A VERY Happy Podcast with Fearne Cotton

It was a pure joy and an absolute pleasure to chat with Fearne Cotton on her Happy Place Podcast. I met her and her beautiful family earlier in the summer and had a wonderful morning together. We chatted on the podcast about my new book, Brain Brilliance and so much more.

We discussed why what you eat has a direct effect on your mood and a child’s behaviour. If you are a parent wondering how to feed your child well in today’s world (neurodivergent or not), then this is the podcast for you.

• Watch on You Tube
• Listen on Apple Podcasts
• Listen on Acast
• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Amazon Music

This is what we talked about:

• What it means to be neurodivergent and my own ADHD diagnosis
• What functional medicine is and how it can help identify nutrient shortfalls and imbalances of the gut microbiome, neurological system and immune system
• The importance of a protein-rich breakfast to ensure the best start to your day
• How to help navigate food choices for your children, to pick healthier options
• Helping your child get to sleep and stay asleep
• Fussy eating and what underlying factors might be driving it
• PANS/ PANDAS – Has your child developed tics, anxiety and OCD after a Strep infection?
• How your child’s brain can be affected by a virus or bacterial infection
• Why antibiotic use at birth could be affecting your child now and how to get the gut microbiome back on track
• Why Fearne would prefer a zinc supplement to an oyster!

And the takeaways from our chat were:

• Cook from scratch as much as possible.
• If you buy ultra-processed food, opt for the ones with ingredients you recognise.
• There are protein and nutrient-rich recipes in Brain Brilliance to help with feeding the whole family – even if you have a highly selective eater on your hands.
• Sleep is key and there are lots of natural ways to help everyone get a better night’s sleep.

Have a listen to the podcast in the car, on a dog walk or whilst doing the housework to hear everything in more detail. To learn more about how to have a totally brilliant brain, pick up a copy of my new book Brain Brilliance this week!