This is the story of well-intentioned wife who set out to make her husband a birthday cake. This wife realised the importance of celebrating birthdays and having rituals to mark special occasions. But in recent years she had become increasingly aware of the need to eat food that doesn’t have hidden nasties. So rather than buying a double-choc-fudge-swirl-something-or-rather like she may have in the past, she instead decided to make a raw vegan birthday cake. That way the whole family could have their cake and eat it too.The “cake” was made from ingredients such as almond meal, dates, and dried... Read full article »

The other day a friend asked me what I thought of the 5:2 diet. Like so many of us at this time of year, he had been reflecting on the past and was wanting to make a fresh start. He was starting to make some new goals for the new year ahead and slimming down was one of them. He wanted to know if the so called ‘fast’ diet would work.The 5:2 diet became popular with thanks to the endorsement of British doctor and BBC presenter Michael Mosley. The idea is that for five days of the week dieters eat... Read full article »

My three-year-old son had been offered junk food for what seemed like the millionth time in just a few days, and was looking at me with pleading eyes as if to say “pleeeeease Mum!?” The person offering him the glossy-on-the-outside, but empty-on-the-inside snack was doing it because they thought they were being nice. They wanted to make their time together special and (probably unconsciously) thought that the way to go about it was to give him a “treat.” The problem is that it wasn’t special, or a treat. It was crap. The ingredients on the label read more like a... Read full article »

As I sat down to write this blog post, a voice interrupted me. “Shannon, Shaaaanon…,” it called sweetly. I ignored it and delved into reading a scientific paper that I was interested in. After a few minutes the voice started again, this time more adamant, “Shaaaaaaaanon!” Again I ignored it and kept reading until the voice grew so pushy that I had to give in. The voice was coming from the block of dark chocolate in my pantry. It had little bits of crunchy caramel through it and it insisted I eat a piece. So I did. (Well, three pieces... Read full article »

The other day I found myself in an unusually bad mood. It was witching hour in my house – the time when I try to cook my family dinner while my “threenager” toddler is whining, my 8-week-old baby is in need of a cuddle before taking a nap, and I’m feeling ravenous. I usually approach this time of day as a lively challenge and I enjoy coming up with novel ways to handle it, but on this occasion it was all too much. I was overwhelmed, anxious and snappy.   One explanation for my moodiness is that I had a... Read full article »

When I was first diagnosed with an autoimmune disease for which doctors could offer no cure, naturally the first thing I looked at was my diet. Rightly so.  Diet has well and truly been established as being among the most important influences on our health. Having a bad diet is among the leading causes of premature death and chronic disease. Having a good diet on the other hand is associated with increased life expectancy, dramatic reduction in lifetime risk of all chronic disease, and even improving gene expression.  And while it’s all very well for experts to tell us to... Read full article »