The Nutritional Medicine Approach: is it for me?

When I first started my nutrition studies, I must admit that I literally had no idea what being a nutritionist was all about let alone that nutritional medicine even existed. I’d always believed in eating #wholefood s, cooking from scratch and limiting processed foods, and adopting a more sustainable and natural lifestyle; it just made sense to me. My wish to study nutrition was fuelled by curiosity really and the desire to optimise my family’s health both now and in the future. I was interested in understanding more deeply the way nutrients affected our body systems and functions. I thought I would end up helping people lose weight by changing their food choices or assisting a newly-diagnosed Coeliac find foods they could safely eat. But during the three years of my nutrition studies, I realised that there was so much more to being a nutritionist and utilising a nutritional medicine approach.

What is nutritional medicine?

Have you really ever stopped to consider how amazing the human body is?

Nutritional medicine practitioners believe that one such aptitude is the innate ability to heal itself, restore balance and overcome illness.

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

Based upon the concept that food is the original ancient medicine, today’s nutritional medicine practitioners have the benefit of science to help understand and explain how nutrients and food components are used within the body. The balance of these nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, oxygen and helpful microbes is key to the optimal functioning of all biochemical pathways and processes within our bodies. Nutritional medicine practitioners seek to remove barriers to this innate ability to heal. These barriers may be partly genetic; however, dietary and environmental factors are often tangled up as well.