In this episode of Nutrition Life Stories, I speak with Jon Cook, a fourth-generation dairy farmer from Swindon who’s passionate about connecting consumers with raw, unpasteurised milk and its health benefits.

Jon is a 4th generation dairy farmer outside Swindon producing and selling raw milk direct to the consumer.

Jon had an idyllic traditional upbringing on the farm, coming home from school for a home cooked lunch and helping on the farm. He grew up consuming raw milk fresh from the cows and he was never unwell as a youngster. He tried office work as his father stressed how hard farming is as a career, but he absolutely hated it and he returned to manage the farm when his father became ill.

Jon wanted to connect with the customer and sell milk directly from the farm. He was keen to sell raw milk (non pasteurised) at a time when there was little advice available to do so. Consequently, he set up an association for raw milk producers to help others navigate through the minefield and hurdles to licence and sell the milk. Jon explains the misconceptions about risks associated with raw milk.

To Jon, the health of his cows is paramount. His cows graze on grass (not cereals, a non-natural feed) except during the Winter months when they feed on hay and sileage in polytunnels! He milks just once a day and once tested, the milk is filtered to sell direct to consumers. Jon’s customers have seen tremendous health benefits by transitioning to raw milk.

Jon had his own health concerns five years ago, including diabetes and being chronically overweight. Following advice from a health practitioner he radically transformed his own eating habits, lost 5 stone, reversed his diabetes and now feels exceptionally well.

You can check out Doras Dairy here: https://www.dorasdairy.co.uk

In this episode of Nutrition Life Stories, I chat with Guy Ellis, an executive coach from Wiltshire whose 30-year journey to resolve digestive issues has transformed his relationship with food and health.

The bulk of his early career was spent in the corporate sector, often travelling the world and eating at superb restaurants. Guy grew up in Aukland, New Zealand and moved to the UK at 21.

This episode is a story of identifying the root cause of symptoms, being in tune and listen to your body and reconnecting with the joy of cooking and eating food.

Guy had a traditional upbringing in New Zealand and a traditional diet of dairy, meat, potatoes and fresh vegetables with an emphasis on good quality fresh food that had little exposure to pesticides. It was after moving to the UK in his early 20s that Guy started to experience digestive problems causing social embarrassment which he assumed was due to his busy lifestyle, poorer diet and alcohol consumption.

As the years went by, Guy just lived with the symptoms unable to identify why he struggled. Interestingly his son also started to experience (even worse) digestive problems that consultants failed to resolve, but at the time Guy failed to connect his son’s digestive symptoms with his own.

It took until Guy was in his 50s when he visited Jordan and ate a very varied Middle Eastern diet - often quite spicy, that he experienced no symptoms at all. The one thing missing from this diet was cow’s milk dairy! Guy had grown up consuming large amounts of dairy and loved dairy in all its forms: cheese, milk, yogurt so it formed a significant part of his diet. When Guy returned to the UK and back to his typical diet the symptoms returned with a vengeance. By cutting out all dairy and feeling the benefits, this enabled him to also help his son.

This was a 30 year journey and Guy mentioned the difficulty of trying to go it alone without guidance and support (from a practitioner). The positive result is that it has connected him with cooking and eating real unprocessed food. Now Guy loves to experiment in the kitchen and feels really in tune with his body.

Check out Guy Ellis here: https://www.guyellis.net

I was thrilled that Tom found the time to record this podcast and I know you will really enjoy Tom’s experiences and story.

Tom was a 4th generation baker with Hobbs House Bakery. He went on to film The Fabulous Baker Brothers for TV, baking bread around the world. Through his early career he discovered the joy of people coming together over food, cooking and eating together; but equally the negative impact when people are isolated, plus the concern over food waste.

Through Tom’s experiences and his connection with the social enterprise The Grace Network (whose vision is an economy that is self-supporting, providing resources to all who needed them), he was inspired to launch a new venture The Long Table at the Stroud hub, which is now expanding to Cirencester town centre in November 24.

The Long Table is on track to feed 40,000 people a year using mostly locally grown produce, providing employment and training for young people from more deprived backgrounds. What I love about the whole concept of The Long Table is providing nourishing fresh food, people pay what they can afford (however much or little) and uniting people from all aspects of life over food. The centre will also have a furniture bank, kids stuff (recycled clothes, toys and more).

To find out more and to become a Friend of The Long Table to support the valuable work that Tom and the team are doing please go to https://thelongtableonline.com/

In this episode of Nutrition Life Stories, I’m joined by Dr. Jeff Crippen, a chiropractor and naturopath based in Texas who shares his incredible healing journey from debilitating chronic migraines to optimal health.

Jeff explains the key differences between allopathic and naturopathic approaches, highlighting how nutrition and herbs transformed his life.

We also dive into managing toxicity, the benefits of organic foods, and the power of anti-inflammatory herbs. Jeff’s personal experience has shaped his holistic approach to health and inspired him to write Timeless You-th: The Five Truths of Transformational Wellness and Holistic Healing.

Tune in to learn how you can embrace these principles to live a life of timeless you-th.

You can check out his book on this link: https://timelessyouthbook.com/

I was so pleased Julia was able to join me on my podcast.

Julia retrained as a nutritional therapist and Buteyko breathing coach and we met on a business development course when we buddied up to support each other.

Julia shared her story of a very difficult peri/menopause, how she discovered that the impact of eating well and nutrition significantly reduced her symptoms and deciding to go back to college in her 50s to train as a nutritional therapist.

Food was not a major influence in Julia’s early life, although like many of us growing up in the 60s and 70s Julia ate what is now considered plain food but without the influence of processed foods.

She never gave nutrition a thought in her young adult life, her sole concern was dieting and counting calories. She even admitting making pretty poor food choices for her children as she was so unaware how important nutrition is to health.

Julia explains how making simple food choices can have such a dramatic impact to our health and, like me, likes to keep meals simple and easy. And Julia was amazed that when she switched her eating habits the final stone of her weight loss just disappeared.

Julia has also trained as a Buteyko breathing coach which has also transformed her life especially her sleep. Julia is passionate to help other women going through the menopause. She can be found at julianutrition.co.uk.

It was an absolute delight for me to interview Diana Babics, founder of the Nourish Awards, the UK’s leading industry awards for healthy food, beverages, and supplement products. I am honoured to have been a judge for these prestigious awards for the past three years.

Diana grew up in Budapest, Hungary and contrary to what we think, rarely ate Goulash! She spent idyllic Summers on her grandparents’ small holding helping to pick fruit and vegetables and her meals year round were always cooked from scratch and heavily influenced by fresh produce. Paprika remains a staple part of her diet and she describes how to cook paprika correctly to protect its delicate flavours.

She moved to the UK to study in 1999 and was shocked at the amount of processed foods people were eating - and that was over 25 years ago. Diana started to gain weight as she never felt satisfied after eating most meals which were highly processed. She also developed a lactose intolerance soon after arriving as the milk was far more processed compared to Hungary. We spoke about having to carefully read labels to see what has been added.

The Nourish Awards started in 2017 after Diana began to experience more and more digestive issues and found relief from excluding gluten. At the time there were few healthy gluten free options available and she became aware just how many foods contained wheat! The awards were created to showcase healthy, ethical and sustainable food options: low sugar, natural ingredients, additive/chemical free whilst maintaining flavour. What started with 100 foods has grown to over 400 products including supplements and functional foods and drinks.

To discover more about the awards go to https://nourishawards.org/

My guest today is Dr Hans-Thomas Richter based on the West Coast of America and we delved into a bit more science regarding the importance of the right fats in diets.

Dr Richter has a Chinese Medicine clinic in Seattle but has a background in biomedical research. He researched and has recently written a book about the importance of Omega 3 called Nourish and Flourish (available by Kindle from Amazon).

Hans grew up in Germany and is now aware that this was at the start of the introduction of processed foods. This was amplified once he moved to the United States at 21. He is now very aware of the importance of good nutrition, the difference between inflammatory essential fats (Omega 6) versus anti-inflammatory fats (Omega 3 - especially “EPA”) and how the change in animal husbandry, lifestyle and diet has created a situation of what is now called low grade inflammation and chronic disease.

This is worth a listen to appreciate why supplementing the right fats is so important in the Western World to help protect our health long term.

My guest today is Laura Dent, joint owner (with her husband) of a successful commercial and specialist cleaning company called So Fresh and So Clean covering the Swindon area.

It was so refreshing to hear Laura’s health journey and how she has used nutrition to improve her health- and quality of life- by taking matters into her own hands.

Laura experienced extremely low energy and brain fog from childhood and was bedbound for a time and was eventually diagnosed with ME (equivalent to CFS) in her late teens. She took measures into her own hands by exploring nutrition, juicing, supplements and acupuncture and found that a “clean diet” without sugars and caffeine made a significant difference to her symptoms.

But she was keen to point out that her diet is never boring!

On top of this she eventually received a diagnosis of endometriosis in her late 20s that at times caused so much pain she would be hospitalised and given morphine.

She has found over the years that by staying in tune with her body, keeping her diet clean, low in ultra processed foods and anti-inflammatory, she can keep her body on an even keel and manage her conditions without them ruling her life.

Listen Now to her full Nutrition Life Story!