Health & Wellbeing

The nutrients that help your self-defences stay fighting fit. Our immune systems are immensely complicated. At least six different cell types are involved in protecting our bodies from in-coming disease and illness threats.

It is the little seed with huge nutritional qualities and a whole array of options on how you buy it and eat it. Linseed comes in a choice of colours and even a choice of names. On this side of the Atlantic we are most inclined to call it linseed. On the other side it is usually known as flax.

Magnesium is a key to more than 300 chemical reactions that keep our bodies healthy. It is to be found in all human tissue, especially bones, for which it has a major importance. It is key to providing us with energy from the food we eat yet it also helps muscles relax and is linked to improved sleep. It keeps the nervous system in balance and helps control inflammation.

Naturally-Occurring waxy substance cholesterol comes in two forms, good and bad. Good cholesterol is carried around the body by high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and is simply swept away after use. Bad cholesterol, transported by low-density lipoproteins (LDL), can be deposited in arteries, restricting blood flow, causing coronary heart disease and at worst a heart attack.

Fifty years ago, we did not know it even existed but today Xanthan Gum is claiming space in an ever-increasing number of store cupboards. It is a thickener that can replace gluten in baking and keep animal products out of vegetarian and vegan recipes for everything from sauces and soups to ice cream.

A member of the mulberry and fig family Jackfruit is a native of south-west India but has moved on to the East Indies, Malaysia and many other parts of the world.

The NHS recommends eating pumpkin seeds. It says that in the battle to lower cholesterol and fight heart disease we should try to replace foods high in saturated fats with small amounts of food high in unsaturated fats like pumpkin seeds.