“Let your food be your medicine and your medicine, your food.” These are the words of the Greek sage, Hippocrates, called the Father of Medicine. They are true no less today than they were nearly 2.500 years ago. Increasingly medical researchers are finding that dietary and environmental conditions are at the base of many if not most diseases. Good sound nutrition is the basis of our health, providing the foundation on which all else is built. Mainstream medicine does not emphasize the significance of poor nutrition as a major cause of a wide range of health disorders. In many cases of ill-health, nutritional therapy can make an astounding and life-altering impact for the better. At Acupuncture Mississauga, I offer Nutritional Consulting to educate my clients in food and nutrition, and work with them personally to design a plan that identifies and supports imbalances in the body’s systems, promoting LIVE, NATURAL, GOOD QUALITY foods and appropriate natural supplements.
Many times symptoms of underlying nutritional deficiencies, such as fatigue, insomnia, poor immune function and gastrointestinal complaints, go unnoticed or are attributed to your constitution. Often times, these issues can be addressed by making some simple changes to your diet and adding nutritional supplements and exercises to your daily routine. Although most people are aware of the benefits of sound nutrition, the range of information available is confusing and often conflicting.
As a Holistic Nutritionist in Mississauga, I can guide you through the maze of information that is available. I will review your eating habits, your lifestyle, health concerns and health issues, then work with you to design a personalized nutritional and lifestyle program that will help you optimise your and your family’s health. Should you have specific health concerns or issues, I will work with you to identify and correct the nutritional aspects of these as part of my overall care.
How can Nutritional Counseling help you?
A Registered Holistic Nutritionist has a tremendous amount of knowledge about the foods we eat and how these can affect our bodies and our health. The food choices you make will determine how well your body functions, with true health being built and maintained from the inside out. The benefits of eating healthy and nutritionally sound food are enormous, with many diseases and illnesses having a relationship to poor eating habits. Nutritional Counseling will help you make better food choices based on your nutritional and health needs.
Focusing on good nutrition can make a crucial difference to you as you change your eating and lifestyle patterns, with the quality of your everyday life improving. My nutritional advice and guidance can help you determine realistic goals for changing your eating and lifestyle patterns, setting a pace for change that you can integrate into your life comfortably. Making healthy nutritional and lifestyle choices with my help can assist you with a range of concerns, including:
- safe and effective weight management, whether you are under weight or overweight
- increasing your energy levels and sports nutrition
- adding muscle and maximizing your workouts
- making healthy food choices for the entire family
- if you are a vegetarian or vegan, helping you ensure you eat a balanced diet and get all the nutrients your body needs
- safe and effective detoxification protocols
- preparing for pregnancy, supporting your body through pregnancy and postpartum nutrition
- nutrition to assist you with infertility issues
- sound nutrition for babies, toddlers and children
- nutrition for Seniors
- nutrition for pre-operation and post-operation healing
- cooking healthy and nutritionally sound food on a shoestring budget
- assistance with specialized diets – if you are having trouble figuring out how to get your eating habits in line with your Medical Doctors advice, a consultation session with Bernadette can help you
As a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Bernadette can offer you nutritional advice and guidance to assist you with a range of (diagnosed) health concerns you may have, including:
- reducing the risk of developing heart disease, some cancers, strokes, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis and other health conditions
- lowering high blood pressure and high cholesterol
- managing diabetes
- managing the symptoms of menopause
- reducing gout, gallstones, eczema, psoriasis, asthma
- reducing the symptoms of Crohns disease, colitis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Fibromyalgia
- ….and many other illnesses and diseases
Who Needs Nutritional Counseling?
Who Needs Nutritional Counseling? Perhaps the question should really be, who doesn’t need nutritional counseling? North Americans eat an average of only one serving of whole grains, three servings of vegetables, and one and a half servings of fruit (most of it fruit juice) a day. We eat way too much sugar (an average of 20 teaspoons a day), salt, saturated fat, and way too many calories. Focusing on good nutrition can make a crucial difference to you as you change your eating and lifestyle patterns, with the quality of your everyday life improving. If you are looking for help or guidance, or are serious about utilizing nutrition as a therapeutic tool, please call me to make an appointment.
Also, as a Traditional Chinese Medical Practitioner as well as a Holistic Nutritionist, I integrate the two disciplines to a certain extent, giving you all round advice from both a TCM perspective and as a Holistic Nutritionist.
A Nutritional Counseling Session
Your initial consultation will usually take up to one and a half hours (Follow up consultations are likely to last about 45 minutes). During this time, Bernadette will ask you a number of questions and invite you to discuss your concerns and any health issues. With your permission, Bernadette will also perform a 60 point Meridian functional assessment. A typical Nutritional Counselling Session includes:
- Identifying your personal concerns and goals
- An assessment of your current diet, eating/meal schedule, portion size, food preferences, current nutritional supplementation (if any) and any medication use
- An evaluation of your lifestyle, health concerns, risk factors for disease and any symptoms
- A 60 point Bioenergetic functional assessment to identify and pinpoint any energy imbalances
- A review of the results of your assessment and any nutritional concerns or imbalances
- The preparation of a personal Nutritional Plan based on the results from your assessment. This plan may include specific food recommendations (what to eat and drink, what to avoid eating and drinking), recommendations on supplements such as Vitamins, Minerals or Digestive enzymes and how and when to take, in what combinations, and an outline of what these are intended to address. This plan will be created for you personally based on the results of your assessment. We are all unique individuals and no plan will be identical, even where the same issues and concerns are exhibited
Subsequent follow-up consultations can build on your earlier sessions and increase your chance of sucess. In follow up sessions we will carry out an in-depth review of your progress, decide how well your plan is working for you and make modifications based on your current state. Follow-up consultations may also include further Bioenergetic assessments to review the impact of your nutritional changes on your bodys energy meridian balance.
If your goals are simple, one appointment may be all you need. However, if your objective is to address existing health issues or concerns through nutritional therapy, repeat visits may be necessary as your body responds to your therapy. Clients have the best results when their follow up visits are scheduled within two months.
You should be aware that nutritional therapy is a slow process – it can take some time to address the impact of years of consuming toxic food, additives, chemicals and absorbing environmental poisons. Your body will need time to heal itself. You should also be aware that nutritional therapy is not a temporary or fad diet. It is a lifestyle change, and if you want to maintain your health at an optimal level, it is a lifestyle change that will last the rest of your life.
Did you know that……
….when food is cooked or processed the natural enzymes are destroyed? This puts the full digestive burden on your body. As you age you use up your supply of digestive enzymes. Research proves that individuals over 30 have lower quantities of digestive enzymes than younger people do. This means that digestion becomes more difficult and fraught with symptoms such as indigestion, bloating, constipation, heartburn, or even more serious conditions such as IBS, colitis, or Chrones Disease. Taking digestive enzymes may help your body efficiently digest your food. Combine with more raw foods in your diet and you will have more energy than you have had for years.
…there is a “supposed” link between smoking and cancer, right? Did you know that smoking also interferes with your body’s ability to use nutrients? Smokers can benefit by improving their diet to include more fruits and vegetables, which contain a balance of antioxidants and other nutritional benefits, like fiber and carotenoids. Smokers can also take vitamin C supplements. However, no regimen of diet or supplementation can make up for the adverse consequences of smoking. If you smoke, you need to eat even healthier than a non-smoker just to get the same nutrients. To help your body’s use of nutrients, drink green tea, eat lots of fruit and vegetables, and take vitamin C and vitamin E supplements.
….high cholesterol is bad for you. It raises your chances of getting cardiovascular disease and having a heart attack. Did you know that in North America one in two adults are either on the verge or actually do have high cholesterol? Both nutritional changes and Traditional Chinese Medicine can help you reduce your high cholesterol quickly and safely.
…the shape of your body is 80% nutrition, 10% physical activity and 10% genetic?
..sound nutritional choices and practices provide the basis for improved digestion, increased energy levels, an effectively functioning immune system, a healthy pregnancy, weight management, ongoing detoxification, as well as heightened protection against any number of diseases and chronic illnesses.
…the slower you eat, the more nutritional value you get from your food.
…the average person will consume over 45 tons of food during the course of their life? Your body, and in particular, your liver, has to detoxify all the junk that is put into it. Good nutrition is something to take advantage of – your body needs all the help it can get!
About the Author: Bernadette Hayhurst is a Holistic Nutritionist, Ontario Registered Acupuncturist and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner who works in her own practice in Mississauga and who also lectures in Chinese Herbal Medicine to students at the Toronto School of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In addition to treating more general health issues and concerns, Bernadette has a special interest in nutritional healing and does regular presentations on nutritional solutions for good health at the Goodness Me supermarket in Mississauga at Mavis and Bristol. Bernadete can be contacted on 416-722-8813 for appointments.