Mood and Food

It is well known that our eating patterns can cause mood swings. Blood sugar fluctuations and nutritional imbalances are often to blame and without a steady source of fuel from the foods we eat, our mind and bodies don’t function well.READ MORE

The Gut Brain Axis

It feels as if we need to be paying far greater attention to our microbiome. There’s plenty of information flying around about the gut-brain axis – loads of studies are coming out, endorsed by nutritionists and gut specialists, the evidence is mounting. We’re beginning to understand how our overall physical well-being has an impact on our mental health.

The more I read, the more it seems rather clear that there’s a strong correlation between disruption to the gut-brain axis and a wide variety of disorders, from stress to IBS, to autism. What we know for sure is that most of our immune cells are found in the gut and this system is what makes us resilient to fight even the most minor ailment.

Gut health is of course very individual and can be pretty complex, but supporting your well-being through great food enables us to stay balanced and to be at our best. It becomes even more relevant for people going through hormonal peeks or troughs in their lives (particularly adolescents, who may be ultra-sensitive about food).

Gut-supportive diets are really worth some investigation if you’re not yet familiar. And one of the keys to much of this is high quality extra virgin olive oil. Rather like with fermented foods (in essence, an ancient preservation technique), olive oil has been incorporated in to the healthiest diets for millennia.

It’s an easy way to help yourself to be your best.

So, slice up a ripe tomato, toast some bread and start with a good bruschetta. It might just improve your mood.

Supplements vs Ingredients

It’s amazing to learn that about half of the US population takes one or more supplements on a regular basis amounting to more than $35 billion each year*.  Many of these are self-discovered and self-prescribed, we often don’t even mention it to our doctor, but even if we did, they may not know about them because there are so many on the market, it’s really not easy to keep on top of the knowledge.

It’s important to remember that most supplements are not rigorously tested as a prevention or treatment for the conditions for which they are promoted. And that the supplement industry is not regulated in the same way that prescription drugs are, so the ingredients on the label may not be totally accurate.  It feels like a bit of a market.

If this is the case, then it’s comforting to look to certainties. Particularly if they exist naturally. We can up the intake of various vitamins and minerals naturally through our diet by focusing on certain key ingredients. We’re quite good at this when it comes to vitamin C for example, as we all know oranges, kiwi, strawberries are packed full and give us a natural boost. But we would probably do well to extend this knowledge and these long trusted natural remedies through our lives.

A great way to do this is by eating food that is in season – because of course it will have naturally higher values of the most beneficial components during that window. For example, lycopene that exists in high quantities in ripe tomatoes (the values are highest during the summer) gives us a natural sun repellent to protect our skin from UV damage.

So perhaps if we invested less on supplements and poured our attention and awareness in to the highest quality in-season ingredients, we would all become significantly healthier.

* information from Harvard Medical School

Extra Virgin Olive Oil, is great for you all year round of course and should be included in your diet for its natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. It is particularly good for you when just pressed as the polyphenol levels are at their highest. This coincides with winter, when your body most needs the protection.