eat: how nutrition can hold the key to living a more balanced life with catherine arnold
With so many of us at home currently, the way that we live our lives has dramatically changed. Our diet has become more important than ever, especially when it comes to helping to support our immune system and ensure that we are giving our bodies the essential fuel that they need each day. For many of us, eating on the go in-between meetings has switched to heading in to the kitchen to make a smoothie for lunch. After work dinner and drinks has become making banana bread before jumping on zoom calls with our mates. Our shopping habits have also changed and the choices that we make when we are in the supermarket have never been more important. Let’s not talk about the developing lockdown chocolate addiction and early evening bottomless Rosé. None of us are perfect.
When it comes to nutrition, there is so much information available online and it can sometimes feel contradictory and difficult to navigate. Step forward Catherine Arnold a respected Nutritional Therapist and Functional Medicine Practitioner. She offers a holistic and science led approach to healthcare working with her clients to identify and address the root cause of disease. Much like a health detective, she looks for clues from your health history and refers you for private testing if necessary using the latest nutrition science to provide treatment packages to support your journey back to health.
Catherine Arnold BA (hons), dipCNM, mBANT, CNHC
Sometimes we can underestimate the importance of what we fuel our bodies with every day. How do you think that improving your diet can improve your overall wellbeing?
The nutrients from the food we eat are involved in every single biochemical and physiological process in the body, so quite simply if you are not eating and absorbing the nutrients required for all these processes then your health will suffer. It’s not just your physical health, neurotransmitters in the brain and hormones that influence our mood are made from the building blocks of what we eat.
How does what we eat determine our mood?
Nutrition plays a massive role in our mood. There are a few different areas:
If you don’t keep your body fuelled then your blood sugar can dip, this can impact your brain and your mood. It’s important to eat the right foods at the right time to keep your blood sugar and thus your mood balanced. Sugary foods, alcohol, caffeine and refined carbohydrates all disrupt blood sugar balance. Sugar influences behaviour. Research has linked high sugar intake to increased risk of depression and schizophrenia. It can also increase anxiety levels. So balancing blood sugar is key.
Nutrients that we eat and our ability to absorb those nutrients provide the building blocks for neurotransmitters and hormones which influence our mood.
The majority of our feel good neurotransmitter, serotonin, is made in the gut, around 95%! Serotonin is essential for normal intestinal function, such as moving food through our digestive tract. It also plays a critical role in our sleep, appetite, pain sensitivity, mood and overall wellbeing. The cells that produce serotonin are influenced by what we eat, by chemicals released by certain gut bacteria and by signals the brain sends them informing them about our mental state.
The gut and the brain are connected by the vagus nerve, which is an information super highway - a two way line of communication. They send signals back and forth - fullness, nausea, discomfort, wellbeing. Our gut microbes which are abundant in the gut, influence emotions by generating and modulating signals the gut sends back to the brain. This can reinforce or even prolong an emotional state.
The brain is 60% fat and 20% of these fats are omega 3 fats which are found in oily fish, grass fed meat and free range eggs. These fats are crucial to normal brain function as it facilitates the rapid transfer of electrical signals which in turn become our thoughts and emotions.
You believe in treating the root cause of illness rather than just dealing with the symptoms. How do you do that?
By looking at the body as a whole and trying to understand WHY? Why is the client getting these symptoms? What are the imbalances that are driving these. The body is always trying to seek homeostasis - or balance. So understanding the imbalances and knowing how this affects everything else is key. I use functional tests to try and identify what these imbalances are so we can work out how to find balance and give the body the tools it needs to heal.
Your method blends scientific tests with nutritional advice. What type of illnesses have you helped to treat and how?
I have supported many clients with a wide range of health issues including IBS, gut problems, anxiety, infertility, PCOS, allergies, autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue, hormone imbalances - so things like heavy painful periods, fibroids, depression, menopause
““Finally exercise, meditate, learn a new skill, take time for yourself when you can. And most importantly, ensure you get adequate and restful sleep each night.””
We are currently living through a global health pandemic, what can we do each day to help to support our immune system?
Eat well. Plenty of brightly coloured vegetables (aim for 10 a day if you can!), eat a handful of seeds daily and other foods that contain zinc such as oysters and shellfish. Get out into the sunshine for vitamin D and wellbeing, limited or no sugar, limited alcohol intake too as both sugar and alcohol dampen down the immune system.
Finally exercise, meditate, learn a new skill, take time for yourself when you can. And most importantly, ensure you get adequate and restful sleep each night. I have set up a coronavirus facebook group where I share healthy recipes, nutrition tips, as well as input from other wellbeing practitioners too.
How can foods help us to heal from illness?
The foods we eat are essential for proper functioning of our bodies, including our immune system but also our detoxification and gut health. Imbalances in any of these areas can cause illness. So eating well is important to maintain proper function and prevent disease. It can take years for the body to become in a disease state. So often people will only come to nutritional therapy once they are already ill and wished they had paid more attention to their diet and lifestyle before.
By giving the body what it needs to do it's job, you can aim to restore balance in the body, even if you are unwell. Often I use an anti-inflammatory diet with my clients to help reduce inflammation and give the body some space to heal. Some foods are inflammatory and can accelerate the inflammation process, some foods are anti-inflammatory. It’s not just what you eat, it’s when you eat, how you eat, where you eat, whats going on emotionally while you are eating and behind the scenes, is there ongoing stress thats impacting your ability to get better? I take all these things into conscideration, its a 360 approach to health and that’s why it works.
What are three simple nutritional changes that we could make from today that would help to elevate our overall wellbeing?
Eat a good breakfast which includes a portion of protein.
Eat green leafy vegetables with each meal
Drink 2 litres of water daily
connect with catherine and find out more…
visit her website: www.catherinearnoldnutrition.com
join her coronavirus facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nutritionandlifestyleforcoronavirus
follow her on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catherine_arnold_nutrition/
