What gets me most excited about food is not only the amount of nutrients that I can get into each meal but also the amount of colour. I can get onto each plate, at each meal.

Having my nutrient dense homemade carrot and lentil soup today I went out to the garden and picked myself some parsley for garnish. While admiring the lovely contrast between the orange soup and the green parsley I started to think about all the extra nutrition is was getting from this tiny little herb.

This little baby is a good source of Protein, Vitamin E, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid, Phosphorus and Zinc, and a very good source of dietary Fibre, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium,Potassium, Copper and Manganese.Parsley is powerful antioxidant andanti-inflammatory food that can help to keep your immune system healthy,playing a role in preventing chronic disease. With that calcium,magnesium can help to keep your bones strong.Go grab yourself a packet of parsley seeds or a plant and use it as a garnish, sprinkle on your soup, include it in your sandwich, add it to your stews or include it in your salad dressings! Or pick it straight from your plant and chew!
Deirdre xx

Your gut function is completely dependent on the health of your brain. Different areas of your brain are responsible for inputting information via the brain stem and Vagus Nerve to your gastrointestinal tract.

For example, the Motor Strip area of the brain is responsible for the smooth muscle contraction which is needed for mixing and moving our food through our digestive system. If there is an injury or degeneration of the motor strip this could potentially result in
small intestine bacterial over growth as the valves in the small intestine many not be contracting and relaxing as they should and food is staying in the small intestine longer than it should.

The hypothalamus part of the brain is responsible for signalling the gut to release our digestive enzymes, if there is dysfunction in this part of the brain it could result in not being able to breakdown food properly, that will result in feelings of bloating, bleaching or gas etc. So if you have GI issues that you cannot seem to solve by eating correctly, taking supplements, try thinking if your brain is trying to tell you something!
Deirdre xx

We hear so much today about the importance of gut health and the role that our gut microbiota plays in our
overall health. This is true, our microbiota, usually called our gut bacteria, play a role in how we breakdown and absorb our food. Allowing us to absorb all those lovely nutrients that our body needs to function on a daily basis.

But will a good old probiotic automatically help you to improve all your health issues as so often
advertised?
The answer is yes……and no, depending on the issue. Whereas it is important that we have a healthy gut bacterium to breakdown and absorbed our nutrients there is a lot more at play in our digestive system
for us to be able to do this.
Our digestive system actually begins in our mouth and ends with the elimination of stool. The first step of
digestion is that we need to be able to chew and breakdown our food. For some people, especially as we get older, we don’t produce as much saliva to help us do this. We also need to have enzymes that help us breakdown our food. It could be that we are not producing enzymes that allow us to our fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
We also need good motility in our intestines to help us move our food through our digestive system.
Also, if you have a condition called SIBO (Small intestine bacterial overgrowth) adding a probiotic to this
could do more harm than good. So if you are having gut issues, and before you grab the nearest probiotic, consider other parts of your digestive system that may be a little out of sync.