When I tell people I’m a nutritional therapist I’m often met with variations of ‘don’t ask me what I eat last night’ or ‘I guess you never eat pizza’.
Out for dinner with friends, they will often apologise to me before ordering dessert.
This makes me really sad.
The demonisation of any food is completely wrong. Language that deems any food a ‘sin’ is unhelpful at best and at worst completely ignorant.
Of course, we all know that a diet consisting of only fast food and Victoria sponge is not great for our health. You don’t need a nutritional therapist to tell you that.
But, a dessert here or there, a trip to the takeaway every few months or a good old pasty when on holiday in Cornwall isn’t going to completely ruin your health.
We all know that as soon as you start to deny yourself something, you desire it more.
Often my clients are surprised when I’m asking them to put more foods into their everyday dietary habits rather than taking them out.
Indeed, most of my clients aren’t eating enough nutrients to give their body the fuel it needs to operate effectively.
Many of the clients I’ve seen recently with long covid symptoms are unknowingly depleted in key nutrients that your immune system needs to work well. Not only that, fighting any infection uses up any reserves you did have.
You need to give your body the type of fuel it needs. Our bodies are incredibly resilient. They can keep running on almost empty for a very long time. They find ways of surviving on very little nourishment by searching for the nutrients they need in every place they can think of.
For instance, if we don’t eat enough calcium, our bodies will start to break down our bones to find it. This can lead make our bones weak and brittle, particularly as we age and our bones are naturally not regenerating as quickly as they previously did.
You wouldn’t put petrol in your diesel car and expect it to run efficiently.
But as with cars, every individual is unique and the type and amount of fuel you need may be very different to the balance I require.
That’s why every individual I work with receives completely personalised advice. It’s why I will ask an awful lot of questions in our consultations – I need to be sure that the advice I give is very specifically about you.
So, yes – sometimes I will suggest you eat less of something, but I’ll always suggest a replacement. Please note this replacement will never be celery (but more on foods I hate that I wish I liked on a future blog post 😊).
And I also promise to NEVER make you feel guilty about eating ANYTHING.
No pleasure is guilty.
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