About Claire
Claire founded Food Mentor in 2006 after gaining her Nutritional Therapist's Diploma from the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, and an FdSc in Nutrition Science from the University of Bedfordshire. Claire also holds a BA Hons degree (2:1) in Sport Science from the University of Durham. She is a member of the British Association of Nutritional Therapists.
Claire's passion for Nutritional Therapy and Sports Nutrition can be directly traced to personal experience: She has played lacrosse for British Universities, England U21s and Senior England B; She has also directly benefited from Nutritional Therapy which has helped her end a life-long battle with eczema.
Claire's Nutrition Philosophy
"Nutritional Therapy cannot be described as either alternative or complementary medicine. We have to eat every day in order to survive; it is an essential part of our lives. The expression “you are what you eat” may be overused, but every single part our bodies is formed from the food we put into our mouths and we are constantly regenerating our cells from the matter that we eat.
The food we eat has a profound effect on our bodies. It provides us with energy, satisfies our hunger and gives us pleasure. Our relationship with food is complex, both in emotional and physical terms. Everything we eat interacts with our body to either bring it into balance and optimum health, or to steer it off course and towards ill health. Nutritional Therapy aims to identify which foods are likely to be contributing to ill health and which ones are going to be beneficial to the body in bringing it back into balance.
But working out a nutritional strategy for any individual is far more complicated that simply listing forbidden and allowed foods. Food is one of my biggest passions. I love to plan, prepare, cook and serve it and I particularly enjoy sharing it with friends along with a good glass of wine. I believe it is possible to enjoy a diet which is delicious, filling, exciting and nutritious.
“90% of what you eat should be excellent for your body and 10% should be excellent for your soul”
-- Elizabeth Lipski, 1980
I believe that we all have the ability to take responsibility for our health. This means understanding that well-being starts from the inside and that if we learn to listen to our body and understand what it is trying to tell us we can really start to make a difference to how we feel every single day."
