Nutritional Therapy

Most of us realise that a “good diet” is important both to maintain health and to prevent health problems; nutritional therapy takes this one step further by using nutrition to reverse problems that may have already developed. But just what is a “good diet”? With so much ever-changing information available to us, it is difficult to know which recommendations to follow. The Nutritional Therapist assesses what will be a “good diet” for the individual person, based on their personal circumstances; we are all different in our inheritance, our life experiences, occupations, diets (past and present) and in our particular combination of health problems.

Whilst many of us do our best to eat healthily, our choice of food and drink is only the starting point for good nutritional balance; actually gaining benefit from the nutrients in our diet is dependent on a number of factors:

• The nutrient content of the soil in which the food has been grown.
• Losses of nutrients during food processing, transportation, storage and cooking.
• Our ability to efficiently digest our food.
• Our ability to absorb nutrients from the food being digested.
• How well these nutrients are then utilised by the body.
• The availability of other nutrient co-workers e.g. magnesium and Vitamin B6 have many associated functions.  

We use vitamins and minerals for many important functions such as energy production, to make hormones, enzymes, blood cells and antibodies, to repair damaged tissue and to protect ourselves against the by-products of chemical reactions both in the body (e.g. free radicals) and outside the body (e.g. pollution). Given the many factors that can affect the availability of nutrients, and the strong link between our nutritional status and our level of health, it is little wonder that many of us are finding ourselves with chronic health problems.

Nutritional therapy provides a holistic approach to these problems using diet and supplement regimes designed for the individual. Common areas where nutritional therapy may be beneficial include digestive dysfunction, hormonal imbalances, mental health and immune function.  Please contact us if you would like to find out whether your particular health concern(s) may benefit from nutritional intervention.

Dr Karin Elgar completed a three-year course in nutritional therapy at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition and is registered with the British Association of Nutritional Therapy. 

Melody Gold has a nursing background and has a Postgrad Diploma in Nutrition Science and Practice CNM Diploma as Health Coach.