November is always a busy month for me.
I attended Food Matters Live at Excel and had the chance to hear some great evidence based talks from researchers and practitioners in the world of food. It was good to see some great innovations being showcased too, (cauliflower rice in microwaveable pouches, seaweed tagliatelle, juice gels to name a few) some of which may be available on our supermarket shelves in the not too distant future. Most of these are high end products however and do not help my case when I say that eating healthily doesn’t cost a fortune. The message is still the same though!
I then had the chance to teach a group of students at Liverpool Hope about early years’ nutrition. Such an important subject. 2 x 50 minute lectures is far too short for such a key age group. I just hope they see the importance of the first 1000 days so they can join me in trying to encourage people to recognise that we will not combat obesity without starting with pregnancy and weaning.
Then to top it all off, I helped to organise the 4th study day hosted by the Association for Nutrition’s Regional Network (North West). It was a great chance to network as well as hear key developments in the field. It is great to hear the valuable work which is happening under the Food for Life programme in schools, and the development of innovative ways to allow vegetarians to get their omega 3, to name just 2 of the presentations.
Nutrition is such a varied field and an under used resource in improving the health of our nation.