Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Pillar One: Diet & Nutrition


Diet and Nutrition


If you were to ask me what has been the biggest change in my life since entering naturopathic school I would have to say it has been what I eat.  Over the course of the last few years I have gone from eating fast foods, frozen/processed dinners to eating real foods.   Prior to school, I did at some point stop buying frozen and processed food from chain grocery stores and started buying the frozen and processed foods from local/organic stores; but I was still buying processed foods. Prior to entering school, I counted calories.  In my mind all calories were created equally and as long as I stayed within a certain number each day my weight would not fluctuate and I considered myself living a healthy lifestyle.  Eating frozen-packaged-processed food made it easy to count calories. The calories are written right there on the package.  Easy!!!  I quickly learned in school that not all calories are the same.  Not all food is the same.  AND, with some of the stuff I was eating-could it even be considered food?  I switched from worrying about calories to concentrating on nutrient dense foods and cutting out artificial chemicals from my diet. Making these changes was not easy.  It meant I had to really learn to cook.  I had to plan ahead to determine what I had time to cook depending on my schedule for the day.  I learned to love my crock pot.  I learned to love shopping on the outer ring of the grocery store, buying organic fruits and vegetables and grass-fed meats, going to the grocery store more often, visiting the local farmers' market and embracing that I was now truly nourishing my family and myself.  By changing my diet, my energy level increased, my joints were less achy, I felt stronger and more vital. What I learned most about food in school is that food is medicine... Good quality real food can heal the body!! 

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” 

Interested in learning more about the benefits of eating real
 foods, I highly recommend the following books:

&  Real Food:  Nina Planck
&  Deep Nutrition:  Catherine Shanahan, M.D.
&  Food Rules:  Catherine Shanahan, M.D.
&  Primal Body, Primal Mind:  Nora T. Gedgaudas, CNS

Many people have asked me if I recommend a certain diet.
My answer is "no."  I believe that each individual is unique. 
Depending on his/her healing and wellness goals determines 
the food necessities.  What I will say is regardless of what
diet someone chooses or needs it always starts with 
REAL FOODS!!  


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