Oh I simply LOVE the farmers market!I have a favourite morning. It’s every first and third Friday of the month. I do the school run and then spend a blissful hour walking around my local farmers market. I love it, whatever the weather I’m there because I believe it’s truly the best way to buy food.

Farmers market food is fresh, its local and it tastes delicious. I now know the stall holders and have a chat with them whilst buying the Bream they caught yesterday or the tomatoes picked today and discussing all the things you can do with artichokes (ooh err). Yes you pay a little bit more but it’s sustainable for the people putting in the extreme hard work.

The food available means we are eating seasonally which is so much better for health. Asparagus doesn’t grow here in February so it’s not a good idea to eat it. We have lots of beetroot and squashes around, combined with dark leafy greens which means the large amount of folates, iron and beta carotene that’s naturally occurring is what we need through the cold winter.

In my clinic I’m forever banging on about getting back to basics with food. In general we rely very heavily on processed, packaged, convenience foods and bread based goods. Most of my 80 year old clients have  better health than the 30 year olds I see because the post war diet was so exceptional. The quick and easy food we eat today alongside coffees, fizzy drinks and take-aways are killing us. By going back to basics with food we are getting a better nutritional foundation and our bodies thank us for it.

Shopping this way also stops me having to endure supermarkets. They are really noisy, over bright horrible places. More importantly the food is inferior. For the most part it  has travelled often thousands of miles. Its’ picked when unripe, refrigerated, stored and is tasteless and nutritionally void. The ethics behind supermarkets suck too. Those fabulous 2-4-1 offers don’t come from supermarkets profits. They coerce the farmers into doing the deals and taking the hit and if they don’t tow the line they get dropped and their whole business can go under. Chef Arthur Potts-Dawson brought this to our attention when he launched the People’s Supermarket and started to fight back against the
supermarkets power.
Baldrick loved turnips enough to spend £40,000 on oneSo on the odd weeks my farmers market joy isn’t possible I get an Abel and Cole organic box delivered. I love it almost as much as the market. On Monday I spend 10 minutes choosing what I needed and on Thursday it’s delivered. Marvellous. I chose Abel and Cole over other schemes as they have an excellent selection so you can really tailor what you have in your box. They also sell storecupboard essentials, meat, fish, non- dairy, gluten free options and even wine. My latest discovery is that they sell bones for boiling into stock ridiculously cheap so we make delicious homemade soups and stews and nothing is wasted. The passion they have for food is contagious.

More important than any of that is that our food tastes real again – I’ve noticed how I’m loathed to let anything waste. I’ve pounded the pavements on a drizzly day to buy my kale so I won’t let it rot in the bottom of the fridge, I’ve become really imaginative with food again and I’m
using new veg I didn’t even know existed. Look out for your local farm shops, local seasonal food is the key here. Try it out and trust me, meal times will become exciting again!

And finally heres something that made us Balanced Wellness ladies laugh - Farmers Market by Armstrong and Miller

4 portions of chips with my burger please

Claire and I were talking the other day about celebrities.

I asked her ‘if you could get anyone on your couch who would it be?’ Claire said Adele. “She always has throat problems and laryngitis so is constantly cancelling her tours. She also struggles giving up smoking which will be trashing that gorgeous voice of hers. I reckon I can help support her immune system as well as help her give up smoking.” Good answer. What about me? Who do I want on my couch?

Katie Price. Everyday of the week. The woman fascinates me. I am so intrigued by her. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion, I can’t turn away. I wonder what she is like in person, I also have a suspicion that her health is in a terrible state. When everyones out of the house and I’m alone with SKY1, a bag of raisins and ‘What Katie Did Next’ I am stunned to watch her starving herself, running marathons and then eating some horrendous take away burgers. Her poor tiny weeny body!

But it’s not just what she eats that intrigues me so. She puts herself out there day after day in the public view asking for opinion, criticism and comment. She is so desperate for perfection she mutates her face and body to achieve it. I see a woman looking outside herself for validation, acceptance and answers. And trust me Katie, that’s not the right place to look.

As Kinesiologists we take a whole person approach understanding that emotion plays a huge role in the health of an individual. Sure Katie Price has confidence, drive and ambition, I think the woman has incredible balls and hats off to her, the woman knows how to make money and market herself. But I question whether she actually loves herself. If she did why would she go to such extremes to change the way she looks? What could this twisted sense of self be doing to her health? My guess is that this non acceptance of who she is and what she looks like is as unhealthy for Katie as that manky burger. Katie, if you’re reading this, I would love to have you on my couch, just call round anytime and book an appointment.

So as a kinesiologist I spend a preposterous amount of my time around nutritional supplements, literally I’m surrounded by bottles and jars of different coloured and sized pills.

I haven’t always been fascinated by them. Up until I was 30 the most I’d ever taken was one of those delicious fizzy orange things that are supposed to be good for a hangover, but now they are a big part of my life

So the big question I get asked a lot is why do we need them? Well here’s the thing, since we started intensively farming in the 80′s many trace minerals have been depleted from the soil meaning that basically our food isn’t as packed full of the good stuff anymore. This has created what we kinesiologist’s call “nutritional gaps

So come on be honest,  hands up who eats:

• 5 a day?
• 10 a day?
• Organic 10 a day?
• Eats fast food or pre prepared food?
• Has central heating or carpets in their house Continue Reading