This is a post I made the other day on my facebook page explaining how I came to the world of nutrition, what I stand for and why I do what I do.

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As this page has just passed 200 followers I think it's about time to introduce myself properly and what I stand for, as most of you do not know me personally 🙂

First of all, I would like to say a big "thank you" 🙏 to you all for following the page and also say "well done"👏 - if you are here reading this it means that you are interested in going a bit beyond the conventional, may be even getting a bit out of your comfort zone, in order to do what is best for your body and for your health. I know it is not always easy, but believe me, it is always worth it!

Pour mes followers francophones, je suis ravie que vous soyez ici. Je suis désolée de ne pas pouvoir traduire chaque post en français - ça demande beaucoup trop d'énergie et je pense que le traducteur automatique gère ça assez bien 🙂 Mais, n'hésitez pas à commenter en français et je reste toujours joignable dans votre langue préférée.

So I came to the nutrition world somewhat gradually. Like many, I grew up eating "dessert" for breakfast, spent my years as a law student eating anything and everything that was do-able on a student budget (big bowls of pasta for dinner, junk food, you name it). My early professional years working in big multinational law firms were not significantly better, food was really not a priority, it was whatever was easily available, usually prepared by others, whenever I happened to come across it. Alcohol was tried and tested on several occasions too, although luckily, it never particularly appealed to me.

Then one day, age 28, pregnant with my first child I was told I had "gestational diabetes". I think I was more upset by the news of that seemingly banal diagnosis than anything I heard later on (even though I was to hear things that were somewhat worse). I guess it was the realisation that "No, I am not invincible after all, Yes, my body may be a little broken and now I have to DO things to help it work better".

For the first time in my life, I actually started paying attention to what I ate and saw how direct the impact was on my blood sugar. I had a good motivation to do that - I was told by the nurse in very plain words: "the baby must never see high blood sugar". That was enough to concentrate the mind of a first time parent-to-be and I am thankful to those nurses for "kicking my butt".

Two more pregnancies with "gestational diabetes" came and went, a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes followed immediately after - but it was not until 2018, when (with the help of Dr Google) I figured out I had Type 1 diabetes, that my deep dive in nutrition started. (If you want to know the full story of how that happened you can read it here: https://www.annanicolaounutrition.eu/my-story/).

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where, for whatever reason, the immune system has decided that your insulin making cells are the enemy and set out on a mission to exterminate them. So one must take over the role of the pancreas and inject insulin every time one eats anything sweet or starchy. It makes for quite a change in one's routine let's say, because your whole life becomes a science experiment.

But I realised very, very quickly that Nutrition was by far my most powerful tool. How I ate determined how easy or how difficult it was to manage the condition with insulin.

If nutrition could have such a powerful effect on managing Type 1 diabetes, what else could it do? Could it fix my gastro issues that I have been struggling with for some years? Could it fix my kids' tummy aches and headaches? Turns out, it could.

I started reading and listening to all I could find on the topic. I thought that after a few months I would get bored of it and move on to something else, but that is yet to happen. Eventually, I decided to enrol in a three year course to become a certified nutrition counsellor. The shelf with my law books gradually got taken over with books on biology, chemistry and all things nutrition. At first, I thought I was just doing it to satisfy my own endless curiosity and search for answers, but that quickly changed.

From the start of my health journey, I felt that there was a big gap in the care of diabetes (Type 1 & Type 2) and chronic metabolic disease in general. I was disappointed with the conventional medical system for having "failed me". How could they have missed such an "obvious" thing and misdiagnosed me for … 11 yrs?

Why don't they tell us before the 💩 hits the fan that we are on the road to trouble and why don't they teach us what to do to prevent things getting worse? Why is it up to me, the "clueless patient", to spend hours and days on Google trying to figure things out?? Why don't they help us tackle the Cause rather than putting a "band aid" on our symptoms? (Surely that is more cost effective than paying for the complications of chronic disease).

Then one day it dawned on me: What I was doing is expecting "a fish to climb a tree" - I was asking for allopathic medicine to be something it is not.

Doctors do the best they can, with the tools they have, with the knowledge they acquired in medical school, within the framework they work in, within the time constraints they are bound by. I realised that Drs are for the most part "firemen". A noble profession, whose job is to put out fires left, right and centre. There are only so many fires a primary care Dr can put out in a 15' consultation. Modern medicine has done amazing things at treating infections, contagious disease and trauma (the major killers just a couple centuries ago). It saves and prolongs life everyday.

However, when it comes to prevention of chronic disease (the major killer in our modern times), when it comes to figuring out the "root cause" - it's not its forte.

When I first moved to Belgium about 20 yrs ago and signed up with my first generalist doctor (an experienced guy, about to retire), I asked him lots of annoying "why" questions. He looked me straight in the eye and said: "Causal medicine is nowhere. Why does a 3 year old get leukaemia?" Not much has changed since.

I don't know about you, but that does not quite sit with me. Sure, there are a million things we don't know yet (and maybe never will), but is that a reason to resign ourselves to just handing out "band-aids"? Surely, we can do better than that.

So gradually, after not getting my answers from conventional doctors, I turned to what is known as Functional Medicine. These are doctors who go beyond the conventional model and try to address the "root cause" of your symptoms. Each consultation costs a small fortune, as does the prescribed blood test, as does the long list of prescribed supplements. So unless you have good insurance, you need to sell a kidney to afford all that.

Don't get me wrong, functional medicine can be a God sent. It is the future of medicine in my opinion, but we are not quite there yet. First of all, not everyone can have access to it - for now, it is reserved to the wealthier and better informed.

Moreover, the consultations (that are 1hr+ long) can be very overwhelming. The doctor knows so much but they don't always realise that You don't - at times it feels like they are speaking in a foreign language, very fast.

Needless to say, having the discipline to take 10+ supplements for however long, does not come naturally to everybody…(or anybody really).

What I want to do in my nutrition practice (and to a certain extent this page) is to bridge this gap. I am not a doctor, but I know enough to be able to teach you how to be proactive in your health journey and advocate for yourself 💪.

❤️ First of all, I will show you how to use the power of Nutrition, so you can give your body the raw materials it needs to function optimally and prevent and reverse disease.

Doctors do not have time for this, the medical school curriculum does not have time for this. Yet, this is the elephant in the room, it's the Absolute Fundamental. You may have heard the expression "you cannot "out-run" a bad diet" (meaning, exercise won't save you if you eat badly). To that I will add: you cannot "out-medicate" or "out-supplement" a bad diet. (I think I just made up some new words, but you know what I mean 😅).

🧡 I will go over your blood tests with you and explain things in plain words - show you how "normal" in a blood test does not always mean "optimal" for health,

💛 I will point out things your primary care Dr may not have mentioned because there is not yet "a fire raging",

💚 I will explain what tests to ask for so that you can avoid having to call the "firemen" some years down the line,

💙 I will take the time to really listen to you and answer your questions,

💜 I will coach you to build new habits that will serve you for years to come.

All that, without you having to sell a kidney.

If you follow this page you will gradually learn how you can challenge the conventional for the benefit of your health.

Of course, nutrition is not everything. I do not claim to have found the holy grail. If we sleep 4hrs a night, never move our body, smoke a packet a day, drink a bottle an evening and stress is our daily companion, all the broccoli in the world is not going to do any miracles. I exaggerate, but you get the idea.

Nutrition, however, plays a big, big role (I would say probably > 50%) in our wellbeing. When it goes wrong, bad, bad things happen. (The fact that there are children these days with type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease, just breaks my heart 💔- because it is not their fault and not always their parents' fault, either. It points to a system that is somehow badly broken).

Nutrition has the power to fix many, many things. It the "low hanging fruit" (no pun intended 😄) because it is something we have direct control over and we have the power to optimise it to our benefit.

My role, my hope and my mission is to help you do just that ❤️.

Anna

Ps. I love reading your comments and getting your feedback, it helps me tailor the content to your needs. So, please, don't be shy!

Pps. I also have a small favour to ask - as this page is fairly new, it would really help it grow if you invite any of your fb friends who may find it useful to follow it (by clicking on the (…) above). 🙏🙏

#challengingtheconventional #takecontrolofyourhealth #nutritioncoaching #modernmedicine #functionalmedicine #NutritionMatters