Benefits of Holistic Nutrition

Heather Donohue is a Certified Holistic Nutritionist passionate about teaching busy women how to create a healthy routine and nutrition that fits their lifestyle. Heather solves common concerns such as low energy levels, brain fog, weight gain, moodiness, bloating, and embarrassing excess gas through nutrition. She is a ‘busy empty-nester wife, who loves to cook, eat, and live life.’ The thing I like about her is that ‘having a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean tough restrictions. It is about balance and learning new ways to get and stay healthy.’

I believe in a holistic and balanced approach to life. The older I get, I am convinced the mental, spiritual, physical, psychological, and emotional parts of our life have to be aligned properly. You can work in one area but if you do not focus on other aspects, the body does not perform at its optimum. Nutrition is so important to us and that is what I talk to Heather about.

Heather, help me understand what is holistic nutrition?

To understand holistic nutrition, you first have to understand the current medical system in the United States. When we go to a doctor, we select a specialist. We have cardiologists for heart health and disease. We go to gastroenterologists for digestive tract issues. We go to cancer specialists for specific parts of our bodies. Our medical system views the body in parts. When treating one part, medical doctors do not think about how it affects other parts. This is the foundation of holistic nutrition. Practitioners of holistic nutrition think about the entire body, including the mind and the soul. We know that if we are focusing on one area of the body, such as gut health, it will provide great benefits to the entire body, mind, and spirit. It can also cause distress in other parts of the body if we are using treatment methods that do not agree with the body. For example, if a person wants to go on a plant-based diet but is following a low sodium diet for heart health. There is a conflict in the two diets because plant-based eating results in a lot of potassium going into the body. If the potassium sodium ratio in the diet is not 2:1, the person could have heart palpitations.

Walk me through your passion for helping busy women? How do you do it?

There is a perception that focusing on health is hard. It can’t fit into our routines. This is just not true! When I start working with a client, I don’t just ask about the physical symptoms they have or are trying to prevent. I ask about what is going on in their lives. Do they have children? Do they work? Own a business? Married or divorced? Taking care of older parents? Empty nesters? Learning about their lives helps me identify tactics that work for them. For example, I worked with a woman in her late 60’s who was trying to lose weight. Most people think that losing weight is about diet, making food villains, and exercise. While those components help, one other reason people can’t lose weight is they are holding onto an emotional trauma. Two years ago, she lost her brother-in-law. She became very involved in helping her sister take care of all those things you have to take care of when a spouse dies. Once she felt that her sister was in a good place, she started to step back and let her sister get adjusted to her new normal. My client was holding onto what we call heart pain, which was keeping the weight on. As we discussed the situation, she told me she has a friend that performs reiki massages. Her friend was always telling her she should try it. It was the perfect release for her heart! She is down about 30 pounds now.

Can you please break it down in detail for me about dietary supplements, movement, eating organic plant-based foods, practicing self-care, and indulging smartly?

First, I am passionate about dietary supplements. I worked in the supplement industry for 8 years and take a lot of supplements every day. In spite of what people think, supplements are regulated by the FDA and there are clinical studies showing the efficacy of supplements. The problem becomes that there are bad actors. The bad actors may claim to heal a specific condition or create a formula that is not up to label claim. They usually are small manufacturers or individuals having an unreputable company making the product for them. Depending on the health situation, specific supplements can bring the body back into balance. For example, if a person has Chron’s disease, they need to be taking Saccharomyces Boulardii, which has been studied specifically to alleviate Chron’s disease symptoms. Here is a link to an NIH study. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10961730/

I’ve used Saccharomyces Boulardii as part of a protocol for a client and she had great results. Of course, all bodies are different so results will vary.

Movement is very important for the body. Our bodies were not meant to sit in cars or at desks for 8 to 12 hours a day. Our bodies want to be in motion. When we move our bodies, our internal systems benefit. One example, the abdomen becomes stronger which makes bowel movements easier. Also, stress is reduced which helps our immune system get stronger. Movement allows our heart to work a little harder helping to reduce cardiovascular disease. The movement also helps fight obesity which leads to a host of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. The movement does not mean you have to belong to an expensive gym, hire a trainer, or take expensive classes. The most underrated form of exercise is walking! A brisk walk for 30 minutes, 5 days a week can be enough to keep a person healthy. Of course, if someone has an underlying medical condition, they need to check with their doctor to ensure they can pursue some form of movement. The key to staying motivated is to find something you like to do. That will keep you doing it.

Eating organic plant-based foods is key for a healthy body. It is all about pesticide and chemical avoidance. Foods grown with pesticides become endocrine disrupters in the body. That means the body views the chemicals as an enemy and tries to fight them. When the body is fighting chemicals, it gets tired and cannot focus on keeping the body in balance. Being mostly plant-based helps to feed the body nutrients it needs in a very simple way. The closer to the original form of food, such as a baked or boiled potato, the more nutrients it will have. The further away from the original form of food, such as instant mashed potatoes in a box, the fewer nutrients and more chemicals it will have. Being plant-based does not mean a person has to give up meat, chicken, or fish! I am plant-based 4 days a week. The other 3 days I will eat meat, chicken or fish. When I do eat meat, I buy the best quality I can afford. Wild-caught fish. Organic beef and chicken. I also make the meat, chicken, or fish, the smallest portion on my plate. I fill the plate with vegetables and whole grains.

Self-care is critical for mental health. In order to take care of others, we have to be calm and rational. We have to be able to deal with others’ negative energy, especially right now amid the pandemic and protests. It is very draining. Self-care means different things to different people. Meditation, journaling, sitting in a sauna, taking a walk, sitting in the sun for 15 minutes, reading a book, taking a bath – there is no wrong way to do it. It just needs to be something where a person can take time to enjoy themselves.

Indulgent – no one is perfect 100% of the time! Indulging smartly means simply, once a client gets their body back to balance, indulging once or twice a month. It’s actually really interesting because I do it myself. I will eat something deep-fried or some ice cream and I can immediately recognize that what I thought was going to be an indulgent meal or snack, actually made me feel not so good. But I do it anyway! That is human nature. When our bodies get back to balance, we can tell how indulgent foods don’t agree with us! After being in balance for years, people tend to change what indulgent treats means to them.

You have been helping women for a while. What have you learned through the process? Are women hard on themselves?

The biggest issue in working with anyone to reclaim their health is a lack of confidence that they can do it! Most people don’t have faith in their ability to make meaningful changes in their life. That is why it is so important that actions to improve their health are provided in small steps, that fit their lifestyle and allow them to see improvements quickly. That keeps them motivated to keep following and building on their new routine.

What does women empowerment mean to you? In your opinion how can women empower themselves?

Women empowerment means we are able to speak our minds and be respected for our opinions. Being educated on topics we are passionate about is how women can empower themselves. Simply taking an online class or learning a new skill via YouTube. Education has always been the core of being empowered. Education has been the key to my success. It doesn’t have to be formal. We can learn from others just by being observant or having conversations with them.

Talk to me a little about your city and the food scene?

I live in a relatively small town in NJ, about 85,000 residents. The food scene is heavily fast food and casual, fast food! We rarely eat out because we don’t like that kind of food. We’d rather have a nice meal with quality ingredients. We have to travel out of our town for food like that! But this is a great point. To live a healthy plant-based lifestyle, I often can’t shop at just one store in my town. I have to go to multiple because each carries a different variety of organic foods. But it is worth it to me so I can maintain my health as long as possible. Sometimes for our health to improve, changes in routine must happen over time.

We can lead healthy lives but emotionally and mentally we need to be strong and healthy also.

How important is mental health in our lives?

Mental health is a top priority for any overall health and wellness plan. Anxiety and stress are awful to our bodies. It weakens our immune system making us more susceptible to colds, viruses, and flu. Plus, over the long term, poor mental health contributes to promoting illness and disease in the body. Mental health afflicts more and more people in the United States. I see people constantly struggling with mental health issues on social media.

Our gut health is key to reducing mental health issues, not pharmaceuticals. Don’t get me wrong. Pharmaceuticals have their place as a temporary way to get back to normal. The problem is we have been trained that we need them to live. That is a very different message versus making short term progress. There are a lot of studies about how the gut has direct contact with our emotions and our brain. There are pathways that are in constant communication between the gut and the brain. Food can either make you feel good or bad because 90% of the serotonin (the happy hormone) in our bodies is produced by our gut!

Eating processed foods promotes feelings of sadness, worry, anger, feeling worthless, anxiety, panic, fear, and unable to do anything right, just to name a few. But eating organic, plant-based foods helps your brain to heal,  to be more positive,  to connect with our emotions. It makes it easier for us to have a positive outlook and know that today we will do our best. Today we will be able to laugh and feel good about our future. We will be joyful and know that life is going to be kind to us now and in the future. Food is medicine in so many ways!

Photo Credit: LikeMeat