I’ve always been interested in nutrition and considered it as a possible career choice, but life happened and I somehow never got around to really going for it. All that changed a little over a year ago when I went on my own personal journey to healing. I had been affected by eczema and contact dermatitis for years, but it was never very severe, and the doctor just gave me a cream to put on that would make it go away fairly quickly. Well, after years of using this cream (which gave my skin a strange burning-like sensation) more or less once every month and a half or so, I couldn’t help but think there must be a better way. My contact dermatitis was also getting progressively worse, to the point where I had to stop wearing makeup completely (I discovered that mascara was definitely a culprit along with other makeup as I’m allergic to synthetic vitamin E, or tocopherol acetate). 

I had various friends who went to different specialists for different dietary problems (allergies, bloating, IBS, etc.) and they were basically all told the same things: cut out wheat, sugar, and dairy, and then of course they all had some specific-to-them things they weren’t supposed to eat. They all felt better and healthier after implementing these changes, so I started to do my own research into what the scientific reason behind this was. I came across the concept of leaky gut, inflammation, and just how important it is to take care of your gut microbiome, and not only that, but also, especially in my case, your skin microbiome. I bought Robynne Chutkan’s book ‘The Microbiome Solution’ and after reading it started with the microbiome diet, that is, eating foods that feed the good bacteria in your gut, and cutting out the foods that feed the bad, inflammation causing bacteria. Not only that, I also cut out all chemical products and started making my own hair and skin care products. The latter ended up not being very sustainable for me and I found it to be more of a burden than anything else, so I eventually found some all natural products that work really well for me and now use only those. 

The diet, however, worked great! There was a night and day difference in the way I looked and felt! It was difficult at first as it’s rather time-consuming to plan and prepare such a specific diet, and I was also extremely irritable for the first 2 weeks. Once everything became more routine and I had a good number of recipes under my belt, it became easier and the benefits significantly outweighed any of the drawbacks. That was when I decided I wanted to learn more about the ways nutrition can affect the body, both in order to continue my personal healing journey and relationship with food, as well as to help others discover theirs. I’m looking forward to continuing to learn and grow as a professional, and to sharing the knowledge that I gain to help others!