More About Alible Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy

I set up Alible Nutrition to help individuals support their health through the food they eat, and their lifestyle.  As a BANT Registered Nutritionist® and Nutritional Therapist with an MSc in nutrition, I review individuals’ full health history (including family history), lifestyle and diet to identify how those factors may be contributing to their health problems, and what the individual may be able to do to improve things.  My area of specialism is gut health – not only digestion, but the gut also affects things like our immunity (a huge amount of our immune system is actually in the gut) and even our mood.  And yes, I talk about poo with my clients – but as briefly as possible!

Alible Nutrition is not a supplements company; is not a ‘weight-loss’ service; does not sell diet programmes.

You would be forgiven for thinking nutrition is just about calories.  That is after all what we keep hearing about, and that information is now even included on some restaurant menus.  It isn’t!  It isn’t even all about the fat and carbohydrates.  Nutrition is about everything in our food – good and bad.  We need fat, carbohydrates and protein in our lives – but the right kinds and in the right amounts.  Thinking calories for a moment – fat contains twice the number of calories per gram than carbohydrates do.  But, 1g of olive oil (fat) is much better for you than 1g of sweets (sugar) yet the calorie detail will tell you that the olive oil should be avoided because it is has more!  In nutrition terms, the olive oil contains anti-inflammatory properties (omega-3 fatty acids), while the sugar is pro-inflammation and has instant effects on our blood sugar management.  Inflammation is linked to many of the chronic health conditions we see in society today.

“Diet” does not mean weight-loss.  Diet is the food that we eat day-to-day, the healthful and the less healthful.  Let’s move away from energy sources for a moment….. vitamins and minerals.  These are what we need to focus on.  Are we getting enough?  Pretty much everybody knows that vitamin C supports immunity and helps avoid scurvy (bleeding gums), and that vitamin D is the “sunshine vitamin” important for bones, but there are so many other vitamins and minerals that we need, and they don’t just have one job each.  Vitamin C also helps us to absorb iron, and vitamin D is important for our hormones.  Did you know that fat is actually important for the absorption and utilisation of some of our important vitamins including vitamin D?  A less well-known mineral for example is magnesium which is required for hundreds of different processes within the body.  These processes include digestive health and muscular health, and low levels is thought to contribute to migraines.  Yet we rarely hear about it and most of us do not eat enough.  Therefore when I look at individuals’ health concerns I look at the scientific studies that can reveal nutritional links, and then work with the client to make changes to their eating habits (and lifestyle) to boost or reduce the highlighted nutrients. I apply a food-first approach, but may recommend supplements to support this, or ‘functional’ supplements which are believed to support specific parts of the body.  An example of a supplement I have recommended is butyrate.  We make anti-inflammatory butyrate in our guts, but some health conditions are associated with low levels and so a supplement may help individuals with those health conditions if we can’t get enough resistant starch in to help the gut produce more of its own.  Resistant starch is a type of carbohydrate which is not digested like other carbohydrates for energy, but it is believed to provide a great food source for certain gut bacteria that support other bodily functions.

Sometimes tests may be beneficial, but I only consider these if they will help us to better understand what is happening inside the client’s body, and influence the recommendations made.  These tests may be stool samples, urine samples or blood tests.  While I can help arrange private tests and interpret the results, I do not conduct any tests on clients myself.  If tests are available via the NHS, I also highlight this to clients and suggest they consult their doctors.  I can contact doctors on clients’ behalf if required to request tests.  I do not recommend diagnostic tests but will direct the individual to their doctor if this is required.  If a test highlights something that may need medical intervention, I will recommend the client takes the results to their doctor.  I do not diagnose medical conditions.

I do not co-ordinate tests for individuals outside of the nutritional therapy process, this is only available as an option for clients.

Nutritional Therapy is a complementary therapy.  This means I work alongside whatever medical support the client is receiving and identify improvements that consider that medical support (for example, avoiding recommendations that may interact with medication).   I can also support individuals who have health concerns not requiring medical intervention, or those who would like to reduce their health risks through diet.

I am do not treat any health conditions (that is very much a medical goal) – but I do work with individuals to optimise their health through diet and lifestyle with the goal of helping the body to reduce the effect of the ill-health root causes and to relieve the symptoms of the health conditions.  I do not work with individuals suffering from cancer or with eating disorders, as these require more specialist skillsets.