Four Top Tips to a Healthier Diet and a Healthier You
By guest contributor, Marlies Elliot of Gusty – a nutrition based company focusing on gut health and nutrition. “As a functional Nutritionist we look at a whole-body approach. There are lots of simple things we can do to improve what we eat on a daily basis, here are my four top tips for a healthier diet and healthier you”.
- Quality over quantity! You do not have to count calories. It’s not about how much you can add onto our plates to make it look like you’re eating a great variety. It is all about what you’re eating. How nutrient dense is it? Are they good quality fats? Is it grass-fed meat? Is it organically grown? What we put in our bodies every day is what builds our bodies.
- Read food labels when you do your grocery shop. Do you recognize the food? Try to stay away from packaged foods, they often are processed – removing nutritional value, and have preservatives and other additives in them. In addition, we often do not realize how many hidden sugars there are in packaged foods. Have you ever looked at this? Buy food that you can recognize as a wholefood, like a piece of chicken or fish, vegetables, nuts and seeds and fruits
- Eat Carbs that feed your good gut bugs. Leave out refined and empty carbs like flours and sugars because these do nothing good for our body apart from providing calories. Instead choose vegetables and fruits which are full of the nutrients your body can use. Fruits and vegetables have so many benefits! As well as being full of vitamins and minerals, many also contain prebiotics which are a type of insoluble fibre that feeds good bugs in your gut.
- Eat plenty of healthy fats like olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds. We know now that every cell in our body contains fats that are essential for proper functioning, and did you know we even produce our own cholesterol? When we’re inflamed, we need fats that make our prostaglandins work to stop the inflammation and help us heal. So, to keep a healthy body and speed up the healing process we need good fats!
These are my four golden tips that can flip your health around. You might already have implemented a few of these. Go on and try another one that challenges you, see how you feel and if it makes a difference for you. Now is a good time to start.
A word from our guest contributor:
Hi,
I'm Marlies Elliott, a mum of 2 beautiful boys! After having studied social work, I kept studying towards a teaching (PE) degree in the Netherlands. After finishing my studies, my husband and I decided to move to Wellington where I furthered my studies as a Personal Trainer and Aerobics teacher. When my health started deteriorating after I had my first son, I went on a mission to find out the root causes of my ill health. This led me to the Nutritional Therapy Association, where I studied as a Functional Nutritionist.
After this I continued doing a course for muscle testing and started working as a functional nutritionist. 2 years down the line I decided it was time to start my own FN business called ‘Gutsy’.
Now I see clients from my home-based clinic for one on one consultations, virtual consultations and an a few more services which you can check on my website www.gutsy.nz.
I am all about finding the root cause of what is going on in your body.
Through a nutrient dense diet and finding out what your power foods are, you can lower your inflammation in your body. By muscle testing I find out what it is your body needs in terms of nutrients and how we can best support the body, open up detox pathways and speed up the healing process.
I love to see when people get their energy back, start sleeping better and feel less stressed. I want people to live their life to the fullest and I can help you with that!
Marlies Elliott
Instagram: Gutsynz