Bee Kind - Growing a Bee friendly garden

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust have just launched their new website and there is a great section on it for helping focus your garden on Bee friendly flowers and plants at this address: http://beekind.bumblebeeconservation.org/ Buddleia above being one of the flowers that both bees and butterflies love.

You may have heard that the bee population is declining and this presents cause for concern for the future of farming as bees pollinate the food crops we eat.  Apparently we have lost 97% of our flower rich grassland since the 1930's and as flowers are Bee's food source - this has contributed to a major decline in their numbers.

In addition Dr Sainudeen Pattazhy has carried out a study which demonstrates that Cell phone tower radiation affects the honeybees ability to navigate their way back home as it disrupts their ability to tune into the earth's magnetic fields which they use to find their way back to their hive.  Other researchers have duplicated these findings.  Please see this link: http://www.emfnews.org/Cell-Phones-and-900-Megahertz-frequency-Diminishing-Bee-Population-Study.html

Living in the present with Alice through the Looking Glass!

"You couldn't have it if you wanted it." the Queen said "The rule is, jam tomorrow, and jam yesterday.........but never jam today."
"It must sometimes come to 'jam today'," Alice objected.

Wayne Dyer offers this quote in his book 'Your Erroneous Zones' as a reminder not to worry about the future or to live in the past but to stay right now in the present moment.  He writes: "How about you?  Any jam today?  Since it must come sometime, how about now?"

Whilst as a nutritionist, I wouldn't advocate the use of jam every day or any day for that matter - far too sugary!! - I do love the idea that if we are just living in this very moment without letting our mind delve into a past guilt or hurt or letting it dive into a terrifying future that life is good and we can get on with doing what we came here to do.  As Wayne Dyer points out if we are sitting worrying we are not being productive or useful!  

For me, the time I find it easiest to be in the now is when I am in nature - transfixed by the way the sun enhances every view I look at as beautiful to behold.  Especially when nature sneaks in - like these poppies into a local field crop, for me to enjoy whilst I walk the dog.

Eat Your Greens! - Britons eat fewer greens than the rest of Europe

http://www.onmedica.com/newsarticle.aspx?id=6cb98116-2efb-4a40-a3b1-92427a8c2a9e 

I had intended to comment on the above article much earlier than this, you know - NewYear's resolutions and a weekly blog - ahem!  The article summarises interesting research showing that Britons do not eat enough fruit and veg, such a pity that we are tailing so far behind, although most of Europe is not making the 400g daily of fruit and vegetables recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Vegetables in particular provide a rainbow's worth of nutrition when included in our diets and to boot are highly alkalising.  Our cells, tissues, and blood are at their healthiest when alkaline so alkalising foods help maintain our wellbeing at a necessary pH for optimum function. 

Additionally, vegetables are high in antioxidants those helpful vitamins and minerals that keep us from oxidising inside, extend our shelf life if you like!!  A little fruit is also helpful and alkalising, but no need to overdo it as too much brings in too much sugar.  Fruit is high in prebiotic sugars which feed the good probiotic bacteria in the gut.   Have a piece of fruit with your breakfast and then one more piece for a snack later with a few nuts and seeds.

Five vegetables a day is a small quantity really - a good salad could contain that if it is to have any flavour, e.g. rocket and watercress, cucumber, grated carrot, red pepper, tomato, spring onion etc. plus some fresh herbs off the windowsill like basil and mint added - hmm delicious.  Email me for a scrumptious home made dressing recipe to go with your salad!

The evening meal is another great opportunity to bring in a good selection of vegetable - ideally it should be 80% vegetables on the plate with just 20% protein, this again helps the acid versus alkaline balance as the majority of proteins are acid forming.

Vegetables are amazing, they provide not only nutrients but also a wealth of colour, texture and sensory experience on a plate, go on, Eat ya greens!!

Why Wait until infants are six months of age before Weaning.

I read an article on the BBC website today http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12180052, four scientists advocate that the WHO and DH recommendation to breastfeed exclusively until babies are six months old may not be advisable. They postulate the it may increase the risk of food allergies and iron deficiency. Their opinion is based on a review of 33 research studies where they say the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Department of Health (DH) recommendation to wait to wean until babies are six months old rested largely on a review of 16 studies.  In actual fact the current WHO policy came about after a systematic review of 3,000 studies on the feeding of infants, and re-reviewed relevant evidence in 2009.

The question I always ask first however, is - who has paid for this review study of the research to be done? It did not take long to establish that 3 out of the 4 researchers: Mary Fewtrell, Alan Lucas and David Wilson receive funding from the baby food industry. Professor Lucas in particular has opposed the WHO/DH guidance for some years. There is an excellent answering article to the results of the study and the media reporting of it at the following link by the Baby Milk Action team. http://info.babymilkaction.org/news/policyblog140111

Look After You's Baby Weaning seminar for health and parenting practitioners offers sound updating to pass onto parents as to "Why wait to Wean". Please contact us on 01977 612008 or via the email on our website www.look-after-you.co.uk to enquire about open or inhouse training days.

Look After You run small retreats only - so that each individual has plenty of TLC and physical space to relax in.  Ty Sidonie is a newly renovated house in the small village of Gare De Motreff in Central Brittany.  The venue is accessible from local airports Dinard and Brest and the seaport Roscoff.  Our press release has photos of the house and garden.  What about some Look After You time?

The Detox Retreat menu is prepared for you and relevant supplementation will be provided.  Each Retreat participant will receive a complimentary Reflexology session. The house is opposite an old railway track which is now a walking and biking track, providing access to the Montagnes Noires (The Black Mountains).  The patio and garden are pleasant places to relax, and a small river runs past the bottom of the garden where dragonflies gather in abundance.

The Retreat is booked from 6^th to 9^th July, 2010 and costs £300.  Full nutritional and naturopathic guidance will be given during your stay and pre retreat guidance will be given on how to make dietary changes so that you gain full benefit from your juice detox.  Please contact Suzy on 01977 612008 or email to suzy@look-after-you.co.uk if you are interested and would like a full itinerary.

Juice and Detox Retreat in North Yorkshire

At the end of April I was invited to a friend's log cabin in North Yorkshire for a mini break.  Jen is a Nutritional therapist too so I suggested we use the space for juicing and detoxing retreat.  The Champion juicer went for a mini break too!  These kind of detoxes are so much easier if you have the physical, mental and emotional space for them.  Even better if you are able to be away in a nurturing green environment with none of the everyday stresses and rat race around you. 


We both prepared by eating an alkalising diet before hand but especially for the two days before and then the two days after our retreat.  Naturopathic techniques were used throughout the time period to support the cleanse taking place.  Jen accessed the delicious organic vegetables from a local supplier she knew of, so we had a different juice at each "meal" using carrot as a base each time.  Scrumptious! 


Meanwhile the high energy provided by the appetising juices and lack of cooking needed left huggins of time to roam the glorious countryside surrounding us.  Up hill and down dale, enjoying fantastic views and wild flower spotting combined with deer, squirrel, unnusual insects and other wildlife crossing our path from time to time.  As for the rabbits around the cabin they were like another form of traffic going past there were so many of them, no fear whatsoever!


Returned home feeling totally recharged and ready for the world and with a "carrot juice" tan so looked as if I had been for a really good break!!  The Look After You Juice Detox Retreat in Central Brittany - July 6th-9th 2010, has limited places available, if that's of interest let me know.

For more information about services offered by Look After You see http://www.look-after-you.co.uk/Nutrition/nutrition_home.html

The 'Swine 'Flu' Vaccine

Influenza is an acute illness, one that is usually relatively short lived; as opposed to a chronic illness like arthritis which implies longer term symptoms. I feel unsure why there is such great fear of acute illness, apart from the way it is promoted in the media and by the medical profession and drug companies!

Naturopathically speaking, acutes are viewed as necessary, positive events as they allow the body to clear waste; for example, through the skin in the case of fever in the form of sweat or as mucous from nose, lungs etc. After an acute - and that includes the childhood illnesses - we can proceed from a healthier stance, having lightened the body's 'toxic load'. There is a lot of attention in the media at the moment about the 'swine 'flu'.

Recent news is also reporting the imminent arrival of a 'swine flu' vaccine. It is doubtful that vaccine programmes have ever contributed to lowering the incidence of any acute illness. Just to cite measles as a case in point the rate of illness incidence had dropped by 95% by the time the vaccine program of MMR began. There are several disturbing things about the 'swine flu' vaccine.

• Firstly, WHO (World Health Organisation) have declared a global pandemic emergency at level six the highest level which invokes global martial law allowing the enforcement of the 'swine flu' vaccine.
• All 194 member countries have signed up to this and the UK government has allowed it to be agreed by Health Ministers rather than taking it as a motion to be decided by the House of Commons.
• Mysteriously, the Health and Protection Agency are now referring to this 'flu on their website as "pandemic influenza"!
• The information that 800 people have died of the 'swine 'flu' worldwide so far contrasts with the statistics of lower respiratory tract infections including 'flu claiming the lives of 4,170,000 people worldwide in 2004. We seem a long way off those levels at which a pandemic was not declared.
• The last bout of 'swine 'flu' in the 1970's saw the introduction of a vaccine. More people died of the vaccine than of the 'flu. Additionally more than 500 people were left with Guillaine Barre syndrome, the symptoms of which include paralysis.

From a nutrition perspective, if we eat an optimal diet, high in fruit and vegetables laden in anti-oxidants, with adequate amounts of clean protein and some wholegrain carbohydrate we offer our immune system the best chance of negating the need to have a 'flu or cold or some other acute. Add to that, the avoidance of anti nutrients such as alcohol, caffeinated beverages, cigarettes, sugar and salt and our body has an even better chance of maintaining good health, even without the need of an acute.