About

Academic

I am an MSc Science Communication student with an interest in health journalism, media, and reporting.

This project is for my final portfolio, and intends to communicate nutrition information effectively to a lay audience.

Feedback is thoroughly encouraged, welcomed, and appreciated, and will help to complete my final write-up regarding the effectiveness of this resource.

Personal

I’m a 24 year old American who has lived in the UK for the past 6 years, studying for my BSc Zoology and now my MSc Science Communication at the University of Manchester.

When I moved to the UK to start university, my diet came into sharp focus after years of being ignored. I had decided to become a vegetarian, mainly through a love for animals and having learned more about how meat production impacts the environment.

Years later, this morphed into full-blown ethical veganism. It was here that my interest in nutrition began to develop. I helped to found VegSoc, the University of Manchester’s vegetarian and vegan society. By the winter, I was the chair, and deeply entrenched into vegan culture and nutrition.

Unfortunately, late in this year I got diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. (All my preaching about vegans being less likely to get cancer tasted a bit bitter! )
I remained vegan throughout treatment and for 6 months following, but my body was not coping well with it anymore and I found it mentally draining. In the summer of 2014, I embraced animal products again.

In the two years since, my body has transformed and my strength has peaked. But returning to being omnivorous didn’t placate my relationship with food- I played with low carbohydrate diets like Paleo and Keto, avoiding refined sugar, grains, and starchy foods for several months at a time. My mind still had not settled- I felt like i hadn’t found “the way” yet.

Today, I am a creature of moderation. My hunger for nutrition knowledge has led me to realise that there is no ‘One true Diet’; there is only the healthiest diet which you can sustain without it impacting your mental well-being negatively. This eBook and website are my way of helping others to find out what that might be for them and their life by sharing what I have researched and the resources that have proven valuable over the years.