Holistic Nutrition: Nurturing Body, Mind, and Soul
An essential component of integrative medicine and mental health therapy is holistic nutrition. It is said that we are not only what we think but also what we eat. But this is only partly true because we must also be able to digest and assimilate what we eat. Additionally, the enteric nervous system is in the gut and is directly affected by psychological stress. Our ‘gut feelings’ must be attended to as much as our food choices and eating habits.
For example, have you ever asked yourself why you do not make healthy food decisions? It is often the case that past or current traumatic stress is is significantly impacting your health. Therefore, a holistic nutrition approach focus on nurturing body, mind, and soul, including working through any unresolved traumas that may be affecting eating patterns and overall health.
My integrative mental health training and medical background provides a foundation for guiding you with expert nutritional information and support. Together, we will address the root cause of any illness or poor self-care, including any relevant past or present psychological and physical stressors.
Holistic Nutrition Helps Relieve Physical Stressors
Some stressors affect primarily the physical body. These include nutrient depletion from any medications you are taking, including hormones and birth control. For example, in men, high protein diets decrease testosterone, while taking it depletes vitamin D, zinc, and magnesiuim. Obesity also affects nutrient and hormonal status in men, women, and children.
Additionally, many medications and environmental toxins affect proper brain function and mental health. Various foods and substances aldo damage health and may trigger cravings for carbohydrates or emotional eating. These stressors include sugary drinks and foods, processed foods, fried foods, alcohol, caffeine, and recreational drugs of all kinds.
Additionally, physical trauma, over-exertion, environmental pollution (internal and external), blood sugar fluctuations, adrenal fatigue, illness, and infections can deplete nutrients and cause suffering.
Holistic Nutrition, an essential aspect of integrative mental health, helps identify and remove or recover from any physical and psychological triggers that may be adversely affecting your health.
Resolving Trauma and Emotional Eating with a Whole-Person Approach
“Illness is an expected response to abnormal circumstances.”–Erich Fromm
Many people have trauma histories, whether physical, sexual, mental, emotional, relational, or spiritual. My work has included helping clients heal traumatic stress and its effects, including emotional eating patterns. My integrative medicine and nutrition trauma therapy certification enhanced my proficiency in this area of professional interest.
My holistic nutrition approach includes supporting your recovery from any unresolved wounds you have. When you become conscious of and process your psycho-spiritual pain, this allows emotional healing to take place. It then becomes possible to make any needed lifestyle changes.
In addition to offering emotional and psycho-spiritual support, I will guide you to the best skill-building tools to meet your needs. Perhaps you need to discover which stress management tools best alleviate your distress. Some potential strategies may include mind-body techniques such as yoga, breath work, meditation, and mindfulness training. CBT is often helpful.
Depending on your situation, it may also be necessary to balance your blood sugar, adrenals, neurotransmitters, and sleep patterns or reduce gut/brain inflammation. Additionally, unhealthy lifestyles result in chronic nutrient deficiencies. Improving your food choices is essential, but you may also need targeted supplements for optimal health and well-being. If you are challenged with low motivation to make lifestyle changes, you may also benefit from nutraceuticals that will improve your motivation. These often make you more likely to succeed in any desired lifestyle improvements, such as diet, exercise, and sleep, while enhancing your mood and vitality.
As a service to my clients, I offer access to discounted professional Health Products. Please book a consultation with me for support and to assist with specific health recommendations.
Also, check out my Blog, Stress Eating Resolves with Whole-Person Care, for specific steps to overcome emotional eating patterns. See below for how to reach me. Thanks!
Holistic Nutrition: Food As Medicine
Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”–460 BC.
The above quote is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. Various ‘Food is Medicine’ programs promote the availability of nutritious foods to the many underserved global populations. This reminds us that if we are fortunate to have access to healthy food, we should be grateful for each bite we eat. Gratitude while eating reduces stress and improves digestion and assimilation of nutrients.
Yet, you may have resources and still make unhealthy food choices. You may not make the connection between what and how you eat and your overall health. Some of these reasons may be due to cultural or familial programming, insufficient health education or social support, or a body-mind split due to traumatic stress. Addictive patterning, whether to food, technology, social media, substances, or anything else, not only relates to trauma but also to our social conditioning. It is best to create or choose relationships that support healthy habits in recovery.
Another important key to resolving your specific emotional patterns is to include Plant Therapies that address the healing of body, mind, and soul.
Holistic Nutrition for Women in Menopause
The peri-menopause and menopause years are often very stressful. You may be balancing numerous responsibilities while you hormones are in flux. Since no diet or supplement plan fits everyone, my holistic nutrition approach is personalized. However, here are some suggestions that may benefit you:
Experts recommend eating healthy, balanced meals and reducing simple sugars and added salt. (An exception would be if you are in adrenal exhaustion, when salt may need to be increased.) These changes will help stabilize blood sugar, cortisol levels, and blood pressure while improving stress resilience, mood, and sleep. Meals should also include superfoods such as berries, greens, and nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables.
You may benefit from a high-potency multivitamin and mineral supplement, as well as additional magnesium, essential fatty acids, and active B vitamins. Many women need additional nutritional support for metabolic syndrome, bone health, sleep, and stress management.
Additionally, any woman in peri-menopause or menopause must also balance the adrenal and thyroid glands. For more information, please see my Blog, Chronic Stress Resolves with Integrative Therapies.
Herbs that support hormone imbalances in menopausal women include flax seeds, red clover, soy, ginseng, evening primrose oil, chase berry, dong quai, and wild yam. Of significance, there are twelve types of menopause, depending on whether your estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone levels are normal, high, or low. For instance, you may or may not need to support progesterone levels. Additionally, many botanicals (herbs) work best in combination formulas. My personalized approach includes evaluating your unique health history, stress level, social support, and personal preferences. Please reach out to me below to get the help you need. Let’s get started!
An Integrative Medicine Approach for PMS and PMDD
Premenstrual syndrome is highly prevalent. 90% of menstruating women experience at least one PMS symptom during their life. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder, PMDD, is a more severe form of PMS and affects about 2 to 5% of those diagnosed with PMS (about 47% of women).
As an adjunct to medical treatment and therapy, holistic nutrition and lifestyle changes include reducing fast foods, highly processed foods, and sugar. It is best to Include foods with high calcium content, such as sardines, legumes, dark leafy greens, almonds, and dairy if tolerated. Additional interventions include smoking cessation, exercise, improving sleep, and stress management.
If you are experiencing premenstrual syndrome (PMS) you may need extra magnesium, vitamin E, calcium, and vitamin B6. You may also need to decrease simple carbs and salt to stabilize your blood sugar. Avoiding or significantly reducing alcohol and caffeine and eating high-protein foods is also beneficial.
Also, you may be among the 60% of people who cannot wholly convert Pyridoxine (B6), B12, and folic acid to their active forms. Therefore, your multivitamin/mineral needs to have the active forms of these vitamins. When under stress, choose Active B Complex and P5P, the active form of Vitamin B6, for the best results.
Body-Mind Healing and the Gut-Brain Connection
A holistic nutrition approach emphasizes the connection between mind, body, soul, and spirit. A vitally important health concept to grasp is the gut-brain connection. Research on healing the gut-brain is exploding and is influencing the current standards of holistic health care.
Healing the gut-brain involves understanding that this axis is bi-directional. This means that attitudes and emotions affect the gut, and inflammation in the gut also affects the mind and emotions. You may have also heard that more neurotransmitters are created in the gut than in the brain. Research also indicates that emotional stress and various toxins impact the type and number of organisms in the gut, also known as the microbiome.
Various stressors can also inflame and make the gut lining too porous, diminishing neurotransmitter production. This creates a cycle of uncomfortable symptoms that impact people’s physical and psychological well-being.
The good news is that there are some simple ways to begin healing. Eating a rainbow diet full of colorful fruits and vegetables nurtures the microbiome, enhancing the connection between the vagus nerve, the enteric nervous system, and the brain.
Because healing our digestion is now known to be an essential and complex factor in our mental and physical health, I offer support and guidance to overcome this obstacle to good health. Remember, we will begin by focusing on your needs and priorities. Making small changes can make a big difference in how you feel!
Holistic Nutrition Summary and Important Links
In conclusion, personalized lifestyle medicine and holistic nutrition are essential to an integrative mental health model. My work includes evaluating what has been helpful thus far and what may now be needed to promote wellness.
I also offer access to high-quality professional health products at a discount as an optional benefit. If this interests you, please see my Blog, Health Products. If you create a Fullscript account, you will see a link for Community Plans. Here, you will find information on various health topics, including women’s and men’s health. Or you may choose to focus primarily on therapy and other wellness approaches. I am here to serve your needs, not mine.
Importantly, when we work together, I offer gentle and supportive counseling each step of the way. If you are ready to move forward, please get in touch with me below. Thanks.
For More Information, see Services, The Benefits of a Wellness Approach to Therapy,