The Body Chemist

11/06/2025

Hi Thank you to everyone booked onto my gut health class below. It sold out very quickly so I have added another 5 places. They will also go quickly so book on now.
look forward to seeing you all there for my first topic the most important, lets get good gut health.

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10/06/2025

Hi
I have news on the boobie.
Just had scan in Edinburgh on Saturday. You might want to sit down. One tumor is gone, 2 are reduced and the big one is stable but much softer. We are so pleased. This news is proving that the human body is an amazing healing creation. No bo***es were harmed and are still attached.
The breast surgeon is now asking questions, he is very interested and maybe will learn something new.
So just to be clear I am not taking any conventional treatment.
My diagnosis was aggressive invasive hormone positive breast cancer with extensive DCIS. I had 4 tumors plus an area attached to my ni**le, I was told they could not conserve my breast and at one point I was advised that both might have to be removed.
I swam up the river in the wrong direction against all advice, I believed in the healing power of the body, Its been a tough swim and I am not at the birthing pool yet but just like the salmon I will keep going until they say its all clear and i truly believe it will be.
If you are going through this then ask questions, you are in the driving seat, do not let fear rule your outcome., never give your power to others have faith in yourself and in your body's ability to heal. It's not easy but cancer should serve you, it's a call to change to learn, to transform. I have learnt so much from this journey and I will keep sharing it with you.
I have bought a tripod so watch out for my video diary coming soon, well as soon as I work out how to use it.

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10/06/2025

Hi
I am doing a free gut health masterclass at my house in Brechin on 12th July. Places are filling fast so please book on. I would love to see you. We will be introducing you to the benefits of foods that feed our gut microbiome.
The link to book is:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/healthy-happy-gut-thermomix-cooking-class-tickets-1406419000089?aff=ebdsshcopyurl&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=

Learning the power of supporting the gut.

17/05/2025

Hi guys
Check this out. As if our food wasn't bad enough !
When I got my diagnosis of breast cancer I checked my toiletries what a shocker. Everything was binned in favour of natural essential oil alternatives. But pay attention to the bit in the podcast on cookware.
So glad the thermomix is stainless steel as that is where most of my food comes out of these days. Check thermomix out if you haven't already it will change your eating habits and give you back control of what is in your food. If you want to try it out to see if it's for you then I have exciting news. I will be renting 2 out and loading them with my favourite keto healthy recipes. Drop me an email if you want more info sheila@thebodychemist.com.
Happy listening and detox your house. It might just save your live.
Love you lots.

Dr Yvonne Burkart is a PhD Toxicologist and former Senior Toxicologist in the flavour and fragrance industry. She is also the creator of the YouTube channel,...

14/05/2025

Making real food.

14/05/2025

This is the last podcast in my series of ultra processed food or Junk food as we used to call it. Changing its name only confuses us as to think "all food is processed" but some foods are just more than others. They want to confuse the issue that processed isn't bad. Let's call it what it is Junk food like junk mail it is no use to us, our bodies can't use it and it chokes up the system.
We need to get back to real food that our ancestors recognised, if you need a chemical plant to make it stay away.

This Podcast has some good tips to remove the junk from your kids diet.
Key Takeaways:
1. Understanding the Food Landscape
Children's diets are increasingly dominated by ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which are often marketed with misleading health claims such as "high protein" or "low fat." These products frequently contain hidden sugars, additives, and emulsifiers, contributing to health issues like tooth decay and obesity.

2. Navigating Food Labels use the free Yuka app
Parents are encouraged to critically assess food labels, recognizing that terms like "natural" or "fortified" can be deceptive. For example, flavored yogurts may contain more sugar than expected, making it essential to scrutinize ingredient lists and nutritional information.

3. Creating Nutritious Lunchboxes ...Get them cooking
Practical strategies include incorporating whole grains, such as brown pasta, and adding vegetables to sauces to enhance nutritional value. Allowing children to personalize their meals can also increase their interest in healthy foods.

4. Fostering a Healthy Home Environment
Establishing a positive food environment at home involves stocking nutritious options and minimizing the availability of unhealthy snacks. Have unhealthier option out of reach and make them burn it off. Rather than imposing strict bans, guiding children to make healthier choices let them scan their own food and encourage a discussion on the score, example they can have it if the score is over 50 on the app. The App will suggest better brands or alternative choices so it gives them alternatives that have higher scores.

5. Reimagining Breakfast and Snacks
Moving away from traditional sugary cereals, the podcast suggests alternatives like smoothies with fruits and vegetables or whole-grain pancakes. These options provide balanced nutrition to support children's growth and development. You can batch cook on a weekend with your child and freeze them for quick weekday grabs.

🥑 Make smarter food choices. Become a member at https://zoe.com As adults, food shopping can be a minefield. But when it comes to feeding your kids, the sta...

14/05/2025

Hi Everyone
Here is the latest Podcast to complete my look at ultra processed food ingredients. Today's lesson is in sweeteners.
They can be found in anything that says no added sugar because they have added an artificial sweetener to fool out brain. There is just one problem the brain does not like to be fooled especially when it comes to something sweet. Once it realises that the delivery of glucose it was promised by the tongue does not arrive it will make you consume about 500 extra calories in that day to make up for it's loss. So don't be fooled by diet marketing.
Research is now showing these chemicals are harmful to our healthy gut bugs which are responsible for a number of key jobs in our bodies.
Learn more on the Podcast below.

🥑 Make smarter food choices. Become a member at https://zoe.com Artificial sweeteners are everywhere. They hide in cereal, salad dressing – even in health f...

09/05/2025

When you finish the post below and want to know more here is a follow up.

👀 Unwrap the truth 👉 ⁠Try the new ZOE app https://joinzoe.onelink.me/XebC/9r7grdmfWhy do we eat what we eat? It might feel like a personal choice, but hid...

09/05/2025

Hi guys Grab a cuppa I have some stuff to share.
You may now have realised my mission to educate you on what we put in our mouths and our kids mouths really matter.
Let food be thy medicine and medicine by thy food. Its such a shame modern medicine hasn't learned from the father of medicine who said this Hippocrates himself.
So todays PodCast's are on ultra processed food and how the food industry is killing us and our children.
I bet you know someone with ADHD, ADD or Autsim. These labels are being handed out like the sweeties themselves and exactly what do they do. Nothing! there is a waiting list of 2 years to see anyone in child mental health and in the meantime while you wait you are being called into the school on a daily basis to discuss your child's behavior. Your child can't help his behavior because his hippocampus is not working.
I know how frustrating this is because I have been there. Fraser was diagnosed with severe anxiety and autism. I was sent to a parenting club to learn to manage his behavior and it was mandatory. So we all arrived about 15 of us while our children were put with play specialists. We sat in the sharing circle and we introduced us and our issues with our children. I listened as one by one the stories came.
A 4 year old boy took a knife to granny, A 6 year old banned from the school for violence, a 5 year old made to wear a bib so the other children could avoid him in the playground as he was likely to lash out. Then they got to me, Fraser had been beaten up in his private area by 4 children in primary 2 and had become mute he had refused to go to school so social services decided he was autistic and I needed to go here.!! My child was now in a room with these children.! My child had PTSD but the point I am making here is that the parents were desperate. They had no idea why their children were behaving like this.
The shocking answer to their cries for help was medication, they were all on a waiting list for Ritalin. Not one discussion was had on what are you feeding them on what did you eat when they were in your womb. These disorders simply didn't exist when I was growing up but then I didn't have Haribo and there was no Mac Donald's at the end of my street like today. We went out to play and came back when the street lights went on armed with nothing more than a piece in jam. The playgrounds are empty which is a shocking truth our kids playground now involves a blue screen burning into their retina.
Did you know that the Hippocampus is larger is ADHD than in control subjects. This brain structure is associated with long-term memory and working memory. Working memory is the ability to hold on to information in your memory while performing other tasks, a skill often used when following instructions, concentrating, or memory that's needed in the present moment. Researchers concluded that the increase in hippocampal volume might be the brain's attempt to compensate for disruptions in time perception, the tendency to avoid waiting, and sensation-seeking behaviors associated with ADHD.
This hippocampal area of the brain seems to be very important in learning and memory. It also seems to be really important in mental health. So there are particular proteins that grow new neurons in the hippocampus, so the hippocampus can actually grow and shrink over the life course. Good news is this part of brain is plastic and responds to changes in diet as you will hear in the podcast.
Another important part of the brain which is different is the amygdala which is often associated with experiencing emotions, specifically fear and aggression, including detecting threats and activating appropriate fear-related behaviors. Emotional dysregulation, another deficit in executive functioning central to ADHD, is characterized by quick and exaggerated changes in mood, which could be caused by variations in the amygdala resulting in the lack of emotional regulation. This part of the brain was smaller in subjects with ADHD.
Research found that ultra processed foods were associated with a lower volume in the amygdala in comparison to whole food diets.
So the research is there our kids brains are being poisoned and the food industry is not helping us nor is the government by allowing these foods into our lives.
Let's TAKE BACK CONTROL of our Brains but most important for the future let's start teaching our kids the truth about what goes into their mouths.
Real food, real playgrounds is good place to begin while you wait on child mental health appointments or medication.

Get science-based nutrition advice straight to your inbox: https://bit.ly/46BPTYzThere is an alarming surge in ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption, especi...

08/05/2025

Hi Guys
I am on a mission to help you understand what is in your food is causing us and our children's health issues and we need to become educated.
Fraser my son announced he is going to Uni to study food technology and Nutrition. We went to the open day and were shown into a chemistry lab where I felt quite at home. Instead of making pharmaceuticals which is my background this lab investigated making food additives and emulsifiers. In the demo, they showed us how bubble tea is made. Well that doesn't occur naturally in nature. Tasty and sweet but those little bubbles are not naturally occurring so are chemically produced.
Good news is that the food technologists of the future will be trying to replace the risky chemicals they got away with in the past with more natural alternatives. However that's in the future so we have to still put up with aspartame and the emulsifiers that are not banned yet but animal studies are coming thick and fast that these chemicals disturb our microbiome, those trillions of bacteria that are the workings of our bodies extracting important vitamins that work our genes and stimulate immune cells. Disturb those workers and we are in trouble.
I have a lovely Podcast from ZOE to help you understand. Here are some extracts from that Podcast to summarise.
In the UK, as of last year, emulsifiers are present in more than half of all ultra-processed foods, including 95% of pastries, buns and cakes, ice creams and yogurts, and almost 80% of confectionery.

So let's say you've picked up a sandwich. The filling might contain an emulsifier called guar gum. A sandwich spread could have something called xanthan gum in it. Or you might pop some cereal in your basket and that might have stearoyl lactylates. Even the bar of chocolate you threw in at the till, that likely contains lecithin.
Some of these are more risky than others but it's a cocktail that builds up like glue in our systems that is the real issue.

One study really looked at the intake of some additives, including emulsifiers, in the U.K., France, and Ireland. And it found that children and adults did actually exceed what's called the acceptable daily intake of some emulsifiers.

Are these emulsifiers bad for us? most of the research we have on emulsifiers to date on the mechanism in which they work did come from animal studies.
They appear to cause an imbalance in the gut microbes, and this promotes metabolic syndrome and inflammation.
Another mouse study concluded that the emulsifier carboxymethyl cellulose, which is often seen as CMC on food packaging, and is really ubiquitous, is an ideal suspect to account for the rise of irritable bowel syndrome in the 20th century.
In 2017, there was a small randomized control trial in humans looking at the effect of emulsifier carrageenan, in this case, on patients who have ulcerative colitis, which is a type of irritable bowel disease. And it concluded that carrageenan intake increases the likelihood of ulcerative colitis relapse, which is really quite serious.
Emulsifiers are not a natural part of our diet, they're not something that you can make in the kitchen. It's therefore not something that we've ever sort of evolved to be exposed to in the sort of scale that we're seeing. And yet they're in most foods in the U.S and the UK. now, and an ever-increasing fraction of foods in the rest of the world.
So reducing your intake of ultra-processed foods generally will lead to cutting down on your intake of emulsifiers, as well as other additives, and make space for food that is better for you.
Get the Yuka APP and get scanning identify what's in your house and let's get back to the kitchen and start teaching our kids to cook.

Learn how your body responds to food 👉 zoe.com/podcast for 10% offEmulsifiers are common in our diets, enhancing the texture, appearance and shelf life of m...

05/05/2025

Want to know if you are eating Plastic food full of risky additives and chemicals that are linked to disease. I do and the first thing I did when I was diagnosed was empty my cupboards and scan everything. I was shocked at just how many everyday items I was consuming that were laden with hidden dangers. Even things like toiletries and lip balm I was shocked. If I was to beat this cancer then I had to reduce the chemical load on my system.

Download the Yuka app on your phone it's free and easy to use. Get the kids involved and soon they will be making healthy choices. You will see me in the supermarket scanning everything before it goes in the basket. If it doesn't score as good then it goes back on the shelf. A score of 50 or greater out of 100 is what I aim for with no risky additives.

It also gives you alternatives, alternative products or brands that have less chemicals, salt or sugar in them so you can choose. The kids love it and lets them see just what they are putting in their mouths and may just help you help them understand why those sweets are not the best for them.

Take back control, be aware and its so much quicker than trying to read tiny writing on labels.
Don't just look at food get into your bathroom as see what chemicals you are pouring on your skin which is after all the biggest organ in the body.
We can all do our bit to change the world we live in by voting with where our money goes but to do this we need to open our eyes and be aware.
Happy scanning.
Go to your App STORE AND DOWNLOAD Yuka with the little carrot icon.

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05/05/2025

Hi
In My last post I shared with you that cancer maybe a metabolic disease. We can do a lot to reduce our risk of getting it and if we already are unlucky enough to have it, we can try and slow it down just with the proper diet. Yet all the consultants I spoke with said juts eat what you want there is nothing you need to cut out. That is simply not true they just haven't had nutrition as part of their learning and instead of saying I don't know I am not trained they give out the wrong information.
I want to help you avoid this roller coaster of a ride it is not pleasant believe me. Do these simple things now for your sake and for the sake of your kids.

Today I am sharing with you another podcast that looks at 3 ways on how to improve your metabolic health, which is so important to reduce your risk of cancer and other imbalances like diabetes that are linked to metabolism.

Did you know that only 12% of Americans and that means us in the UK too have good metabolic health and its due to the food we eat.

What stood out for me from this podcast was the study in the journal of Food and Nutrition Research that 2 groups of people ate the same cheese sandwich, same calories, same protein content same carbs and fats, only difference was that one cheese sandwich was made from real cheese and wholegrain bread and the other was made from white processed bread and cheese slices, you know the cheese I mean the bright orange slimy cheese that comes on burgers.
The result of this study was alarming 50% of the calories from the processed food could not be used by the body and was stored. Those on the whole food lost fat and those who ate the processed food lost muscle mass. They said it was like the processed food glued up our system and interrupted our metabolism. Counting Calories doesn't work unless you know what chemicals those calories are made from. Our bodies simply have not evolved as fast as the chemical industry to cope or process these plastic foods.

Our children eat this stuff every day and they are getting fatter and are at risk of more serious illness later in life. 50% of us are getting a cancer diagnosis. We need to start becoming aware of what is going into our engines.

Here is a quick summary of this podcast by ZOE Science and Nutrition 3 Simple steps to improve your Metabolic Health by Shawn Stevenson and Prof Tim Spector
You'll discover how poor sleep, stress, and ultra-processed foods impact your metabolic health and how this sets the stage for weight gain and chronic disease.

More importantly, Shawn and Tim will share the simple, science-backed habits that can improve your metabolism, from eating nutrient-dense foods to optimizing movement and sleep.

Recommendations:

Avoid Ultra-Processed Foods: opt for whole, nutrient-dense alternatives. For example, choose whole multigrain bread over white bread and real cheese instead of processed cheese products.
Podcast World

Focus on High Fiber and Quality Fats: Incorporate foods like full-fat Greek yogurt, kefir, and berries into your breakfast to help stabilize blood sugar levels.

Sleep plays a crucial role in metabolic health. A study cited in the podcast indicates that well-rested individuals lost about 50% more body fat compared to those who were sleep-deprived, even with the same calorie intake.
Recommendations:

Establish a Tech Curfew: Limit screen time at least 30 minutes before bed to enhance sleep quality.
Create a Sleep Sanctuary: Keep your bedroom tech-free and dark to promote better sleep conditions.
Blue light from computer screens and phones can suppress melatonin and disrupt sleep.
Happy listening.

🥑 Make smarter food choices. Become a member at http://zoe.com Only 12% of American adults are considered metabolically healthy - meaning the vast majority ...