- Claire Baseley • Registered Nutritionist
13th June 2019
Hands up who’s been on a diet? Hands up who regained most of the weight they lost? It’s not that we have suddenly started to defy the laws of thermodynamics, such that eating fewer calories than your body needs can no longer result in weight loss although to be fair, post 40, it can feel like it! Diets work, whether it’s the cabbage soup diet or simply healthy eating but only while you are on them. What happens when the diet stops is critical. Have we, as a nation, succumbed to a population collapse of willpower? Do we give up and settle for a life of jam doughnuts and wine (I mean, I’m game!)? Or do we need to rethink […]
13th February 2019
Around 13 million women in the UK are either peri- or post-menopausal and yet this feels like the last taboo in terms of media coverage, employer acceptance or knowledge of healthcare professionals. According to a Nuffield Health Study, two thirds of women feel that there is a general lack of support and understanding of the condition among GPs. Now in my early 40s, I am experiencing a range of peri-menopausal symptoms from night sweats and anxiety to palpitations and brain fog. I know, right; fun times! I don’t really feel fully like a grown up and my ovaries are already failing me! My GP is pretty good but with my background, I know what questions to ask to get the […]
5th February 2019
Open any magazine or newspaper, scan any article online and you’d be forgiven for being confused as to what a healthy diet actually is. In the past few years, the best diet, or way of eating as I prefer to call it, has been hotly debated and has reached Brexit-level in terms of the emotions it can stir up. I dare you to search the LCHF (low carb high fat) hashtag on Twitter. Devotees of this way of eating get terribly under the collar if you so much as suggest that, for example, oats can form part of a healthy breakfast. Is there really an ideal way to eat for ‘optimum’ health? This is not a diet for weight loss […]
16th January 2019
It’s kale isn’t it? I knew it. If I want to live to a ripe old age, hiking up mountains with all the gusto of a 30 year old, I have to eat kale *weeps*. And if you love kale, I salute you (and think you’re a bit weird). Actually, while what and how much we eat and drink as well as how much we move is very important to our long term health, there’s something else that may have a significant influence on our longevity: how happy we are. You may well be thinking, “Well duh, of course being happy is good for you!” Well, yes but, as a scientist, I need to be able to prove something you […]