Part of the reason I wanted to build Pantrix with educational information and have a voice was because of the amount of conflicting and sometimes misleading information we are fed about food, health and wellbeing.
I’m not sure about everyone else, but throughout life — and particularly as women — we can face enormous pressure around health, weight and how we are supposed to look.
Diet after diet. Lose weight. Don’t eat this. Eat more of that. This food is good for you. That food is bad for you.
Then a few years later, the advice changes.
One minute we're told one food is good for us, the next it's bad, and years later the advice can change again.
Research into diet and wellbeing keeps developing. Opinions vary, individual results vary and what we understand changes over time.
So what can we do?
We can learn.
We can ask questions.
And alongside reliable health advice, we can learn to listen to our own bodies.
I know there are foods that don't agree with me because I know what happens when I eat them. I know when I'm thirsty because my mouth becomes dry. Sometimes I can even see it in my skin.
I know when I'm exhausted or drained because that's often when I crave sugar.
Sometimes I don't normally want a particular food or drink and suddenly I really want it. I don't usually drink milk, for example, but every now and then I really want some. I'll drink it until I don't want it anymore.
Does that automatically mean my body has diagnosed exactly what nutrient it needs?
No.
But it does mean I've learnt to notice when my body is telling me something is different.
Hunger, thirst, tiredness and cravings can all be useful signals, but they aren't a replacement for medical advice when something isn't right.
There are also times when what our bodies need is medically important. Someone with diabetes experiencing low blood sugar, for example, may genuinely need fast-acting sugar. That's very different from simply labelling sugar as “bad”.
Context matters.
And I think we've lost some of that when talking about food.
The same applies to calories, fats, carbohydrates and portion sizes.
One meal doesn't define the way you eat.
Eating something fried doesn't suddenly make your diet unhealthy.
Eating a piece of cake doesn't mean you've failed.
And eating a salad doesn't automatically make everything else healthy either.
We need to look at the bigger picture.
How much are we eating? What are we eating together? How often are we eating it? Are we moving? Are we getting enough variety? And most importantly, how does our individual body respond?
There are two sides to an argument and often many different angles in between.
That's something I want Pantrix to encourage.
I don't want to tell people exactly what they're supposed to eat.
I want to give people information, cooking skills and ideas and encourage them to ask questions, look at different angles and make choices that work for them.
There will always be foods that are more calorie-dense than others. There will always be foods that offer different nutritional benefits.
That doesn't mean we need to be frightened of food.
Food shouldn't become a constant list of things to fear.
Learn. Ask questions. Look at the whole picture. Get professional advice when you need it. And find a way of eating that gives your body what it needs while still allowing you to enjoy food.
Because after all these years, one thing I've realised is that I actually knew my body better than I gave myself credit for.
I was just too busy listening to everybody else to hear it.