Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that light and microbes are good for us. They are two of the most influential evolutionary influences on human biology

A summary of what is happening in the vegetable garden this month

Did you know that sunlight reaches deep into our bodies, especially in babies and young children? I didn't. Sunlight has benefited all life on earth since the very beginning. Humans harvest sunlight just as we use the nutrition in our food.

11 cookbooks that my wife and I (ahem) use regularly

My wife and I initially struggled with how to eat more healthily. These 11 cookbooks gave us the confidence to get rid of the seed oils, sugars and starches, and grains that formed the basis of our unhealthy eating habits and the roadmap to adopt a new, healthy lifestyle. Eating healthily can be cheap, easy, quick, and delicious. No matter what we’re in the mood for, there are tasty recipes available.

Three years of garden creation captured in pictures. Regenerative gardening prioritises soil health to grow tastier fruit and vegetables, as nature intended. Healthy soil is literally full of life that cross-talks constantly with the plants rooted in it. This article explains those concepts and describes how we created our regenerative garden.

This is not a product endorsement, just a heads-up to an electrolyte mix I like.

If, like me, you are interested in how gut microbiota affect human health, read on. Long under-investigated and poorly understood gut fungi appear to affect health much more than their small numbers suggest and likely influence what happens to the much more numerous bacteria each of us have in our gut.

Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) was the main topic of a recent conference I attended. I learned a lot about the cause, detection and treatment of T2D and wrote this article to summarise what I saw and heard.

Ever wondered why you can stare at natural scenes for ever? There’s a reason for that, and we know what it is. We can also mimic nature’s beauty in our daily lives when we want to.

I eliminated life-long allergies with a handful of supplements and I rarely catch colds and the flu. I share my list of supplements here.

“Food is the bedrock of health. Our food choices can either lead to disease or create health and vitality.” I defy you to read this story and not be inspired by one woman’s story of how she reversed the debilitating symptoms of multiple sclerosis with food. She now leads a healthy, relatively normal life

This is one of the most fascinating biology books I’ve ever read. This book challenged my long-held assumptions and offers a new way of thinking about how life emerges and works in a world of infinite influences.

Fruit juice must be good for us, right? Not so fast, fruit juice is not a natural food, it has been processed and changed from its natural fruity origin. It can be OK when consumed in moderation by someone who is metabolically flexible. Otherwise, be careful.

This is a simple graphic that highlights the difference between healthy and unhealthy dietary carbohydrates. I tend to follow this guidance but point out where I do make exceptions

It’s not often I read about the pros and cons of meat-based vs plant-based diets in a major newspaper. This was a good one

Welcome to Spring

Did you know that an editorial recently published in the British Medical Journal has called for the UN to think about ultra-processed food in the same was as it does tobacco? This follows a review of how ultra-processed food affected the health of almost 10 million people.

This paper describes a pathway through which a well-known toxic metabolite from seed oils may have caused my heart disease. We’re still only just beginning to understand how industrially processed ingredients in our food may cause malnutrition.

Just a quick nature fix with a few pictures of the forest as it emerges from the Scottish winter.