As someone who’s struggled with maintaining a healthy relationship between food and body image in the past, learning about nutrition has been an amazing personal journey for me.
Since May is both Mental Health Awareness Month as well as Healthy Vision Month, we thought it would be great to dive into this topic of wellness and nutrition. We had the incredible chance to ‘sit down’ with Holistic Nutritionist, Stephanie Papadakis to discuss the importance of nutrition education as well as how nutrition plays a role in mental and ocular health. Here are some tips she shared on how to improve overall health just by eating the right kinds of food!
Here’s what we asked:
Hi Steph! Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi! I'm Steph, a holistic nutritionist, certified grief recovery specialist, and AIP coach. I help folxs step back into their power, their bodies, their work, and their lives by taking control of their nutritional, mental, and emotional health so that they can become who they were always meant to be. I help people with digestive issues, pain and inflammation, unexplained weight gain, and other physical ailments figure out what’s going on to reclaim their lives and their health. We work on the physical side with nutrition and lifestyle changes and also through the emotional side by dissecting grief, trauma, and mental and emotional health. The best part is that we get people to a place they never thought could be possible- a place of healing and thriving. My clients say I'm half-scientist, half therapist.
What made you decide to pursue a career in this field?
In 2014, my mom was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. I had come across Sarah Ballantyne's The Paleo Mom blog a few months prior to her diagnosis and remembered reading about the autoimmune protocol and how it can help to reverse autoimmune symptoms through diet and lifestyle. I sent my mom books and recipes the next day and guided her through a very intense transition. 6 months later she was symptom-free. I felt like I had finally found work I was passionate about and I knew this was something I wanted to do for other people, too. So in 2016, I went back to school to get certified as a holistic nutrition consultant.
What interests you most about health and nutrition?
There's so much I can say here but here are the two most important ones...the first is that the human body is resilient. We abuse it in so many ways - with stress, a poor diet, drugs, alcohol, lack of sleep, etc. - and it bounces back the second you take care of it. Quite literally, by adding nutrient-dense foods in your diet and movement into your daily routine, you can change your gut microbiome, which can help reduce inflammation, reduce stress, and help clean up your digestive tract. The second is the gut-brain connection. When I was in school and learning about this connection for the first time, I felt like everything in my life finally made sense. I had suffered from anxiety and depression my whole life and I had terrible digestive issues for many years (I was later diagnosed with SIBO, which is small intestine bacterial overgrowth). Since then, I've learned to manage my mental health and gut health through a combination of meds, diet, lifestyle, mindset, and therapy...lots of therapy!
As a current optometry student, I am so interested in hearing if you have any advice on specific meals or foods that promote ocular health!
That's a great question! Vitamin A is the first that comes to mind as optimal and is necessary for maintaining your photoreceptors. Animal proteins like organic grass-fed beef and lamb, as well as chicken, liver, and eggs, are where to find true vitamin A. If you don't eat animal protein, your body can convert the carotenoids into Vitamin A, but only up to about 30%. So foods like spinach, kale, and carrots will be your best bet. For overall ocular health, focusing on nutrient-dense foods like wild-caught fish, eggs, nuts and seeds, colorful fruits and vegetables, mushrooms, avocados, and olives will give you all the nutrients necessary to maintain good eye health.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month! We know that nutrition plays a huge role in our physical health but do you believe it greatly affects our mental health as well?
This is my jam! You can't talk about gut health without talking about mental health (and vice versa). I think a lot more nutritionists and mental health professionals are coming to understand that. As I said earlier, the gut and the brain are so connected it would be a shame if both are not addressed in the first session. For example, let's say you have really bad anxiety. High anxiety levels raise stress hormones and activate the sympathetic nervous system (also called the fight or flight response). This sets off nerves that fire in the gut, which deactivates the parasympathetic nervous system (also known as the rest and digest state) and activates the enteric nervous system (the gut). When your rest and digest system is turned off, you aren't able to digest food properly. You may react to that with constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, bloating, or gas. Over time, this can lead to changes in gut bacteria, and if left unchecked, it can turn into SIBO, candida, GERD, or dysbiosis. With that said, eating highly processed foods and lots of sugar can also wreak havoc on your gut as they cause blood sugar crashes which can lead to an anxious state (and continue that cycle). So it's super important to eat foods that are nutrient-rich, that feed the good bacteria in your gut, and are energy giving rather than energy depleting.
In order to clear up some information that may be online, are there any diets/foods/internet trends that people think are healthy but aren’t really?
That's a loaded question for me. I think certain therapeutic diets - like the autoimmune protocol or low FODMAP diet - can be helpful in ruling out food sensitivities and clearing up inflammation. They also provide information on what your body processes well and what it doesn't. Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all diet and it can take a long time to figure out what works best for your body. But I don't believe that cutting out whole food groups and following a strict fad diet is going to be the best thing for your gut health or your mental health in the long run.
Is there anything else you want readers to know about nutrition or yourself, in general?
So much of nutrition is tied up in how we feel about ourselves. Many of the clients I work with have deep-rooted issues around food and body image, and also around foods that have made them sick for years. So much of getting healthy is tied into working through the traumas that cause the disconnect between our guts and our brains and getting to the place where self-love, self-compassion, and self-respect are at the forefront of a positive mindset.
And on a personal note, I love to hike, cook, watch and play soccer, and hang with my wife and my pup. Oh, and I'm 100% Greek, and that influences everything I cook.
Do you have a favorite, healthy quarantine meal/snack that you’ve been whipping up at home?
Right now kalamata olive dip has been my jam. It's super easy to make if you have a food processor ---- pitted kalamata olives, extra virgin olive oil, a dash of sherry vinegar, salt, pepper, and a healthy dash of Greek oregano!
If you want to learn more about Steph, or if you’re interested in booking her services make sure to visit her website, www.gutofintegrity.com, and follow her on Instagram! @gutofintegrity
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