In today’s 24 hour lifestyles, making healthy food choices often feels like a daunting task. We juggle work, family (young and old) and countless responsibilities and distractions, leaving little time to decipher confusing food labels and even less willpower to resist tempting marketing tactics.
I understand these challenges because I have battled with them myself and I still find myself involved in ongoing skirmishes! How do you create a healthy environment and lifestyle for yourself and your family when there is so little time in the day? When it’s so difficult to know what’s the “right” approach to take? When you make a monumental effort to be “good” for a short time, then you take your eye off the ball and sooner or later find yourself back at square one (or depressingly, somewhere around square minus 3)?
My approach to health and wellbeing as a nutritional therapy practitioner is refreshingly different to the conventional advice out there. I focus on practical solutions that can be gradually embedded into your busy life so that making the transition to a healthier way of living is simple. One of my missions is using my Blog page to research and bring you information on products that are truly beneficial and actually made with real ingredients, cutting through the noise of misleading health or sustainability claims.
The problem with many products marketed as “healthy” or “eco-friendly” is that they are often far from it. They are usually still laden with highly processed ingredients that you would never have in your kitchen or find in nature and, therefore, do little to support overall health or limit harm to the environment. These kinds of misleading claims can make you feel like your good intentions are being taken advantage of.
It shouldn’t be this way! There are suppliers out there who “get it”, whose MO is not only to promote and sell their product, but to do so in a way that human and planetary health are not sacrificed. The UK is the 6th biggest economy in the world and we have a huge market for health and wellbeing products and services, but there’s still too many gimmicks out there and not enough authenticity. I was recently in New York where I made a point of visiting a Whole Foods Market store (there are 14 giant stores in Manhattan alone) and I was taken aback to discover the variety of ready to eat snacks made with real, whole ingredients. One standout was delicious grain-free crisps made with cassava flour and cooked in avocado oil —a stark contrast to the commonly available foods in the UK which are marketed as “healthy” but still containing many ultra processed ingredients.
At this point, I am sure some of you are thinking “Wait a minute, isn’t Whole Foods Market a massive corporate entity owned by Amazon? And why are you talking about crisps – however great the raw ingredients, crisps are not exactly the foundation of a healthy diet?”
Yes, dear reader, both good points! However, in my own trial-and-error-journey of overcoming health issues, the two key lessons I learned that contributed the most to my success were:
- It does not pay to be perfect, and
- It’s the small changes that make the biggest difference in the end.
So, in my view, we can take inspiration from the United States — even though that country is largely responsible for the plethora of ultra processed food we eat today — because the US market is nevertheless a hive of innovation and diversity of thought. We can champion small, local businesses, but also recognise that often the large businesses have the scale to make a product more affordable and widely available. We can transition our diet to mostly home cooked meals, but we still love our snacks and just want them to be made with proper ingredients!
One of the easiest ways to upgrade your health and wellbeing is to swap some of your regular purchases for products that meet higher standards of quality. And to save you the time in your busy life, I am committed to sourcing for you products that I have vetted for their health and eco benefits and that meet my own stringent standards: foods which are REAL and genuinely nutritious; and other products for wellbeing or your home that are as much as possible natural based and sustainable.
I believe that everyone deserves to feel their best. I know that the biggest struggle for many is finding the time and resources to prioritise health and environment. My mission is to bridge this gap by offering solutions that fit into your hectic schedule. From easy swaps to better product recommendations, I will support you in making informed choices that provide long term solutions.