In January 2020, I was recovering from a severe cold, which started before my birthday on around 10th December. It was after this point I discovered that we do not get enough sunlight for half the year in the UK to make vitamin D. I had almost thrown out all my supplements, but I started taking vitamin D3. It was an improvement.
One night around 10 days into the cold I woke up in the night short of breath. I wondered if colds had mutated to become more virulent and how much the government weren’t telling us about public health.
On a recent visit to my GP I had noticed the disproven health advice given to the general public, particularly about diet.
I had always known that nutrient rich food was more satisfying than processed meals, that people laughed at food intolerance and the only test available was for people with celiac disease, involving eating glutenous foods for 6 weeks. It seemed nutrition and medicine were kept completely separate.
Curiosity led me to the NHS’s Vitamins and Minerals page. This has now been moved to a page called ‘conditions’ as if prevention and proactive self-care are unheard of.
Reports show that cases of obesity and Type 2 Diabetes have been on the rise since the 1980s. Before 1980, my parents were instinctively healthy eaters. My father had kidneys and my mother had sardines for breakfast.
Reading through all the essential micronutrients on the NHS website suggests that the advice is not to worry as we get everything we need in a ‘varied and balanced’ diet. If that means eating protein with carbohydrates as well as 5 pieces of fruit and vegetable a day but keeping everything under 2000 calories, this is quite a headful.
Therefore, I made a spreadsheet:
This led to another list, taken from NHS website, showing how our body uses micronutrients in our food. It seemed the same thing was written in as many as five different ways.
The idea is that we all have existing knowledge, instincts and are there after everything we eat. Currently, every healthy eating apps:
- Asks person questions on registration such as weight, height, age and gender.
- Tell you how many calories to eat each day to achieve short term goals.
- Expects you to weigh, measure, restrict, count and report to the app.
- Instead of giving you information, they issue advice.
I find, even the best advice is difficult to work into my life until I understand it fully. Isolated or fragmented pieces of advice are only pieces of a complete jigsaw and do not make sense on their own.
In psychology, giving advice is considered to be about power. If you give someone advice, it puts you in control over the other person.
Hearth Nutrition is about bridging the knowledge gap. By providing irrefutable, proven facts about food gives everyone a chance to make their own informed choices about food.
The community – or tribe – of people that Hearth is for are those who are on a voyage of discovery about health, weight, immunity, recovery, prevention and self-care.
Using information about essential daily nutrition, anyone can create their own tasty, satisfying and nutritious meals. This can reduce waste and save money. We can use left overs or get creative in the kitchen and use up what is in the fridge or the cupboard.
The eventual app will have an online community for photographs, videos, discussion.
Nutritionists and caterers can use the app as a menu to show their customers. Perhaps nutritious food, meals and menus will revolutionise dining out and dinner parties.
It is all about putting credible information at our fingertips for at-a-glance, quick reference, to make getting the most from food for our health a no-brainer.
Do you want to feel fantastic? Nutrition is Nature’s Medicine.
Meze, Thali, Tapas – tasty, satisfying, nutritious.
Nutritious Meal Ideas 