Discover the health, fitness, beauty and nutrition trends set to influence you this year, plus find out how to send your energy levels soaring, beat emotional eating, stay trim with swimming and more in our healthy new you special section.
WOMEN’S HEALTH MATTERS!
The gender healthcare gap is finally beginning to close. All too often women’s health concerns are minimised, with severe pain from migraines or endometriosis dismissed as an over-reaction, or antidepressants prescribed instead of HRT. Women are often excluded from clinical trials, which means being prescribed drugs never proven safe for female bodies. But things are beginning to change. Women are no longer willing to be fobbed off and told to not make a fuss. Menopause is the standout success story so far, being slowly destigmatised through public debate, including in parliament. However, there’s still a long way to go. Rebel Bodies: A Guide To The Gender Health Gap Revolution, by Sarah Graham (£16.99, Bloomsbury) exposes the disparities in healthcare and gives advice on how to tackle them. Track your menopause symptoms and menstrual changes with the Health & Her App (free, healthandher.com) to help build good habits with expert advice.
CLIMATE-POSITIVE FOOD CHOICES
Shockingly, Brits wasted more than 9.5 million tons of food last year, with the most frequent discarded produce being fresh vegetables and salad*. Countering this, a trend for climate-positive food is on the rise to make your plate as net-zero as possible and reduce waste.
This can simply mean eating locally produced food that is in season at home and in restaurants to reduce food miles. However, companies such as zero-waste brand Squished (from £3.49, wearesquished.com) is taking climate-positive food a step further by creating a range of jams, fruit-ball snacks and flapjacks made from surplus fruit rescued from British farms. True to its tagline of “no berry is left behind”, Squished has rescued more than 25,000kg of fruit that would have otherwise gone to waste. ‘There’s a growing public awareness of the effect the food industry has on the environment. Customers are looking for products not only to be good for their health but to be good for the planet, too,’ says Squished founder Paul McCulloch.
Self soothing
According to new research by herbal medicine brand, Kalms, one-in-four women say their mental health and wellbeing has significantly worsened in the past 12 months. If anxiety and stress seem to be a daily occurrence for you, try self-soothing for a simple way to feel calmer and boost mental health.
It’s about really simple practices you can use in moments of stress to quickly soothe away y
