As a Registered Nutritional Therapist, I speak with people about nutrition – on a conceptual level at least – they know that they should probably eat a bit better than they do, they should probably move more and take the time for more ‘me time’ to live a long and happy life.
However, ‘Life’ seems to get in the way! Many of us juggle jobs, school drop offs, kids clubs, pets, travel issues, extended families, day to day, leaving little time to dedicate to the business of ‘being healthy’. Convenience often wins. It’s not that that’s wrong per se, but here’s the thing: all the time we are not eating or moving or living as well as we know we should, we are silently getting sicker. That may actually be going-to-hospital sick or it may just mean having health niggles that bother us greatly but that we have learned to cope with. I’m talking here about things like IBS or other tummy troubles, PMT, arthritis, stress or anxiety, haywire hormones, or possibly weight that has crept on over the years and you can’t seem to shift it, no matter what you try.
What I want to share with you today is that the food you eat matters more than you can possibly imagine. And that, in many cases, simply by making changes to your diet, the symptoms of some of these conditions can be improved so markedly that there is a really profound shift in how you experience life.
Nutritional therapy was referred to as an ‘alternative medicine’. It’s only now that the science of what to eat is getting the recognition it deserves and is being actively promoted by well-known medical doctors, like Dr Rangan Chatterjee, Dr Terry Wahls, and Dr William Li.
Essentially, nutritional therapists apply the latest hypotheses and research in nutrition and health sciences to you and your symptoms and they come up with a diet, lifestyle and (sometimes) supplement plan to support those needs. A nutritional therapist might bring in some coaching to help you put the ideas into practice in a meaningful way or break through whatever barriers have held you back in the past.
Personal service
Nutritional Therapy is a very personal approach. You might hear practitioners talk about people being ‘biochemically unique’. That means that there isn’t a single way of eating that is right for everyone. The recent Zoe PREDICT studies have investigated the gut microbiome and its links with an individual’s diet confirming how different we all are. And the fact is that your DNA, previous medical history, and any current symptoms as well as what you like and don’t like, not to mention your personal circumstances are all important when a nutritional therapist creates a plan for you.
It is personalised just for you. You could download something from the internet – if you knew what you were looking for – but it is not the same.
A nutrition practitioner may also work with supplements and Functional Tests targeted to a specific condition or your own health goal. This can be a minefield – potentially dangerous and inevitably costly – if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Why doesn't everyone see a nutritionist if the results are so good?
Newspapers and social media are full of soundbites about the latest foods, but they don’t join the dots, and it’s difficult to see what might be possible for you. The vast majority of doctors – even those being trained today – have no practical experience of what their patients should be eating or how they might integrate the nutrition into their lives. Modern medicine is a world, by and large, where the solution presented during your 10-minute session lies in a prescription.
Functional Medicine is a patient-centred, science-based approach to health which considers the symptoms you are experiencing and sees them as a result of imbalances in your body. Rather than treating the specific symptoms themselves, nutrition professionals try to understand the root cause of the problem and base their programme around that.
If you think about it: nearly all medications merely suppress symptoms. Only very few are an actual cure – antibiotics come to mind here.
The exclusively pharmacological approach that conventional medicine often employs does nothing to uncover the root causes of diseases.
Metformin lowers blood glucose – but why is it high in the first place?
Statins lower cholesterol – but why is it elevated?
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) numb pain – but why are you in pain?
These are the questions nutrition professionals will ask before embarking on a quest to find out to then be able to address the root cause.
What happens in a nutrition consultation?
Your first consultation will last up to 95 minutes. You will have been asked to complete and send back a nutritional therapy questionnaire before you visit. During the session, we’ll go into your medical history, your health goals and any other challenges you’re facing, what you generally eat, what you like to eat, what you hate to eat and how you have to eat (on the bus, in a rush at your desk, and so on). There’s no judgement and anything you share with me is kept in confidence.
Nutritional therapy sessions are usually sold in programmes that run between 6 to 16 weeks. This is because it is rarely helpful for anyone to leave without the knowledge that they have at least three sessions in place to help them implement the programme, make changes at a pace that suits them, and to deal with any challenges or questions that come up along the way.
What if I already know what to do?
Knowing what you should be doing is only part of the problem if you are unhappy with an aspect of your health. Staying motivated is the hardest part of any plan. The single best way to stay in the zone is to have a buddy or coach who can give you a nudge or call you out if you start to go off piste. I’d say this is the single biggest thing that makes the difference between reaching your goal and actually staying there. That’s where Nutritional Therapy and health coaching comes it in. It keeps you accountable will ensure all that good work doesn’t go to waste.
If you feel you’d benefit from hearing more, please book in for a Free 30 Minute Introductory Session with me by following this link