Practice What You Preach

The time has come to practise what you preach as Mum goes into surgery. When cancer becomes personal, healthy living stops being a theory and starts becoming a daily commitment. Years of reading about nutrition, organics and reducing processed foods suddenly feel urgent and non-negotiable.

I started drafting a blog about the food system from when I had been in the USA but never got round to finishing it. See, eating well has always been apart of my reality and for years working as a Vegan Chef in Camden I also worked alongside a nutritionist to develop tasty but highly nutritious menu items.

This is no longer good intentions but rather about creating the strongest possible foundation for recovery and long-term wellbeing. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs), excess sugar and empty calories lose their appeal when faced with the reality of illness. Instead, the focus shifts to whole foods, fresh vegetables, quality proteins and ingredients free from unnecessary additives. I will be making bread from scratch even as I am done with all the additives in everything we eat.

The modern food system is shaped primarily by scale, profit and shelf stability rather than health. UPFs dominate because they are cheap to manufacture, use refined commodity ingredients (such as corn, wheat, soya and sugar), and have long shelf lives. This reduces waste, simplifies global distribution and increases margins. Even products you might not think of as unhealthy, are a lot worse than you think once you start digging deeper…

Perhaps this is the turning point. For years, I understood the theory, I did the research, I looked into the ingredients, the system. But now it becomes practice without compromise. The future feels clearer, health is not a side project or an afterthought. It is the foundation everything else rests upon. No career success, convenience or short-term comfort outweighs long-term wellbeing.

"A Nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people."                                                             

 ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt