Unexpected Weight Gain, Hot Flushes & Early Menopause - Physician Heal Thyself!

Nutritionist heal thyself! When a nutritionist puts on unexpected weight she/he is in trouble! As she is out of a job really. The same if I turned up with a huge cold sore on my face. Or I was a chain smoker and heavy drinker. I suppose the same goes for a policeman who speeds and takes huge amounts of drugs at work. Or a nanny who hates children. The thing is I must walk my talk.

So I don't smoke at all or drink much, rarely take sugar. I don't eat red meat or dairy bar the occasional goats cheese. So what do I do when I suddenly put on a stone and a half but I eat the perfect diet? No point in dieting as my diet is so good! But I am hovering on the BMI - one more pound and I am overweight according to BMI and that's not sudden muscle tone due to muscle pumping iron at the gym.

At first I didn't realise I had put on a stone and half. When I was at the gym I weighed myself one day and thought 'oh dear this machine is broken'. Then my jeans didn't fit me. I thought 'oh dear I must have accidentally gone above 30 degrees and shrunk them'. Even in the photos I looked bigger - but I am so used to being small and petite I thought 'oh dear I'm standing at a funny angle! This went on and on until one day when yet another pair of knickers 'shrunk' the penny dropped. I got out the tape measure and faced the cold light of reality. My ass was getting so much bigger! And why?

So here follows my new journey - physician heal thyself. I have been doing some detective work on myself. Which is hard. Easy to see clearly for one's client and get all blurry when looking at one's own self care. Such a loaded view. But I want to share with you to show you the journey a nutritionist makes with the client. All the little symptoms and the case history adds up to something - clues to the root causes of the health disorder or imbalance or dis ease which is presenting itself.

So why does a woman go through an early menopause at 48? And gain a stone and a half - in fact more like 23 pounds? When her diet is excellent? Lots of vegetables, steamed fish, tofu, tempeh, yoghurt, occasional glass of wine, a coffee here and there. No sugar, no dairy and no bread. Aha say some - proof that a healthy diet doesn't work. Proof that one may as well eat junk food. Or lots of chocolate and chips dripping with cheese. Like the smoker who keeps quoting 'but my granddad smoked himself silly and lived to 102'.

Rather I see this as proof that weight gain is not necessarily about over eating. Many overweight people, in my experience, eat less then the average person on the street. Are also terribly conscious of every bit of food they do eat. So to me this is proof that something else is going on - my root causes are not diet so I need to look further and search for my root causes and solve them . Because if I do nothing I will gain more weight and whatever is happening - be it my thyroid going out of wack or my liver underfunctioning the problem will only get worse - as I go into my 50s and 60s other things will start happening. More weight gain, lower energy, dryer skin, low libido. etc etc

Have any of you had a similar experience? Feel disillusioned because no matter how well you eat you still gain weight? Watch here my unfolding detective work. 


I have by the way lost 5 pounds and 3 inches. Tomorrow follows my case history. As one has to become objective and look at what is going on. And not just physically emotionally too.


Have a happy day :-) Its sunny here this morning where I am 

Parasites - a different perspective on IBS or IBD?

Parasitic invasion is more common then you think. You don't have to travel to foreign climes to fall victim. We can pick them up from food or water here in England also. Not only are parasites a problem but we can also suffer from a bacterial overgrowth or a yeast overgrowth. All different and all needing a different remedy. And there are a minimum of 5 different strains of candida or yeasts! Bacteria and yeasts come to us as an overgrowth when our own healthy bacteria garden has been attacked and so reduced. A bit like the weed killer which was sprayed onto the garden to kill the weeds also attacked our healthy garden and killed the beautiful flowers! Because our colons/guts do house a garden - full of healthy flora and also unhealthy flora. And if our garden isn't balanced, weeded, nurtured and fed it will give us health problems.

Our garden can be harmed by too many antibiotics, high fat and sugary foods, too little fibre, medical and recreational drugs even stress will alter the flora.

All of this can lead to IBS - Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBD - Inflammatory Bowel Disease. There is a big difference between IBS and IBD and do stay tuned for more on this.

So if you have grumbling IBS for example and the doctor can find nothing wrong or you suffer already from IBD like ulcerative colitis then do consider parasitic infection or a yeast or bacteria overgrowth.

I tested myself for parasites using a lab in the US and discovered I had amoebas and also a particular nasty Blastocystic Hominus (see photo). I do have symptoms so I am clearing the infestation out. Not everyone will have symptoms as if we have a healthy immune system in the gut it will deal with the problem. Often after a period of stress the parasite becomes what they call pathogenic - becomes a health problem. It's then that the symptoms can start.

I also run tests on clients to check for parasites, bacteria and yeast overgrowth. I find infestation common in clients with colitis, allergies, ezcema, asthma, ME, IBS and often with people who suffer from stress. This is because stress dampens down the gut immune army so it becomes weak at killing off parasites.

Eat Oils to Lose Weight? Fact or Fiction?

Don't forget the importance of essential fats. Your body is made up of fats, hormones need fats, your skin needs essential fats. So many people think cutting out all fats will help them lose weight - but this is a myth. If you starve yourself of fat your body will hang onto fat and you will not lose weight. This is because your body will think it is suffering under a famine and is programmed to hang onto fat.

Of course avoiding fried food, hydrogenated and trans fats is also essential. A small amount of organic butter is ok. The best oils to cook with are olive oil (if you have to fry) as it is the most stable under hot temperatures - and so is less likely to become carcinogenic. Olive oil is an Omega 9 oil and is consumed a lot in Mediterranean countries - which researchers say have less heart disease then other countries who don't use olive oil.

Also add coldpressed Omega 6 oils to your diet - a few tsps a day on salads or on food. These oils are sunflower or safflower oil. Walnut oil is good as it has some Omega 3 oils in it. Omega 3 oils are very important as they are harder to find in the diet than the Omega 6. Oily fish like mackeral, sardines, tuna, salmon cod are high in Omega 3. If you are vegetarian than add flax or hemp oil to your diet as they have both the Omega 6 and 3.

A good rule of thumb is if you have dry skin, and have to use a moisturiser, then you are very likely to be low in essential fats. Or you arent drinking enough water. If you are low in essential fats the symptoms are dry skin, eczema, asthma, PMS, arthritic aches and pains, 'chicken skin' on the backs of your arms or the tops of your thighs. That is tiny little raised goose flesh or spots (and they sometimes itch). Omega 3 is very good for memory and the brain. Our ancestors who lived near to the sea and ate more fish did have more developed brains.

And finally don't be scared of avocado! It has lots of these good fats.

Good fats like the Omega 3 can also help lower blood pressure and cholesterol. And I take lots as it has been linked to preventing Alzheimers!

I do have references for any of the above, if anyone needs it.

And I have a discount account with Nutri, if anyone wants to buy cheap quality oils - anyone can use it - 10% off - (15% if spending over £60). Just ask :-) and I will email it to you.

Healthy life to all of us!

The Age of Stupid Premieres Today

The Age of Stupid Premieres Today

To view the film trailer: http://vimeo.com/6143388

The Age of Stupid finally says out loud what climate scientists have been saying for years now: we are running out of time to fix this problem, with nothing less than the fate of the human race hanging in the balance.

The film will be released internationally on September 21st and 22nd at the "Global Premiere". A green carpet, solar-powered cinema tent in New York will be linked by satellite to 442 cinemas across the USA and to more than 200 cinemas in 45+ other countries.

In addition to the launch of the film tonight, Monday, September 21st 2009, they are looking to become the Largest One Night Screening of a Film Flipping EVER--seriously, they are aiming to break the Guinness Book of World Records. They are now in over 700 theaters in over 62 countries with over 1 million viewers. This film is another example of the power of social networks. The film was “Crowd Funded” by 220 people who invested in advance for a share of the profits.

"A much sterner and more alarming polemic than “An Inconvenient Truth,” “The Age of Stupid,” directed by Franny Armstrong, will be taken by some as an emergency wake-up call to do everything possible to avert impending catastrophe." The New York Times

Desperate Food Industry Tries to Tar Michael Pollan and Organic Produce

Desperate Food Industry Tries to Tar Michael Pollan and Organic Produce

By Vanessa Barrington, EcoSalon
Posted on August 24, 2009, Printed on August 25, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/142145/

What do you get when you cross a grassroots movement with a food industry fearful of losing its influence? Bogus studies, campaigns of misinformation and opinion pieces filled with myth and vitriol.

You may have noticed an uptick this year in news reporting that organic food isn’t really better for you, opinion pieces by conventional farmers saying that they are tired of being demonized by “agri-intellectuals”, and guilt-inducing ads by Monsanto in highbrow publications like the New Yorker touting the company’s ability to feed the world through technology.

Though all of this could be disturbing to those of us committed to sustainable agriculture and food that is fair to eaters, animals, workers and farmers, I’m choosing to see this as a good sign. I think it means we might be winning.

The turning point was when First Lady Michelle Obama planted an organic garden on the White House lawn only to receive a letter from The American CropLife Association telling her that they hoped she recognized the value of conventional agriculture in American life. The letter can be read here. Then, there were false allegations that the garden was contaminated with lead. In the face of all this, the first lady stuck with her commitment to keeping the garden organic.

Why is this happening now? For many years, organic food was a marginal market and the big players were content to let it either exist on the sidelines or hedge their bets and buy into it themselves.

But due to the excellent work by many writers and activists like Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Marion Nestle, Robert Kenner and others too numerous to mention, more of us are starting to pay attention to where our food comes from and how it is produced. This market is now a force for change. And individuals and companies that benefit from the status quo don’t want change.

Let’s take a closer look at the people and ideology behind some of the more recent high profile examples of the attacks against sustainable food......................................................

For the rest of the story please read it online as below

© 2009 EcoSalon All rights reserved

View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/142145/