Why I retrained as a nutritional therapist

The last time I was on LinkedIn it was quite a few years ago, and since then I’ve had a pretty extensive career-break as well as a career-change. I realised I had started talking about nutrition without any explanation of the bit in between.

So I wanted to talk about how this all came about.

I worked in media for almost 10 years, before getting married and having my first baby. Having a baby was quite daunting, especially when it soon became apparent my son had a milk and egg allergy.

While it was helpful to know what I needed to cut out, especially after the many months of sleepless nights where my son was clearly very uncomfortable- I had no idea what to add in.

I remember thinking isn’t he going to miss out on some key nutrients? Isn’t calcium quite important for a growing baby? But he can’t have dairy?

I googled recipes and started to re-learn how to cook food I thought I already knew. Fish pie with almond milk and vegan cheese, flapjacks with coconut oil and cakes made with mashed banana or puréed apple (instead of eggs). The food at home changed considerably.

Fast forward a little, and play dates and parties were something of a minefield. He couldn’t have the pizza, the cake or the ice-cream.

I carried on cooking and would arrive armed with a Tupperware full of treats and alternative foods. I would often check ahead, finding out what everyone at the party would be eating so I could recreate it and bring it with me.

Meals at restaurants were difficult, with allergy menus downloaded and pored over before we arrived, while quizzing waiters when we arrived to find out what would be ‘ok’. We would often have to call the chef from the kitchen as they weren’t 100% sure.

When the food at school was lacking, I had meetings with the Head and the catering team and offered ideas of my own, always trying to make sure he could have the same (or almost the same) as his peers.

I had to get really good at reading labels and started to question some of the health claims on the front of the packets. Food shopping meant turning over every box, scanning ingredient lists and getting to grips with what was in everything.

Milk in salt and vinegar crisps! Milk in ham! The myriad of names for sugar!

It was the biggest learning curve.

And looking back now, life would have been a lot more straightforward without the allergies, but the silver lining was that it meant much of my son’s food was cooked from scratch. I also gained a much better understanding of all the seemingly ‘healthy’ foods I had been buying up until then.

I read and researched, I saw specialists and I cooked. Finally, when my youngest son (who doesn’t have allergies) started school I realised I had to do this full-time. Food had become such a central part of my day-to-day life.

I enrolled at the College of Naturopathic Medicine, trained for 3 years and am now a registered nutritional therapist.

I am grateful that my son is nearly out of the other side of his allergies, but although that chapter is over, what’s left is a real desire to talk about food and help those who find this topic confusing. And not just people navigating allergies, but anyone who wants to get to grips with nutrition.

I don’t think nutrition needs to feel overwhelming and my aim is to simplify this knowledge into ideas that are easy to put into practice. Small steps really can add up to big change over time.

I give talks at schools and companies, and would love to be part of your wellness offering. Please get in touch.