About NutritionPod

Hello,

I thought I would share with everyone a little bit of my background...

I first developed an active interest in Nutrition back in 2000 after I was diagnosed as having a severe wheat interolerance. At this time I had been ill for many years with symptoms including extreme fatigue (I used to go up the stairs on my hands and knees!), insomnia, reoccuring mouth ulcers, thrush, cystisis, constant joint and muscle pain, IBS, and a whole host of other problems. I had tried self medicating with various supplements I read about in magazines with no success. The doctor had run blood tests several times for everything they could think of and had found nothing, I had drugs to control the IBS pain and was taking at least 8 painkillers a day to keep the joint and muscle pain to a managable level. Life wasn't much fun to be honest.

By chance one day my mother saw an article in the local newspaper about a homeopath who ran an allergy testing clinic, having nothing to lose I made an appointment and went along. I remember coming out and walking up the road wondering what on earth I was going to eat now that I couldn't have anything containing wheat! The adjustment to my diet was difficult, previously I had eaten mainly rubbish, ready meals, McDonalds, lots of bread and snacks, and at that time there weren't the 'substitute' foods that are available now. However I stuck to it, started learning to cook, and a few months later was feeling so much better, was off the painkillers, had more energy and generally felt better than I had in years.

Nine years down the line I enjoy cooking proper meals with real ingredients, and avoiding wheat is easy, but it did give me my initial lesson in reading food labels, if you've never done it you'll be amazed at what goes into things. As I recovered I fully appreciated the gift of health that I had received from my practitioner and realised that I wanted to be able to do for someone else what he had done for me - he gave me a life. That might sound dramatic but if you've felt that bad for so long you thought you'd never get better you'd realise.

So I embarked on studying nutrition and now hold qualifications in nutrition and herbalism, and am continually learning more, as it's not a subject that stands still! Along the way I have run a health food shop and seen many satisfied clients who have been helped on the path to better health.

I can currently be found working at Naturally Healthy (30b Bedford Place, Southampton, SO) on a Tuesday & Thursday from 9.30 to 1.30 so feel free to pop in and say hello if you are in the area.

I do hope that you enjoy the site and find the information useful, please make use of the question facility, and I am always pleased to receive any feedback or suggestions that you may have.

Jenny Coffin
S.N.H.S. Dip (Nutrition & Herbalism)