Andrew Fortuna Nutritional Therapy, P. O. Box 1305, Gibraltar (2026)

25/04/2026

STOP DRINKING TEAS OR HERBAL INFUSIONS FROM PLASTIC BAGS

Microplastics are tiny plastic particles that can enter the human body through ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact, and they have been found in various organs and tissues, even the brain.

Research suggests potentially strong links between microplastic exposure from food and beverages and serious health outcomes, such as neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive problems, although more studies are needed to fully understand their impact on human health.

For context, an increasing number of restaurants and coffee shops worldwide and in Gibraltar, are providing black or green teas, or other herbal infusions contained in plastic (polymer) bags.

Recent studies (see attached pic) show that steeping a single plastic tea bag in to hot water, can release approximately 50k microplastics, with other studies suggesting even larger amounts of up to 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles into a cup of tea.

STRATEGY
To avoid this, ask the waiter if their tea bags are in plastic or paper bags. Ideally, consider switching to loose leaf tea or brands that specifically offer plastic-free tea bags made with 100% plant fibres. If you are offered tea in plastic bags, cut the bag and pour the contents in to the cup, discard the bag. Brew the tea for a few minutes then filter out the loose leaf with a large spoon as you sip, or filter the infusion using a small tea strainer.

Want to learn more about how to optimise your health, get in touch to work with me

www.andrewfortuna.com
info@andrewfortuna.com
54084900

23/04/2026

NEW STUDY SUGGESTS CONSUMING BREAD MAY CONTRIBUTE TO WEIGHT GAIN, EVEN IF NOT OVER-CONSUMED

Bread has been eaten for centuries across cultures and has long been a staple food, providing a reliable source of energy and nutrients. Traditionally made from flour, water, yeast, and salt, bread contains carbohydrates which the body uses for fuel, along with small amounts of protein, fibre (especially in wholegrain varieties), and various vitamins and minerals.

Despite its long history of consumption in populations with not much obesity, bread is often blamed for weight gain, but the associations are conflictive and traditionally caused a split in opinions in nutrition circles. But is this claim justified, or is the overall balance of the diet what matters? A new study by Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan, published in the peer-reviewed Molecular Nutrition and Food Research journal, has shed some light in this hypothesis https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mnfr.70394

Lab mice were given a choice between their normal, healthy cereal-based diet and either simple bread, baked wheat flour, or baked rice flour. The mice were then monitored to check their weight and how their bodies burned calories at rest and when active.

Researchers found that mice fed a diet containing wheat flour and bread gained substantial weight, but not because they consumed excess calories, they gained weight because the simple, less complex carbohydrates in the bread triggered metabolic changes, causing their bodies to burn far less energy, leading to increased energy storage.

The mice strongly preferred to switch from their standard diets to carbohydrate-heavy snacks, which then led to weight gain and more fat tissue in the mice, particularly in the males, likely due to triggering a dopamine-reward system in the brain.

Further analysis and follow-up tests suggested that these two key changes were being driven not by overeating or a lack of exercise, but by the foods themselves. In the wheat flour diet, fewer calories were being burned overall, while genes responsible for converting carbohydrates into fat were unregulated. Another follow-up test focusing on the wheat flour group showed that when the chow diet was restored, the weight gain stopped, and the metabolic shifts were reversed.

These findings may potentially challenge the long-standing notion of the calories in / calories out model for achieving weight loss / gain, although these outcomes were observed in mice in a laboratory setting, and so it is not known if these same effect may be observed in humans.

When chosen and used appropriately, particularly wholegrain or sourdough options, bread can be part of a balanced, healthy diet rather than something to avoid. Context matters though, as many gastrointestinal conditions, such as celiac disease and others, may require omitting gluten-based varieties completely.

To learn more whether bread may be suitable for you or not, get in touch with for some private lab tests and a consultation.

www.andrewfortuna.com
info@andrewfortuna.com
54084900

21/04/2026

HOW TO CUT AN AVOCADO LIKE A BOSS!

Just make sure your knife is sharpened, and watch your fingers! 👀🔪🩸⚠️

I love avocado with egg omelettes in the morning, in salads, I even make chocolate mousse or ice cream with them, it's an extremely versatile and very healthy fruit.

I recently wrote a blogpost about the health benefits of avocados, take a read https://andrewfortuna.com/avocados/

21/04/2026

WHY MANY THERAPIES FAIL

Many therapies offering any form of intervention, often do not address a person's root causes, essentially they are just 'plastering the cracks' - the clip below highlights this succinctly, but in a funny way. The key is to rebuild the foundations first, the intervention comes second.

Ergo, an intervention will often never be as effective if you don't 'close the tap' and eliminate (or at least reduce) what's causing the problem(s) or imbalance(s) in the first place, thats the essence of how Nutritional Therapy works and why its so effective long-term.

19/04/2026

THE DANGERS OF AI AND WHY TO GET NUTRITION ADVICE FROM A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL

Many people looking for health and nutrition advice resort to the internet for quick answers, and asking AI for diet tips can feel easy and harmless. The responses can often be confident, polished, and convincing, which makes them easy to trust. But that trust can come at a cost.

Your health isn’t something to hand over to an algorithm. AI can organise information, but it doesn’t truly understand your body, your medical history, or the nuances that keep advice safe and appropriate. When it gets things wrong, the consequences aren’t just theoretical. Just ask any of my clients why my health questionnaire I send them before I even start working with them are so long! My blogpost are also all fully human researched, referenced, and authored (by myself).

One of the (many) major flaws of AI is it tends to hallucinate. AI hallucination refers to the phenomenon where artificial intelligence generates outputs that are incorrect or misleading, presenting them as if they were factual. This can occur due to various factors, including flawed training data and the model's inability to accurately understand real-world knowledge.

There’s a line between using AI as a helpful tool and relying on it in ways that can put your health at risk. If you truly want to improve your health, understand the root causes of your symptoms, illness or medically diagnosed conditions in a safe and personalised manner, then get in touch for a free 15min chat to talk about your case history, how I work, and how I can help you achieve your health goals

www.andrewfortuna.com
info@andrewfortuna.com
54084900

18/04/2026

WEIGHT LOSS: THE PERILS OF SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS

Many people resort to restrictive diets or weight loss drugs to achieve weight loss, but then wonder why you end up stuck in a vicious cycle of losing and regaining weight. This happens because the body treats weight loss as a threat, triggering biological defences and compensatory mechanisms to help pull the weight back on eventually. The fight against obesity will be won not by the initial loss of weight, but by preventing weight regain

Hunger feels so much more intense after you lose weight. It is a process called neuroendocrine compensation. As your body fat declines, your satiety signals are suppressed while hunger-inducing hormones surge, creating a biological drive for hyperphagia (abnormally increased appetite or excessive eating) which eventually ends up sabotaging your gains ands restore your previous fat levels, often above baseline. You need to do this slowly, taking short-cuts will not work.

What you need is a sustainable personalised weight loss plan that will help you re-train your neuroendocrine system that your weight loss and new weight should be treated as a new baseline, and not as a threat.

Get in touch to work with me to help you loose weight safely and sustainably without sacrificing your valuable fat-free mass.

www.andrewfortuna.com
info@andrewfortuna.com
54084900

15/04/2026

The difference between drinking coffee and drinking tea 😂

10/04/2026

EATING FRENCH FRIES AND OTHER FRIED FOODS LINKED TO HIGHER RISK OF ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

Read more on my latest blog about how regularly consuming fried foods can negatively impact your anxiety, depression and overall health https://andrewfortuna.com/friedfoods/

10/04/2026

WHEN DID YOU LAST HAVE A THOROUGH BLOOD TEST DONE?

Everyone thinks they have a healthy eating plan, until they do a blood test! Ever had one done and been told that everything is 'normal,' but yet still have symptoms or not feeling your best?

I often get clients who tell me they've been told their blood test is normal. but I ask the question, what is normal? What markers have been checked (or haven't), what were the results of each of those markers?

'Everything is normal' is a phrase that lacks context and nuance, definately not helpful for the individual to understand where they are 'coming from' and where they are 'heading to'. I argue that there is no such thing as normality in a blood test, context matters, small trend (signals) matters, spotting these trends and correcting imbalances early, matters even more.

Believe me, after analysing 100s of blood tests from many clients, everyone who has worked with me will attest to the value of analysing a blood test from a functional perspective looking in to your blood test results much more deeply. Functional lab ranges use optimal ranges, based in evidence-based research, can help explain a bigger picture in motion before any symptoms or chornic diseases develop.

Caught early with a thorough blood test, most complex diseases can be avoided or least mitigated to a large exxtent with proper action, often in collab with other healthcare professioanls.

You can eat 'clean,' avoid processed foods, and still be missing key nutrients or running into imbalances you’d never feel, until they start affecting your energy, mood, sleep, or long-term health. Individual digestive and absoprtive ability, food preferences, and genetics plays a massive role.

From a functional medicine perspective, blood testing isn’t just about spotting disease, it’s about understanding. trends and how your body is actually functioning. Are you low in iron despite eating an iron-rich diet? Is your vitamin D optimal or just 'within range'? Are your fatty acid levels supporting your brain, heart and immune function?

What makes functional blood testing analysis & interpretation powerful and contextual is personalisation. Two people can eat the same diet and get completely different results. Your biology, lifestyle, stress, and history all shape your needs.

Instead of guessing, testing gives you clarity, confidence and peace of mind. With clarity comes precision, so you can make changes that actually move the needle, rather than just hoping you’re doing the right thing. Because 'healthy' isn’t one-size-fits-all.

Get in touch to book you in for a private blood test and then sit with me for an hour and I will breakdown everything for you and explain how to optimise any imbalances to reduce the risk of any health complications, or symptoms further down the line.

www.andrewfortuna.com
info@andrewfortuna.com
54084900

07/04/2026

Post workout meal: Beef & veggie Bolognese meat sauce (no pasta), with roasted sweet potatoes - nutrient dense and high satiety by supporting natural GLP-1 expression

04/04/2026

SKIPPING BREAKFAST IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED ODDS OF DEPRESSION

A new Systematic review & Meta-analysis of observational studies published in the Nutritional Neuroscience journal, suggests that regularly skipping breakfast is linked with higher depression, stress, and mental distress https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1028415X.2020.1853411

However, the outcomes mainly applies to people who skip meals as a result of poor habits / unhealthy lifestyles (ie morning rush where it may be more convenient to skip breakfast).

Therefore, the outcomes may not necessarily carry the same risks if done properly, ie conducted therapeutically with professional supervision, rather than merely observing health outcomes from either eating or not eating breakfast. As always, context matters.

www.andrewfortuna.com
info@andrewfortuna.com
54084900

02/04/2026

POOR DIET STRONGLY LINKED TO HIGHER RISKS OF ISCHEMIC HEART DISEASE

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is a condition where the heart doesn’t get enough blood and oxygen, often because the arteries that supply it become narrowed or blocked by fatty deposits.

A newly published population-level observational modelling study by Nature Medicine, suggest that poor diet remains a leading contributor to IHD. The authors estimate that suboptimal diet was responsible for more than 4 million IHD related deaths.

Among dietary factors, low intake of nuts and seeds, low whole grains, low fruits, and high sodium were primary contributors to IHD deaths.

If you are interested in having your diet and lifestyle analysed and optimised to reduce your risk of IHD, get in touch with me

info@andrewfortuna.com
www.andrewfortuna.com
54084900

Andrew Fortuna Nutritional Therapy

25/04/2026

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