Andrea Hardy Nutrition

Andrea Hardy Nutrition Gut | Skin | Joints | Cardiometabolic Health
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12/08/2026

So, we’re in the middle of yet another heatwave and everyone’s out there loving it.

But if you’re living with psoriasis, eczema or acne, wearing shorts and enjoying dips in the sea can make you feel like you want to hide.

It’s another day working out how to cover up your patches without melting, or seeing people’s eyes flick to your skin and then away again before you’ve even said hello.

That’s exhausting. And it’s absolutely not something you should have to just get on with.

So let’s talk about why, because it’s not really about your skin at all. Covering up manages what’s on the surface, but that’s only ever half the picture.

The other half is what’s going on underneath. Poor digestion, stress, immune dysfunction, nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, food sensitivities - all the stuff you can’t see in the mirror but shows up on your skin every day.

When you start working on what’s going on beneath the surface, that’s when the outside starts to change too. Not with another cream that works for three weeks and then stops.

If you’re spending this heatwave covering up and dreaming of feeling confident in a strappy top or shorts, let me help you get there. Slots for a free introductory chat are open.

I’m Andrea, a nutritional therapist, and I help people who are tired of hearing that their skin issues are just something they have to live with 🧡

I don't usually jump on trends, but this one felt like a good excuse to be honest about me as a nutritional therapist.Wh...
05/08/2026

I don't usually jump on trends, but this one felt like a good excuse to be honest about me as a nutritional therapist.

When I'm chatting with someone who's thinking about working with me, I always say they need to feel like they can be honest with me, no polishing the truth to make their diet sound better than it actually is. And that only works if I'm willing to do the same.

So here's me.

I'm not about overoptimising every part of your health. I still eat chocolate daily, and love eating cake.

I also live with joint pain, which some days makes me feel like a bit of a fraud giving health advice at all.

If you want nutrition advice from someone who doesn't eat salads and green juice on repeat, who actually understands what it's like living with an ongoing health issue, and who'll never make you feel judged for what's on your plate, you're in the right place.

If that sounds like you, say hello. Drop a 👋🏼 in the comments or pop over to my grid and have a nosey at what I do.

31/07/2026

Your diet can be genuinely fine and your magnesium levels can still be low. That confuses a lot of people, and understandably so.

Here’s the bit that gets missed.

Magnesium isn’t just a question of what you’re eating. It’s a balance between what’s going in and what’s using it up, and modern life is remarkably good at draining it.

Stress depletes magnesium.

Alcohol depletes it.

So does caffeine, poor sleep and intense exercise: all things a lot of us are dealing with regularly without necessarily connecting them to a mineral.

So you can have a decent diet by eating your nuts, seeds and dark leafy greens, and still end up running low on magnesium, because the demand on your body has steadily outpaced what you’re taking on board.

This is exactly why it’s one of the supplements I recommend most often in clinic. Low levels can show up as muscle cramps, poor sleep, migraines, PMS and, a bit ironically, more stress, which only accelerates the depletion further. It becomes a bit of a cycle.

If you are looking at a supplement, the form matters too.

Magnesium glycinate is generally my pick for relaxation and sleep, while citrate can help if you’re prone to constipation.

A couple of things worth flagging. If you’re on antibiotics, leave a two-hour gap either side before taking magnesium. And if you’re on blood pressure medication or calcium channel blockers, that’s one to take a bit of care with too.

If any of this resonated and you’d like a proper look at whether magnesium’s worth adding for you, my DMs are open, or you can book a free 20-minute call 🧡

28/07/2026

Eating flaxseed doesn’t automatically mean you’re covered on omega-3.

Omega-3 is what’s called an essential fatty acid, meaning your body genuinely cannot make it. It has to come from what you eat.

But here’s the bit that often gets missed.

There are different forms of omega-3, and they’re not interchangeable. Plant sources like flaxseed, chia, h**p and walnuts contain a form called ALA. Your body has to convert that into EPA and DHA before it can actually use it for anything, and that conversion process is slow and pretty inefficient. You’d need to eat an unreasonable amount of seeds to get a meaningful amount through that route alone.

Oily fish, on the other hand, gives you EPA and DHA directly. Ready to use. No conversion required.

That’s a big part of why I recommend an omega-3 supplement to most of my clients. Omega-3 plays a genuinely significant role in heart health, brain function and how your body regulates inflammation, and getting enough in the right form matters more than most people realise.

The easiest way to remember the best food sources is SMASH: salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring. Three to four portions a week is the general aim.

If fish isn’t your thing, or you’re vegetarian or vegan, an algae oil supplement is your best bet, since it gives you EPA and DHA directly rather than relying on your body to convert it.

One thing worth flagging: if you’re on blood-thinning medication, or about to have surgery, have a chat with a health professional before adding in a supplement, as omega-3 can affect blood clotting.

My DMs are open if you’d like some advice on the best omega-3 supplements to get 🧡

22/07/2026

Being outside doesn’t automatically mean your body’s making enough vitamin D.

There’s a fair bit working against you, even if you’re out and about most days:

☀️ Most of us are indoors at exactly the time the sun’s at the right angle, so we miss those precious vitamin D-making windows without even realising it.

😎 We’ve been taught to wear sunscreen. Yes, it’s brilliant for protecting your skin, and keep wearing it, but it also blocks a lot of the UVB your body needs to produce vitamin D in the first place.

🧢 Unless you’re a naturist, you’re wearing clothes, and covering up large areas of skin, which reduces vitamin D production too.

💊 A lot of us are on statins. Statins are designed to lower cholesterol, which happens to be one of the key ingredients your body needs to make vitamin D.

🧬 Some people carry gene variations that affect how their body produces, transports or absorbs vitamin D, so even with decent sun exposure and a good diet, their levels can still come up low.

Basically, there’s a lot working against you, and being out in the sunshine is only one small piece of a much bigger picture.

That’s why I see low vitamin D levels on test results all the time, and why I so often end up recommending a supplement, though never without considering important co-factors, existing medication, and health conditions too.

Stick around. I’ll be covering two other supplements I recommend most to my clients over the coming week.

18/07/2026

You bought it with high hopes, that this would be the one to finally sort your energy, clear up your skin, or ease those achy knees.

Weeks went by, but nothing much changed. So you moved on to the next one, maybe something a friend recommended, or that wellness influencer you follow on TikTok swears by.

Sound familiar? Here’s how to know if you’re on the merry-go-round:

💊 You’ve got a graveyard of half-used tubs in a cupboard somewhere
💊 You’ve swapped supplements more than once for the exact same issue, and not much has actually changed
💊 You’re taking something mainly because it worked for someone else, rather than because you know it’s what your body needs

I see this all the time with clients when we start working together. A long list of supplements, bought with the best intentions, and who can blame you?

Vitamins, minerals, collagen, probiotics, prebiotics, creatine (add more if you’ve got them!) are all meant to be good for you. So surely more is better?

Not quite.

Here’s what’s usually going on when a supplement doesn’t seem to be working:

🤔 It might not be the right dose for what you actually need
🤔 It might not be in a form your body can properly use
🤔 Or you’re trying to correct the thing you tested for, but are missing the actual reason it was low in the first place, so it never really resolves

You can’t out-supplement a problem you haven’t properly investigated. And the supplement isn’t always the problem, the guessing is.

If your own supplement box has turned into a bit of a graveyard, that’s such a common starting point for the people I work with, and there’s a way off the merry-go-round that doesn’t involve buying yet another one and crossing your fingers that this will be the one.

If you’re confused about what supplements you should actually be taking, drop me a DM and I’ll see how I can help 🧡

15/07/2026

You’re taking exactly the same supplement as your friend and it worked a treat for her.

Her skin’s glowing. Her energy’s up and she’s basically become a walking advert for the stuff.

So you buy it too, keeping your fingers crossed that this is the one that’ll do the job.

But weeks go by and nothing. You’re not seeing the same results as her.

Here’s why…

We’re all biochemically individual, which is a fancy way of saying your body’s gaps, quirks and needs are entirely your own.

Your friend’s deficiency, digestion, stress levels and lifestyle are not your deficiency, digestion, stress levels and lifestyle, even if you’ve eaten the same lunch together every Tuesday for the last five years.

So when a supplement works brilliantly for someone else and does absolutely nothing for you, it’s not that you did it wrong. It’s that your body needs something else right now.

Taking a supplement without knowing what’s actually going on inside you is basically just guessing. And guessing gets expensive.

If you’re not sure what your body’s actually asking for, send me a DM and I’ll see how I can help 🧡

In my last post, I introduced you to Jane and her journey from doubled-over gut pain to being able to trust what she ate...
08/07/2026

In my last post, I introduced you to Jane and her journey from doubled-over gut pain to being able to trust what she ate again.

A couple of weeks into working together, Jane stayed at her son’s for a few days and ate the usual stuff there: supermarket sliced bread, a takeaway pizza one night. Nothing out of the ordinary, but her symptoms came back.

But at home, eating her own homemade sourdough bread, she was completely fine.

These are the same ‘gluten-containing’ foods on paper, but both delivered a totally different experience in her body.

So, is sourdough some magic loophole for anyone sensitive to gluten? Not necessarily. But it's not a coincidence either.

I get a version of this question often from clients: "Can I eat sourdough if I'm sensitive to gluten?"

Like most things in nutrition, the answer is: "It depends."

🔶Supermarket sliced bread: this contains around 100,000 to 200,000 parts per million of gluten
🔶Sourdough: this contains around 200 parts per million, thanks to that slow fermentation breaking a fair bit of it down
🔶Official "gluten free": under 20 parts per million

So sourdough isn't gluten free, but it is a much, much lower dose, which is exactly why Jane could handle her own loaf at home but not the sliced stuff at her son’s.

So if you're doing brilliantly on sourdough, no symptoms, feeling great, that's absolutely fine, and there's no need to change a thing.

But if you're still getting symptoms like gut discomfort, fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, or you've got an autoimmune condition in the mix, even that lower gluten dose might be enough to cause problems.

There's no one-size-fits-all answer here. Just like Jane, you might need help joining the dots between what you're eating and how your body's responding.

If your gut's been doing something similar and you can't quite work out why, let's have a chat. I'd love to help you get to the bottom of it 💚

How Jane went from agonising belly pain to feeling more confident around food.Jane had spent a week in hospital with ago...
03/07/2026

How Jane went from agonising belly pain to feeling more confident around food.

Jane had spent a week in hospital with agonising gut pain.
A number of tests were run.
Then, she got the verdict:

"It's just one of those things".

There was no plan or reason why, so she left hospital feeling confused and anxious.

She continued going about her normal life but still had belly pain that made her double over.
Bloating and constipation appeared more often than it didn't.
Every meal became a gamble.
Would this be the meal that made things even worse?

That's when she came to me.

Over the following weeks, we dug into her health history, looked for patterns and joined the dots.

We temporarily removed suspected trigger foods.
Foods to help ease the constipation were added.
We also found 'safe' alternatives so she could still enjoy a sweet treat with her work colleagues.

After more dot-joining, we found the culprit...

Gluten.

We eliminated it for a few weeks, with a plan to reintroduce it gradually when her gut was ready.

Finally knowing the cause of her discomfort brought her immense relief.

It reduced her mealtime anxiety.
There was no more "What if...?"
She was able to sleep better as she wasn't constipated or in pain.
And she was able to enjoy family get-togethers without any worry.

Jane said: “I was beginning to wonder if my gut pain would ever go away, and left hospital feeling defeated and anxious about what I could and couldn't eat. After working with Andrea, I'm feeling more empowered and in control of managing my gut issues.”

Sound familiar?
You don't have to just live with it.
There's usually a reason - and you don't have to find it on your own.

I'm here when you're ready 🧡

One of my favourite parts of being a nutritional therapist?Getting health education out to more people than I could ever...
19/06/2026

One of my favourite parts of being a nutritional therapist?

Getting health education out to more people than I could ever reach through 1:1 sessions alone.

My intention is never to overwhelm people with information.

It’s to give them the knowledge and tools to make simple, manageable changes - changes that support their health and reduce the risk of long-term health issues down the line.

This week, I had the opportunity to talk to employees at Gloucester-based Lanes Health as part of Men’s Health Week.

We looked at the five key drivers currently affecting men’s testosterone levels:

▶️ Stress

▶️ Sleep

▶️ Metabolic health

▶️ Alcohol

▶️ Chemical and microplastic exposure

That last one always surprises people, but evidence on microplastics and hormone disruption is growing fast.

This talk felt important to do, as men are statistically less likely to seek help for their health, or to make positive changes, before something becomes a real problem.

Sessions like this give people the chance to get ahead of that. To optimise their health, not just manage symptoms once they show up.

If you or someone you know might be interested in hosting a talk or wellbeing event, please drop me a DM, and I’ll get back to you.

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