A complex discussion is never a clear-cut one, so this post isn’t going to delve into this complexity. Instead, we’re going to examine three factors that contribute to the female experience of stress, and possible reasons why women report higher levels of stress compared to men, globally.

Although it’s impossible to remove all the stress in our lives, by focusing on what we can control we increase the chances of reducing stress and maintain stable blood glucose levels.

We don’t know how it’s going to play out and so feeling stressed at present is normal. However, psychological stress impacts immune function, so managing the stress we’re feeling is critically important if we want our immune system to function optimally.

If you've been battling to lose weight, even though you're trying to avoid refined carbohydrates and you’ve added nutrient-dense foods and exercise to your life, you may find the solution is learning to manage your stress levels more effectively. In other words, the key to losing weight may lie between your ears.

With a brand New Year and a new decade upon us, let’s use neuroscience to make our new resolutions become ‘sticky’ habits.

Although the brain is an enormously complex organ its maintenance and care doesn’t have to be complicated. With so many ‘health-guru’s’ calling for lots of special supplements to support brain health – with little to no evidence to support such – keeping the basics in mind is more sustainable and less expensive.

The enormous hype supporting the use of superfoods has become a very lucrative business, and many people are fooled by the promises made by manufacturers and suppliers of these products. Whether they are useful for enhancing brain health is still not well researched. However, their nutrient profile suggests they may be supportive of our very busy, energy-demanding and antioxidant-requiring brain tissue

It seems that every other week the media showcases a new, exotic superfood from some hard-to-pronounce jungle or desert, or a super brain supplement, promising to remove any traces of memory loss and boost cognition to untold heights.

The desire to stop a junk food habit is one shared by many millions of people. Unfortunately, they don’t realize how many billions of dollars food manufacturers have invested to find out exactly what the brain loves us to eat! And they know that each time the brain tastes something it loves, it releases tiny amounts of dopamine, a ‘feel good’ brain messenger that is released when we drink coffee, have sex or use illegal drugs.

When mango season arrives we make this dressing a lot! It’s very fresh and light and the colour is gorgeous – and it contains loads of great nutrients too. This dressing is delicious served on a combination of rocket and baby spinach leaves with slivers of artichoke hearts, marinated onion and avocado.

As our scientific knowledge improves and we learn more about human physiology, we are starting to see a clearer picture of how our bodies work and what our bodies need to work optimally. However, at this point in time we truly do not know whether most supplements are effective.

There's a lot of news at present regarding the health benefits of coffee, and most people embrace this news, because everyone loves hearing good news about their (potentially) bad habits. Before we get too self-satisfied with our coffee habits and the recent news, let's consider the facts.

This is a very simple and light chocolate mousse that is really simple to make if you plan ahead. It is completely raw, even though cashew nuts are not technically raw, as they have to be heated up to remove their toxic shell before they are fit to eat. It only contains dates as the sweetener, but is still rich and very satisfying!

In Part I, you discovered that sleep challenges support a huge, multi-billion dollar industry, why sleep problems are so wide-spread, why sleep is so important and whether you need less sleep as you get older. Let’s delve deeper into this important topic.

You know that wonderful feeling you have after waking up from a fabulous sleep? You're relaxed and happy, alert but calm! Unfortunately, fewer and fewer people are experiencing that wonderful feeling because sleep, or, more accurately, the lack of it, is becoming a huge problem around the world. Unfortunately, the problem started with one of mankind's most celebrated inventions. Edison’s famous light bulb invention in the 1880s changed our approach to the "daylight–wake-up" vs. "nighttime–sleep-time" pattern that we had become accustomed to from the beginning of time, and which even single-celled organisms adhere to.

Researchers are uncovering how exercise keeps our brain young an healthy and analyzing walking women (and men) provided some solid evidence. Walking for even an hour-and-a-half a week, helped active women to outperform less active women on cognitive assessments. The study’s author was surprised at this result, as walking seemed to be a pretty non-strenuous activity, yet held real cognitive benefits.

This is a delicious dessert, as well as being a perfect breakfast if you are lucky to have any leftovers the next day! It is full of great flavour, fibre and fruity berries and the nut cream adds a gorgeously creamy finish to the dessert.  Apart from the great ‘brain friendly’ ingredients, it’s also very satisfying, so a little goes a long way. 

Eating well isn’t enough – you also have to digest, absorb and eliminate well for optimal health. The taboo subject. No one wants to talk about this aspect of health, but it is one of the most important aspects of keeping yourself healthy.

Eating well isn’t enough – you also have to digest, absorb and eliminate well for optimal health. You’ve read about the importance of digestion, so it's time to look at the next step in the process of turning your food into you.