8ú modern sense. It's not about: ❌ Calorie counting ❌ Cutting out entire food groups ❌ Drinking expensive green powders ❌ Surviving on lettuce Instead, it's a pattern of eating traditionally seen in countries such as Greece, Spain, and parts of Italy. It typically includes: ✅ Lots of vegetables ✅ Fruit ✅ Beans and legumes ✅ Nuts and seeds ✅ Whole grains ✅ Extra virgin olive oil as the main fat source ✅ Fish and seafood regularly ✅ Moderate dairy (often yoghurt) ✅ Limited ultra-processed foods ✅ Limited sugary drinks and sweets ✅ Less red and processed meat ✅ Social eating One of the most important studies ever performed on diet was the PREDIMED trial. Researchers studied over 7,000 people at high cardiovascular risk and put them on either: 🥄 A Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil 🥜 A Mediterranean diet supplemented with mixed nuts 📋 A control low-fat diet Crucially, the nuts and Olive oil groups received a supply of the nuts or oil every month so we can be confident they ate more of these than their usual. After around 5 years of follow-up, the Mediterranean diet groups experienced roughly a 30% reduction in the combined risk of heart attack, stroke, or cardiovascular death compared with the control group. Stroke reduction was one of the strongest signals seen in the trial at nearly 40% reduction. And this isn't just one study. A major BMJ systematic review and network meta-analysis (essentially a study pulling together data from all the high quality research on the topic that could find to give very reliable results) examining randomised dietary programmes found that Mediterranean dietary programmes reduce death, heart attacks, and cardiovascular events in people at increased cardiovascular risk. Importantly, they also reduce stroke risk. Why might it work? The Mediterranean diet appears to improve many of the key drivers of stroke and cardiovascular disease: 🩸 Blood pressure 🧈 LDL cholesterol 🔥 Inflammation 🍬 Blood sugar control

https://youtu.be/abwH9rIT18I

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Warrington Moving On Stroke Group for their Make May Purple dinner. And, as always, I came away genuinely motivated. Groups like this do something incredibly powerful. They bring people together after one of the most frightening and life-changing events imaginable. They offer friendship, confidence, humour, shared experience, encouragement, accountability, and hope. They help people feel less alone. I don't see it as a “nice to have”. But as a real part of health, so I looked at the research this morning: Poor social contact and stroke risk A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis pulled together date from 19 studies, including more than 1.6 million people, and found that poor social relationships were associated with around a 30% higher risk of stroke. The same review also found that poor social relationships were associated with increased post-stroke mortality. Lim, M. H., et al. (2024). Poor social relationships and the risk of stroke and post-stroke mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health, 24, 2287.Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11373457/ There was another earlier major meta-analysis by Valtorta and colleagues, published in Heart in 2016, which found that loneliness and social isolation were associated with a 32% increased risk of stroke. In the same analysis, poor social relationships were also associated with a 29% increased risk of coronary heart disease. Valtorta, N. K., Kanaan, M., Gilbody, S., Ronzi, S. and Hanratty, B. (2016). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for coronary heart disease and stroke: systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal observational studies. Heart, 102(13), 1009–1016. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27091846/ There are several possible reasons for this. People who are socially connected are often more likely to stay active, eat better, attend appointments, take medication, notice changes in their health, and seek help earlier.

Catching up after the big game tomorrow. Honestly not sure what Liverpool team will turn up. I hope its a good exciting game!!

This week, instead of thinking about habits to add I thought we might think about things to stop. Harmful substances like: 🍷 Alcohol 🚬 Smoking 🍔 Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) In order to quit a harmful substance there's a few steps you could take: 1: The “Awareness Reset” (Easy win) Before changing anything… just observe. For the next 7 days: Track alcohol intake (units) Notice any smoking/vaping triggers Identify UPFs in your diet (anything packaged, long ingredient list, engineered for taste) 💡 Aim: No judgement Just awareness Most people underestimate these by 30–50% 👉 This is your baseline. You can’t optimise what you don’t measure. 🥈 Step 2: The “Reduce by Half” Challenge Now we start nudging behaviour. Pick ONE of the following: Cut alcohol intake by 50% Cut cigarettes/vapes by 50% Replace 50% of UPFs with whole foods Examples: Beer → alcohol-free alternative Crisps → nuts / fruit / hummus & veg Ready meals → simple whole-food swaps 💡 Aim: Not perfection. Just meaningful reduction. 👉 This alone can significantly improve: Blood pressure Inflammation Metabolic health 🥇 Steop 3: The “Clean Week” (High impact) Go all in for 7 days: ❌ No alcohol ❌ No smoking/vaping ❌ No ultra-processed foods Instead: Water / sparkling water / tea / coffee Whole foods: meat, fish, eggs, veg, fruit, nuts, grains Cook simple meals (doesn’t need to be fancy) 💡 What to notice: Energy levels Sleep quality Cravings (they often drop after 3–4 days) Mental clarity 👉 This is where people often realise: “I didn’t know I could feel this good.” --- To do this it's usually best to replace the thing we're quitting with something positive. For example, you may want to have lots of fresh food on hand for tasty snacks instead of processed foods. 💬 comment below: Which option are you choosing? What’s your biggest challenge with this area?