Podcast 16 Caroline Peyton talks to Diane Babics from Nourish on her Nutrition Journey

Nutrition Life Stories

It was an absolute delight for me to interview Diana Babics, founder of the Nourish Awards, the UK’s leading industry awards for healthy food, beverages, and supplement products. I am honoured to have been a judge for these prestigious awards for the past three years.

Diana grew up in Budapest, Hungary and contrary to what we think, rarely ate Goulash! She spent idyllic Summers on her grandparents’ small holding helping to pick fruit and vegetables and her meals year round were always cooked from scratch and heavily influenced by fresh produce. Paprika remains a staple part of her diet and she describes how to cook paprika correctly to protect its delicate flavours.

She moved to the UK to study in 1999 and was shocked at the amount of processed foods people were eating - and that was over 25 years ago. Diana started to gain weight as she never felt satisfied after eating most meals which were highly processed. She also developed a lactose intolerance soon after arriving as the milk was far more processed compared to Hungary. We spoke about having to carefully read labels to see what has been added.

The Nourish Awards started in 2017 after Diana began to experience more and more digestive issues and found relief from excluding gluten. At the time there were few healthy gluten free options available and she became aware just how many foods contained wheat! The awards were created to showcase healthy, ethical and sustainable food options: low sugar, natural ingredients, additive/chemical free whilst maintaining flavour. What started with 100 foods has grown to over 400 products including supplements and functional foods and drinks.

To discover more about the awards go to https://nourishawards.org/