Category: Naturopathy

periods, fertility & eating disorders

21/5/2019

"I have my period. So I mustn't have an eating disorder."

For years I thought that if a woman was menstruating regularly, she was displaying one of the ultimate signs of health.

I thought that if a woman had a regular period she must be well nourished. That the moment her caloric intake dipped below her requirements, her body would stop ovulating and periods would disappear.

That Mother Nature never lets our bodies grow babies - a highly energy intensive endeavour that demands massive amounts of resources - in a perceived famine.

For years, I was wrong.

In my time as an eating disorder dietitian, student naturopath, and having lived through an (undiagnosed but still very harmful) eating disorder, I have learnt a thing or two about periods and under eating. Here I'll attempt to bust some common myths around periods, fertility and disordered eating.

FIRST DO NO HARM.

12/3/2019

A call to naturopaths to embrace a weight neutral approach to practice.

Primum non nocere. First, do no harm.

This is the first tenet of the naturopathic oath we all take on graduation day from college, and the most critical.

As naturopaths we strive not to add to the burden of problems of our patients. To refrain from further damaging their physical, mental or emotional wellbeing. To not intervene in such a way that will in any way harm.

Doing nothing is better than doing something that will cause harm.

In many ways, we are very good at abiding by this foundational tenet.

And yet... there is something insidious going on within the naturopathic profession that has not been called out. And despite our best intentions, it is doing serious harm to our patients, our profession, and ourselves.

That thing is a weight focussed approach to health. Whether directly or indirectly, promoting weight loss does irrefutable harm.

Even if it's weight loss "for health". Or weight loss "for fertility". Or weight loss just for the sake of weight loss, because "who doesn't want to be a bit leaner?"

To illustrate my point I'll set the scene. The other week I received two emails: one from a very well known nutraceuticals company promoting its weight loss seminar to naturopaths and other natural health professionals. The other was the exact same email, forwarded on to me from a major natural medicine education institution to its students.

This is not okay.

As I'll illustrate shortly, a focus on weight loss does unequivocal harm. This is in direct opposition to the first and most crucial naturopathic tenet.

It's 2019, and I propose that it's time that practitioners in the field of naturopathic medicine universally adopted a non-diet, weight neutral, Health at Every Size approach. For the sake of our clients, our best practice, and for the future longevity and validity of our profession, we must steer the ship away from the weight-centric doctrine it is starting to (and arguably, has) become and back towards true preventative and holistic medicine.

The kind of medicine that naturopathy sprang from. The kind of medicine that does no harm. The kind of medicine that treats the whole person, not a number on the scales.

5 Flavours to Eat for Health

23/1/2019

In Chinese medicine and in Ayurveda, the hallmark of a balanced meal is the inclusion of all of the flavours. By including all of the flavours in a meal, you’re going to feel very satisfied. And satisfaction is a crucial element of enjoyable, intuitive eating. One of these flavours is bitter, a very important taste that many of us are missing on our plates.

Throughout Spring and Summer in my Southeast Queensland neighbourhood, edible weeds pop up everywhere including in my own my backyard.

Under the kids’ trampoline out of the lawnmower’s reach, I find dandelion greens, sow thistle, billy goat weed, sheep sorrel, and wild carrot, among other largely unknown yet freely available sources of nutrition*. At the farmer’s market I uncover a similar array: mustard greens, endive, chicory, kale, parsley, rocket.

Purity vs. hybridisation

19/12/2018

When it comes to the work I do, I've never been 100% sure about what to call it, or if it even has (needs?) a name. Try as I might (and I have, numerous times), the stuff I "do" can't be put into a single box.

And it's not for lack of direction; I know what I am good at and what I love to do. It's just that there are so many directions I feel I am being pulled in.

Perhaps a nicer, less divisive way to say that, is that I have many colourful threads that form my web of being! :)

I often feel this pressing need to categorise "it", to pack it down nice and neatly into a label, to be able to explain to people what I do in a concise sentence without feeling like I've left large chunks of who I am stranded by the side of the road, all for the sake of simplicity.

And so here I am, eating disorders dietitian by day; (newly) Zenthai shiatsu practitioner by candlelight.

In one studio a yoga teacher emphasising the importance of play; in the next a nutritionist distilling hours of reading textbooks and research papers into digestible information that my clients can understand.

Studying naturopathy and Chinese Medicine on one hand; investigating the clinical applications of CBT and DBT for eating disorder clients on the other.

Sometimes I feel like a bit of a jill of all trades. Master of none. A case of shiny object syndrome. A fraud. Not really good at any one of those things.

Hello, voice of my inner critic, I hear you loud and clear.

Spring energetics - moving from darkness into light

12/10/2018

Wild edibles have been popping up everywhere in our hood - check out these bitter dandelion greens. Perfect with some sour lemon juice, olive oil and salt for a simple spring salad.

Spring is here, and although I LOVE it, the transition has been rough...

Winter just isn't my thing (as nice as all those warm cups of chai tea are!) Spring is my favourite season of the year - and not just because it's my birthday season. As the weather started warming up, our little family enjoyed daily expeditions to a local mulberry tree. It seemed our hands and faces were perpetually stained purple, and life was sweet.

Then we had a car crash.

And it was as if our whole world was turned upside down.

Someone rear ended us on the highway. Miraculously no one was hurt, but it shook us all up. Since then, my family and I have encountered battle after battle. Physical, emotional, mental, you name it.

It started with that car crash involving all of us (such a scary experience with babies in the back). Between us we've been through a bout of hospitalisation for appendicitis, some heavy repressed memories resurfacing, a shitload of emotional processing (with anger, shame and vulnerability at the forefront), the extreme physical fatigue that accompanies such emotional processing, a teething baby (aren't they just always teething?!) and learning about the "tantrum explosion" stage of a certain ginger haired three-nager.

Kairi eating dirt. Might be some Wood energetic medicine I don't know about?!

Yin to Yang, dark to light

You could say that the car crash not only shook us up: it woke us up from various slumbers we'd all been sleeping through. For me, it has shone a spotlight onto some dark places I've been ignoring for a long time.

Seasonal transitions can be interesting to say the least. And the transition from winter to spring is perhaps the most tumultuous transition. It’s a tug-o-war between the quiet, dark, restorative, inward Yin energy of winter into the bold, outward, ascending, bright Yang energy of spring – and the shift can be massive!

Spring energetics - wood element

In Chinese medicine Spring is associated with the element Wood. The energy of new growth and germination marks this season, and here in SE Queensland new plant life is springing up all around us. This is my favourite time of the year for urban foraging and wildcrafting edible weeds.

The meridian that corresponds with the wood element is the liver / gallbladder meridian. Wood element within us governs our sense of vision, the emotion of anger, and the sound of shouting. Wood energy can aggravate the mind by allowing pressure to build (like a seed germinating), propelling us forward into creating, planning and working.

Wood element is about us having purpose and vision in our lives, our planning ability. Type A personalities this is the time to be careful to keep your perfectionist / overworking tendencies in check! (talking to myself here - I’ve taken on WAY too much work lately resulting in thoughtless shortcuts, frustrating setbacks and angry outbursts, and I now need to reassess my workload. AGAIN!)

When vision is stifled, we feel that anger and frustration and want to shout, and at the right time and place we can and should shout. Anger is an energy that needs space and if pent up that pressure can become dangerous.

Anger, indigestion... and growth

Amidst the storm of emotional turbulence that has marked this year's dark to light seasonal transition, I’ve had some seriously angry outbursts. As a bunch of shit has happened and painful repressed memories from my past have resurfaced, I've been feeling more than my usual lot of anger towards myself and others from my past and present.

I find yelling into the earth, punching a pillow, or just roaring while standing in my kitchen helps me let some steam off and transmute my pain so I (hopefully) don’t dump it onto other people - usually my poor husband!

I've found that yelling and moving my body helps me tap into the deeper emotions of grief and pain, so that I can then cry and move through those - and hopefully come out the other side to a lighter place.

The energy of new growth and germination marks this season - and clearly that growth isn't always comfortable! If too much Wood energy builds pressure and is not released, it can result in symptoms like hypertension, headaches, sore muscles, indigestion, allergies, irritability, insomnia and outbursts of rage.

This year's winter into spring has been a gloriously turbulent, disastrously beautiful, emotionally and physically exhausting transition for us - maybe it has been for you too. Personally I've had to reach out and practice extreme vulnerability with close friends (not one of my strong points), and practice those uncomfortable skills of feeling unpleasant emotions, releasing through crying and yelling, and applying bucket loads of self-compassion.

But it's not all emotional turbulence and digestive ails. With Spring there's also that palpable quickening in the air; that shimmer of morning dew on newly sprouting herbs in the garden; that pulsation of warm, wet earth underneath bare feet. New growth, even if it's forced and we don't feel ready for it. The promise of new life.

As I wake from a winter slumber (physically and metaphorically) I'm beginning to see how old ways of being are no longer working for me, and have been forced to deal with issues that have been sitting in the dark for years.

I'm also seeing the seeds I planted many months and years ago start to germinate into exciting new projects which I'll be sharing with you in the coming months.

Treating allergies naturally

10/10/2017

Do you dread high pollen count days? Is spring a season of antihistamine overload, soggy tissues, and hiding indoors? Treating seasonal allergies naturally is straight forward with the right know-how.

The sleeping earth of winter is re-awakening, spring is well and truly here, and nature heralds her return. We feel an extraordinary push for life and movement within our own bodies, and we see it in the natural world. And with our own blossoming comes that of the beautiful plant world: so many, pollen-producing, allergenic plants!

The glorious feeling of taking that first breath of crisp, early spring air might be somewhat stifled if you’re one of many sufferers of seasonal allergies. All those pollens and animal hair can set off your allergic rhinitis, a fancy way of saying hay fever. Worse still: when your allergies trigger your asthma!

detoxification: so NOT about juice fasts & colonics

21/4/2017

When you hear the word "detoxification", what springs to mind? Juice fasting and colon cleanses? Coffee enemas and starvation? Health spas and slimming teas? For years, this is what I thought when I heard that oh-so-sexy-sounding word, and practised, much to my body's distress.

For the vast majority of people, these things are totally unnecessary - and they can actually set a person up for disordered eating and eating disorders.

When it comes to optimising your body’s detoxification processes, just doing a 3-day juice fast or a colonic – then going back to your normal diet – won’t cut it. It’s time to understand how our bodies really work, and what you can do to gently detoxify every day.

11 Essential tips for Autumn health

17/2/2017

At this time of year, as the sap of the trees and flowers returns to their root systems, we too are preparing to turn inward. In virtually every ancient medicine system, this season of harvest was seen as the time of the year to pull inward and gather together on all levels; a time to plan for the approaching darkness and stillness of winter.

In TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), autumn is associated with wind and dryness. It’s also the season associated with the lungs and large intestine, which are responsible for releasing carbon dioxide and food wastes, respectively. It follows that the energy of both these organs is ‘letting go’. Elimination problems like chronic constipation can be exacerbated at this time of year. Emotionally, it’s the time of year to look at things we are hanging onto that are no longer serving us, and to let them go for good.

Dealing with infant fever and mummy burnout

29/10/2016

Archie was all better by the time this photo was taken - but he still liked his Lemon Balm & Chamomile tea!

A week of practical food and herbal remedies

The last week has felt like one big night out on the town, without the mood lifting substances! (they’re contraindicated when you’re breastfeeding – bugger). My 14 month-old has been fighting off a virus leaving him feverish, cranky and extremely clingy. Four days of severe sleep deprivation has gifted me with the under eye bags of an English bulldog with conjunctivitis.

Nights have been punctuated by the following tiring sleep-wake cycle of breast milk-soaked bibs and screaming: Archie wakes every hour (or what feels like every 10 minutes) crying inconsolably. Archie refuses the magical breast because he hates everything. Parents tag team rocking and singing him back to sleep. I breast pump so my boobs do not pop open with milk. Archie finally falls back asleep on someone’s chest. Mummy about to drift off only to have Archie wake again with screams that would test the congeniality of the friendliest neighbour.

The days have been long and hard as he cried if we put him down for even a second. Add to that the unexpected ups and downs of normal life and you’ve got one very tired mumma (and – my partner’s edit - daddy!)

Any parent of little kids will be familiar with this scenario – and if you aren’t, you will be soon! (Oh YES, you WILL.) It’s stressful for everybody and I was eager for any kind of help I could get – nutritional, herbal, and emotional.

Luckily there exists an abundance of wonderful foods and herbs to help. This article covers what I did in the last week to help Archie deal with his mild fever (37.8 degrees Celsius at its highest point) and to support myself through the increased stress of it all. It is by no means a comprehensive “what to do” guide for fever in kids.

If your baby (over 6 months old) or child has a fever over 40 degrees Celsius, seek medical advice immediately. If your baby is under 6 months old and has a fever of any kind I suggest seeking medical advice just to be safe.

INTERGALACTIC CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

24/4/2016

You know those times when you create something so unexpectedly delicious, so unapologetically radical, so exceptionally epic, that it makes you want to jump up in glee and dance like a Beastie Boy in a Japanese train station?

Well, this was one of those times.

The full moon in Aries raging at the moment might have me a little more excited than I otherwise would be. But trust me, these are worth the effort of washing (licking) chocolate truffle mix off of everything.

After seeing a few similar recipes pop up on my Instagram feed, I decided I had to try them. It took a few exposures to convince me because these babies contain one of the ingredients I have been scared - terrified, actually - to use in my food adventures. Powdered medicinal mushrooms.