Archive

What do M&S Percy Pigs, fruit jelly, sesame brittle and bone broth have in common and why should you be interested ? A couple of years ago I noticed that many sports nutritionists, particularly those working elite endurance athletes were including M&S Percy Pig jelly sweets within their diet and provision sheets. The reason for […]

Record numbers of people are playing netball in the UK,  the super league is thriving and the English team’s win at April’s Commonwealth Games brought unpresidented media coverage. Around 1.4million women and girls currently play regularly and high five, Nets and mixed netball are all gaining popularity, introducing men to the game. If you have […]

The sun is finally out and all over the UK libraries are full with people stressing out about exams. Research shows that eating the right foods can benefit mood and motivation, improve focus, lower anxiety and strengthen memory formation and that the wrong choices can make you feel sluggish or jittery, making learning and recall more difficult. It is worth […]

Healthy Diets contain Fruit and Vegetables. Fruit and vegetables are vital elements of a healthy, balanced diet. They are important sources of energy, contain vital vitamins, minerals and fibre and are the only source of important phytonutrients that are potentially incredibly beneficial to health. Population studies that look at the behaviour  across large groups of people have shown that […]

The calculation of Body Mass Index (BMI), (a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters), will be very familiar to most people working in the fitness and health industries. Although BMI does not measure body fat directly, research has shown that adult BMI is closely correlated with direct measures […]

Allium ursinum also known as ramson or wild garlic has a long tradition of medicinal use in many different countries, with reported anti fungal, antimicrobial, antiseptic, anti inflammatory, cytotoxic, antioxidant, expectorant, vasodilatory and cardio-protective effects. It is also used as a tonic for digestion; easing colic, treating loss of appetite and curing indigestion.  However, despite […]

In 1998 the Nobel Prize for medicine was given to three American pharmacologists for their discovery, that inside the body the  gas nitric oxide (NO) is an important mediator of a wide variety of vital bodily functions. At the time this was an amazing discovery and their initial work, done in the 1980s resulted in a […]

Caffeine for Sports Performance by Louise Burke, Ben Desbrow and Lawrence Spriet Caffeine for Sports Performance was first published in 2013 and even two years later is the most complete text on the effects of caffeine, offering a good review of all the research that was available at the time. Despite being effectively an extended […]

Five years ago I turned up at a nutrition conference with hands died purple from blackberry picking. When asked what I had been doing, I innocently said making jam, not realising the commotion this would cause. For many people jam = refined sugar and anything with a large proportion of refined sugar is seen as BAD. But I […]

If you read my piece ‘Importance of your gut for performance – What GCSE and A-Level Biology doesn’t tell you‘ and wanted to know more, Giulia Enders book is almost certainly the best place to start. Giulia Enders is a doctoral student in Germany studying microbiology. She first came to prominence when a 10minute presentation she […]