September Serenade: Harvest, Health, and the Countdown to Graduation.

Where has the summer gone? Bring on the brambles and hot porridge.

Aug 27, 2024

Bet you thought I’d gone up in a puff of smoke, never to pester you again with my talk of polyphenols and pooches! No such luck, because HERE I AM! Back with all the riveting stuff to keep you feeling full of cannellini beans and olive oil.

Yeah so, sorry about the delay, I’m knee-deep in writing a dissertation *thing* that seems not to have an end. Desperate to do normal things like clear out the wardrobe, fold some tea towels, see someone or even have a bath. Only two weeks to go and I will be all yours again, mostly. Don’t forget, when I graduate in the autumn we will be offering nutritional therapy too. That’s to help anyone with their nutrition alongside health conditions. It’s going to be wonderful.

But more importantly, less than a week to go until September, already. It feels like it only stopped raining about three weeks ago. Then all of a sudden harvest started – poor farmers don’t know if they’re coming or going with the weather.

At any rate, who doesn’t love September, where pressures seem fewer, evenings cosier, and where blackberries, apples, hot porridge and autumn soups find their way on to our plans? September is often a time when people gravitate back to Nuush; it’s like Jan 1st but loads better because people are all sunned-up and ready to make a fresh start, rather than worn out by Christmas and facing the bleak winter.

I hope you’ve had the loveliest of summers, hopefully with your legs out, catching some vit D while it lasts.

Here I go with the latest then…. I’ll keep it quite brief as I have to get back to writing War & Peace along with the best nutrition plans ever and talking to people on the phone about their nutrition and health, which I love doing.

Speshul K(rap)

If I had a pound for everyone who tells me they had a healthy breakfast of Speshul K*, I would be able to give up this job and live in Acapulco.

While this popular breakfast cereal may be marketed as some kind of miracle healthy diet food it’s actually just a blood-sugar-thrusting set of flakes, formed from bashed up white rice, bashed up wheat, a lot of sugar, a tiny bit of bashed up barley, all sprayed with an artificial vitamin solution. Just like all the other cereals.

If you love the stuff you can make it better by adding ground flax, seeds, chopped nuts, a dollop of Greek yoghurt and some berries. Alternatively, poached eggs on good toast, and a piece of fruit will give you loads more goodness.

Don’t get me wrong, they do have *some* goodness, especially with the milk and the sprayed-on vitamins, but they’ll also shoot up your blood sugar and you’ll be hungry again in a minute. I mean yes they are delicious and sugary too, and that’s why it’s tempting to eat 12 bowls of them in a row. Not good.

Gawd I hope nobody here works for Speshul K….

I changed the spelling in case anyone does work for them.

Bashed up rice, wheat and sugar, sprayed with a vitamin solution. Mmm mmm.

Did you know…

…that your gut lining, or the epithelial lining (that just means ‘a covering’) of the gastrointestinal tract, renews itself approximately EVERY THREE TO FIVE DAYS!? The fast cell turnover is essential because your gut is constantly exposed to food, digestive enzymes and pathogens. Stem cells in the crypts of the intestinal lining – little glands – make it happen, continuously producing new cells that replace old or damaged ones. This speedy renewal maintains the gut barrier's strength and resilience, protecting you against harmful substances that may otherwise be absorbed into your bloodstream to create chaos, while allowing nutrient absorption.

Your gut lining’s surface area is 200-300 square metres. That is BIG. That’s because it’s covered in tiny-tiny protrusions, like mini fronds or fingers, and those fronds or fingers are also covered in tiny-tiny fronds or fingers. That’s so it has a huge area to absorb nutrients in good time.

When we eat all the time, like between meals and after dinner at night and right before bed when we pop that bit of toast in the toaster, the lining gets less time to renew and repair because it’s like trying to fix a motorway when cars are driving all over it. Then we can start to get problems like bloating and other gastro issues. The little cells that line the gut are joined together – they have junctions between them – those junctions are meant to be quite tight-knit but if we don’t let proper repair happen they can get looser and let stuff through into the bloodstream that shouldn’t get through, like bacteria and other particles. That can wreak absolute havoc. The immune system detects this stuff and goes bonkers, even leading to autoimmune conditions but also contributing to stuff like inflammation (and all its downstream diseases), poor mood, poor energy, poor sleep and just a general ‘“Urrgghhh I feel like crap” feeling. Other things that affect its repair are lack of sleep, alcohol, smoking, poor diet, stress, over-exercising and all the usual diet and lifestyle Herberts.

Look after your gut lining and it will look after you.

What the heck is HRV?

Do you have a smart watch like an Apple Watch, Garmin or Fitbit? If so, does it pump out information about your *HRV*, and you have no idea what it means or what to do about it? If so, you are not alone.

I’ll explain what it is.

Ordinarily, a happy body will be able to vary the spacing between heart beats, in order to adapt to different needs and situations. That is a really good thing. Your heart can adapt to things that it encounters. On the other hand if you are under-slept, over-alcohol’d, stressed, over-exercised, over-sugared, or a myriad of other undesirable things, that spacing between beats won’t vary much. That’s because the your nervous system is wrung out and stops doing its job properly.

So a high HRV (high variability) is generally a good thing and a low HRV (low variability) is generally not a good thing. If you drink, next time you have a bit too much alco, check your HRV the next day and you’ll see what I mean!

Please note: Sometimes (not very often, so don’t panic) wonky HRVs can signify heart disease too.

Let’s go on about protein. Well everyone else does.

I don’t blame you if you’re confused about it. One minute you get a health bro saying no one is getting enough, the very next second you get another health bro saying it’s nothing to worry about.

Gawd.

I’m not going to go into reems of detail because generally bro no2 is more correct, i.e. most of us are getting enough, more than enough. Most people eat too much (hides…), and by default they are taking in a lot of protein (and a lot of fat and a lot of carbs and a lot of everything, except vegetables, usually).

The baseline recommendation for much of the population is 0.8g protein per 1kg of body weight, So if you are 70kg that’s 56g of protein a day. I must admit 0.8 is quite stingy. I would aim at 1.2-1.5g per kg. More towards the higher end for growing people, older people, very active people, pregnant people, ill people, wounded people and, well, you get the gist.

Quick note: This post is not for those great big body builder types. You can get your info elsewhere :-)

It’s very easy to get enough protein, let me illustrate:

170g full fat Greek yoghurt: 15.5g
50g mixed nuts 12g
100g tuna: 27g
2 eggs: 13g (tuna and egg salad, see)
1 chicken breast: 40g

That lot comes to 107.5g

Who wants to count this stuff though unless they have oodles of time on their hands and are really bored? That’s why people use me, to do all this stuff behind the scenes, so they can just sit back and eat!

Don’t forget that all food contains protein, even vegetables. So once you add all the surrounding bits and bobs you can see why I see why I say it’s rare to be deficient? All these shonky protein bars, protein cereals, protein this-that-and-the other are mainly money-making-hype. Eat real food and you won’t go far wrong.

There are other things to focus on, like eating enough veg, Omega 3 fats, fibre, pulses and so on. The protein will come along with a healthy balanced diet, all by itself.

Beans on toast gives you a complete protein. Combining pulses and grains is the way to go.

Beautiful olive oil straight from the farmer

Supermarket olive oil may not be the best, but they still know how to charge, don’t they? There can be a lot going on with blended olive oils (ones that aren’t from one source); you never know if they have been blended with lower grade olive oils or how old they are (degraded nutrients and flavour). Plus it’s hard to find an organic one that’s from a single source. Looking at Waitrose, for instance, they have a few organic EVOOs but all are blended and range between £16-£18 per litre.

I always buy mine straight from the farm in Spain. I know its story, I know it’s fresh, I know it’s all one variety (for better flavour) and I know all the money goes to the hardworking farmer. It’s £16 per litre and well worth it.

Olive oil prices have risen, but when you think that so many people buy a couple of bottles of wine a week, at a cost of over £10, sometimes a lot more, it makes a litre of olive oil (which lasts longer), with all its health benefits, very good value for money.

I use the beautiful oil from Naranjes Del Carmen

Drugs corner

I’m only talking about medications. While medications are life-saving, and life-improving in many cases, they can often bring side effects to the party.

Let’s look at two very commonly used medications – Omeprazole (PPIs) and Metformin, and one that is becoming more common – Semaglutide.

Omeprazole (and other PPIs)

A bit like Speshul K, I would be very rich if I had some money for everyone I encounter who has been put on a proton pump inhibitor, such as Omeprazole for indefinite amounts of time, sometimes years. These drugs inhibit the production of stomach acid, to help with heartburn/acid reflux and for people with stomach ulcers and Helicobacter-Pylori. Problem is, we have stomach acid for very good reasons, one being the breakdown and digestion of food – pretty fundamental stuff. These drugs can really inhibit the release of vitamin B12 from food, as well as magnesium. So after a while you get deficiency symptoms but may not realise why. Also, if you aren’t breaking down your food very well and you have low stomach acid that food can hang around and ferment and you might feel very bloated and out of sorts, and get a bacterial overgrowth, which is quite unpleasant.

You see, in reality they are only designed for short-term use so I have no idea why they are prescribed for so long in so many people (well, I do but that would be whole other rant).

A common reason for heartburn and reflux is excess abdominal fat. The tummy fat increases the pressure in your stomach which pushes on the little trap door between your stomach and food pipe and lets acid up into the pipe. It doesn’t feel good. There are other reasons too, and you should always see a doctor, but do question any long term use of PPIs.

Metformin

This is a drug used for diabetes. It’s a very useful drug and can have excellent effects but it can also inhibit absorption of B12 (again) as well as folate – not what you want really. You should always follow your GP or healthcare provider’s advice about medications but you should also be aware of their effects on nutrient absorption, and take mitigating action, because you don’t want to add another malady to your life. As well as using medicines, type 2 diabetes can also be managed and even put into remission, with diet and lifestyle. This is something I will be specialising in once I graduate in the autumn – I will be here for you.

Semaglutide

This is a drug that is used for diabetes and, more recently, for weight loss. Its brand names include Wegovy and Ozempic. The drug works by mimicking a hormone that plays a part in blood sugar regulation and appetite.

By the way, I’m not endorsing its use for weight loss but I completely understand that in acute cases it can be a helpful starting tool.

One problem with suppressing appetite is that you may not fancy eating very much any more. Plus some people get gastric side effects such as bloating, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Therefore diet and nutrient quality hits the floor and the body ends up malnourished – so health can suffer (of course health can suffer with overweight and obesity too).

Not just that but you may not have as much energy to exercise so you will lose muscle, and the fast weight loss can also cause muscle loss – double whammy of muscle loss, nice. Losing muscle means you need even fewer calories as your metabolism will be lower.

If you are using these medications it’s really important to get your nutrition right and carry on eating a balanced and nourishing diet to keep yourself well.

Nuush has lots of plans that you can use for nutrition peace of mind, or book a consultation with me to talk it through.

Please note: Always consult your GP or healthcare provider when thinking of changing or challenging medication regimes.

Brambly Hedge

If you are out and about the countryside on foot lately you must have noticed the beautiful abundance of late summer and autumn fruits. Blackberries are immense this year! And so many plums and elderberries too, and apple trees with branches weighed down by gorgeous fruits.

Did you know that these wild-growing fruits have lots more phytonutrients than commercially-grown fruits that are treated with agrochemicals? Yes! That’s because they have to have natural protection against the weather and against predators and disease, and to do that they fill up with phytos – nature’s own pesticide/herbicide/insecticeide. The commercial ones don’t need to do that much because humans come along and squirt the artificial stuff all over them - horrible.

So hedge-grown blackberries will have more phytos than a punnet of blueberries from the supermarket. And they are free! Just make sure it’s OK to pick them from wherever you are picking them and that they aren’t polluted with traffic fumes or whatever.

Happy brambling and legal scrumping :-)

From the menagerie

I’ve been missing Scout a lot in the last few days. I went to some woods where we used to go and it felt as if he was there with me, and I’m sure he was. I think he’s trying to give me more strength so I can deal with Moss, the very naughty teenage collie who has hit adolescence with a bang.

Moss is quite a scaredycat, and that manifests in him being on high alert around other dogs and anywhere that is built-up, like his own village…. So we have brought in the Collie Consultant – a sort of Mary Poppins for collies – to deal with his mental health issues! She is fabulous and has worked out that Moss sees the kitchen as his domain, and has made the space under the kitchen table his headquarters. So woe-betide any visiting dog, or even Lottie who lived here WAY before him, who tries to spend time in *his* kitchen with *his* mum.

We are working gently through this phase and he has some doggy Prozac, I kid you not, which is making him quite a bit more zen-like. Evie, the miniature Dachsund, is allowed anywhere she likes though! That’s because she fronts up to him and shows him who’s boss, as do all the cats. It’s just poor meek-and-mild lovely Lottie who gets the treatment. Poor Lott-Lotts, she was distraught at losing Scout and now she has a bolshy lad around the place, upsetting her.

I hasten to add that Moss is a big baby really, and loves belly rubs and kisses from his mum. But his mum is having to be strict (and loving).

This too shall pass <3

Love from all of us, ‘til next time xxx

P.S. We don’t only make the best plans ever but we also offer blood testing, nutrition consultations and a brilliant ‘Nutrition Insights’ package. Get some Nuush in your life and feel all your good feels.