As research is always developing and me being a person who loves science and food, I am always learning new information about food/nutrition and applying this as best I can to my life.

Now this isn’t always easy and sometimes when I find out something unpleasant about a food that I adore, it makes me want to bang my head off a wall. . . . but I resist and do my best to minimise whatever it is so that I can still enjoy my food without being extremely restricted (as I feel this creates a bad relationship with food) but also to maximise my health.

As I’ve developed a greater interest in health and increased my diet variety to include foods that give amazing flavour as well as nutrition, I have branched out into using a lot of new products. Many of which you will also be able to get from your standard supermarket today but over the years I have learnt a few tips on how to get the safest/best quality produce, which I’ve summarised below.
I’m still constantly learning about new brands/issues etc (as is the case in science and research) therefore this is a post which will probably be updated regularly as knowledge develops.

Cacao– buy organic, ask the brand if they test for heavy metals e.g cadmium, lead etc. If it is an EU brand then they must adhere to EU standards therefore they should already test for these.

Cinnamon- Most cinnamon sold in shops isn’t actually the real thing; instead it is cassia cinnamon with the true kind being called “Ceylon”. Cassia contains far more coumarin which can be dangerous when taken in large doses, although most people won’t eat enough cinnamon in one day to reach this level however to get the maximum bang for your buck and to ensure a better quality of cinnamon aim to purchase the real kind which can be bought from on line health stores.

We all want to be healthier or fitter than we were previously and to achieve this we try to follow what we’re told to do by the media/tv shows/magazines, however, this often leads to a variety of conflicting advice which then leaves people feeling confused & frustrated with trying to be healthy and therefore they simply stop.

There is no doubt that this is annoying, however as I’ve matured and taken more of an interest in studying health and wellness, I’ve learnt how to deal with this issue better than I would have previously, so on the off chance it may benefit others I thought I’d share my personal experience.

When the holidays are over and the feasts have been had, many people will enter the new year with the intention to “detox” from all the festive food and drink, this can sometimes be dangerous and often misleading information out there makes matters worse.
As a young woman I often see other girls doing such things as this and it really scares me that this is what is believed to be “healthy” and “pretty”.

Many of these myths have been debunked already by a variety of professionals yet I still come across people who have not heard this information, so I will do my best to summarise a few of them here however, I do encourage everyone to also do your own research as it will empower you to make more informed choices in the future.

When we tell ourselves that we can’t have something, that’s when we want it most! This makes dieting difficult and is why most people who diet don’t stick with it very long & also why it tends to be followed by a period of binging. I remember watching a show a few years ago in which women were asked to follow a severely restricted diet which resulted in the women “cracking” half way through, with one eating ¾ of a packet of biscuits that she didn’t even like simply because it was the first thing she found in her cupboard.

Source: Instagram