8 Jul 2021
Nourish! Energise! Embrace!
July's episode in the wellbeing series for Nourishing Rest, welcomes our seasoned nutritionist and long time dietician Shauna Hill from shaunahillnutrition.com
Shauna kindly shares her wisdom, insights, and her soothing, compassionate approach to realistic nutrition goals as well as great tips and insights for healthy snacks on the go, even healthier choices for eating 'junk food'.
This is the first of many episodes :) to talk about the benefits of healing and wellbeing by making food choices that meet each individual where they are, especially women who are busy, or suffer from chronic illness, or dealing with overwhelm or depletion in our fast-paced society.
Enjoy!
About Shauna:
"I finished my degree in 1999 and then my internship in 2000. I got a job with a nutrition education program at Cornell University in New York where I worked with a team to develop educational materials and training for paraprofessionals to teach nutrition to promote nutritional health and help prevent acute and chronic illness in their communities. Our team was committed to translating science and academic rigor into real-world solutions. One of the most important lessons I learned during the 6 years that I worked with this team, is that each person has unique strengths and limitations.
My recommendations as a dietitian are only as good as my understanding of an individual’s unique situation. While some nutrition recommendations may seem universal—fruits and vegetables are good for you, for instance—they are only helpful if I know that person’s strengths and barriers. If someone doesn’t have access to fruits and vegetables or they have digestive problems or multiple food allergies, my solution may be ineffectual.
In 2006, I shifted my career to working with patients with acute and chronic illnesses. For about a year, I worked closely with several bariatric patients. These lovely people opened my eyes to the challenges of chronic pain and fatigue. I saw how patients with social and emotional support had significantly improved outcomes and how the lack of support was detrimental to others. I also came to recognize that emphasis by healthcare providers on weight rarely helped people who were deemed overweight or obese. It only reinforced societal pressures to “look” a certain way. And, in fact, many who were considered overweight and even obese actually had healthier outcomes than their “thin” counterparts.
In the last years that I worked as a clinical dietitian, I worked with patients in intensive care. Most of my patients relied on feeding through tubes and IVs to survive. This was a rewarding job at times because I could often see an almost immediate improvement of patients’ nutritional and overall health. This experience also increased my knowledge and interest in the digestive tract as I had to be hyperaware of a patient’s gut health while they were being fed through tubes or even intravenously. Also, there were patients in the ICU as a direct result of poor gut health related to their food intake.
In 2017 I started my own business and I decided to focus on busy working women. I have worked with many intelligent, hard-working women throughout the years and I have deep empathy for their struggles. From a practical point of view, the world would not function without these women. So it is in our own best interest as a society to support them and ensure that they stay healthy.
I came up with the tagline, Nourish. Energize. Embrace. Practical Support for Your Wellness Goals, to describe what I do.
I teach busy working women to
Nourish their bodies,
Energize their minds,
and Embrace their spirits."
IMPORTANT NOTE: During the podcast the herb Feverfew was mentioned for migraine. Please always consult your own healthcare provider on its recommended use specifically for your own health condition.
