Rachel Shackleton's blog

Over 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates, often called the “Father of Medicine,” shared a simple truth that continues to echo through the centuries: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

In our fast-paced, convenience-driven world, this quote feels more relevant than ever. Today, food is too often treated as a quick fix for hunger rather than the foundation of our health. Yet Hippocrates’ wisdom reminds us that every bite we take has the potential to heal—or to harm.

The Power of Everyday Choices

In today’s high-pressure business world, it’s easy to grab a soapbox about healthy eating—then realise that daily realities make it far harder than it sounds. Consider the challenges we all face:

• Demanding jobs and deadlines that leave little time to prepare food.

• Back-to-back meetings that mean lunch is whatever you can grab in five minutes.

• Stress from the unexpected—technical glitches, urgent client requests, supply chain disruptions.

• Family responsibilities—school runs, after-school activities, caring for children or elderly parents.

At this time of year we naturally think about our immune system, wanting to be sure that it is functioning well and fully to manage the transition from the warm and hot summer days to cooler days and colder, longer nights. Vitamin C is perhaps the one vitamin that stands out as it plays an important role in helping the body fight both bacterial and viral infections more prevalent at this time of year. 

Have you ever moved house or travelled for an extended period and prior to going taken all your worldly possessions and put them into storage? Something like a “Big Yellow” storage unit.

Some things you hear once and never forget. For me, it was during a college lecture on cardiovascular health. The lecturer introduced hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna, Crataegus laevigata) as the “Arteries of Great Britain.”

It made perfect sense. From the air, the British countryside is stitched together by endless hedgerows of hawthorn – a living, breathing network that nourishes and shelters wildlife. Just like our arteries, they carry life. And right now, in late summer, those hedgerows are heavy with bright red berries, a symbol of vitality.