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...

I was bought up on traditional British meat and two veg meals where meat was always centre stage on the plate, potatoes were a close second and vegetables, although important in their own right, were uninteresting and usually boiled to within an inch of their lives! Thankfully things have changed for the better, eating is far more interesting nowadays with all the amazingly diverse foods from around the world, the different cooking methods and of course there’s just so much more variety….. of everything. In our house vegetables often take...

Nutritional deficiencies can affect every single cell in our bodies and not eating the right foods long term can cause all number of problems leading eventually to chronic diseases like alzheimers, heart disease, depression, fatigue, cancer etc. But a few little changes to your diet now could really make all the difference to your future. Our bodies are so amazingly clever that even if you feed them junk, they will still work…… in the short term anyway. We have inbuilt a myriad of resources and systems to combat just...

…….and medicine be your food, advised Hippocrates over 2500 years ago and it is still as valid today as it was then, although we seem to have strayed a long was from his path. Hippocrates, the father of natural medicine, believed in good food and related ill health to poor nutrition and bad eating habits, he urged us to respect nature’s healing forces. What Hippocrates was suggesting with this is that prevention is better than cure, eating a good, healthy, whole food diet will keep you healthier in the long...

As you no doubt already know, vegetables are vitally important to our health, each one has its own set of key vitamins and minerals, but are we eating enough greens like kale, spinach, cabbage, watercress, spring greens, broccoli, brussels sprouts etc? Leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables like these are the most nutrient rich of all but are sadly, according to research, the least consumed. By not eating enough you could be missing out on the essential nutrients Vitamin C, E and K, Calcium, Folic Acid, Iron and Magnesium. Did you...

I know we’re coming to the end of winter. YEAH! But there are still plenty of cold mornings ahead so a hot bowl of porridge is the perfect breakfast to fire you up. And as long as you soak them overnight they can just as easily be eaten without being cooked, so can make a great summer breakfast too. When I was a kid my mum used to have a big pot of porridge erupting on the stove most school mornings, it was, and still is, a cheap breakfast...

It is pretty likely that most of us are not drinking anywhere near enough water and even though we are regularly advised to drink 6-8 glasses a day, more if it’s hot, most people favour tea, coffee, soft drinks and alcohol over a refreshing glass of water. I personally love a glass of fresh, filtered, unadulterated water but some people just don’t like water or find it boring and unappealing and believe that as long as they’re drinking enough liquid in general that it will be ok, but this...

Following on from my last blog, “Let water be the staff of life’ I have decided to carry on in a similar vein in the hope of persuading any hardened tea and coffee drinkers to cut down a little….. or even a lot. Reducing the amount of tea and coffee you drink, or stopping completely, can only be a good thing, no matter what the ‘experts’ say, and even they are undecided, one minute it’s good for you, the next it’s not, but in my book, caffeine is ultimately...