What Is Nutritional Therapy?
Simply put, nutritional therapy uses food as medicine. Through what you eat, you are able to make positive change to your overall health and well-being. Lots of people think "I eat healthily" - and it may be true that you're eating all the "right foods", but are you eating healthily for YOU? Are you eating the "right foods" for YOU? Using a naturopathic and functional medicine approach which looks at the individual holistically, we can get to the bottom of what's really causing the symptoms and heal you from the root cause. We do not just treat the symptoms since the underlying cause would still remain, unfixed.
Everyone's starting point is different. What we inherited through our genes, where and how we live and how we deal with stress can affect what turns on or off these genetic markers. Diet and lifestyle play a really big role in optimizing these myriad internal functions of your body.
Looking at what you eat and how you live, I can help you fine-tune where you are at right now, improving your quality of life and well-being.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What Can You Help Me With?
A: Nutritional support which encompasses diet and lifestyle advice, as follows:
Making healthier eating decisions and practical nutrition support: Looking at your current eating habits and seeing how we can optimize them. Including meal ideas, shopping help, pantry re-order, and simple tips to keep these changes manageable and sustainable.
Sports nutrition: Foods to include pre- and post-training depending on the type of training, and meal planning.
Dietary advice for special diets: Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, paleo, GAPS, FODMAPS, low-histamine, etc. dependent on what your aims are. Making sure you're getting enough of the right nutrients and what/ how to substitute food groups.
Digestive issues: Food sensitivities and intolerances, bloating, IBS, diarrhoea, constipation, reflux.
Low energy levels: Adrenal fatigue/ burnout, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia.
Managing stress.
Female health: Hormonal issues including PMS, menstrual cramps, fertility, PCOS, and how to re-regulate your cycle after coming off the pill.
Male health: Hormonal issues including prostate, libido, fertility.
Thyroid health: hypo or hyperthyroidism.
Weight loss and healthy weight management.
Autoimmune conditions including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Grave's disease, Hashimoto's disease, psoriasis, eczema.
Diabetes and cardiovascular health.
Q: What can I expect from a nutritional therapy session?
A: The work starts before a consultation - you will need to keep a food diary for at least 3 days. We will review this during the consultation, along with questions I'll ask about the issues you'd like help with.
A naturopathic consult typically takes between 45 minutes - 1 hour and we'll delve deep. Beyond the presenting symptoms, I'll need to know your family health history and other triggers or mediating patterns that will help me see the bigger picture of what else is going on with you: sleep patterns, energy levels throughout the day, toilet habits, stress levels, drug/ stimulant use, other potential triggers and when they occurred.
After this consult and looking at your current diet, I'll identify what nutrients you're getting enough of/ not getting enough of/ getting too much of for the issues you'd like help with and make suggestions for how you can improve where you're at right now. This could mean anything from eliminating certain foods (sometimes for a short time as a test only), adding other kinds of foods, including dietary supplements or changing your eating habits, along with other lifestyle changes. Sometimes other lab tests (eg. blood, stool) may need to be ordered too.
It's important that my final recommendations are realistic as the real work happens with you, at home! Together, we'll make a plan that you feel you can commit to. The only way things can improve is if change happens. Don't worry, this doesn't need to be drastic as the only way to make change long-term and sustainable is by making it happen slowly but surely.
Q: What happens after a nutritional therapy session?
A: The real work happens after a consultation - now you'll need to put in the work in order to get your health back! Usually, a follow-up session takes place anywhere between 2 - 6 weeks after the first consult, so I can check in with you and see what's been working/ what hasn't been working or if any new symptoms have occurred. If so, we'll make amendments to the first plan and hopefully you'll be on your way. I'm also just an email or phone call away if anything urgent pops up before the next consultation.
