My Life in Nutrition: I Followed My Gut, and Then Healed It by Maria Cross
The third curated story for ILLUMINATION Writing and Reading Academy Readers
Dear Friends, happy weekend! I trust this inspiring post finds you well. I announced the ILLUMINATION Writing and Reading Academy a few weeks ago, and we published two stories by
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Today, I present an inspiring story about the impact of nutrition on our health and well-being, which can relate to everyone. This valuable story was submitted by
, a certified nutrition practitioner whom I interviewed recently. Maria is a founding member of our network and has her own bestselling publication on Substack.Like me, Maria healed her leaky gut naturally. Thank you for reading this story, learning from her insights, and connecting with her if this story resonates with you.
My life in nutrition: I followed my gut, and then healed it by
You don’t always know what’s best for you, but you can be sure it’s there, waiting. I didn’t know I wanted to be a nutritionist until I got a part-time job in a health food store to supplement my income. I was barely getting by.
Challenging hardships are often gifts in disguise. Within a few weeks of starting the job, I signed up for a course in nutritional therapy.
It was a double bonus: studying nutrition put paid to years of intestinal misery that had never been resolved by any of the doctors I consulted, as I lurched from one bad lead to another.
I fixed my own issues, and they were legion. From childhood, I had experienced pain, bloating, and severe constipation. Around the age of seven, I had a colonoscopy because of all the bleeding caused by the constipation. The only thing I remember post-op was being prescribed a bowl of All-Bran every morning. As if things weren’t bad enough, it was more punitive than curative.
Then, in my early 20s, the spots appeared, just when I needed them least. Closely followed by the brain fog and appalling concentration. Who knew that the gut and skin were connected? And the gut and brain? None of the experts, as I later realised.
With time, you start to normalise what you’ve learned to put up with. I was drawn to nutrition out of interest rather than a desire to heal. Or perhaps it was my inner guide, whispering in my ear.
What a revelation that proved to be. During and after the three-year course, I had all the appropriate tests. It turned out I had the works: leaky gut, gut dysbiosis, gut parasites, and a fungal infection. I also had adrenal stress – chronic stress meant my adrenals were over-producing cortisol, which was off the charts. Why not? I had everything else.
Today, my gut is just fine, like a sea of tranquillity. But it remains my weak spot, and I have to be careful about what I eat lest I stir up storm clouds. The fallout of my health saga is a handful of food intolerances that are easy enough to manage.
Nutrition begins in the gut, and that is where so many diseases originate. From dementia to depression, from poor skin to fragile bones …. the signs are all there, if you follow the trail of clues that span outwards from your core. Those mysterious microorganisms that make your gut their home can be either friend or foe, depending on how you treat them.
After obtaining a diploma in nutritional therapy, I went on to graduate with an MSc in Public Health Food & Nutrition.
When I started out in the mid-1990s, my job was easy enough. Nobody knew anything about nutrition, and googling wasn’t a thing. Most of my clients were unaware of the role of blood sugar, the gut microbiome, and omega-3 fatty acids, the sort of thing that is now common knowledge, thanks to the Internet.
Today, I see clients with complex issues that require more than just a quick online search.
For several years, I also worked as a university lecturer and tutor, helping set up the first BSc nutritional therapy teaching clinic in the UK. It was during this time that my first book was published, a co-written academic text called Nutrition in Institutions.
I’ve since gone on to publish three more books, the latest being How to Feed Your Brain: Seven Evolutionary Steps to Transform Your Mental Health.
My main takeaway from both studying and clinical experience was the value of research. I learned how to sift the good from the dubious. I became obsessed with scientific research, and still am.
By another happy coincidence, my love of research married well with my love of writing, and here I am today, both nutritionist and writer and very much at home on Substack.
I find myself writing increasingly for an older audience, the over-55s. That wasn’t my intention, but I’ve learned to listen to the whispers and follow their lead. Plus, I’m getting on myself, so I am really doing myself another favour.
Once you get to over 55, staying healthy becomes ever more challenging. I want to make those challenges more manageable and less daunting. Most chronic conditions associated with aging are not inevitable, but you do have to work a bit harder.
Cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, and many cancers… these used to be called diseases of civilisation. That’s not entirely off the mark. They are, in the main, diseases of lifestyle, the consequences of a deviation from our evolutionary path.
It just so happens that the foods that suit me best and keep my gut happy are the foods that we as humans evolved on. That’s not a matter of luck: it’s biology.
Through writing, I can reach a much wider audience than I can from individual consultations alone. I write about what is familiar to me from personal experience, and from what my clients tell me. I still learn so much from them.
Thank you for reading my story and subscribing to my newsletter on Substack.
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