I've been working in the field of nutrition for the last 12 years and the subject is awash with misinformation, powerful special interests and a real lack of any real understanding of how both macro and micro nutrients affect our physiology. Things are improving and I think we're beginning to understand that the human body responds most positively to whole foods, and more importantly whole plant foods. It appears the processing of any food stuff, whether it is removing oil from olives or flour from wheat germ, by breaking whole foods down into smaller parts we are creating foods that simply are poorer nutritionally that their whole counterparts.

And it seems the more perverse the process, the poorer nutritionally the foodstuff is. Examples like HFCS and white flour are good examples.

It's also becoming clear what a huge effective the microbiome has on human health and longevity. Modern processed foodstuffs, our obsession with cleanliness and the over prescribing of medications, such as antibiotics, have changed the average western microbiome. So much so, that many 'western' diseases and ailments are now being linked to this change. In populations where the human microbiome has changed little in millennia, conditions such as autism, Alzeheimers, eczema, asthma and allergies are nothing like as prevalent.

The health of the microbiome is also being linked to obesity and depression. It's recently been suggest that the brain and nervous system are directly linked to the gut and the health of the microbiome is key to brain health.

I've suffered from depression since my early teens, and certainly in the last 12 years I've tried to treat it naturally through diet. I found that nutrients such as magnesium and b vitamins were a big help, but I always felt I was just keeping my head above water. 12 months ago I read David Perlmutters excellent Brainmaker and I started to take high strength probiotics and started to make my own fermented vegetables, such as kimchi and sauerkraut. I also chose to move to a completely wholefood plant based diet, even removing oils and any kind of processed food. For the first time in 30 years I feel as though I am truly happy. I can't remember feeling like this before and I am completely sold on the idea that the changes to both my diet and my focus on improving the health of my micriobiome, are responsible.