Mad Diet

27/05/2026

There’s a massive difference between industrial fats and natural fats – so let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater!

Hydrogenated vegetable oil clogs arteries and causes heart attacks but natural trans fatty acids are beneficial for human health.

The artificial stuff contains elaidic acid – the chemical compound that increases bad cholesterol and drives inflammation in the brain… leading to dementia!

Natural trans fat – in beef and dairy – is predominantly vaccenic acid which the body converts into omega-7 and conjugated linoleic acid.

Boosting anti-tumour defences, reducing gut inflammation, and naturally lowering blood lipids.

This massive study from the University of Reading reminds us that all fats are not created equal.

Is it time we got back to our native diet and ditched the industrial crap on our plates? www.maddiet.co

Trans fats found naturally in dairy foods such as milk, butter and cheese do not increase the risk of heart disease or type 2 diabetes, a new study has found.

26/05/2026

Who knew? Klenner did in 1949. McCormick suggested the same in 1952. Then along came Linus Pauling with his Vale of Leven experiments but we all know what happened to him!

For over 70 years, medical doctors and Nobel laureates have advocated taking vitamin C to prevent cancer. One by one they were branded quacks by the usual suspects and their minions.

This latest study highlights the healing power of ascorbic acid for blocking nitrosamines from forming in the stomach.

These cancer-causing compounds are a disaster for human health. But vitamin C is a powerful nitrite scavenger and helps to neutralise these nasties.

Nitrosamines can form in drinking water treated with chlorine or chloramines. Plus, thousands of foods contain nitrate and nitrite preservatives – mainly processed meats and fish.

Is it time we revisited the auld research and got more vitamin C on our plates? Eating clean meat and filtering tap water should be a priority too. www.maddiet.co

A new study from the University of Waterloo uses mathematical modelling to examine how Vitamin C affects chemical reactions in the digestive system that are linked to cancer development. Over the last several decades, North American diets have seen a steady increase in exposure to nitrates and nitri...

25/05/2026

Taps aff weather has finally arrived and it gives us way more than vitamin D!

When sunlight hits the skin, our bodies release nitric oxide into the bloodstream - helping blood vessels relax and lowering blood pressure naturally.

No fancy wellness trend. Just ancient biology doing what it was designed to do.

Sunlight also boosts serotonin – that wee neurotransmitter linked to mood, calmness, and focus.

Then at sunset, fading daylight triggers melatonin so we can actually sleep properly instead of scrolling nonsense on phones at 2am!

Even the infrared rays from the sun pe*****te deep into tissues - supporting circulation, easing aches and pains, and helping with wound repair.

Some of sunlight’s immune benefits have nothing to do with vitamin D. UVB rays stimulate antimicrobial peptides, anti-inflammatory cytokines, and enhance regulatory T-cells.

That’s why we used to have outdoor wards and open-air sanitoriums right up until the 1950s!

So, this bank holiday… get outside. Bare arms and legs. Face to the sky. Walk barefoot on the grass and feel the healing power of mother nature.

Just don’t get frazzled like a cheap sausage on a disposable barbecue!

Take shade, wear a hat, and drink plenty of water – especially if yer having a dram!

Suzanne.x

19/05/2026

The Belgians have introduced a banned genetic pesticide and it’s causing a right stooshie. Potato farmers haven’t asked for it, their Minister of Health is against it, so what the hell is going on?

Before ye scroll past… just remember we import over 500,000 tonnes of spuds from Belgium every year. Frozen chips, crinkle cut, skinny fries, wedges, and potato flakes for mash in ready meals.

Around 40% of all frozen chips consumed in the UK come from Belgium so this decision affects us too.

Ledprona is a new type of biopesticide made from synthetic RNA. The RNA is produced inside engineered bacteria then made into a spray for potato crops.

Beetles eat the sprayed leaves, their genes go haywire, and then they’re gubbed.

Now, the biotech boys claim it only targets pests but other researchers say we should haud the bus! We still don’t fully understand whether repeated exposure to these synthetic RNA fragments could also affect non-target organisms… gut bacteria in humans and animals!

Until we see long-term safety data (that hasn’t been funded by industry) I’ll be giving this stuff a wide berth. Thankfully, it hasn’t been approved in the UK so locally grown potatoes are safe for now.

Organic tatties cost less per kilo than frozen chips… so should we get back to making our own?

Slice the spuds, soak in cold water for 20 minutes, dry with a tea towel, rub in olive oil, sprinkle on garlic salt, and bake in the oven for 30-40 mins at 200°C. If ye like them super crunchy then dust the oiled tatties with cornflour before baking.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy… clean chips without the biotech bollox!

Suzanne.x

PS- bedtime reading below.

PPS – if ye fancy a tasty dip with yer clean chips – stick an egg yolk in a beaker (or slim jug) with some minced garlic, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper then mix.

Use a hand blender (£15 in Argos if you don’t have one) and drizzle in olive oil until it’s creamy. Those wee hand blenders are brilliant for making home-made condiments without the chemical soup! x

18/05/2026

This is why we do not filter our early harvest EVOO. Filtration extends the life of olive oil but it also removes vital antioxidants.

Hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol are powerhouse polyphenols with a long list of health benefits. These hydrophilic compounds cling to water and sediment in the oil and that’s why we leave them in.

In fact, hydroxytyrosol-rich sediment is so potent that drug companies are developing biosynthetic versions as active pharmaceutical ingredients in new medicines.

So, when you see a wee bit of sediment in our EVOO – remember what it actually is. Pure green medicine as nature intended for heart, brain, gut and muscle health.

New study from Italy well worth a swatch – especially for women my age. www.maddiet.co

A polyphenol-rich olive oil byproduct may enhance muscle health, reducing fat mass and improving antioxidant markers in adults with metabolic risk factors.

17/05/2026

The Vikings got one thing wrong about Scotland. They thought they could conquer us. But after the invasions they left something behind - far more useful than funny hats and longboats.

Fermented dairy. Salted meat and fish. Some of the smartest food preservation techniques northern Europe had ever seen. Food carefully preserved to survive long winters when fresh food was in short supply.

This week I’m heading back to Denmark but this time not for a battle. Visiting farms, seaweed growers, and algae producers for a closer look at how the Danes are producing plant-based omega-3.

To be honest I like the Danes – eco warriors but absolute realists. You drive past endless windmills and organic farms thinking the place has fully surrendered to green politics. Then you remember they’re also the biggest oil producer in the EU.

Still drilling. Still refining fuel. Two functioning oil refineries while Scotland has none!

The Danes seem to understand something many governments don’t. You can care about the environment without completely disconnecting yourself from reality. Green energy but fossil fuels too. Strict immigration rules but the highest organic consumers in Europe.

Like us, their politics is also in flux. Pressure building from the far right like we’re seeing across much of the UK. More questions about borders, energy, food security and the cost of living.

Hopefully Scotland and Denmark land somewhere in the middle away from the crazy extremes. No more candidates spouting tripe about melting Nigerians to fill potholes or folk tipping up on student visas standing in parliament.

We need practical solutions that work for ordinary folk trying to live decent lives. Those solutions lie far beyond populist platitudes we see every day on our screens.

Anyhoo, the real reason I’m going is food. Our brilliant algae DHA + EPA producer in Wales sadly went out of business. I found a decent producer over in the US but they were charging an arm and a leg with massive MOQs we couldn’t stomach.

Although I still think properly sourced wild fish oils are the gold standard, many people in the Mad Diet community can’t eat fish or choose not to. So, the search begins again…

I want to see how these algae farms are operating. How clean the production really is. Whether they’re using solvents and industrial shortcuts or doing things properly.

Because the problem with modern food production is that the marketing is usually cleaner than the process itself.

Most UK supplement brands buy commodity ingredients from wholesalers, look at brochures and trust the blurb without actually visiting primary producers.

Encapsulate in the UK, stick a union flag on the label, and job’s a good’un!

We actually walk the talk and I’m looking for the real deal. Clean algae omega-3. Proper proportions of DHA + EPA. No chemical soup hidden behind green labels and eco slogans.

So, if the modern Vikings are self-sufficient in food, still producing their own energy, refining their own fuel and pioneering clean algae production at the same time… it’s probably worth checking them out.

1500 years ago, they taught the Scots how to preserve food…

Maybe in 2026 they’ve still got a few lessons left to teach us.

Suzanne.x

15/05/2026

Two-thirds of women in the UK are not getting enough iodine.

Fish has fallen off our plates. Seaweed disappeared generations ago. Offal has fallen out of fashion and we drink 50% less milk than we did in the 1970s.

Back in the 1960s researchers discovered iodine-deficient rats became hyper-responsive to oestrogen - a hormone known to drive breast cancer cell growth.

Then a 2017 paper found breast cancer rates began climbing in the 1970s - around the same time our iodine intake started to plummet.

The thyroid, breasts, ovaries, salivary glands and even the stomach lining all require iodine to function properly. Mammary glands concentrate iodine for a reason – to protect cells from damage!

Is it time we got back to our native diet – fish, organ meats, seaweed, and milk - real foods rich in iodine?

Iodine and vitamin D are the low-hanging fruit, so why are we ignoring the elephant in the room? www.maddiet.co

Breast cancer is posing a serious threat to the health of the female workforce as one of the most prevalent malignancies. Emerging epidemiological evidence s...

14/05/2026

It’s all about the polyphenols. Antioxidant-rich plant compounds that protect us from chronic disease and help maintain telomeres in our cells.

Telomeres are the wee shoelace caps at the end of chromosomes. As cells divide as a normal part of ageing, these caps begin to shorten and our DNA gets damaged.

Several nutrients help protect telomeres and slow biological ageing. 2000IU of vitamin D3. 2000mg of vitamin C. 1.25g-2.5g of fish oils. Doses far higher than current RDAs.

Saunas, cold plunges, and strength training also help preserve the length of telomeres.

But another easy hack is drinking fresh coffee and extra virgin olive oil every day. Simple foods packed with those vital polyphenols. www.maddiet.co

Small dietary swaps could lower the risk of heart disease and cognitive decline by protecting the ‘biological clock’ in our cells, according to research

10/05/2026

That University of Parma study rattled a few cages this week. Researchers found almost all plant-based meat and milk alternatives tested contained mycotoxins!

Poisonous fungi-made compounds that hitch a ride on grains, soy, legumes, and cereals when crops are grown, stored, or shipped in damp conditions.

Before the vegan police get their knickers in a twist - low levels here and there are unlikely to turn our brains to soup. Humans have always been exposed to small amounts of mould toxins. The issue is how often and how much we consume.

If your breakfast is soy milk, lunch is fake chicken, dinner is a plant-based burger, and snacks are imported cereal bars and pea protein crisps… you might want to rethink things.

Because mycotoxins have a dark history going back thousands of years…

During the Middle Ages, entire villages lost their minds after eating contaminated rye. They called it St Anthony’s Fire. Burning limbs, hallucinations, convulsions and madness. Folk believed they were possessed by the devil or blamed it on witchcraft.

Antonine monks set up hospitals to treat victims with clean food, herbs, and wine. Thankfully many recovered. Of course, the credit went to Saint Anthony rather than removing mouldy grain from the diet!

Some historians and toxicologists also believe ergot-contaminated bread may have played a role in the Salem witch trials. Hysterical women accused of witchcraft may simply have been poisoned by fungal toxins crossing the blood-brain barrier.

Even the Black Death has a mycotoxin theory attached to it. Some researchers believe contaminated grain weakened immune systems before the plague swept through Europe.

Others think the toxins may have killed rats - forcing infected pests to seek new hosts. Either way, mouldy grain and mass illness have walked hand in hand throughout history.

That’s why we need to be wary of bankrolled wellness influencers pushing certain brands. Promoting plant-based meat and milk as clean and sustainable alternatives to animal products without mentioning the downside.

Mycotoxins don’t just upset the gut or stress the liver. Studies show some can interfere with neurotransmitters and brain chemistry too. Anxiety and low mood. Emotional instability and brain fog. In severe exposures, even neuropsychiatric symptoms and hysterical behaviour.

The truth is that many heavily processed plant-based foods are made from crops grown thousands of miles away. Hot, humid climates where mould growth thrives during storage and shipping.

Meanwhile here in the UK, grain storage is tightly regulated. Moisture levels are controlled with temperatures kept well below 15°C to prevent fungal growth and spoilage. Local cereals and legumes are far safer from a storage point of view.

Now, this doesn’t mean the odd soy burger will turn us doolally. But if most of our diet comes from a packet pretending to be chicken, beef, fish, or milk then it’s probably worth asking where those crops came from and how they were stored.

Then again, why eat fake burgers when a portobello mushroom baked with olive oil, garlic, and melted cheese on a salad bun is dead easy to rustle up and tastes absolutely delicious?

But if you do buy plant-based foods, choosing ones made from locally grown crops with proper supply chain transparency makes a lot more sense than blindly trusting ultra-processed imports from the other side of the planet...

Because these pretty people on Instagram might be entertaining to watch but they usually know hee-haw about food science.

Suzanne.x

07/05/2026

Glyphosate is about to become a political football in new trade negotiations. But here’s 6 facts to consider before we choose our corner…

1. This stuff is sprayed on non-organic UK wheat and oats before harvest.

2. It was banned in NI (and throughout the EU) as a desiccant in 2023 and has not affected crop yields.

3. As an estrogenic compound it messes with hormones – turbocharging breast cancer cell growth

4. It interferes with P450 enzymes and hinders our metabolism of vitamin D

5. It acts like an antibiotic in the gut – killing beneficial bacteria while allowing harmful pathogens to thrive.

6. It impacts how we absorb certain nutrients – lowering zinc, copper, iron and more.

Once again, we are facing big decisions on whether to align with neighbours across the Channel or the Atlantic.

But this decision on a controversial weedkiller shouldn’t be about politics – it should be about health.

In the meantime, always buy organic bread and porridge. If organic is not available, or yer on a tight budget, then choose oats and flour produced in N Ireland.

Our cousins across the sheugh don’t have this crap in locally grown cereals and it’s time the rest of the UK got shot of it too.

Suzanne.x

PS – you’ll find supporting studies in my book. Stephanie Seneff’s ‘Toxic Legacy’ is essential reading too.

03/05/2026

Last week one of the Murdoch papers had a go at Scottish salmon. At first, I thought it was another sweaty sock hit piece - but turns out it was absolutely spot on.

Pictures of diseased fish with red eyes and rotting flesh swimming in nets in our lochs. Comments from industry lackeys trying to brush it under the carpet - “nothing to see here guv!”

But crofters and locals living near these farms have a different story to tell. Having worked on a few aquaculture projects over the years, I’ve witnessed it first-hand too.

And once you’ve seen it, it’s hard to unsee - yet this sordid tale didn’t start yesterday. The grip on our salmon was seized centuries ago and we’ve been living with the consequences ever since.

Before David I of Scotland introduced feudal rule, land wasn’t owned in the way we understand it today. It was held through kinship - tuaths and clans - communities bound to the land and water around them.

Rivers weren’t restricted or off limits. If you lived by them, you fished them. Salmon fed families, sustained local populations, and moved with the rhythms of the seasons rather than demands of distant markets.

Then David came back from exile down south and rewrote the rules. He invited in outside power - Benedictine monks, Norman families like de Brus (ancestors of Robert the Bruce), and the infamous Knights Templar.

In return for loyalty and military muscle, they were handed land that had belonged to clans for generations.

With that land came the rivers… and with the rivers came the salmon.

What had been a shared food source was soon fenced off and exclusive rights enforced. Locals were marginalised and catching salmon became a crime. Clan land, clan rivers, and clan food handed to powerful outsiders with the stroke of a pen.

This wasn’t stewardship. It was extraction. Taken from local people and sold to wealthy elites across Europe.

They built weirs across rivers to trap salmon in bulk and turned a living system into a commercial pipeline. But even then, they knew not to break it completely. Weirs had to be opened between Saturday and Monday to let salmon pass upstream and spawn. Not out of principle – to preserve profits.

Fast forward, and the pattern is all too familiar. The last independent Scottish salmon farmer was bought out in 2022. Today the industry is controlled by multinational corporations, institutional investors, and billionaire playboys.

Same grip. Different hands. With decisions made far from the communities most affected.

And the farmed fish we’re left eating today? Nothing like the wild salmon that once ran these rivers! Bred to grow fast and fat. Fed on processed fishmeal and vegetable oils. Packed into pens where disease spreads fast - sea lice, infections, chronic stress.

Those images in last week’s paper aren’t rare. It’s what happens when you push a system too far.

Even nutritionally, it’s a massive step down. Less omega-3. Less vitamin A & D. Less calcium and iron… but more contaminants!

At the same time, wild salmon stocks in Scotland are collapsing to the lowest levels ever recorded. We’re told it’s because of climate change… but that old chestnut doesn’t wash either.

During the Medieval Warm Period – when temperatures were higher than today - populations across Europe skyrocketed. More mouths to feed meant more grain, and more grain meant more mills.

So, they industrialised their rivers and large vertical watermills were thrown up at scale - damming, diverting, and dredging waterways. In the process, they tore up gravel beds, choked migration routes, and hammered the very ecosystems salmon depend on.

Scotland took a different approach. Here, milling was a local affair. Smaller, horizontal mills - simple contraptions powered by fast-flowing burns - serviced families and tight-knit communities rather than sprawling populations.

Our ancestors didn’t need to dam entire rivers or rip up the riverbed to feed everyone. Waterways kept their shape, spawning grounds stayed intact, and salmon kept running as they always had.

So, blaming the collapse of Scottish salmon on global warming doesn’t stack up. It’s about interference. Control. Turning a natural system into a machine for profit.

For over a thousand years, Scottish salmon has been taken out of local hands. First by kings, monks, foreign nobles, and funny handshake military orders. Today it’s multinational corporations and global investors.

And the result is there in plain sight. Diseased fish in our lochs. Wild salmon disappearing from our rivers. So, is it time we paused for a rethink?

Let the lochs recover. Let wild stocks rebuild. And get our omega-3 from wild fish that actually lived as nature intended?

Because this isn’t just about the atrocities of industrially farmed salmon.

It’s about who (or what) controls our food.

Suzanne.x