Over the years, I have realised that to keep my mental health in check, I needed to be quite vigilant and to look after myself (body and mind) better.⁠
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That means good quality sleep, a regular form of exercise/movement, relaxation and nourishing food.⁠
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As far as food is concerned, I don’t have too many rules:⁠
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• Mostly, it should be enjoyable (I am French after all!)⁠
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• A little bit of everything in moderation (another French influence).⁠
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• Balanced and non-restrictive (not a big fan of drastic diets that exclude entire food groups).⁠
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• As unprocessed as possible: I try and avoid any food product containing more than 5 ingredients, with lots of E numbers or with ingredients I don’t recognise or that my grandmas would not have had in their cupboards – unless it is food with foreign influences of course, my grandmas were into French cuisine…
I find this one difficult as when life gets really busy, processed food is so convenient.⁠
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• No sweeteners! (be mindful of the ‘No added sugar’ labels on products – very often it means that sweeteners have been added instead to compensate…).⁠
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For my Five a Day, I aim to ‘eat the rainbow’, which means consuming a variety of colours through the fruit and veg I eat every day.⁠
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It’s good for my gut (and the bugs that live in it – called ‘microbiome’) and my immune system.⁠
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Different colours contain different phytonutrients which help improve our health. For example, red foods like tomatoes contain lycopene which, according to some studies, can reduce the risk of some types of cancer and heart disease.⁠
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To increase your colours, why not download a rainbow chart from #drchatterjee’s website and if eating healthily is proving difficult, we can work on this together. Contact me to discuss further.