The D Tour podcast is proudly sponsored by Macs Adventure

Macs Adventure specialise in self guided walking and cycling holidays for independent, active people who don't want to be part of the crowd or restricted by set dates and schedules.

Three weeks into her 900 mile adventure and food is a hot topic for Harriet. It's something she's been talking about a lot. Eating breakfast, skipping evening meals and the daily search for her morning coffee.

She examines how important food is for our physical and mental wellbeing and hears from chefs Adam Purnell (@shropshire.lad) and Cris Cohen (@FeastedUK) about how food is a multisensory experience offering love and a connection to ourselves.

It's also Harriet's birthday this week so expect celebrations

You can listen to Harriet's playlist on Spotify. Each week she's adding songs to match her mood on her epic walk!

If you like what we are doing and want to support the Dementia Adventure Support Fund please donate

Dementia Adventure has been at the forefront of providing fully supported, small group short breaks for people living with dementia and their carers for 15 years. Our supported breaks offer more than just respite; they provide meaningful, purpose-driven experiences that significantly enhance the quality of life for both people living with dementia and their caregivers. 

Something I've suddenly become aware of with this walk is not only is it a beautiful day, so the sky is blue and the sun is warm, but the sounds are so gentle. I've got cooing doves and birds and slight rustlings in the grass and undergrowth, and the air smells so fresh and green and sweet. It's really the most warm, gentle, nurturing space to walk through. It's... I can't really describe how heavenly this is. It's. I just feel very, very lucky to be here.

They encourage you to go at your own pace whilst they support you with all of the routes and logistics for a worry free adventure. One of the things I've noticed on this journey is how central food has become to my daily routine. It's funny how I keep coming back to it, whether it's finding the perfect cup of coffee or indulging in a delicious pastry. So it's fitting that this episode is supported by Jimmy's iced coffee. If you haven't tried them yet, they're the go to for a straight up iced coffee crafted responsibly with love and packed sustainably. Those little aluminium cans of cold, caffeinated joy perfectly capture the tasty encounters that brighten my sometimes sunny, sometimes grey and gloomy British weathered path so far. About the first thing I saw was this little Italian delicatessen and I have just had the best latte and the best apricot croissant you could imagine and I am feeling very chipper. So I'm setting off today having had my coffee and a bacon and egg. I'm feeling very full of the joys of spring or summer. Just left heartland where I had a slap up breakfast with scrambled eggs and sausages and toast and strawberry jam and two lattes. Really lovely. This is why I'm always so late to start. I like to find a cafe where I can have a really nice breakfast.

I was a little bit tired and I didn't go into town to get some dinner, so I didn't really have any dinner last night. Woke up starving. Luckily, there's a Spar in Pendeen and 6.30. I woke up and just walked down there. And I've now had my morning coffee. I'm feeling pretty awake. I've got a bag full of goodies to eat and looking forward to an amazing walk. This boy was selling flapjacks and I bought a flapjack, which I've just eaten.

And I think that will give me enough energy to get past this jungle and to reach St. Ives. When I got finally my tent set up and I was lying in bed, I was like, oh, I never want to see the coastal path again. I don't care if I ever see the sea again. But my main point is to say, even though I was very tired and a bit despondent yesterday, now that I've had my coffee and I've started walking properly and I've seen the sea, I've got that wonderful feeling of inspiration and happiness again. And that's really what being outside always brings me. So I was sitting in the cafe this morning and there was a large group of nine or ten South Africans having a big, loud, noisy breakfast. And I noticed that I was making a judgement, or making several judgments, let's face it. Like, wow, they're so noisy. Oh, wow. I wish they'd just be a bit more quiet and so on, like, oh, can't stand this. And the lady who was running the cafe was very busy serving them their breakfast and teas and coffees, etcetera. And it took her about 15 minutes to finish all that and to come and take my order. So finally I got my latte. I'm such a coffee addict in the morning. Oh, my gosh, I'm not human until I have my coffee, which is exactly what I wanted to talk about, because after I'd had a few sips of coffee, that's all it took, I suddenly felt so much better. And my judgement about this loud, noisy group of South Africans totally changed. I was like, wow, it's so cool. They're obviously maybe a family group or, you know, there's different generations and they're having such a lovely time, and they're obviously enjoying each other's company. Reflecting on these two different judgments I made, first of all, I do try and notice when I'm making judgments, because I think making judgments about people is totally unhelpful because you don't know anything. I know nothing about these people. So, you know, who am I to judge anything, for a start. But secondly, what kind of amused me, really, was the difference that my coffee made? And this got me to thinking about every single day when I've been walking, because I'm walking, you know, pretty long distances.

What it means is that at the end of the day, as I'm approaching or getting close to where I'm going to stay the night, I'm pretty tired. And I've noticed that a, my brain stops functioning kind of rationally, which I seem to have actually found a solution to in the form of jelly babies. So I bought a packet of jelly babies yesterday, okay, let me tell you, I ate half a packet of jelly baby straight off at about 7:30 p.m. and that powered me through very happily to 9:00 p.m. which is when I got to the campsite, but without the jelly babies, when I've just been really, really tired and I've had nothing to kind of boost me. I've noticed that my judgments tend to get very negative. I don't, If I'm passing someone, I don't really bother to smile.

I don't really bother to say hello. I'm not in the mood to communicate.

As I continue my journey, it's not just the food that keeps me energised. It's the connections I make along the way. Each meal, each cup of coffee seems to bring a new story, a new conversation, and a deeper connection to the places I'm passing through.

No, I can't do it. And then I get up in the morning still thinking, no, I can't do it. And then I have a nice big breakfast. Scrambled egg, sausages, two toasts, and strawberry jam, a couple of cups of coffee, look out of the window and think, oh, let's get out there. Let's go and explore. So that's exactly what I did this morning. I actually left the pub about 50 minutes ago. Five zero minutes ago.

And this is how long it takes me to leave. I passed a couple who were trimming their roses, so I asked them if there was a shop. This involved probably a 15 minutes conversation all about the village and the village shop, which has a cafe. And then I went to the village shop and then I had to have a ten minute conversation with the lady in the village shop about the shop and about her life and about why she lives here. And finally, finally, I've got myself on the road and I tell myself, you know what? The day would probably be easier if I just got up and went, you know, had breakfast early, get up, go have the whole day to walk and not worry about the time, etcetera. But the thing is, I really like meandering. I really like exploring these little villages and talking to people when I can. And this, for me, is part of.

Well, maybe it's almost the entire pleasure of the walk. It's not the entire pleasure of the walk, because I love the walking itself and I love the discovering of new landscapes. And it's been really great to get to know the north coast of Cornwall and then to come inland a bit and get to explore Exmoor a bit. That's been really fantastic. But definitely a big part of the pleasure for me is talking to people who live in these different places and getting an idea of who they are and what it's like to live in these different environments which are very different from those I've lived in, because I've always either lived in London most of my life, or now I live in Chichester. So again, it's a decent sized town, so has everything that the town has. So it's really interesting to me to hear about people's lives. Or maybe I'm just nosy.

Actually, I probably am nosy. Or perhaps curious is a better way of putting it. Curiosity maybe kills the cat in the end, but in the meantime, it certainly adds spice to life. In fact, it's proven to help us older adults preserve our emotional well being. So keep on being nosy, I say.

It's day 18 of the 900 miles D Tour, and today I'm walking from Cheddar to Bristol. And one thing that I've really come to appreciate over these 18 days of walking is a nice footpath. So I've walked up rocky, scrambly paths, across paths that don't really exist, slashing through head high marram grass, paths that go steeply down, paths that go steeply up. But my favourite path is the one like, I'm walking on now, which is a very slight incline but hardly noticeable and it's lovely and clear, so I know where I'm going and it's just a bit of stone and gravel and grass, so it's easy to walk on. And when I see a path like this stretch out in front of me, I'm like, hooray. I'm not gonna have to struggle for the next few minutes, hours, I'm just gonna be able to walk and enjoy the view and have a big smile on my face. So thank you, whoever made this very nice public footpath stretching east from the Cheddar Gorge. So I thought I'd tell you a little bit about what I eat during a day of walking.

So let's take today. And I was staying at a campsite that had a big kind of van serving food in the morning. So I had a bacon bap and a coffee. Then on my way out of Cheddar, I popped into Tesco Express and bought some bits and bobs and food. So about an hour and a half into my walk, I had a really nice pink lady apple. Delicious. Now I'm sitting down. What time is it? It's only quarter to twelve, but I'm hungry so I'm sitting down and I've made a, it's a bagel, but it's like a thin bagel with some sliced cheese and some crisps inside it. I love that. And I'm just going to have that with some water. So that's so far and it's only quarter to twelve. I eat a lot on these walking days.

Well, today is Tuesday. Not just any Tuesday though. It's my birthday. I'm 61 years young and I feel incredibly privileged to be fit, healthy and able to embark on this adventure. While I'm thrilled to be walking, I wouldn't mind a bit of a party and some cake of course. Go celebrate, I'm adding a few special songs to my playlist this week. Music is such an important part of my journey and I've chosen Don McLean's American Pie. And the reason I've chosen that song is that it has so many lyrics.

And while I'm walking along a path, if I'm getting a bit bored, I will just test myself to see if I can sing through the entire song. And it also reminds me very much of being a kid and of reading the lyrics on the back of the album cover. And the second song I've chosen, which also has a food theme, is coconut and it's by Harry Nilsen. And I've chosen this song because it's a song my dad used to really enjoy and I remember him kind of dancing around to it. And so singing this song and listening to this song as I walk will really sort of give a spring to my step and make me feel happy. So you can find my growing playlist on the D Tour website at dtour.uk. That's D-T-O-U-R dot UK. And also on music for dementia radio at www.M4Rradio.com. Speaking of lovely music, I received a gorgeous birthday message from actress Sian Reeves that truly made my morning.

Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday, dear Harriet can't wait to meet you really soon.

Well done, you're doing amazing.

You're doing amazing. I'm really looking forward to meeting Sian soon in Much Wenlock for an old school singalong with the residents at Wheatlands care home. As an extra special birthday gift, I'm thrilled to have a walking party with me on a very blustery day. Sue Hines, a speech and language therapist from dementia adventure, and Dr Raja Badrakalimutu, an old age psychiatrist and advocate for families living with dementia. They'll be joining me all the way to Monmouth. And Dr Raja has kindly agreed to meet me several times during my walk and I'm excited for the conversations and insights that we'll share along the way.

So I'm just crossing the Wye river and it looks amazing. It's the colour of a muddy puddle.

But it's a very, very, very big muddy puddle. And the Chepstow Castle ruins are sort of standing on this cliff above this beautiful greeny brown water. It's absolutely stunning. And I'm not by myself today.

Woohoo.

This is a really. Well, it's a. It's a great adventure for me to be walking with someone for the whole day. It's really brilliant. And we're just going into Wales, so very exciting. This is our first moment on Offa's Dyke, so we're going to pop briefly into Wales and then we're going to pop out again, because actually, Offa's Dyke runs along the eastern side of the Wye river, which is in England. So it was raining when we started, but it miraculously stopped.

So it looks like we're gonna have a brilliant day. Sue and Raja are wearing shorts. I am wearing full wet weather gear. So we'll see who got it right. Probably them, hopefully them. And, yeah, be catching up with some great conversation with them. Sue and Raja are having a conversation behind me. I should just say that I've just had a rest day.

So yesterday was a really lovely rest day, and it was so needed. My legs were so tired, and, yeah, I was just really, really tired. So today I'm setting off on this first day of Offa's Dyke path, feeling so refreshed. I'm looking forward to seeing the differences in the landscape and plants and everything, so can't wait for this day to happen. So I'm walking alongside Sue. She's currently using my walking poles, which is. I'm quite jealous about who? No one uses my walking poles.

I'm very pleased to be using your poles Harriet.

You were talking a few minutes ago. Well, I was walking a little bit ahead, and you were talking to Raja, and I was earwigging a little bit, and you were talking about food and the role of food and specifically, maybe the benefits of home cooked food for people who may be recovering from various circumstances. But, you know, if you can maybe talk a little bit about how you see food within the whole kind of context of well being, recovery, and just really enjoying, you know, enjoying life, enjoying the sensory experience.

So, yeah, I think we've, we've touched on before, Harriet, the sort of social importance of eating and sharing a meal with friends. And I'm sure we'll talk more, some more about that as you, Raja and me walk along and stop for something to eat and have a chat. And that's such an important part of relationships. But you mentioned about recovery from illness or having an illness that maybe knocks off your swallowing ability. So it might be that you can't chew the food. You can't get the food, literally, from the plate to your mouth because of some physical difficulties, or you manage to chew the food, but then swallowing is an issue. And, of course, swallowing is something that we have to be really careful of, because some people with dementia and other conditions will have a weakened swallow.

And essentially, what we're thinking about is, is the food safely going down to the tummy, or is the food perhaps entering the lungs causing a potential for something like a chest infection or pneumonia? So I think when people are in hospital, we focus very much on that physical health, and obviously, that's really, really important. But we can't look at the physical difficulty in isolation, because all of that social interaction with people, that memory about what food is, that biography of how I chew something, what it feels like in my mouth, how I swallow it and so on, is so important to optimise someone's ability to eat and drink, you've.

Actually really reminded me. When my mum went into a care home with dementia, one of the really nice things about it was they had a cook and the cook would just do what I would call home cooking, you know, so sort of roasts, peas, carrots, gravy, you know, and maybe like a pudding with custard or something like that. And when mum first went there, I remember really liking it because I'd sit with her while she had her meal and I just thought, well, this is really great. It looks really nice. Like, the colours are really nice on the plate of. And it's the kind of food she would have made for herself. She would have made fresh vegetables and she would have made, you know, she would have cooked a chicken. So it's very much, I felt, was very much her kind of food.

And I thought it was healthy and it looked good. And then when, as her dementia progressed and, you know, the swallowing became more difficult, she still had the same meals, but it was all pureed up, but it still had the nice colours. And I was still happy that it was proper food. You know, it was real food, the sort of food that, as I say, she would have cooked at home, the sort of food we would have eaten as a family. And somehow that was actually really comforting to me and I think it gave us something to bond over. When I was having a meal with her or helping with her with her meal, we were talking about something very familiar, like all the lovely green peas and the lovely orange carrots and, oh, I love cabbage and, you know, the gravy and the mashed potatoes. She loves mashed potato, and there was often mashed potato. And so that simple, familiar food, I think, really played a part in encouraging mum to eat, but also to sort of feel at home.

You. You can't underestimate the value of reminiscence around food, the value of conversations with those people who are close to you, who know what you used to cook, what you used to eat. But also, yes, you're right, there's often a point where somebody does need what we call a modified diet. So it might be pureed or it might be mashed down, but maintaining its presentation is so important. So lots of care homes will mould the food. So even though it's pureed, a carrot looks like a carrot, a spoonful of peas looks like a spoonful of peas, but it's just been sort of moulded in that way. Sorry, I'm trying to get through the gate.

We're just going through. We're just going through a kissing gate, right, we're through now.

And, you know, it's important that it still looks like it should look and it's important it looks like it should look for two reasons. One, for the recognition for the person who is having to eat it, so it looks like it's supposed to look like and it will taste the way it's supposed to taste. But also for the carer, like yourselves, Harriet, who would be sitting with your mum. And the worst thing would be as if you were flinching at the food because it looked terrible. So you're absolutely able to give a really positive environment for eating that food if it's looking good to you as well and you can recognise things to have those conversations with her. You know, we do focus a little bit on the motor weakness of a swallow. Definitely, we do have to do that, but we also need to bear in mind the cortex of the brain is all connected up, so that swallowing is connected to what you're talking about. It is connected to what you're seeing. It is connected to what you're hearing or tasting, so. And it is connected to your history.

I suppose we know. I mean, if you were present, if you and I were presented with a plate of food that was either very unfamiliar or smelled horrible or didn't look nice, you would kind of think, not sure I really want to eat that. So I think we can understand the importance of what you been talking about, the presentation, the aromas, the fact that we can recognize it. And it's really, it's common sense, isn't it? You wouldn't invite a friend round to a meal and feed them something that was horrible or that you wouldn't eat yourself. So why would you do that with someone with dementia? You wouldn't, because it's part of your connection. It's part of saying you count, I care for you, I want you to eat something that's tasty.

Food has that very. It's very symbolic, isn't it? It's kind of food is love, isn't it?

Birthdays are, of course, a time when we often come together to share meals. Sue's insights into the role of food in our lives beyond mere sustenance have truly resonated with me. She highlights how food can impact our physical and mental well being, and how its presentation and familiarity are crucial for those living with dementia or managing other health conditions. This aspect of care is something we often overlook. But Sue's emphasis on maintaining the comfort and connection that food provides reinforces its importance. Adam Purnell, the Shropshire based chef behind the YouTube channel Shropshire Lad, also celebrates the sensory and emotional dimensions of food. Adam has turned his passion for outdoor cooking into a full time career, showcasing how simple, high quality ingredients and the art of cooking with fire can elevate the eating experience. His approach, focusing on the bold and natural flavours that food can offer, complements Sue's view on how thoughtful preparation and presentation can significantly enhance our sense of connection and well being.

As we walk and reflect on these themes, I'm reminded of how food, in all its forms, enriches our lives and supports our journey, making each shared meal a meaningful experience.

I've always been fanatical about cooking, about food since I was a kid. My old man was a good, good cook, or is a good cook. Taught me the basics. I mean, he doesn't go off-piste in the way that I have, but he can make a banging curry, he can make really good pasta dish, a great roast dinner. The key things that you need as staples. I kind of learned to fairly young age from him and then was allowed to sort of go off and just cook for myself, really. Always been fanatical about food. You know, I had tickets to the Good Food show for my 11th birthday, you know, because I wanted to go and just eat and see things and stuff.

So I've always been passionate about food in general and then obviously being outside. I used to light a lot of fires as a kid. You know, we live in Shropshire. I go fishing and we'd always, like, nick a box of matches and, you know, make a little fire while we're fishing or whatever. And, you know, occasionally maybe take a pack of sausages and try to cook them on a stick. So I think it's always been in me to, you know, cook with fire. But, yeah, it's been in the last sort of eight years where the hobby has become my full time job. There's nothing that you can't do outside on a fire that you can do in a kitchen, but there's so much that you can't do in a kitchen that you can do with a fire because it brings theatre, it brings flavours that you can't ...You know, you can't replicate from in the kitchen, really. Like, the smoke being the main thing, really. But also just, like something cooked over charcoal, which charcoal doesn't produce any smoke, really. And you don't get smoky flavour, but the flavour of something that's been, like, caramelised over a fire like that is not the same as anything you can represent in a pan or in an oven. But, you know, you put a lid on a barbecue, all of a sudden you've got an oven. So you can still bake a cake, you can still bake bread, you can roast, you can, you know, there's so many different things you can do. As long as you've got a few bits of kit and a bit of know-how, there's nothing you can't do, really, you know, over the fire. And that's, and the other part of it is you're, you know, you're not stuck in a stuffy kitchen, you're outside. You know, like, you come down to Embers. You know, all the grills are on show. When the customers come, the chefs are usually outside, they can chat to you. They can find out about what's going on, interact with customers, which at this point now is great because most chefs don't see their customers at all, but we do because we're outside. So there's just so many positives with it. For me. it's the only way that I want to cook. I'll be honest, a lot of the comments we get about people who, if they've walked to us, they can smell us way before they get to us.

But it's also, you know, it's how it makes people feel. You know, it's, it's, it's, you know, I, the one thing I always will always do is cook to try and look for my family. Like, you know, I want them to enjoy it. I'll go out of my way, you know, especially my kids, because now they're exploring, like, flavour and kind of, you know, and my little one, she's, she's going to be five this weekend, but she's fussy, man, because I think I, I probably pushed too much flavour on her. And then she's little. So she, she, and she also is exploring those boundaries of when she can say yes or no and, like, she can decide, but, like, more and more you can see her intrigue with it and, but the eleven year old, like, she, you know, I can really affect, like, she's found her niche now. She loves Japanese food. So, like, I'm trying out all these different things on her and they're like, you know, and I'll go out of my way to try and make her something really delicious because I want to encourage her enthusiasm for it.

But also it makes me feel good to make her something really tasty, you know? And it's the same as I'll go around to someone else's barbecue and normally end up getting dragged in to do the cooking. But I don't mind because I want people to have a nice time and to enjoy that experience. And it's sort of like giving a little bit of love in it. The social aspect and the, you know, the memories as well. I mean, like, you think about, you know, you can all guarantee you can remember things you've had on holiday, for example, to eat in certain places, because it just sort of like there's that whole ambiance. If you're in a certain setting and. Or you can create a certain setting, you get in people's heads with what you're eating or as if you just sort of sat, eating a tray of takeaway. It's not going to be the same, you know, as it is if you sat on a beach or whatever.

So there's that whole. But I guess for me now, having just not long opened a restaurant, thinking about creating that space as well, where you can enjoy food, is exciting. So there's so many elements to it, isn't there? It's a lot more than just about the fact that we need to eat to survive, that's for sure.

Adam truly celebrates the sensory and emotional impact of food. It's clear that the ways we connect with food are deeply personal and often tied to our experiences and surroundings. Food isn't just about nourishment, it's a reflection of our histories, our cultures and the communities we belong to. Chef Cris Cohen really emphasises this connection through his approach to celebrating local history and culture. What began as a personal journey towards recovery transformed into a meaningful exploration of Stoke on Trent's culinary heritage. Cris's story shows how food can be a powerful tool for community engagement, personal growth, and cultural preservation. Let's hear from Cris about how his experiences and passion for local food have shaped his journey and his commitment to making a difference through his work.

This all started from me being unwell. We just adopted our second child. Two weeks after that, I fell ill completely out of the blue. Ended up spending around ten weeks in hospital. I ended up leaving my job at the end of the summer term in 2017. 1st October put a post on Facebook which read, hey guys, who wants some soup and bread? Super humble, super delicious and just my way of getting well, you know. And hell, I didn't realise what it would bloody well turned into. Now we have two restaurants.

One of those is award winning. We've been awarded for the way we train and develop people we are very much committed to exactly that. You know, at the front end of our organisation is deliciousness is incredible food, but most importantly, it's the way we train and develop people, you know, helping them understand themselves, helping them realise that, you know, they can rewrite the narratives that they've come to, come to accept after school and, you know, create a better life themselves. They may be really low in self confidence, they may have some social disadvantages, socio economic disadvantages, you know, the whole spectrum, really. We just want to help people realise how amazing they are. So you could say that I'm maybe on the autistic spectrum, maybe a liberal seasoning of ADHD. And I think with that I'm just very, very inquisitive, curious, very curious about the context that surrounds us. For me, it's not enough just to make steak and chips.

Even if it's the finest piece of steak, you know, it's dry aged, it's grass fed, it's been massaged every day and fed beer or whatever, and the chips are triple cooked and all that stuff, and dressed with the finest salt, it still takes steak and chips. But what we've done through understanding the history of the city, you know, some of those people that have really created the history, understanding the heritage and, you know, maybe why some of those things have gone wrong and the culture, the diversity and also where we could be in the future around being a green city, you know, innovating around our food system through unpicking that and, you know, being creative with those contexts. We've defined the gastronomy of the city, you know what the food that we put on the plates is Stoke on Trent. This food doesn't make sense anywhere else. It only makes sense here. You know, you can copy it somewhere else, but it'd be out of context. You know, oats feature very heavily, barley features very heavily. There's a lot of very humble ingredients. Very, very humble ingredients. That's intentional because through, if we can create deliciousness with those things, I mean, hell, you know, imagine if we were cooking the finest ingredients. But ultimately, it's not just about those very basic ingredients. It's also the way we treat them, the love that we give them, the attention we give them, that ultimately creates that level of deliciousness. And I think, you know, cooking is a very spiritual thing and eating is also, you know. Yeah, it's a massively connecting thing. And hospitality is people. It's something that I'm deeply, deeply passionate about.

I mean, when you, you know, when you dine, the food is incredibly important, especially the kind of places that we create, you know, two restaurants, and both of them, the food's incredibly, incredibly important. My chefs do incredible work. They're amazing. With all that, I'd still say that the people are the most important thing. It's people that make the experience. It's not just the experience we create. It's also the experience that people bring with them and what they contribute as well, which is so, so important.

I've always loved food. It's my language. So I've come back to where I belong, really. I think life has a way of doing that. It brings you, you know, it's like an elastic band, isn't it? That's my resting place, is hospitality. That's where I should be. So I think it was always going to happen.

As Sue, Raja and I continued our journey towards Wales, the conversation turned to the deeper connections we form with food. Adam and Cris stories really made me reflect on how food can be a gateway to our memories and our sense of belonging. I was curious about why food has such a profound impact on our experiences and emotions so I asked Doctor Raja while we were walking together. He explained that the experience of eating can evoke powerful memories and feelings, often transporting us back to different times and places in our lives. For me, certain dishes have a special way of taking me back to my childhood, no matter where I am.

When we go through an experience, obviously, we store the experience as an episode of our life, but we also store the memory as an emotional experience. So sometimes when there are cues similar to which we might have experienced in the past, then that kind of emotion will come back, whether it's positive or negative. And that's why a lot of people with, for example, post traumatic stress disorder will suffer with intense anxiety, because there might be a tiny cue that would have, that would flood them with the kind of emotional trauma that they've had in the past. The same applies to everyone. There's a part of the brain called this limbic cortex, which is very essential for us to have basic biological activity, but incredibly linked to emotions. And when that goes on an overdrive, then it kind of almost cuts off the frontal part of the brain from working.

And that's why, when we get very emotional, it will be very hard for us to think. Ask the red mist. Exactly.

And. But I think what's interesting is that we think about this, about the negative connotations of this, because you mentioned post traumatic stress disorder and how it can bypass maybe what you might call the more rational part of the brain that might stop you doing XYZ. But what's interesting is that it seems it can also work in a positive way.

Absolutely. I mean, we tend to take happy memories for granted and we don't tend to emphasise a lot on them, and I think we should do that. I had an example where it was part of something, a party, I think, and we were all asked to choose things from a table to put into the bread that we were going to bake ourselves. And I kind of noticed cardamom, and then I took it and then I inhaled it and it kind of gave me the rich experience of my paternal grandmother. Who used to use cardamom while making a lot of sweet dishes. She's died a long time ago, but that was a thing that I could relate to, the happy moments of my childhood, going along with my grandmother to buy things to cook, or she would be cooking I'll be playing around and I could inhale the fragrance of cardamom coming out of her cooking. And that made me feel very happy. So I think it's. I think it's very important for us to focus on the kind of emotional aspects of positive nature. As much as sometimes, yes, it's inevitable that we will be drawn into some of the difficult emotions that we've had through our lives.

I suppose that's what that whole gratitude thing is, isn't it? The whole kind of, you know, write three things you're grateful for. It's almost. It's around the same thing, isn't it? It's sort of asking you to look at what's good in your life. And when you think about that, it gives you that little rush of. I never know how to explain it, but when I sort of think about something that makes me really happy, I do feel it very physically. I feel a little rush around my tummy and my heart and it's a sort of buzz and I feel like when I'm walking, I'll just say, thanks, universe. Like, now the sun's just come out and we had a bit of rain.

It's beautiful.

Yeah. And if I were by myself, I'll do it now anyway, I'd say, oh, man. Thank you, universe, for this amazing weather. Can you just keep it like this a bit longer? Fantastic. And ps, if there's a tea shop, that would be good, too. I have a whole conversation with the universe, but I think it's very important.

To have this kind of positive reinforcement in conversations. At the very start of it it will be a kind of a conscious exercise for us to do. But then the more that we do it, then we wouldn't have to consciously say, I am being grateful for this particular day. You would just feel it?

Exactly.

You just feel it and you would recognize it and you'll just feel happy and then you'll just go for it. It's just like any other physical activity, like running or where if you hadn't done for a few weeks or months, you've been away on a holiday or whatever, you come back to it. Yeah. The first few weeks you can feel that you're trying to get into the swing of things and it's a very conscious effort. But once you've done it for a few days, then you get back to your previous rhythm. Brain is no different to any of that. Happiness is always seen as a momentary thing, whereas sadness, anger are seen as kind of states, longer duration. But actually happiness is a longer thing.

We just need to try and relive those moments of happiness as much as we would sometime end up ruminating on our sad days. There's nothing wrong in ruminating about the difficulties that we've had in life, but we should also have an equal balance in terms of looking at some of the good things that have happened in our life where we were happy and cheerful.

So it's 11.51, and I was just asking the universe for a little cafe to appear, even though we know there isn't one. And Raja has produced out of his rucksack some really nice plums. So we're all walking along, eating these lovely plums. They really remember plums always remind their childhood. I don't know why. Something about them. As soon as I bite into that sort of bitter skin and the sweet flesh, but I don't know why they do my remind me of childhood.

But I think that's the thing, Harriet. When Raja mentioned he had plums, now they came, he just saw them. And like you, it took me straight back to childhood. We used to have lots of plum trees around us. I used to go with my mum to sell plums on the side of the road.

Did You?

Yeah. And it just evokes so many memories, doesn't it? Although, Raja, I think I managed to pick up one sharp, slightly under ripe pear, plum.

Did you?

I did.

There's another one.

It's good.

I've been eating a lot of blackberries, you know, while I've been doing this walk. And they're such a good snack, because I love that sharpness when they're very sharp. And I love it when they're really sweet. And I always feel, oh, I'm getting a load of vitamin C, and they're nice and juicy and they're just on the bushes. What could be better?

And eating is something that can be a really mindful practice. Like you say, the texture can be different from one Blackberry to another, one to another, the taste can be very different. And actually savouring that moment and really taking yourself of time to absorb and be mindful in the act of eating can have a real positive effect on well being.

Having said that, I have finished my plum. I've literally stuffed it in my mouth. I have not been very mindful at all. It was just so delicious.

As I reflect on my journey and the choices I've made along the way, I can't help but wonder, do I need to rethink my diet now that I'm 61? Jelly babies should probably always be in moderation. But what happens when I finish this epic adventure? How can I continue to support my brain health through food? Susie from Dementia Adventure has been speaking to Kate Taylor, a nutritionist from the food boss, about the best foods for our brains.

When we talk about the brain, it's made up of lots of different components. One of the biggest things that we should focus on as part of our daily diet would be water consumption, which might be a surprise to some of you, but a lot of us regularly don't consume enough water or drinks, and our brains are actually about 80% water. So when we're dehydrated or we haven't consumed enough water through drinks or through our food, we will immediately and throughout the day notice a negative effect on our performance and cognition. So we should start kind of looking at our drinks and making sure we're regularly sipping throughout the day. I would say when it comes to food consumption, there's a few key things we want to look at. So I would recommend starting with fruits and vegetables. So as much colour as you can get as much colour into your diet, whether that's from things like berries. So, blueberries, strawberries, they're in season at the moment, so it's actually a really good time to eat them because they're at their best.

And when it comes to vegetables, things like carrots are really good. Squash, which is a bit more of a winter vegetable, as. As well as your green leafy vegetables. So things like spinach as well as things like broccoli as well, are really, really good to get into your diet. The reason we encourage lots of colour within the fruit and veg is for a number of reasons. One of them is to increase fibre consumption, which is really, really good for your gut. And the research around nutrition tells us at the moment that there's a really strong link between your gut and your brain. So we want to make sure that our gut is really nourished, promote really good brain function.

And the other one is because when we include lots of colour, that also means that we're consuming lots of different vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, carotenoids, which are things that are found in, like, carrots, all of those different types of nutrients. I often read about omega as being.

I often read about omegas as being really good for brain health.Can you explain more about this? And also how we introduce that into our diet becomes something that we regularly eat?

Sure. So the omega fatty acid family, there's omega three, omega six and omega nine. And the most common one that we read about would be omega three. And probably the most common place that we would know it's found would be an oily fish. So these are fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring, all the fish other than salmon that I would say is not really eaten a lot within the UK. So one of the ways that we can up our omega three intake, and omega three is really the important one out of omega three, six and nine that's important for our brain, is by increasing our oily fish intake. Some of the ways that you could do that would be smoked salmon is a really good addition to your breakfast. You could also have.

One of the other fish I didn't mention is rainbow trout. So a fillet of rainbow trout with some vegetables for dinner. But omega three isn't only found in oily fish because obviously we have a large community of individuals that don't eat fish. So if you are adopting a vegetarian diet or a vegan diet, there are ways that you can still obtain your omega three fats within your diet, and this would be by including things within your meals, such as flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts are really good, and you will still get some omega three fats as within foods such as extra virgin olive oil and avocado. So really good ways to get these types of food, especially like the nuts and seeds within your diet, would be sprinkling them on top of like a stir fry or within a salad. You could mix milled flaxseed into like a smoothie, or into porridge in the morning. And again, like avocados, really good in the morning with some eggs or spread on toast. So there's some really good options.

And it also mixes up the texture of your meal as well, because it's really easy to get into a habit of eating meals that are kind of the same texture, so soft, particularly for hot meals. So by sprinkling something crunchy, it kind of invigorates your taste buds a little bit and makes that meal a lot more satisfying. And when it comes to brain health as well, one of the big things is making sure we're satisfied with our meals, and by making sure they're interesting with lots of different textures and flavours in them, that's one of the ways that we feel more satisfied with our meals.

Actually, Harriet's mentioned a few times that she's been eating a lot of cake on her walk, a lot of sugar.

And she's mentioned that she wants to cut it down. So what are your thoughts on that? And how does that impact us?

Yeah, look, I mean, for Harriet's challenge, which is epic, she needs the sugar. So she is doing a massive endurance event. She needs sugar in all forms to keep her fuelled, because sugar is our main fuel source for the body. So if she's eating a lot of cakes and sweets and kind of muesli bars or things like that, she needs that sugar readily available. And in those forms, it is readily available. So we eat it and the body can use it straight away. So for Harriet, that's perfect. I think for the general population and for my general advice on it would be that we, as a nation, we do eat too much ultra processed, sugary food, and it is worth maybe taking a deep dive or a look at our diet as a whole in terms of how much sugary food that we are eating.

We absolutely need sugar, but where we can, we need to be looking to get it from sources that are less processed than we currently do. So it's fine to have a slice of cake every now and again, because that's what living life is all about. But actually, can we get that sugar from things like bananas, apples, fruit purees, things like yoghurt? So greek yoghurt is a really, really good source of probiotics, which is good for our gut. As I mentioned before, gut and brain health kind of link very well. So greek yoghurt is really good for that, but it also contains some sugar in it, and it also contains a lot of protein in it as well, which helps to keep us full. So, yeah, so, look, definitely we can include some sugar, but we all need to be looking at how much we're consuming. And can we maybe get it from some more whole sources as opposed to the heavily processed ones.

As I continue this journey and beyond, it's clear that taking care of ourselves involves both nourishing our bodies and our minds. Next week I'll be nourishing my mind and soul by visiting a wonderful care home in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, and enjoying some well deserved downtime at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival. Join me as I explore the significance of our life stories and the personal histories and cultural meanings that shape our identities. See you then.