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Are You Low in Iron?

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I gave blood on Wednesday evening (May 13th 2020). A huge ‘well-done’ to the Blood Donor team who managed so well with the lockdown restrictions. I am a regular donor. I like to give blood not only because I could potentially be saving 3 lives with each donation but also because there are some health benefits to giving blood, causing a level of hormetic (healthy) stress in the body. My iron levels were measured beforehand and I had really good amounts of heamoglobin, the iron inside the red blood cells that carry oxygen around the body, fueling all our cells.

Today, Friday May 15th, having had a very gentle, restorative day on Thursday, I attempted a HIIT workout – short and hard. It was SO tough because it takes 4 – 8 weeks for the number of red blood cells to fullt replenish. I was gasping for air so rapidly and recovering far more slowly than I would ordinarily because I didn’t have my usual oxygen capacity in my blood. It reminded me just how important healthy levels of heamoglobin are for energy, recovery, mental clarity and resilience.

Signs of low heamoglobin include:

  • weakness
  • generalised fatigue
  • shortness of breath
  • dizziness
  • fast, irregular heartbeat
  • pounding in the ears
  • headache
  • cold hands and feet
  • pale or yellow skin

There are numerous reasons why levels can be low. It’s not just about how much iron is in our food, but how well me absorb it. Non-haem iron is found in non-animal foods such as green leafy veg, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, and cocoa, but is generally considered more difficult to use by the body than animal sources such as red meat esp. organ meats, eggs, seafood.

Poor digestion, especially low stomach acid production can also inhibit iron absorption and certain foods block iron absorption like coffee, tea, sodas and alcohol. To naturally enhance your stomach acid levels and iron absorption, have 1 teaspoon (up to 1 tablespoon) of raw apple cider vinegar in a little water at the beginning of a meal that contains iron-rich foods [do not use if you have a peptic ulcer].   Vitamin C also greatly enhances iron absorption, so always have iron-rich food sources with the richly coloured fruits and vegetables.

Those who are choosing to eat very little, if any, animal foods need to be really careful about become anaemic – low in iron. If you are struggling with any of the symptoms above, do get a blood test to find out if it’s due to low heamoglobin but don’t take supplements unless advised by a professional as high levels can also be problematic.

Feed Your Immune System Well

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In these unprecedented times, having a robust, intelligent and fast acting immune response is more important than ever. There is a plethora of articles and posts circulating with recommendations on how to keep well during the pandemic with high dose vitamin C supplementation being the most commonly given piece of advice. Vitamin C is certainly a critical aspect of good immunity but it is not all the only thing we should be focused on.

If you are choosing to take vitamin C supplements, here are a few things to consider: the body cannot store vitamin C, so it should be taking daily. Everyone’s need is different. If you are a smoker, if you are highly stressed, your need greatly increases; to know how much you body can absorb, increase your dose daily until you notice you are stools are becoming looser than usual. Then reduce your dose by 1; not all vitamin C is equal. Look for a supplement that is made from citrus pulp / wholefoods containing the bioflavinoids that assist in your body’s use of vitamin C; ensure you have vitamin C rich foods at every meal – bell peppers, green leafy veg, broccoli / purple sprouting, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kiwi fruit and citrus fruit are all good sources. Steam your veg rather than boil as vitamin C is water soluble so gets lost in the cooking water. Goji berries are also a great option.

There are many other immune-boosting foods and nutrients that we should be focused on: vitamin D is hugely important for a smart immune system and the vast majority of people who live in the UK are known to be at the low end of the recommended range, or below range. Being only just in range is not really sufficient to be functioning optimally. Due to our limited and weak sun in the UK, getting enough of the sunshine vitamin is virtually impossible. Relatively few foods contain vitamin D. It is a fat-soluble vitamin meaning is it found in the fat of foods and critically if supplementing, needs to be consumed with foods that contain some fat. Vitamin D rich foods include oily fish like mackerel and sardines, egg yolks some cheese and organ meats. It is advisable to get a vitamin D test (easily doe with an online kit these days) before taking a supplement to be sure you do need some, as it is possible to have too much, but it is incredibly rare. If your levels are right at baseline or lower than the recommended range, it’s worth taking a vitamin D3 supplement that also contains vitamin K (it will be more expensive) as vitamin K greatly enhances how well your body uses vitamin D.

Zinc and selenium are 2 minerals often lacking in the diet and also key to string immune systems. Zinc is found in pumpkin seeds, eggs shell fish, red meat and beans and selenium is plentiful in Brazil nuts – just 3 Brazil nuts a day should give you a good daily dose.

A little know in the UK super, super-food is black cumin seed oil  (nigella sativa). It is quite bitter tasting, this bitterness coming from antioxidants with amazing health-giving properties.  It is believed that the antioxidants in black seeds may help discourage certain viruses from spreading within the body by making it difficult for viruses to duplicate within the cells. Black seed oil can also boost your body’s natural killer cells, a type of white blood cell that seek out and destroy viruses. Black seed oil must be kept cool, never heated. Ideally buy one in a dark bottle, keep it in the fridge and buy the best quality you can afford i.e cold pressed, organic. It can be used as a culinary oil in salad dressings or take off the spoon like a medicine. 1 – 2 teaspoons daily.

Garlic is well-known to be great for immunity. To ensure your garlic is fully activated and super-charged, get in to the habit of chopping or crushing your garlic when you start your cooking. Leave it exposed to the air for at least 10 minutes. As the broken garlic cells react to the oxygen in the air, the garlic makes large amounts of the active compound much studied for it’s immune-boosting qualities, allicin. You can now cook with the garlic and it will retain its powers. 

Do not forget the importance of a healthy gut for a strong immune system. Around 80% of your immune system lives in the lining of your digestive tract. It can be very tempting to turn to sugary, processed ‘treats’, have some extra  alcohol, chocolate and snacks during times of turmoil and uncertainty. However, these foods and drinks can compromise the gut microbes that are helping to keep us strong and well. Feed your gut microbes with fibre rich foods like brightly coloured and green leafy vegetables, onions, leeks and garlic, nuts and seeds, berries, kiwi, beans and lentils. All these foods contain prebiotic fibre, your gut microbes favourite food. Boost your gut microbes with fermented foods like live, natural yogurt, mature cheeses, fermented vegetables like raw sauerkraut and kimchi and non-alcoholic fermented drinks like dairy, coconut and water kefir and kombucha. These all contain a range of beneficial microbes to help support gut health and immune response.

Other things to consider: keep well hydrated. Making lime and ginger tea is a great way to hydrate while also getting vitamin C from the lime and lots of further health benefits from root ginger. Simply put a few slices of root ginger in a teapot along with a few slices of fresh lime. Pour on hot water and leave to steep for at least 10 minutes. Drink hot or cold throughout the day; get plenty of sleep, your immune system will be compromised if you are tired; try not to be too worried and anxious. Stress can suppress the immune system. Do not be tempted to obsessively follow the news regarding Covid19, it can be overwhelming; keep moving, even if isolating. You are allowed to go outside for a walk, assuming you go somewhere fairly isolated. Sunshine and the outdoors is great for mental and physical health. Be well. Be safe. Be kind.

Hello, I’m an HSP, please be gentle with me.

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Ok, so not a nutrition post but today, Feb 1st 2020, I am feeling the pain of the UKs exit from Europe and it prompted this post on being an HSP.

Have you heard of the term HSP, Highly Sensitive Person? It’s estimated that 20% of the UK population are HSPs and I know myself to be one of them. I’m no expert in this but I did find some comfort in discovering I was not the only one who was battling with the over-whelm of being incredibly susceptible to taking on the pain of the world. It could be the suffering of other people; the plight of the planet inflicted by us humans; the abject horror and bemusement of how people can be so cruel, mean, thoughtless, vicious even to others, to animals, and not seem to care. It scares me and hurts me, literally.

HSPs often have their particular areas of susceptibility, their specialty suffering so to speak. They will no doubt have been told “don’t be so sensitive”, “pull yourself together”, “get a grip”  like it’s a failing, a weakness and a personality flaw to be so tuned in. I like to think of it as a superpower, but probably like most, if not all superpowers, it comes at a cost.

For me the flagrant abuse of mother nature is a constant challenge but more so, the suffering of animals. I am so easily engulfed by emotion when I see, even hear of animals in pain. I can’t watch wildlife programs despite loving the wonder and awe that mother nature inspires, because all too often they will show a wounded animal, a mother that has lost her young, even a wild hunt, which of course is the natural order of things, but I struggle to witness a lion taking down a zebra or such like.  I can certainly no longer casually scroll through social media sites like Facebook because all too often there will be a photo of a wretched, abused or abandoned animal., cat, dog, horse, donkey –  whatever, it literally hurts my heart.  This is not sentimentality, although I’m perfectly capable of that too, this is deep, visceral, chest tightening, gut wrenching, tear-inducing pain that I cannot escape. Once that image is in my mind it haunts me, often at night, as my heart clenches, my breath stops short and I am ridden with feelings of what feels like trauma. It is tugging on the heart stings to a point where is utterly unbearable.

I feel so porous, so raw and exposed so often and despite many a training offering skills to protect oneself from all of those invasive, negative energies, nothing has ever helped me. Being so porous, there are always dents, tears, giant holes that leave me vulnerable. To be able to turn off, even turn down this emotional overload would be a relief but I don’t know how. I understand totally the desire to escape into alcohol, drugs, food. It is only my dogged self-discipline and commitment to being good to my body and brain that stops me succumbing. Exercise is my way of managing, it saves me.

Many HSPs are creatives and  / or therapists. It helps to have that diaphanous layer between the world and your emotions in both professions. Being an HSP can bring about the most awe-inspiring music, art, poetry. As a therapist, I have am so incredibly blessed to be able reach in and connect with the people who come to me for help. When I first studied psychotherapy I was very struck by the idea that it matters little what specific disciple a therapist is trained in. The success, or not, of a therapist and their patient  is so much more about the therapeutic relationship, the personal connection that is made rather than what the therapist actually practices. This is absolutely about the ability to have empathy with the patient, but after 30 years of working in the field of human health, I think it is more than being empathic. It’s about a deeper, more visceral, inexplicable connection that comes from just a few words, or no words but a look, a bolt of feeling from to another. This is weakness and a strength. It’s also why I continue to work in human well-being. When a patient and therapist connect on that level, healing happens. For both parties. What a gift. But it’s exhausting. It is why I chose not to be a full-time psychotherapist, I’m not tough enough. When I was a teenager I wanted to be a vet – not a chance, watching Lassie was too much for me!

I feel like I am carrying wounds that are my own and those of many others. I am so profoundly honored that people are willing to show me their pain and look to me for help. I also know that by the end of the day, although ecstatic and often hugely elevated by my work, I come home and quickly crash in to a dark and complex place where I can’t be with anyone else. I guess it’s my way of processing the energies of all those people I am blessed to share time with, but there is a price.  I look at my peers and wonder how they can have some much life outside of their work. I work and I recover. Then I work and then I recover. I don’t get in to arguments, I hate conflict of any kind, I don’t tolerate crowds or loud noise well, shopping malls exhaust me within minutes and I need a lot of alone time.

Sometimes I get intensely embarrassed when I feel the prickle of the first tears. It can be something seemingly so innocuous but if I am triggered, it is so hard to stop myself crying. It’s often music, which can truly break me; it could be something on TV, it’s often witnessing a moment of kindness or hearing of someone’s personal struggle. I can be out running with the dogs crying to the thank you’s on Radio 4s Saturday Live show or simply be caught off guard by witnessing a moment of tenderness between two humans, more often human and animal.

I was telling a great friend and colleague about something I had read in the awe-inspiring book Wilding by Isabella Tree about how, as oak trees age and their trunks become hollow, they will drop a limb to the ground to stabilise themselves. This blows my mind – the majesty and brilliance of nature.  Relaying this information made me cry! I know – ridiculous, embarrassing…. but my dear friend, another HSP, she got it, it was ok that I was choked up because she felt it too, Thankfully I am married to an HSP. He says I do his crying for him. He feels it, he’s male, he’s learnt to suppress it.

Are the HSPs of this a world a conduit to the pain of the world? I appreciate this may sound high-falutin and pretentious, but if you are an HSP and find yourself exhausted by the every day, maybe you too have times of feeling that it is a burden that is hard to bear. If you’re not, then please understand that you might not understand why some people you meet seem to have a totally different filter to the world and their filter may be letting in very different information to your own that you find ridiculous, irritating, even infuriating, it’s not a choice so please be gentle with us.

If you too are an HSP, let me know how you manage the world.

A Momentary Pause Before Ploughing in This Festive Time

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Christmas is coming….and we’re all getting fat … unless we choose not to!…..

I am not being all bah humbug about Christmas, I love it, but increasingly I am coaching my clients not to switch on the self-destruct, eat to excess gear at this time. The festive season is long, potentially weeks, with more invites and opportunities to indulge than any other time of the year. Therefore, the potential to massively over-indulge is huge, which will not only, almost inevitably result in significant weight gain (or more specifically fat gain), but it is such a colossal slippery slope once you decide you are letting go for the holiday season because the impact on your brain and body of repeated rich, sweet, alcoholic hits, literally drives the desire for more.

We are hard-wired to love sugar and fat combinations because as infants we need to love out mother’s milk – very sweet and very rich in cholesterol. But once weened, we should not be consuming the endless combinations of fat and sugar that we are surrounded by thanks to the food industry.  Fat and sugar drives growth(in a bad way once we’re fully grown), while being clinically addictive – think milk chocolate, mince pies and Christmas cake, crisps and most other snack foods, virtually all canapes, cakes & pastries, bread & cheese, burger & fries – all of these foods hit the part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, our addictive centre, lighting it up and driving the desire for more. Meanwhile excessive alcohol, sugar, wheat, trans fats etc. can kill of our beneficial microbes in the gut, which help manage our weight, brain health, digestion and pretty much every other system in the body, while feeding and stimulating growth of the sugar and yeast loving pathogenic microbes, that also drive the desire for more. 

Overeating and excess alcohol also impairs sleep. Just one bad night of sleep will make it so much harder to have any degree of discipline and control of sweet foods and so the cycle goes on.  So try and think about damage limitation. Be selective about when and what you choose to overload with because do you really want to face the new year with yet another set of impossibly ambitious new year’s resolutions that fill you with dread?  Make it a positive choice to not overdo it rather than a punitive one as the cumulative toll on your mental and physical energy and well-being is enormous and is it really worth it?

There is a middle ground. You can have a jolly time, celebrating, socialising and treating yourself without it all going belly-up, or belly-out as the case may be. So maybe, just maybe, plan for some of your social events to be alcohol free. Nominate yourself to be the driver and find a non-alcoholic drink that satisfies and has some health benefits like Kombucha or water kefir, increasingly now served in pubs, bars and restaurants and easy to find in supermarkets.

If you have a big eating event coming up, such as on Christmas day, don’t ‘save’ yourself by not eating beforehand, otherwise you’ll be so ravenous you will eat too quickly and far too much once you do sit down to eat. But do avoid all the classic pre-meal snacking. Have something tasty, filling and nourishing to eat mid-morning and then clean your teeth or even chew some gum (sweetened with Xylitol or Stevia not sugar or artificial sweeteners), to stop the nibbling until it’s time for your main meal.

Try and get in some exercise before the feasting begins. Just 10 minutes of something vigorous can rev you up to increase calorie-burn while you’re eating and then take yourself and any other willing participants for a post-prandial stroll to help digestion and reduce blood sugar levels. Nothing overly exertive with a full tummy, but a gentle walk for 30 minutes can make a big difference rather than falling in to a food-coma and trying to sleep it off. Or how about getting some fun tunes on and having a gentle boogie  – also a good idea.

Spend a moment in gratitude for what you have before ploughing in. A bit of reverence for your food is not only good for the soul but also allows a moments preparation time for the digestive system to kick in.

Eat slowly – sooooooo important;  savor every mouthful; chew thoroughly and stop before that overly stuffed feeling forces you to stop. Think comfortably full rather than about to burst.

Always match volume of alcohol with volume of water.

If having dessert, make it small, rich and satisfying and rather than the stodge of dried fruit-filled puddings with brandy cream and ice-cream, a sugar and fat bomb extraordinaire, why not have a fresh-fruit crumble, using minimal sugar, some unctuous Greek yogurt and a cheeky dark chocolate truffle or two. 

And then … don’t eat until you are hungry again. That will probably be lunch the next day at the earliest. Don’t eat just because of the time on the clock, eat because you are truly in need of re-fueling.  You will find you enjoy your food much more if you eat only when hungry and your body will thank you in so many ways if you give your digestive system a proper break of at least 12 hours, and ideally longer. 

This is not about missing out and deprivation, it’s about respecting yourself, your health and saving yourself from the inevitable dreaded weigh-in on January 1st to cries of ‘oh no, how on earth??????? …I’m never eating again …where’s the nearest gym?????’

Happy, healthy holidays everyone.

Leaky Gut – It Really is a Thing!

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You may have heard about leaky gut as something some people suffer with or maybe it’s been suggested that you have it. Leaky gut is a condition that is increasingly being diagnosed in the world of nutritional medicine and integrative health and is associated with many chronic health conditions, so what is it, why does it happen and what does it mean to have leaky gut?

The correct term is intestinal hyper-permeability and it describes an issue with the digestive system where the lining of the small intestine become overly porous. The small intestine is designed to be permeable. It is how we are able to absorb the nutrients from our food within the intestine, into the blood stream, where the nutrients then get circulated around the body to nourish our cells.

Due to numerous diet and lifestyle triggers,  these tiny openings within the gut wall can become too large, allowing far more than just nutrients to pass into the bloodstream. Poorly digested proteins, for example gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley and other food particles and  pathogens can pass through the gut wall and once in the bloodstream, the immune system detects foreign invaders are present in the blood and initiates an immune response against them. Put simply, this immune response puts the body in a state of high alert and inflammation, and if this is sustained over a long period of time, symptoms can be extensive and debilitating. From extreme fatigue to skin conditions; joint pain; bloating and/or disrupted bowel function / IBS; food cravings; weight gain; fluid retention are all commonly experienced. If this situation continues, it may also lead to allergies and food sensitivities to the very foods you are eating regularly as particles of these foods are in the blood, triggering the immune system to produce antibodies against these foods. Hence, food intolerance testing may be more helpful at highlighting leaky gut rather than an issue with specific foods per se.

Many people also suffer with frequent headaches, brain fog and mood disorders, a sign that the toxins leaking through the intestinal barrier are passing across the blood brain barrier, which can also become ‘leaky’. It is also becoming increasingly accepted that many, possibly all auto-immune disorders, are at least in part triggered by a leaky gut, where the immune system becomes so overwhelmed by the toxic ‘leaking’ into the bloodstream that it can become confused and begin to attack healthy tissue by mistake.

What is happening within the lining of the gut is an opening up of the tight junctions, the gate keepers of the cells that line the gut. There are many potential causes and this is an area of on-going research and understanding but common factors known to trigger gut hyper-permeability are:

• Eating quickly / when stressed: we can only digested and assimilated well when we are in a calm and relaxed state. Poor chewing, eating quickly and on the go, eating when stressed and rushed over long periods of time can result in a weakened and damaged gut lining.

 • Gluten:  For some people gluten, found in high levels in wheat, but also rye, barley, spelt,  is a major trigger, even if there is no actual allergy or obvious sensitivity to gluten. Gluten appears to increase levels of a protein we make in the gut called Zonulin, which controls the opening and closing of the tight junctions. The more gluten consumed, the more Zonulin produced, the more openings of the tight junctions.  

• Lectins & Glyphosate: lectins are proteins in many natural foods but especially high and therefore problematic in grains (esp. gluten-containing grains), soy and cow’s milk. Lectins are hard to digest and thought to be common triggers for leaky gut. These foods are more of a problem now than in the past because they have high residual levels of a chemical used in their production, called glyphosate, a chemical that is used as a weed killer and crop desiccator (drying out the crop just prior to harvest) but is actually an antibiotic, which is known to not only negatively affect our vitally important healthy gut microbes but also triggers the tight junctions to open excessively.

• Sugar: With sugar being so ubiquitous in the modern diet,  it can also be a culprit for triggering leaky gut as sugar can facilitate an over-growth of sugar and yeast- loving microbes that upset the pH balance and function of the intestine, leading to a damaged gut wall.

• Refined cooking oils: often still hailed as healthybut widely accepted as inflammatory and damaging to the gut, cooking oils such as sunflower, corn, rapeseed, vegetable and soy oils are best avoided as much as possible.

• Other Factors: Poor sleep, excess alcohol, infections, diabetes, malnutrition and many other factors could cause this , but mending a leaky gut is not, by any means, an impossibility. Certain medications taken long-term and antibiotics are also potential triggers as can food additives, emulsifiers, flavor enhancers.

To heal a leaky gut, here are some dos and don’ts:

  • Stay off all gluten and ideally all grains and soy for at least 12 weeks
  • Greatly reduce or avoid sugary foods and artificial sweeteners
  • Attempt to practice time-restricted eating on an on-going basis, having at least 12 hours every night from last calories to first calories the next day, working up to 16 – 18 hours of no food at least 2 consecutive days a week
  • Eat foods rich in gelatin / collagen. As well as Head-Cheese (see previous post), drinking bone broth regularly and use in soups and stews is very helpful. You can also take collagen supplements / add good quality collagen powder to foods and drinks
  • Consume coconut-based foods as coconut contains special fatty acids that can aid in gut healing
  • Eat a wide range of raw fermented foods
  • Eat plenty of foods containing healthy fats from oily fish, avocados, soaked and /or sprouted nuts and seeds, coconut, grass-fed meat
  • Avoid milk but do have fermented dairy products esp. made from raw and/or goat and sheep milk. Dairy kefir is especially helpful
  • Grass-fed butter: full fat dairy products made from milk of grass-fed animals contains good levels of a short chain fatty acid call butyric acid. This is also produced by our healthy gut bacteria and is essential for healthy gut wall function.

If you think you may have leaky gut, there are tests available to measure compounds in the blood that should not be there and must have come from a leaky gut. Lipopolysaccharides

are large molecules produced by our gut bacteria and should only ever exist in the gut. If they can be detected in the bloodstream, it shows your gut lining is porous enough to let these big, toxic nasties get through.  Also, you can drink a solution of large sugar molecules and these can then be detected in the bloodstream if your gut is leaky. However, before you go down this route, it is really worth putting in to practice my recommendations above, as all of them will not only help heal a leaky gut, but will aid in your overall well-being – so nothing to lose and potentially so much to gain.

Head Cheese Anyone?

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Head cheese (yum!), otherwise known as brawn, is a terrine traditionally made with scraps of meat from animals such as pigs or cows and set in aspic or jelly made from the slow cooking of the head of the animal. This traditional European peasant dish is still popular in some countries. In the UK however, we are losing some of these dishes that would have made the most of every tiny morsel. Nothing is wasted with a dish like brawn. Thankfully the concept of nose to tail eating is coming back in to vogue, but it also now tends to have a hefty price tag. If you buy cheap, gristly cuts of meat and cook them long and slow, the meat will be tender and far easier to digest while containing way more nutrients than the lean muscle meats like chciken breast or pork loin.

Slow-cooking the head of an animal produces a gelatin-rich broth, teaming with nutrients and the gelatin, giving the jelly-like quality, allows a terrine to be set. Gelatin provides the body with lots of collagen, the most abundant protein in the body and required for good joints, healthy skin, hair and nails. Collagen is also a really important component of a healthy gut lining.

This photograph my husband’s lunch taken recently in a Gasthof in Austria.  The dish is called  Eierschwammerlsulz. Eierschwammer is the word for chanterelle mushrooms, themselves full of nutrients including B vitamins and vitamin D, and sulz meaning brawn. Here you see it served with some green leafy salad dressed in extra virgin olive oil and finely sliced raw red onions steeped in apple cider vinegar. This is a standard Austrian dish, packs a serious nutritional punch. It’s not considered fancy nor is it expensive yet this traditional meal combines a wide range of macro and micro nutrients, antioxidants and crucially tons of taste and texture.

Making dishes like brawn, and so many more traditional dishes, make great use of every part of the animal.  Simply slow simmering bones and cartilage of any leftovers from a roast will provide a rich liquor full of nutrients and if it is gelatinous when cold, you know it contains gelatin, providing collagen. Collagen supplement are all the rage at the moment, but you can get a good dose simply slow cooking the bones you would normally throw away.

This is chicken broth I made recently and used to make a simple veg soup that was super tasty thanks to the broth. I freeze organic chicken carcassess from a roast and then pop a couple in a big pot of water with some veg, herbs and a slug of apple cider vinegar and 12 hours later it’s done. Drink as a hot broth to boost immunity or add to any soup or stew for whole different level of taste and nutrition.

From a gut health and therefore overall health perspective, the broader range of foods, the better, so, if travelling, be brave and try something you’ve never eaten before; or maybe aim to make a new dish once a week / a month, to experience new tastes and textures that can also provide critical nutrients that may be missing in your regular diet. Buy a cook book with recipes from countries or cuisines you’re not familiar with so you can experience new combinations and textures and build confidence in using a wider range of herbs and spices.

A nice challenge that I like to do wherever possible is to try and have 15 ingredients on my plate. This will usually include salt and pepper, olive oil and garlic – there’s 4 already. Add in a range of salad leaves, a few vegetables, some protein etc., it’s a great thing to work towards as you’ll start adding in extra spices, healthy oils, a wider range of fresh produce and now you’ve supercharged your meal from being good to great!