving the health and nutrition of older people. I hope this cookbook does both but it’s not for ‘old’ people, it’s for you. I have been delighted to work with leading Alzheimer’s researcher Professor Ralph Martins in recent years and I have learned that if we are to avoid Alzheimer’s and other lifestyle diseases it is what we eat today that matters.“These are my recipes for every day, for everybody, full of deep flavours and beautiful ingredients that will nourish you and your family. Nobody wants to eat worthy food that tastes like cardboard. For me, food without flavour is unthinkable! And so is the notion of restricting whole food groups. My recipe for life is to have a healthy attitude to eating – it’s all about balance, variety and choosing foods that give you the best chance of being in good health now and into your future.

“This is not a diet book – it’s a way of life.”– Maggie Beer