Appleaday

01/05/2026

Happy May Day 🌞
Today marks the celebration of spring, of fertility and renewal. It’s also the international celebration day for workers rights, and there will be festivals and gathering all over Dorset for both this weekend.

Here I’m continuing my heart journey and celebrating the humble potato and its unexpected role in ❤️ health. There’s a link in my bio and on my website for a vegetable recipe with potatoes to try out.
Did you know that keeping cooked potatoes in the fridge & eating them later, whether reheated or cold, increases their resistant starch content?
Why is this a big deal?
They’ll take longer to digest & thus keep blood sugar in better balance and will fill you up longer so you won’t be tempted to snack.
Resistant starch is a type of prebiotic fibre, escaping digestion in the small intestine, and reaching the colon where it provides fuel for our microbes. These microbes in turn produce short chain fatty acids a.o. that have an anti-inflammatory role and lower cholesterol.
And there we have the heart health link 🙂
Also sharing some woodland walks full of wild garlic and bluebells, Cotswold fields of bright yellow rapeseed, windy coastal days and a family walk & Sussex birthday celebration with a stunning flower cake.
And where would we be in spring without a photo of lambs!
Have a wonderful May holiday weekend. X

26/03/2026

Back to heart health with a walnut gremolata recipe in my Insta bio (or find it on my website!)
I sprinkled some on top of this gf ravioli, delicious, then spent time checking out various walnut salad recipes, making my own with current seasonal goodies like asparagus and artichoke, yummm. More of those to come another day.
Why are walnuts such stars when it comes to our heart? They’re likely not on the radar of most when we think of cardio vascular support. And yet, do a search, and they pop up frequently as a heart SUPERFOOD.
High in omega-3 anti inflammatory fats, they help lower triglycerides & cholesterol. Plus their range of polyphenols have numerous benefits including lowering BP & improving the function of our blood vessels a.o. Interestingly most of these phenolic compounds are found in the modest papery skin of walnuts!
More benefits to discover in the recipe link if you want to have a quick read, and whip up a gremolata.
I wish their was a smooth segue from walnuts to India but there isn’t!
I simply want to share some photos of last month’s whirlwind textile tour with . Apart from the sheer amount of what we saw and did, the textiles and food surpassed expectations (only one night of a wobbly tum!) However, what stood out for me was the open and warm friendliness of locals, even passers-by in the street, all smiling their way into our hearts.
There we go, a link to the heart after all ❤️

01/02/2026

Happy month 🥳, and yes, we’ve had glimmers of spring this weekend.
In between showers we drove past New Forest ponies and had a blue sky walk along B’mouth beach and woodland wanders, narrowly escaping the rain.
I want to share some weekend heart-health chat about fibre-rich foods! Both soluble and insoluble fibre are great for our hearts. Legumes such as lentils & chickpeas. Grains like oats, oat bran, rye….and blueberries, apples, citrus, banana. Seeds & nuts. And veg of course😉- the likes of broccoli, sweet tatties, parsnip, Brussels, avocado …and more.
As always it comes back to our gut microbiome (everything about our health does!) A similar story to my oat and flax posts, in that soluble fibre forms a gel in our gut that binds to cholesterol so we can excrete it and keep levels balanced.
The fibre in these foods also slows down the absorption of sugars, preventing any blood sugar spikes that can damage blood vessels.
And fibre satiates! Fills us up so we don’t keep snacking and overeat. Carrying weight is hard work for hearts.
The more diverse our diet is - the more different fibre foods we eat - the more diverse our bacterial population will be.
This diversity is absolutely key, not just for our heart, but our overall metabolic health.
On that note I’ll wish you a fibre-rich, blue sky week!❤️🙏

18/01/2026

The second stop on our heart health journey is flaxseed, also known as linseed, and another great source of soluble fibre.
Like the beta glucans in oats, in my previous post, it forms a gel in our GI tract and traps cholesterol-containing bile acids. This then forces our body to draw out more cholesterol from the blood, thus lowering our levels!
Flaxseed is also a great source of anti-inflammatory plant-based omega-3s (alpha linolenic acid=ALA), which help lower inflammation in blood vessels. Oxidised LDL and/or vLDL in our vessels are now recognised as playing a major part in atherosclerosis; toxic and pro-inflammatory, these oxidised fats/lipids trigger plaque build-up in our artery walls.
Lignans are the polyphenols found in flaxseed. These plant compounds have yet more anti inflammatory & antioxidant benefits for our blood vessels. Lignans are also considered phyto-oestrogenic because, once converted by our gut bacteria, they have a similar chemical structure to oestrogen, can mimic its action, binding to oestrogen receptors and modulating oestrogen activity; possibly also behaving in a similar way to SERMS (which can lower LDL).
How to include flaxseed in your diet?
Firstly grind them, since eating flaxseed whole can pass right through you unabsorbed.
Add 1-2 tbsp to porridge or muesli with lots of fluid.
Crackers that contain flaxseed are so easy to make - see tastythriftytimely.com for a delicious recipe.
Or add them to a gluten-free bread: ‘My New Roots’ has a fab ‘life changing loaf of bread’ recipe online.
Sharing a few photos of The Cotswolds where we met up with family under blue skies (& fog), driving past iconic honey-coloured limestone buildings and through historic towns and villages with wonderfully quirky names. So good to see this busy part of the country out of tourist season!

06/01/2026

I’m starting my year with a journey - of course 🤣 - but hoping to take you with me, woohoo!
It’s a heart health trip 😬
(awwww sorry, no, not Australia or Kef).
With parents & grandparents who’ve mainly died of cardiovascular events, I’ve definitely inherited some heart-related genetic glitches, SNPS…. which means I have to work harder at keeping my heart healthy.
Each week I’ll be highlighting a food and briefly chatting about why it’s a heart health star.
As always I’ll also share a few unrelated-to-food photos to give a sense of time and geography to my chat x
This week it’s OATS.
Or more accurately, beta-glucan in oats, which is a soluble fibre that forms a gel in our gut. Here it traps cholesterol-rich bile acids and gets rid of them.
This may be as clear as mud, with you wondering how removing these cholesterol-rich bile acids in our gut can help lower the cholesterol that’s swimming in our blood!
For this, some brief background info may help:
We need bile acids to digest fats, & our liver makes these bile acids from cholesterol (one of many reasons why cholesterol is important)
Hence, if we’re eliminating this oat-bile acid gluggy concoction, instead of reabsorbing and reusing these acids as we normally would, then our liver has to make MORE bile acids (which needs more cholesterol) in order for us to continue to digest fats with ease.
To do this, the liver pulls cholesterol from our blood stream, thus lowering levels, whilst also making new bile acids, voila!

This cholesterol-binding talent is one of a many reasons why I have great respect for oats. I hope you do too x

An aside: if you don’t feel well eating oats, even gf oats, you may have an intolerance and should steer away from them. There are loads of other effective cholesterol-lowering foods that I’ll be mentioning on this voyage.
Some photos of Dorset at the moment. We’re all kitted out in ski gear ‘coz it’s cccccold in U.K. but the gorse is showing its resilience and already starting to pop, and bushes are packed with haws and sloes. I’m hoping this means birds are having a feast!

30/12/2025

Who knew?!

So, the next time you see someone drilling a finger into their ear you’ll know they’re actually investigating their metabolic health status 😉😬

Earwax can contain valuable indicators to a person's health. Now scientists are analysing its chemistry in the hope of finding new ways of diagnosing diseases.

23/12/2025

Lots of merries to you all!

05/12/2025

In my most recent newsletter, which I optimistically called ‘late autumn news’ (that’s when I began writing it!), I discuss magnesium benefits and some excellent health reads, a podcast discussing extroverts and introverts and also my brain health workshops.
I’ll be running these next spring and now have NEW timings & pricings (above bio link is up to date), since being asked by a company and clients if I can offer an hour’s brain health talk on its own to fit in with their work and lives. So that’s happening too, some private workshops, exciting!
Take a look at dates and see if you can come along to the ones I’ll be running in my home clinic. Whether we are 30 or 80, there’s so much we can do with food and lifestyle to support our focus and memory and those neuronal connections zapping in our heads.
Here is the link to my updated 'autumn' newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/8fd6f89d8db0/autumn-wellbeing-10148722
The second and third photos above are a delicious warm spiced apple-cranberry compote because, yes, it IS winter, and fresh cranberries have suddenly appeared in stores.
I combined 2 chopped apples with a full cup of cranberries (frozen works), one tsp cinnamon, and a generous tsp grated fresh ginger. Splash of maple syrup and water. That’s it. Combine the lot & simmer 15 mins until the fruit have softened. I’m eating it on porridge or yoghurt, delicous.
Sky photos abound because they have really been so extraordinary, plus last night’s super moon was already shining brightly at 4pm.
Did you see it too?

29/11/2025

A new recipe link is in my Insta bio, and on my website, for a lentil bolognese.
Ive tasted many ho-hum versions over the years, but simmer your sauce longer, add more tomato paste, herbs & veg to the recipe, a dollop of miso paste or Dorsetshire sauce (vegan version of Worcestershire) and the result is a rich warming dish.
Ive even tossed in cranberries for a Christmas vibe, but then I’m a fan of the sour-fruitiness red pop of cranberries (not everyone is!)
In the linked recipe I mention FODMAP foods because lentils, like most pulses, are considered a high FODMAP.
This is because they contain oligosaccharides, specifically galacto-oligosaccharides (a mouthful of a word), which is the ‘O’ in FODMAP.
These ‘O’s are a type of carb that can cause bloating & gas for some people. However, if you soak the lentils (or any pulse) in water overnight - discarding the water before cooking - both the process of soaking and cooking reduces this hard-to-digest ‘O’.
Btw canned pulses might have lower FODMAP content because it leaches into the canned liquid. This is good reason for those suffering IBS-type symptoms to be wary of Aquafaba, the vegan egg substitute liquid in canned legumes/pulses.
A low FODMAP diet can help you manage IBS symptoms. But it’s meant as a short term diet!
The idea of this diet is to exclude high FODMAP foods for a couple of weeks then s-l-o-w-l-y reintroduce the excluded foods to see which one might be a symptom trigger for you.
Enough acronyms! It’s a grey, drizzly Saturday in our Dorset corner so I’m off to restore order (or maybe the previous disorder) to our freshly painted room. 👍🤦🏻‍♀️
I hope you find sunshine this weekend x

18/11/2025

A strange time, these past days away. A flight to Stuttgart, then early the following day, trains to Speyer where an old friend is in hospital. Two quiet days together. When she needed rests ‘n tests, physio and more, I walked into the old town which is in the throes of transformation. From beautiful medieval and Romanesque to gaudy Christmas market. Trucks and vans in front of historic buildings. Workmen putting up wooden huts & carousels, plastic signs & angels with flowing blonde hair. Not many people about just this flurry of Christmas action.

Back to Stuttgart for a very brief but welcome sense of ‘holiday’. A day wander through town and being taken to the Stuttgart food market hall, always a treat.
There I saw a display of allsorts of stuffed dates, piles of them, which prompted me to make some when I got home, so easy. Here’s the recipe!
12 pitted Medjool dates. Cut a split in the centre, fill with a pistachio paste (40g shelled pistachios blitzed with a tbsp of a neutral oil. Avo oil worked for me). Then 1/2 walnut pushed into each one, the paste hugs it. I dipped their bottoms into melted dark chocolate. Delicious, but very filling so you only need one. Something perhaps for Christmas?

04/11/2025

I’ve just been researching and writing about the impact our community and social connectedness has on our health. Not simply our mental well being but our physical health.
One hormone, in particular - also called the “love” or “trust” hormone (yes, seriously!) - can help make changes to our actual biology.
If you’d like to read more, head to my website’s recipe/blog page (or check out the link in my Instagram bio).

And this reel reflects the theme. Sending into the ether deep gratitude to family and my buddy groups- from all corners of my heart ❤️