Holistic Nutrition
Holistic nutrition is my new preferred name for nutritional therapy! It better explains it and encompasses my own personal approach. Nutritional therapy is holistic of itself. It is an evidence-informed, whole-body approach to nutrition and lifestyle medicine. Addressing potential underlying causes of ill health, rather than focusing on symptoms, it is used to promote health through nutrition and lifestyle support. However nutritional therapy is also misunderstood as purely assessing nutrients, providing recipes and meal ideas, educating. BUT these are the tools to address the root causes and balance body systems. All of this is truly holistic looking at the whole person to identify the problem and addressing my clients whole life to provide a solution. You read more here
For me there is another level and holistic helps explain it. The term holistic has a spiritual component that respects your unique body and innate wisdom. So it acknowledges that nourishment comes in many forms; food is only one of them. This encourages just one step at a time, recognizing that change to one dimension of our health affects everything else. The philosophy that recognizes health as a multi-dimensional; physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual body. So in daily life health is the interaction and expression of the day and night routine, play, cooking and eating, movement and stillness, beliefs and mindsets, attunement and intuition, as well as connection with others and alignment with a greater good.
HOLISTIC A DEFINITION
‘It is the belief that the parts of something are interconnected and can be explained only by reference to the whole.’
HOLISTIC MEDICINE therefore is ‘Treatment of the whole person, taking into account mental and social factors, rather than just the symptoms of an illness.’
WHY I LOVE HOLISTIC NUTRITION
I have always been enthusiastic about health and wellness. It was natural to me that true health must embrace all aspects of a person. Nutritional therapy is holistic, like other complementary therapies it considers the whole person. This often refers to the physical body, the soul (mind and emotions) and the spirit. The interpretation of spirit is very individual but this need has been recognised both scientifically and antedotally and accelarated by the pandemic and the onslaught of mental health problems. As a nutrtional therapist the word holistic helps me explain what I do. Holistic really sums it up well. As it’s not just about food and nutrition as fascinating and crucial as that is. As a nutritional therapist I SEE the whole and look at the clients lifestyle as well as diet. We consider mental health, stress, sleep, relationships, even behaviour towards food. Nutrtional therapists recognise that to be healthy all parts of our lives need to be addressed. Sometimes that means finding other specialists to help.
LEVELS OF HOLISTIC NUTRITION
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE
I use a functional medicine approach which means I look at the physical body systems and their interactions with each other. I consider the whole to find imbalances. It is based on biochemistry although our language is complementary therapy because we do not diagnose or treat illness. However this approach means we address ‘dis-ease’ finding imbalances before pathology develops. If we have got diagnosis or disease once again finding the key imbalanced body systems and restoring balance and health. It is often reffered to as root cause medicine. Root cause medicine goes deeper, looking for the mediators and triggers that may have contributed to the symptom or imbalance. I consider your family history and lifestyle even your birth and if you were bottle or breast fed! Your own unique metabolism and genetics play a part too. Testing can help identify this. Looking in this way has multiple benefits because supporting the roots of the problem means the whole person is ulitimately balanced. It isn’t instant but an unravelling which bring wins big and small.
A DEEPER HOLISTIC MEANING
Including our spiritual well-being is truly holistic. Call it what you want God, spirit, or intuition or even nature. Science shows that cultures who believe in something bigger than themselves thrive. The last few years have led people to explore new ways to support mental health. This includes mindfulness, mediation, frequency healing and energetic healing. These are areas I am exloring this year. Perhaps you resist this part, I hear you, take it a step, at a time. Slowing down and becoming more aware is a good start. This is where intention comes in.
Intention
An intention is a short positive statement of intent that is inspired by your wish to heal, change or enhance an aspect of your life. The big difference between setting an Intention and using resolutions or will power is that it’s not something you can THINK yourself into. You need to feel yourself into it. You may have expereinced moments in life when you feel truly inspired and exhilarated. There is a knowing! You have tapped into intention it lives within you as an unspoken feeling, an energetic quality, a stirring of your heart’s deepest longing for positive change.
Setting intentions is a practice you can develop. You take time to connect with your body and become more aware. This act of really listening deeply to ourselves also involves noticing dreams, desires, longings that you may have dismissed or kept hidden. I hope this helps you on your health journey.
HOLISTIC MENOPAUSE NUTRITION
It’s crucial at menopause to take a holistic approach because hormones interact with all the body systems. Adjusting your lifestyle is also a key part of this process. Dealing with stress is not an option as stress will exascerbate your menopause symptoms (read about it here).Often I see ladies who realise their lifestyle has to change so they can feel like themselves again.
They need a new way of living, because the old way isn’t working anymore. They thought they were living a healthy life but something is out of sync.Their body is trying to tell them something, it’s time to listen to your intuition.
HOPE
In amongst all the doom and gloom I am bringing you hope. Hope of course isn’t fragile it is strong and determined and yet has an ease and simplicity too. There are natural ways to balance your menopause symptoms and have a smooth transition. Small simple changes are possible when you have the understanding and support you need to put them into practice.
FIND YOUR MENOPAUSE MOJO
As a menopause nutritionist I help BUSY WOMEN NAVIGATE MENOPAUSE so they can feel like themselves again…
Get in touch to arrange a Free Menopause Discovery Call Link in bio or message me
REFERENCES
https://www.ion.ac.uk/listing/category/becoming-a-nutritional-therapist
https://www.ifm.org/
