Having just spent an excellent week in the Med I have come back feeling even healthier than ever. I fully embraced the colourful Mediterranean diet, eating masses of delicious fruit and veg, fish, chicken, wholesome breads, plenty of olive oil, garlic and lemon juice plus an occasional glass of red wine! Perfecto! You certainly don’t need to be a Master Chef to make the most amazing meals for you and your family it’s all about buying the right, fresh ingredients. And if you truly want to be healthy and...

Weekly meal planning is a wonderful thing and if you are organised and have the time, unlike me, then it is a great thing to do. You know exactly what you need to buy so shopping is much easier and it should, in theory, save you money as it stops you making impulse purchases which often end up just getting wasted. I HATE WASTE! Occasionally I set out with good intentions but if I’m honest, it is rare! Normally I look in the fridge in the morning to see...

I have just been watching the news and listening to the warnings about our obsession with sugar and the horrendous health consequences we can look forward to if we continue to indulge in this silent killer. They have talked about the obvious culprits like fizzy drinks, chocolate and sugary cereals, but what about all the sugar loaded into other food that isn’t quite so apparent. For instance if you ever buy low fat food then I suggest next time, you take a minute to look at the ingredients list, you...

I think I can safely say we all enjoy this time of year, it takes a long time coming but it’s always welcome. Feeling the sun on your back, eating alfresco, enjoying all the beautiful summer flowers and delicious fruit and veg, but of course there’s always a price to pay. INSECTS. And they are in abundance, flies everywhere, bees buzzing, wasps stinging, it’s a hive of activity but it’s part of what makes our summer. You may have already worked out that I’m a ‘Live and Let Live’ kind of...

I have been eating organic food for years now. When the first ‘vegetable box scheme’ started out in our area about 15 years ago I decided to give it a try. I waited in all evening for my delivery, which was incredibly late, and when it did finally arrive I swear most of it was mud! I am all for things being ‘as nature intended’ but that was a bit too much nature, even for me! Things have changed a lot since those days, it is more convenient, flexible...

This may seem like a very strange and rather personal question but it is an important one and is one that could seriously affect your health, believe it or not. The invention of the sit up toilet many years ago was, at the time, an absolute godsend, toilet habits were pretty grim in those days so it was certainly much more hygienic than just doing it where you stood, which they actually did! Anyway that aside, the toilet was a fantastic invention but it isn’t as healthy as you may...

Does everyone remember the 80’s Aussie safe sun Slip, Slop, Slap campaign? Basically it advised you to Slip on a shirt, Slop on some sun cream and Slap on a hat. And we are constantly being told the same, be safe in the sun, story now, wearing sun cream as soon as there is even a hint of sun but in reality maybe we should be using a little bit less and getting a bit more sun. Did you know that Vitamin D is called the ‘sunshine’ vitamin as...

I have to confess, I have a soup fetish, summer or winter I love soup! In the summer I make cold soups like Gorgeous Gazpacho and in the winter I make warming, filling soups like Love Life Lentil Soup. Adding power foods like chilli and ginger as in Hot Harissa. I could eat soup every day and I would never get bored! I do understand that soup is not everyone’s cup of tea but it really is incredibly good for you! It is fantastically versatile (great to use up...

…….when it’s a habit! Treats are only treats if you don’t have too many of them, letting yourself have the same treats day after day is no longer a treat but has become a bad habit! That doesn’t mean we can’t have any treats, I love a treat, I just don’t have the same treats every day and that is what makes the difference. I try to have a treat when I really feel like it, not just because it’s what I usually do. Looking at your pattern of...

Every year I have a glut of something, well usually lots of things, it’s an occupational hazard of owing an allotment. This year has been a funny year, like the last one and the one before that come to think of it! It’s either too dry, too wet, too hot or too cold but still there is always a glut of something! nstead of giving it all a way (sorry to anyone who knows me!) or just eating the same steamed veg night after night for weeks on end,...

Doctors who specialise in nutritional medicine believe that the typical Western diet could be contributing to a myriad of health issues caused by food intolerances. If you are suffering from migraines or headaches, congested sinuses, catarrh or wheezing, eczema or other rashes, gut problems like bloating, diarrhoea or constipation, even swollen and painful joints or fatigue, you are likely to be intolerant to something you are eating regularly! 90% of these food intolerances are caused by only 4 foods, gluten (wheat,) dairy, yeast and eggs, the problem with these...

I read somewhere years ago that putting Vicks on your feet would help the symptoms of a cold and guarantee a good night’s sleep. I decided it was definitely worth a go so tried it on my kids when they next had a cold, it worked really well so we’ve been doing it ever since! To start with I didn’t question why it worked until it dawned on me one day that it must be something to do with reflexology, I’d had a few great treatments myself from a...

I decided recently that I should start to pimp my meals with some easy to use but amazing superfoods to make sure all my meals pack an extra nutritional punch. Winter is fast approaching so we all need a bit more resistance and stamina to stay fit and healthy. There are so many easy ways to pimp your meals, so lets start with breakfast. Throw some blue/purple fruits, like blueberries, on your porridge or muesli (yes even on your cornflakes is fine!) they have powerful antioxidant properties and are...

It’s definitely that time of year when we start to feel like hibernating, the nights are drawing in, the temperatures are dropping and sunshine is scarce. Aside from the excitement of Christmas and the romantic notion of sipping hot chocolate in front of an open fire, we often end up getting ill, feeling tired, run down and sometimes just a little bit down in the dumps. Could it be a touch of Seasonal Adjustment Disorder (SAD?) SAD is a common ailment and can affect people in varying degrees but it...

My hands are always awful at this time of year, they get very dry and sandpapery, I do try to wear gloves (when I remember,) I put on lashings of hand cream (when I remember!) I even occasionally wear cotton sleep gloves to lock in the moisture at night which does work a bit but this is a much better cure for my dry hands and it is so easy you can do it in a jiffy whenever they are feeling a bit rough. Do this over your kitchen...

It is believed that artificial sweeteners found in ‘low calorie,’ ‘sugar free’ and ‘diet’ products can actually make you put weight on! There has been so much research into the effects of artificial sweeteners especially aspartame, that they now believe it can increase your appetite and intensify your cravings for sweets and other carbohydrates. Hence the weight gain. I guess it’s not quite the ‘diet’ product people think it is after all. Aspartame is a chemical sweetener and comes with a big black cloud hanging over it, of course...

It may seem a bit late in the day to be suggesting you ’don’t over do it’ and I probably should have talked about this before Christmas but I thought it may just fall on deaf ears and what I really want to say here is ‘don’t over do the resolutions!’ This may seem a bit crazy coming from someone who wants you all to make healthy changes, but as good as new year resolutions are, if you make too many you are almost definitely destined for failure. Small...

There are many, many reasons why we should eat a rainbow of fresh fruit and vegetables every day, but these two are right up there on the list – Free Radicals and Antioxidants. These two words are banded around a lot and whilst I’m sure most people have a bit of knowledge about both of them, do you truly understand what they are and what they actually do? Here’s the science bit, in brief….. Free radicals are molecules, derived from oxygen that contain unpaired electrons. These unpaired electrons stabilize themselves...