Guest post: An Insight into the Life of a Nutritionist Mum

Photo : R Bartholomew

I love my job; but like most jobs, it has its downside too.  Funnily enough though, the downside of my job has more to do with the effect it occasionally has on people around me.  It seems that mentioning you are a nutritionist to a mum at the school gates as a normal part of a friendly ‘getting to know you’ chat is sometimes enough to send them running for the hills in fear of me getting a glimpse into their child’s lunch bag or worse still their family fridge!

So, when Alison asked me to write a guest blog for Mumtopia, I saw it as a perfect opportunity to set the record straight, and give you a real glimpse into my life and views as a Nutritionist mum.

I completely and thoroughly love food, and love having the understanding that food can have a dramatic impact on your health, both positive and negative.  For me though, healthy eating is about so much more than the sum of the contents on your plate.  For me, healthy eating is as much about having a healthy, relaxed attitude towards food, about enjoying it, sharing it, having fun with it and most of all passing this healthy attitude onto your little ones too.  With levels of childhood obesity at an all time high and food related diseases such as anorexia on the increase you will understand why for me, ‘healthy eating’ is about so much more than food, especially where children’s nutrition is concerned.

For me, fostering a healthy attitude towards food means having a healthy balanced diet where nothing is off limits, because if it were, I can guarantee that it’s the forbidden foods that will become the most desirable.

So yes, at home we do eat lots of weird and wonderful super healthy foods like seeds, tofu, quinoa and lentils and we do have a vegetable juicer that we use to make dark green, bright orange and deep purple super juices, but we also love cake, have a great time visiting Aunty Nina’s ice cream parlour and look forward to regular movie nights at home complete with pizza and garlic bread.  And just to set the scene, as I write this I’m sat in the garden of our new house, with a cool glass of chardonnay, enjoying and savouring every single, delicious sip.  For me. that’s what the phrase, ‘a healthy balanced diet’ means and that’s the attitude I like to help foster in others too. 

About Rachel Bartholomew BA (Hons) Dip ION, MBANT, NTC, CNHC

Photo : R Bartholomew

Rachel runs a successful nutrition clinic, in a converted barn, based at a beautiful site called Cedar Farm in Lancashire.  Rachel graduated from the Institute of Optimum Nutrition in 2004 and since then has combined a busy practice with a Freelance Research and Writing Position for Nutri, one of the UK's largest supplement companies and, most importantly being a mum to Amelie, 8 and Tom, 6!  With a particular passion for children’s nutrition, Rachel is also the resident nutritionist for Child’s Talk magazine, regularly contributes nutrition articles to health oriented magazines and is an avid writer for her own popular nutrition blog.  Visit Rachel’s website: www.rachelbartholomew.co.uk; follow Rachel on Twitter @RB_Nutrition

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