The latest Healthy Ireland Report outlines that only 28% of the population eat 5 or more portions of fruit and vegetables each day, a number which unfortunately has continued to decline since 2021. Eating fruit and vegetables is advised within all the dietary guidelines, due to the health benefits that they confer. They are high in dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals, including bioactive plant compounds, with antioxidant properties such as polyphenols or beta-carotene.

For the first time a report published last year from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), examined vitamin D intake in people in Ireland aged between 5 and 65 years. Based on this review it was recommended that as well as intake from food sources, everyone take a vitamin D supplement especially teenagers, pregnant women and people of dark-skinned ethnicity who are at highest risk of vitamin D deficiency.

If we were to read some social media posts, protein is all we should be eating, all day every day! Whether it’s a high protein diet, protein supplements or shakes, protein is the proposed solution for weight loss, to build muscle, support joints or indeed preventing Alzheimer’s.

To help support your nutrition while on holidays, this month we have compiled some advice to help reduce the stress you may feel.

This month I talk about understanding the common types of intermittent fasting, the potential benefits and the risks associated with it, to conclude if this approach is for you or not.

This month I talk through some of the nutrients and dietary patterns that have been linked with our neurological state. Research is growing in the area of nutritional psychiatry, and we are beginning to get a greater understanding of how nutrition affects mental health.