Keren Dietitian

Keren Dietitian Mental Health/Sports Dietitian
Hexham | Food and Mood | Gut Health | Sports Nutrition

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have been getting a lot of attention—but not always in a helpful way. While headlines often...
20/03/2026

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have been getting a lot of attention—but not always in a helpful way. While headlines often suggest avoiding them completely, the reality is more balanced.

What are ultra-processed foods?
Most foods are processed in some way. Freezing vegetables, making yoghurt, or baking bread all count—and can be part of a healthy diet. Ultra-processed foods are typically more industrially made and may include ingredients not commonly used at home, such as flavourings, preservatives, or emulsifiers. Examples include fizzy drinks, packaged snacks, sweets, and some ready meals.

Importantly, not all processed foods are the same, and processing alone doesn’t determine how healthy something is.

Are they bad for you?
Some studies link high UPF intake with poorer health outcomes like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. However, these studies don’t prove cause and effect. People who eat more UPFs may also have busier lifestyles or different eating habits. What matters most is your overall diet.

The bigger picture
Healthy eating is about balance, not cutting out entire categories. Diets that support health usually include:

Plenty of fruit and vegetables

Whole grains (like oats, brown rice, wholemeal bread)

Protein sources (beans, lentils, eggs, fish, meat, or alternatives)

Healthy fats (nuts, seeds, oils)

If you regularly include these, there’s room for processed foods too.

Why processed foods can help
In real life, convenience matters. Processed foods can support a healthy diet:

Tinned beans and lentils are quick and nutritious

Frozen vegetables are just as healthy as fresh

Fortified cereals and plant milks provide key nutrients

Ready meals can be useful, especially with protein and vegetables

They’re also helpful during busy schedules, limited cooking access, low energy, or higher calorie needs (e.g. for active people). Sports drinks, energy bars, and snacks can support fuelling and recovery.

Food doesn’t need to be perfect to be healthy. Ultra-processed foods aren’t “toxic,” but they shouldn’t dominate your diet either. What matters most is what you eat most of the time. A balanced, flexible approach is more sustainable.

Keren

Pre and Postnatal Fitness Classes – Starting on Friday 6th and Sunday 8th March.Introductory offer of £50 for a block of...
28/02/2026

Pre and Postnatal Fitness Classes – Starting on Friday 6th and Sunday 8th March.

Introductory offer of £50 for a block of 4 classes.

As a Dietitian and qualified Pre & Postnatal Personal Trainer (and currently 21 weeks pregnant with my first baby!), I’m passionate about creating a safe, supportive space where mums-to-be can move confidently and feel empowered throughout pregnancy and postpartum.

These sessions are designed to:
• Support the health of both mum and baby
• Improve strength, mobility and energy
• Prepare your body for birth and recovery
• Connect with other expecting mums

This is not a weight loss programme. It’s about strength, confidence, education, and feeling good in your changing body.
Alongside the movement sessions, I’ll also provide evidence-based nutritional guidance to help support a healthy pregnancy and beyond.

Babies are welcome and I’ll be looking to add more dates as the community grows.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in — or if you know someone who might be — please share and get in touch
Thanks

Keren

When “more training” stops workingOvertraining isn’t a lack of discipline — it’s a lack of recovery.Overtraining occurs ...
30/01/2026

When “more training” stops working

Overtraining isn’t a lack of discipline — it’s a lack of recovery.

Overtraining occurs when training stress consistently exceeds the body’s ability to recover. Performance plateaus or declines, fatigue becomes constant, injuries linger, and illness becomes more frequent. Yet many athletes respond by training harder, assuming they just need more grit.

But overtraining isn’t only physical. Chronic under-recovery affects the nervous system and hormones, often showing up as irritability, low mood, poor sleep, brain fog, anxiety around rest days, and loss of motivation. These are not mindset failures — they’re predictable stress responses.

One of the most common drivers I see as a sports and mental health dietitian is under-fueling. Training volume increases, but energy and carbohydrate intake do not. The body is asked to perform, adapt, and recover without the resources it needs. Over time, exercise shifts from a growth stimulus to a physiological threat.

Recovery is not passive. Muscle repair, performance gains, hormonal regulation, and nervous system recovery all happen between sessions — not during them. Without adequate rest, sleep, and nutrition, adaptation simply cannot occur.

Rest is not quitting.
Fuelling is not a weakness.
And listening to your body is not a lack of ambition.

The strongest athletes aren’t the ones who can push the hardest for the shortest time — they’re the ones who can train, recover, and sustain performance year after year.

Sometimes, the most productive training decision is to recover.

DM me if you would like support with your training and nutrition to reduce the risk of over training and injury. 

Keren

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