Location: United Kingdom
Profession: Home Baker
Social Profiles
About
I trained as a Home Economist but I cannot work due to my health. I live with ME, broke my neck in 2019 and have joint issues.
Whenever I am able I bake bread for family and friends. Our family all live locally to each other so we share whatever we make or bake.
My favourite way to eat bread is spread with lightly salted cultured butter and a fresh soup. In the mornings I love toasted sourdough with avocado, chilli and eggs.
I have always cooked food from scratch and consider a meal I have made from the freezer as 'cheating'. I am passionate about food, starting with how the table is set, the quality of raw ingredients, how the food is presented, the flavour and sharing of eating of food with others. As a family we have always eaten at least 2 meals a day together at a table. I am passionate about helping others to help themselves, knowledge is power and if I have knowledge then I can pass that knowledge to whoever I come into contact with so they have the power to change their lives.
My Work
I am based in Otford, Kent in the beautiful Darent Valley.
Passionate about Baking as Lifestyle Medicine
I have a personal interest in Baking as a Lifestyle Medicine as I want to support my own health and those I love. I studied Human Biology and have always been interested in how the body functions, so the discovery of the Gut Microbiome was fascinating to me and it joined many of the dots in my health journey.
My gut microbiome was impacted eating a very high sugar diet for 2 years in my professional role as a food selector/taster. I now understand that my gut microbiome will have been out of balance, I was ill bacterial and viral infection, given multiple antibiotics and then became unable to digest many foods. This was over 30 years ago and I started using probiotics before I understood what they were. I was advised not to eat wheat and to follow a high protein diet, but I have always eaten a balanced diet and realised that I could eat some of the bread in France but none of the UK commercial bread.
I want to gain knowledge so that I can make informed choices and I can also spread that knowledge to others.
I feel like Baking as a Lifestyle Medicine brings together all the threads and is explaining many of the decisions I was making because of a 'gut' feel but research had not yet explained.
My Community
I live in an area where many people are busy, house prices are high and many people commute. People might make time to exercise in a strenuous way, but many feel they are too busy to stop to bake bread. Many people have heard of Sourdough but do not understand the 'what, why, where, when or how' about Sourdough.
What makes a good loaf of sourdough bread and what should you eat it with?
Where to get good ingredients?
When people should rejecting poor quality bread and demanding better.
Why should they be eating it and making it?
How they can support their own health by making and/or eating good sourdough.
If people can be educated they can make more informed choice and take more control of their own heath.
How I use BALM Protocol
I talk about food all the time and I share the health benefits of sourdough and gut health with everyone I come into contact with, be it doctors who are treating me, friends or random people I bump int, they leave with more knowledge about sourdough. I would love to be able to teach but I realise that my body is not currently in a state for me to do that so I will pass my knowledge on to as many of the next generation as I can.
