The Foundations of Health

One thing I often get asked about is what exactly is nutritional therapy? What is it that I do and why is it so simple, yet SO effective at improving overall health and day to day symptoms like brain fog, cravings, poor sleep, or hormonal swings?

First of all, nutritional therapy is effective because food is powerful. What we feed ourselves isn’t just for taste, fullness, or even fuel. We feed every system and organ and cell in our bodies the raw materials they need to function. Food is the basis of everything! With that mindset, it's easy to see that what we eat affects everything! But- if our bodies are not in balance, we cannot always absorb, use, or convert those nutrients to be appropriately used. This is where the foundations come into play! 

The foundations are six areas of health that impact the way the whole body functions. The foundations are: Diet, Digestion, Blood Sugar Regulation, Fatty Acids, Mineral Balance, Hydration

You can tie almost any  health related symptom or condition back to the foundations. If you can optimize nutrition in these 6 areas, you will set your body up to function optimally. 

When I work with clients, I use tools to see what areas of the body might need support, where nutrient deficiencies may lie, and where in the client’s day we can make changes to optimize nutrient-density. With these clues together with the client’s goals, we choose 1 or 2 foundations to focus heavily on and over our time together, will address all 6 foundations. The plan for each person to improve any given foundation will vary because there are so many individual details that play into it! No single ready-made plan, will be perfect for everyone, which is another reason why there is so much more benefit to working 1:1. 

Here are some examples of how the foundations relate to many kinds of health goals or symptoms:

• “Sarah” is a 32 year old woman. She is a mama of 3 young kids and her biggest goal is to lose weight, reduce PMS pain, and improve sleep quality. She eats healthy meals, lots of vegetables, and smoothies for breakfast. She is active and fit but still struggles to maintain energy and her desired weight. Focusing on blood sugar regulation with Sarah would turn her around in just a matter of weeks. She is likely living in a “fed” state all the time, never allowing time for her blood sugar to come down enough to move her body into a fat burning state and causing her body to constantly produce cortisol. This will mean insulin always pumping, and fat storage is basically always happening. Blood sugar regulation is a priority to the body and steals nutrients from creating hormones, which can lead to hormone imbalances and PMS symptoms. When blood sugar is irregular during the day, it begins to rely on quick bursts of energy from sugar so when she sleeps, her blood sugar likely drops pretty low which sends emergency signals to the brain to increase blood sugar via cortisol and epinephrine (adrenaline) while trying to sleep. Those two hormones are stress hormones and you can’t really sleep when adrenaline is pumping! 

• “Jenny” struggles from hormonal acne, eczema, and brain fog. These are signs that her immune system might be in overdrive, so we would start by focusing on digestion! Her gut is responsible for ~70% of her immune system. If gut health isn’t great, her intestines can be allowing food and other particles through at the wrong place, and this could cause ongoing immune response, inflammation, and more. Removing the offenders and increasing nutrients to heal and seal the gut lining would be a priority in this case! 

The Foundations are:

1. Diet- Diet is essential, as I mentioned above, consuming a whole-food, nutrient-dense, properly-prepared diet is important to make sure your body is receiving the nutrients it needs to perform different functions. This isn’t just “eating clean”- there are details in how to purchase, how to prepare, and how to pair foods together as well as eating a wide variety of nutrients. 

2. Digestion- Digestion is incredibly important. More than 2/3 of American’s experience some sort of digestive dysfunction weekly (PMID:30323268). We need properly functioning digestion to absorb the nutrients we consume. If we can’t absorb nutrients, then those nutrients are just passing through, and eating healthy foods doesn’t mean much, does it?  Healthy digestion does not just mean we get to live free of bloating, IBS, constipation, gas, or heartburn...it is also a picture of our gut health. Our gut health determines mental health, immune health, hormone health, sleep, and much, much more. 

3. Blood Sugar Regulation- Stable blood sugar levels provide consistent energy, enable metabolic flexibility, and reduce stress on the body. Keeping a regular blood sugar is absolutely essential for hormone health, weight loss, mood and more long term is a major cause in America of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, PCOS, and more.  This is almost always one of the very first things to address with clients. Even people who are living considerably healthy lifestyles are suffering from the effects of blood sugar regulation. It is impossible to consume food like a typical American does and maintain healthy blood sugar. It definitely requires a counter-cultural and bio-individual approach!

4. Fatty Acids- The 90s taught us to fear fats, but healthy fats are essential for health and healthy dietary fats won’t make you fat! It’s high insulin that does that- which means a lack of healthy fats could actually do that)! Healthy fats are required for absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K. They also are necessary for stable energy, hormone balance, optimal brain function, and satiety

5. Mineral Balance- Minerals are the body's spark plugs. There is not a bodily function that exists that they don’t affect! Minerals help build bones and lend a helping hand in balancing hormones and many other key body processes. Minerals are necessary for hydration and help mitigate the effect of toxins in the body, like heavy metals. Minerals work synergistically with one another, which means an overabundance of one mineral can actually cause a deficiency in another mineral! For instance, too much zinc often leads to copper deficiency. Also, when sodium levels go up, potassium levels go down, and vice versa.  

6. Hydration- Water is THE most important nutrient. Did you know your body is made up of ~60% water? It’s required for numerous bodily functions such as healthy digestion, oxygenating cells, pumping blood, and removing toxins and excess hormones. Water needs vary greatly from person to person, but a good starting point is drinking half of your body weight (lbs) in ounces. For example, a 140 lb person would need about ~70 ounces of water each day. This then can change due to pregnancy or nursing, elevation, sweat and exercise, age, and more. Hydration is not just the water we consume, but the water our cells absorb- so don’t forget those minerals!