Big thank you again to Mark Clifford for our lovely conversation about the role nutrition plays in our wellbeing I'm so excited to announce my first guest, Mark Clifford a Food Scientist from Somega, an Irish natural food supplement company based in Cork which he founded with his wife Paula who's a Nutritionist. If you are triggered by anything we talked about today please reach out to supports available through Bodywhys | or contact your GP. One of the hardest parts is reaching out. Once you do they have professionals that are there to help.  We discuss the impact food can have on our mood. I share what it was like to struggle with stomach pain and food sensitivities. The doctors put it down to stress. I address how that affected my social life, confidence and mental well-being.  Mark explains that the evolution of science over that 50 years highlights the biology behind stress and how that impacts our brain chemistry. It shows that nutrition is a key element along with exercise and sleep to optimise our mental and physical well-being. We touch on how we can make small simple changes to our diet that can improve our nutrition and in turn our health. We also discuss why we don't see the results of eating healthy straight away which causes us to abandon these changes and what we can do to make it easier on ourselves by looking at our microbiome, the bacteria in the gut which creates hormones such as serotonin or dopamine which affect our mood, mental and physical wellness. I touch on my experience with disordered eating and how I overcame restrictive eating and slowly got to food freedom. I talk about the impact that changing my diet had on my physical and mental health. Then how stress and anxiety caused food intolerances and crippling stomach pain. These issues then fed back into my mental health as I isolated for fear the embarrassment and discomfort of my tummy acting up. Which leads us nicely into talk about the gut-brain axis and why is so important. Did you know that much serotonin (the happiness neurotransmitter) is made in the gut?! 95%? Along with other good and bad bacteria that a growing pool of research suggests can lead to memory loss, early onset Alzheimer's as well as anxiety and depression. Mark reminds me of Blue Zones where people live longer lives and he talks us through the benefits of eating whole foods and some of the reasons why processed foods can be bad for our overall health if eaten regularly. We also discuss stress and how we can let things get to an unbearable level and the impact those stress hormones have on our mind and body. This podcast is full of helpful tips that on how we can make simple improvements to our nutrition that can have a big impact on our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing as well as quality of life. Big thank you again to Mark Clifford for our lovely conversation about the role nutrition plays in our wellbeing.  If you enjoyed this podcast please leave a review! the more stars and reviews we get the more people we can potential have a positive impact on and you never know who may need to hear this today.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your support this far as I try make a difference to our growing mental health numbers. If you haven't already I would be grateful if you could show some love and share, like, comment or message the Enlightened by Aoife Instagram.  Wishing you hope, happiness and healing! Aoife x