About
I am a passionate mum to three gorgeous children, Mackenzie 10 years, Bella 8 years and Connor 6 years and wife to a very supportive husband. Our additive free journey began nearly four years ago when Bella would often complain of pains in her tummy and become very bloated and distended. She would also become quite irritable and over sensitive - I wanted to know why this was happening.
A current affairs show explaining how the additives in food can cause many adverse health reactions was the catalyst for our change. After eliminating just four regular products from our family’s diet, we noticed a difference in Bella’s well being in a few short days. After a month, her dry skin and asthma were minimal. We had a turning point in our journey a few months later when I began to look more closely at the food labels of other products and discovered many ingredients have detrimental effects to humans, especially the growing bodies and minds of children. We decided that eliminating these additives from our diet would benefit all of us, so from that day on, we became an additive free household!
Over the past four years we have reaped great health benefits as a family. We are very rarely sick and if we do contract an illness, we get over it very quickly and without incident. A little while back, we discovered that Connor needed some extra work to build up his gross motor, emotional and sensory development - additives definitely affected his abilities. There are occasions such as holidays or other children’s birthday parties, where we are exposed to foods with additives in them and when this occurs we really notice a difference. Connor’s attention, moods, sleep patterns and energy levels are chaotic, Mackenzie’s sleep patterns are effected and she tends become very moody and suffer from headaches while Bella will suffer from her digestive issues as well as skin ailments flaring up in addition to the same symptoms as Mackenzie. For my husband and myself, we feel sluggish and have hangover like symptoms and are also more erratic in our moods. As you can see, we can respond differently depending on our body’s area of weakness.
Let's Live! Additive Free began so that I could share my growing knowledge and awareness about food additives with as many people as possible, in turn providing them with the tools to make a difference to their lives. From this passion, Let’s Party! Additive Free was written to help parents provide their children with fun and colourful party without the children going ‘crazy’ from all of the chemical additives, particularly colours, flavours and preservatives.
Let’s Visit! Additive Free has been designed to help the carers of children who live additive free, provide appropriate food choices while the most recent title in the series, Let’s Celebrate Christmas! Additive Free, is a guide for creating a joyous, festive and additive-free Christmas. This title is twice as long as the first and packed with a diverse range of additive free recipes to be used all year round.I love that every day I have the opportunity to help, support or inspire a variety of people who are all at varying stages in their additive free journey. To know that by my sharing of information and knowledge, I have made a difference to the life of even one child and their family, brings an amazing feeling of gratitude and warmth – this is why I do what I do.
Melanie xx
