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SDN, London (2026)

17/05/2025

Art as a Neurochemical Symphony:
When we create or experience art, our brain becomes a biochemical orchestra, harmonizing pleasure, empathy, connection, and peace. Art is more than expression—it’s chemistry in motion.

🧠 Dopamine ignites joy and curiosity, rewarding us for engaging deeply.
💫 Serotonin balances mood, bringing calm and clarity.
❤️ Oxytocin nurtures empathy and human connection.
🎭 Endorphins soothe pain and release emotional tension.
🧘‍♂️ GABA slows the noise, inviting stillness and focus.

Together, they don’t just make the mind work better—they make it feel deeper, love stronger, and connect more authentically. So…
How are you conducting today?
Drop an emoji or a word that captures your mental melody. ⬇️

01/08/2022

Saturated fats are found in many foods, both sweet and savoury. Most of them come from animal sources, including meat (beef, lamb, pork) beef 🥩 🍖 , chicken skin chicken 🍗 , butter 🧈 , ghee and lard, cheese 🧀 , whole milk 🥛 and cream, soured cream and ice cream 🍦 . Also tropical oils such as coconut 🥥 and palm 🌴 oil are saturated fats too.
Hence you can find saturated fats in chocolate confectionery, biscuits, cakes and pastries 🍨 🍫 .
While not as harmful as trans fat, saturated fat can raise bad LDL cholesterol and negatively impact heart health 🫀and increase the risks of stroke 🧠 . Thus it is best consumed in moderation.

While there is no need to cut out all saturated fat from your diet, most nutrition experts recommend limiting it to 10% of your daily calories.

Don’t go no fat, go good fat. Swap saturated fats for unsaturated fats from 🐟 🥑 🥜 🌰 🫒 🌻

Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954), Mexican painter
Coconuts (“Cocos”, 25.4 x 34.6 cm; 1951) www.FridaKahlo.org
Antoine Vollon (1833- 1900) French realist painter
Mound of butter (oil on canvas, 50.2 x 61 cm; 1875-1885) National gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

15/06/2022

Since fat is a vital part of a healthy diet, it is important to focus on eating more beneficial ”good” fats and limiting harmful ”bad” fats.

Small amounts of naturally occurring trans fats can be found in meat and dairy products but it is artificial trans fats that are considered dangerous ⚠️ These trans fats are created when vegetable oils are hydrogenated to remain solid at room temperature. Food manufacturers must list trans fats on food labels, as no amount is considered safe ⛔️

Trans fats can raise bad LDL cholesterol, create inflammation, and increase the risks of heart disease. Artificial trans fats contribute to insulin resistance, which is also a risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

Trans fats are found not only in stick margarines, fast foods and commercially fried foods (French fries, fried chicken, chicken nuggets, breaded fish) but also in packaged snack foods (crackers, microwave popcorn, chips) and commercially baked pastries, cookies, doughnuts, muffins, cakes and pizza dough ⚠️

🌱 So aim to eliminate all artificial trans fats from your diet to stay healthy 🌱
Banksy (b. 1974?), England-based street artist.
Donuts, Strawberry (Screenprint in colours, 2009, signed in pink crayon).
The Banksy’s Donut Police was never originally a public street art piece.

17/02/2022

I was waiting for the occasion to restart the blog. This week Love ❤️ is in the air and the treats are everywhere! It’s time to talk about fats. Fats give our food its unique texture and palatability. I have chosen Ice cream to shed some light on Fats.
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Ice cream is essentially made from three basic ingredients: milk, cream, and sugar. The first two are the source of fat droplets that give the texture to our ice cream. These dairy fats are mostly composed of the triglycerides that melt in our mouths at the right temperature- not very low, not very high! The plant-sourced palm oil and coconut oil also have similar melting points. Though, as it happens, the ice cream can be made with them too!
In ice cream the small droplets of fat are smoothly dispersed through water, resulting in an emulsion. This happens due to chemical properties of the fat molecules. Fats are the substances that are poorly soluble or insoluble in water.
Fats are one of the three main macronutrient groups in human diet. A moderate amount of fat is needed for good health. Fats are found in butter, oil, nuts, meat, fish and dairy products.
The body uses fat as a fuel source, a carrier for fat-soluble vitamins, and to build nerve tissue and hormones.
Fats in food come in several forms, such as unsaturated, saturated and trans fats.
We will explore them further in the coming posts.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) American Pop Art artist
Ice Cream Dessert (ink and dye on paper, 69.5 x 42.8 cm; 1959) Artist Rooms TATE and National Galleries of Scotland

10/12/2021

I am always tempted by the brioches like that. They are beautiful, comforting, yummy, but.... They are full of digestible starch and simple carbohydrates. When you eat these carbs, your body breaks them easily down into simple sugars. There are three dietary monosaccharides such as galactose, fructose and glucose that are absorbed directly into blood during digestion.

Glucose, a blood sugar, is used as a primary fuel by your body’s cells, tissues and organs. It is the brain’s preferred energy source. Without glucose, your body is forced to utilize muscle and fat instead. For its optimal health and proper function your body controls the glucose levels through the different mechanisms.
Unlike glucose, fructose, fruit sugar, causes a low rise in blood sugar levels. It has to be converted into glucose by the liver before the body can use it. When people eat a diet high in calories and in fructose, the liver gets overloaded and starts turning the fructose into fat.
Put simply, when unbalanced, sugars may cause metabolic disorders and interfere with weight loss, and promote diabetes and heart disease. You should be limiting sugar intake in order to keep your blood sugar levels in the healthy range.

Some sugars naturally occur in the whole foods and dairy. They should not be of concern if you can tolerate them well.
However, the manufacturers add sugars to foods and drinks for the palatability and taste enhancement. You will find sugars in abundance in the processed and highly refined foods such as sweets, white bread, cakes, biscuits, canned fruits, juices and fizzy drinks. Added sugars and other refined carbs are always unhealthy options, it is recommended that you limit or avoid them.

Try reducing the sugar in your recipes. Even if you have a sweet tooth you might enjoy these dried cherry-banana-oat biscuits baked in oven for only 25 minutes.
Edouard Manet (1832-1883) French painter
Still Life with Brioche (“Nature morte à la brioche”, oil on canvas, 55.24 x 35.24 cm; c 1880) Private collection, Carnegie Museum of Art, USA

02/12/2021

Starch is another type of complex carbohydrates. It is made up of a number of joined molecules of glucose. Green plants produce starch for energy storage. Hence starch can be found in a range of plant- based foods. Starchy foods include bread, cereal, and pasta. Also certain vegetables, like potatoes, peas and corn contain starches. Your body breaks starches down into sugars to use them for energy immediately or store in the liver and muscles for later use.

But not all of the starch you eat gets digested.
Sometimes a small part of it passes through your digestive tract unchanged.
This type of starch is called resistant starch, which brings health benefits similar to soluble, fermentable fibre. These include improved insulin-sensitivity, lower blood sugar levels, reduced appetite and various benefits for digestion and the colon health. Also resistant starch has fewer calories than regular starch and may increase feelings of fullness and help people eat less.
Unfortunately only a few foods contain high amount of resistant starch. This includes raw potatoes, green bananas, various legumes, cashew, raw oats.

The amount of resistant starch changes, depending on how foods are stored and prepared. Resistant starch in foods is often destroyed during cooking and turns to digestible. Conversely, the cooling process turns some of the digestible starches into resistant via starch retrogradation, when a new structure is formed. This makes the cooled but cooked oats, potatoes and brown rice a good source of resistant starch too.

There is no formal recommendation for the intake of resistant starch. However it can cause health risks if taken in excess, highly processed, or badly sourced. Choose the whole-meal options to build up on benefits of fibre, B vitamins and minerals as well.

A portrait of a peasant carrying a bundle of rice stalks by Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972), Philippine artist.
Palay Maiden (oil on canvas, 85.4 x 57.8 cm; 1920) Ayala Museum Collection, Philippines

26/11/2021

So, let’s focus on fibre today.

Fibre refers to a diverse group of non-starch complex carbohydrates that humans cannot digest. We lack the digestive enzymes required to break these longer chains of sugar molecules down. Hence, they pass through most of the digestive system unchanged, and can’t be used as an energy source for our body.

Put simply, dietary fibre is a non-digestible carbohydrate found in plant foods.
Food sources of dietary fibre have traditionally been divided according to whether they provide soluble or insoluble fibre.

Soluble fibre is found in oats, peas, beans, apples, citrus fruits, carrots, barley and psyllium. Soluble fibre includes gums, pectins, psyllium, beta-glucans and others.
Soluble fibre dissolves in water to form a gel-like substance, which can be metabolized by the bacteria in the gut. This may help lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels and promote the growth of good bacteria in the gut.

Insoluble fibre includes lignin and cellulose. It does not dissolve in water. It passes through the digestive system mostly intact. It functions mainly as a bulking agent, and may help speed the passage of food and waste through the gut. It can be beneficial for those who struggle with constipation or irregular stool.
Also there are some insoluble fibre that can be fermented by the good bacteria in the intestine too, and improve the digestion health in general.
Good sources of insoluble fibre are whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, nuts, beans, and vegetables such as cauliflower, green beans and potatoes.

Frankly speaking, most whole-food sources contain both soluble and insoluble fibre. Fibre offers many health benefits. We should aim to consume 25- 38 grammes of fibre daily. However it is important to incorporate fibre-containing foods gradually over the course of a few days to avoid adverse effects, such as bloating and gas.
With the reference to the whole grains, high in fibre, I decided to illustrate this post with a painting of Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890).
Wheatfield (oil on canvas, 54x65 cm; 1888) Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

16/11/2021

When you hear about carbohydrates, or carbs, you probably think about bread, pasta and sweets. In fact carbs are also found in dairy products, fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, legumes, and seeds. We need to eat carbs, as a part of balanced diet, to fuel our body’s cells, tissues and organs, and to support immune and digestive health.

There are three main types of carbohydrates: sugars, starches and fibre. On the basis of their chemical makeup they can also be classified as simple or complex.

Sugars are simple carbs, easy–to-digest. They are quickly absorbed through the gut and can cause a spike in blood sugar and insulin levels.

Starch and fibre are the two types of complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates contain longer chains of sugar molecules that the body takes longer to break down. That means the glucose will be released at a more consistent rate – instead of peaks and troughs – to keep you going throughout the day. This makes foods high in complex carbohydrates more filling and a good option for weight control.

There is no one-size-fits-all amount of carbs that people should eat. This amount can vary, depending on factors such as your age, s*x, health, and whether or not you are trying to lose or gain weight. On average, people should get 45 to 65% of their calories from carbohydrates every day.
Edouard Manet (1832- 1883) French painter
The Brioche (oil on canvas, 65.1 x 81 cm; 1870) The Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York, USA

30/10/2021

Pumpkin 🎃 … as an art object has become very famous due to Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkins. By reproducing them through her artwork and installations she turns something frightening into something amusing and inspiring.

Actually, pumpkin 🎃 , the orange autumn fruit can help you to trim your tummy. Low in calories but full of water, antioxidants, vitamins and Fibre, pumpkin is a good choice to fill up.

Most importantly, by consuming adequate amounts of Fibre you optimize the function of the friendly bacteria in your gut, and promote digestive health. So what goes in goes out on a regular basis 💩.

Hence don’t be scared by Carbs that we will talk about more in details soon! Carbohydrates can be friendly for you, as you might notice about Fibre, a no-digestible carbohydrate found in foods.
Yayoi Kusama (1929) Japanese Contemporary Artist
Pumpkin at Moco Museum Pumpkin, Amsterdam; 2019 pictured by

24/10/2021

When it comes to weight loss people often think about a deficit in calories, which means they need to burn more calories than they get from food.
However the quality (aka sources) of these calories matters too. Calories come from protein, fats and carbohydrate, the nutrients we need in large amounts for normal growth and development.
Along with energy, all of these macronutrients also have specific roles allowing our bodies to function properly. To remain healthy people typically require a balance of protein, fats and carbohydrates in their diets.

In upcoming posts we will talk about food sources for each group of macronutrients. We’ll cover how to make healthy choices, how much to consume in order to reach your fitness goals and maintain your wellness.

In meanwhile enjoy this lovely “Luncheon on the Grass” by Claude Monet.
Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe (oil on canvas, 248.9cm x 218.0 cm ; 1865-1866) Musee d’Orsay, Paris, France.

14/10/2021

It comes to letter Z.

Zeaxanthin and Lutein are yellow carotenoids, surprisingly found in high amounts in dark-green vegetables. Structurally they are very similar, and usually occur together in foods. You can find them in abundance in spinach, Swiss chard, kale, parsley, pistachios, and green peas. Also egg yolks, sweet corn and red grapes contain Zeaxanthin and Lutein.
Zeaxanthin is the pigment that gives to paprika, saffron and corn their characteristic colours.

Zeaxanthin and Lutein are the only dietary carotenoids that accumulate in light-sensitive cells of macula, located at the back of your eyes 👀 They are potent antioxidants, and due to their structure they work as a natural sunblock and protect your eyes against harmful blue light.

With an average diet we are likely not to get these carotenoids enough.
Therefore Zeaxanthin and Lutein are widely recommended as dietary supplements for older adults who are concerned with visual loss, and those willing to improve their overall antioxidant status.
Roland Wise (1923- 2005), American artist mostly known for his abstract paintings and still lives.
Swiss Chard and Lettuce (oil on canvas, 211 x 305 cm; 1969) Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo State College, USA

04/10/2021

Phytoestrogens are a form of dietary estrogen we get from food. Research is ongoing with regards to the effects of these plant-based nutrients. Despite mixed opinions surrounding phytoestrogen-containing foods, the 2020 review of studies found that phytoestrogens might lower the risks of breast cancer, colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer.
The benefits in reproductive health of women, bone strength, brain protection and mood regulation were reported too.
It is proved that phytoestrogens can act as antioxidants, and help prevent cell damages and reduce inflammation.
However, there is also a concern that phytoestrogens may act as endocrine disruptors and inhibit thyroid hormone production. Hence you should avoid taking phytoestrogens supplements unless your doctors tell you otherwise.
Nevertheless you can get a safe amount of phytoestrogens by eating a varied diet full of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes.
Peaches 🍑, blueberries 🫐, strawberries 🍓, flax and sesame seeds are high in lignans, which are phytoestrogens precursors.
Soybeans, tofu and tempeh have the highest isoflavone content, and are a hot topic right now.

Ryu Murakami’s “In the Miso Soup” book cover. This novel is not related to the topic above. I ‘ve chosen it just to make reference to a Japanese culture 🇯🇵

SDN

17/05/2025

01/08/2022

15/06/2022

17/02/2022

10/12/2021

02/12/2021

26/11/2021

16/11/2021

30/10/2021

24/10/2021

14/10/2021

04/10/2021

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