You Are What You Eat - The Making of a Nutritionist

As a child, I remember my mother taking us to the doctor and then, happy with a diagnosis, she would look it up in her big book of medicinal plants. No problem would ever last more than a few days and we were rarely ill.

I grew up to qualify with a French equivalent of several degrees in Biological Analysis and Biotechnology. This included a great deal of chemistry and I started working in Castle Cary in a food laboratory, conducting all the chemical tests necessary to the making of the nutritional labels on food packaging.

I used herbal teas for myself without giving it much thought.

But when I had the children, I seemed to lose confidence and they took medications such as antibiotics at a young age, Antony as a toddler and Stefanie at seven months when she was taken to hospital with croup.

Later, Stefanie suffered with eczema and by the age of three she was not growing out of it. On the contrary, the problem was getting worse and all the doctors seem to think about was cream, more cream and cortisone. None of it made any difference, but I started thinking back to the chemical-free and natural food approach that I always preferred. We swapped the creams and all the prescribed medicines for good food. We accepted the lactose intolerance but worked on it with food supplements and herbal remedies to reset Stefanie's immune system. It was working and every step of the way was a learning curve. Her eczema is now under control.

Then Antony, age six, was diagnosed with dyslexia. I was told we could help him to learn to live with it. True, many people have had to do this because no alternative is offered. But out of curiosity I found that, like other learning difficulties, dyslexia is due to gut problems. So back to the diet. This time it is the difficulty in digesting carbohydrates that causes bloating, discomfort in the intestines and lack of concentration and other mental disturbance.

These instances are very common in children and adults may still suffer with it because nothing has ever been done about it.

I think nutrition and herbalism are effective because they interact with the body in a natural way. It has always worked as a well balanced system; the chemicals present within a plant can interact with our own bodily systems but they also interact with each other and therefore eventual undesirable effects are unlikely. In contrast, many medical drugs, made synthetically from copying an isolated chemical in a plant, are more likely to affect other parts of the body and cause new problems to appear still without necessarily healing the initial issue. Of course, precautions need to be taken in a similar manner; not every medication will work for everybody. This is why Nutrition and Herbalism as a holistic therapy treats the whole individual rather than the health issue; as everyone is different, everyone has a different reaction to a similar problem so the treatment that works for one may not be right for someone else.

With the knowledge that it helped within my own family, I wondered how many more people could benefit from this holistic approach. So I undertook two courses in open college; the first in Clinical Nutrition and the second in Clinical Herbalism.

After a lot of hard work, my passion is undiminished. My conviction of the effectiveness of the treatments is making me more determined that it should be available to everybody.

I am now qualified as a Level 4 Diploma in both Clinical Nutrition and Clinical Herbalism. I do not replace your doctor. But when you know what the problem is, the holistic approach of nutrition and herbalism can offer a more natural and gentle treatment than the one you would normally be prescribed.

These treatments can be very powerful even in their gentle effect and the whole body is considered, not just the part which shows the problem.

Nutrition and herbalism also allows you to enjoy your food and become healthier, helping your body to recuperate.

You Are What You Eat Consultancy

Helping you to get back in control
Corinne Cole SAC Dip. Clinical Nutrition and Herbalism
Tel : 01963 31825 Mob : 07801512869
www.nutritionist-herbalist-bristol.co.uk

Ask yourself how you are feeling at the moment. And do you think it is good enough? Do you think you could be feeling better? Maybe with a little help?

Your food could be your best treatment, acting effectively and gently on your body to give you back your health. Add a little exercise and you will start feeling like yourself again.

It is not magic. It takes discipline, determination and time but your motivation is the key to recovery and I am here to help get you back in control.

If you want to talk about it, if you know there is a problem because your doctor told you, if you are determined to improve and get better, if you feel you want to become healthier and fitter, then contact me.

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