National campaign for food education (#VoteRachel)

Fight inflammation at all costs, eat fresh berries and oily fish

Be vegan if you want to live longer, dairy is for cows

Avoid fake meat, it’s ultra-processed

But a bit of what you fancy will do you good

Not alcohol of course, it’s poison, we all know that

Though daily red wine is a must for the polyphenols

Take a good all-round multi-vitamin and extra Vitamin D

Get all of your nutrients from real food

Fast for longevity, 16:8 is the ideal rule

But don’t be controlling of your food

Stress is the enemy, get rid of it, quit work if you must

But still buy fresh, organic food every day, ignore the cost

Eat 30 plants a week to feed your gut microbiome

Avoid food miles, buy seasonal and ideally home-grown

Try seed-cycling to sort out your hormones

Though seed oils are toxic, stay well away

3L of water every day, always BPA-free

But it must be plain or with lemon, don’t cheat with tea

Have water before a meal to eat fewer calories

No water before a meal, it ruins your digestion

No caffeine after 11am

Except espresso before a workout, that’s fine

Balance your blood sugar and steer clear of snacks

Five small meals is probably better than three

Have apple cider vinegar to smooth out those spikes

Avoid sugar at all costs, always read the labels

Though natural sweeteners are fine (except when they’re not)

When in doubt, just eat as the cave people did

Be fully informed on nutrition but always go with your gut...

Yikes.

I’m fascinated by nutrition and believe that what we eat has the power to completely transform our lives and bodies. But recently I’ve become completely overwhelmed by the conflicting information, and it leaves me wondering: how is anyone supposed to know what to do for the best? Who’s telling us how to live long, happy, healthy lives by using food to its best advantage? It’s such a key component of health yet there seems to be a huge vacuum and no one – not schools, not the health service, not public health – seems to be filling it with smart, evidence-based recommendations. Even things like ‘eat your 5 a day’ are apparently flawed, so what are we supposed to believe?

I’m on a mission to find the truth, consuming anything I can get my hands on, including reading a couple of nutrition books at the same time to see if I can find the truth. Both describe themselves as a revolution and the source of the best way to eat. Both seem legit, thoughtful and science-backed. But they disagree on so many fundamental points – how can both be true? They’d both argue ‘try their tips and see what works for your body’ but the problem is my body is confused. I can’t view diet and nutrition in isolation, when my gut and mental health and everything else quite frankly is affected by bigger things like stress, lifestyle, pollution, changing hormone levels, antibiotics, how recently I had a holiday, etc.

And if I don’t know, and I’m spending serious time trying to find the answers, is it any wonder we’ve got a global population that suffers with obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and mental illness? We’re simply not equipping people with the information to take control of their own health via nutrition.

Vote Rachel for change

I'm struggling for answers here. But if you made me Health Minister, here's what I'd do: I’ll fund a national 20-year campaign to distil the best information and educate the British people on how to apply this to their lives. (Naturally I'd appoint ThreeTenSeven (formerly Thompson Brand Partners) to deliver it. We'd work with real people to understand needs and concerns, co-create exceptional creative and messaging to make sure the messages really land and stick. We'd continually iterate to make sure our message lands and create the biggest ever longitudinal study to show that better eating improves life quality and life expectancy.) Naturally, I’ll tackle this at the same time as reducing food poverty and improving access to good, fresh food. Because I don’t need to read books to know it’s more fresh food that will make the difference, and that’s got to be available to everyone, not wrapped in jargon or pseudo-science, but just smart, simple messaging that’s accessible to all.

#VoteRachel #HealthCampaigns #Nutrition #HealthMarketing

Photo by Ryland Dean on Unsplash