So April has been a busy month and we have seen more than our fair share of April showers, so hoping that May brings warmer days, sunshine and blue skies!

It’s been an incredibly busy month, abundant in good gatherings; first, I had Heal Scotland's Wild Medicine retreat in Tarbert, followed by a trip to Aberdeen to support Wellness Hub member Lara’s breast cancer support group, we had 3 oncology nurses there who were all very interested in the evidence to support healing. I am also delighted to have become involved with Rainbow Valley, a brilliant Glasgow based charity supporting people through a cancer diagnosis. These events are a real joy to be part of and I always leave on a high knowing that more people might improve their health by changing their diet.

Wellness Hub members Jen and Sacha got us moving with yoga, pilates and qi gong classes which was great, so I hope you joined in! Jen is kindly offering Wellness Hub members a 15% discount on all her classes, click here for details.

Sacha is also offering a 15% discount for Wellness Hub members for her Sunday Healing Session on 19th May at the beautiful yoga barn in Pollock Park. email sacha@high3.co.uk to book or check out her instagram for more details.

So moving on to May, our theme this month is Fat - friend or foe? 

It’s actually both but we have been hoodwinked for too long by the food industry selling us low fat products in the belief that these are a healthier choice. I can assure you they are not! Fat is essential in the body, it's a part of all our cell membranes! I’ve been doing a deep dive into the most recent research on fat on our bodies and it’s absolutely fascinating! It’s not the inert blubber most of us assume, our fat directly communicates with the rest of the body. We have 2 types of fat, white (the bad stuff) and brown (the good stuff) and we can influence what type we have most of. Brown fat is more metabolically active, boosts our metabolism and supports our health on many levels.

Another fascinating area of research is the gut microbiome and how it influences our weight and how many calories  we absorb from our food! Many studies have shown that people who are naturally lean have high levels of a gut microbe called Akkermansia Muciniphila, and people who struggle to lose weight have very low levels or none at all. So the old counting calories to lose weight is not a sure fire way to a lean body. If it was then the diet industry would be out of business and we would all be naturally slim and happy with out bodies!

In reality, it depends how many calories our body is extracting from the food, and that comes down to the make up of our gut microbiome. The good news is we can influence our gut microbes by what we eat and drink and our lifestyle choices.Remember knowledge is power and when we know better, we can make a better choice for our health, that’s what the Wellness Hub is all about!

I will be doing 2 FB Lives this month,

• The first will be on dietary fats and dispelling all the myths around oils and fats in food and cooking.

• Next up will be all about fat in the body- understanding it’s many functions, how to optimise good fat and the many foods and lifestyle behaviours that support metabolically active brown fat.

As always, there will be recipes aplenty to tingle our taste buds and support our trillions of gut buddies as we head into the summer months. Colourful salads with delicious dressings, nuts, seeds, avocados, creamy smoothies and extra virgin olive oil, will all be featuring highly this month! Check out the FB group for details on Lives and I’ll see you there!

In good health,

Janice x