Friday 3 January 2014

Interview with…Jemima Powell, Nutritional Therapist

It's that time of year, we're feeling bloated and slow after a few weeks of over indulgence and now we're all trying to gear our selfs up to kick start the new year with energy and enthusiasm to achieve our goals and ambitions for 2014. Exercise is a great way to shred the extra pounds that have crept on during the Christmas season and generate those feel good endorphins. Nutrition is a vital element that goes hand in hand with detoxing, losing weight and increasing energy levels.

As luck would have it we have a fabulous Nutritional Therapist who has just joined the Golborne Place team. We thought it would be a good idea to find out more about Jemima and how she came to specialise in this field.





Jemima, we hear you once owned your own catering company, what made you decide to move in to Nutritional Therapy?   

The part of catering I enjoyed the most was discussing food and helping people to create menus and get excited about different tastes, flavours, and textures that would suit their event.   After a couple of years of working long hours and weekends I felt something was missing. I wanted more interaction with people and to understand the impact of food on health in a more scientific way.  Personally I had become quite confused about what eating healthily was; there seemed to be so much conflicting advice.  It was a really tough choice, but when I found out about nutritional therapy everything seemed to slot into place.  What is really good about what I do now, is that I still get to talk about food, help people devise specific menus and get excited about taste, flavour and texture, but with an understanding on a microscopic level on how it impacts the body.  It is my dream job.


I totally agree, even though we work in a well being environment the notion of 'healthy eating' is often confusing as we hear so many contradictions. We're so glad you've found your dream job to help us out! What's the most valuable lesson you've learnt from Nutritional Therapy?

There is no quick fix or one food you can eat that will change your life, make you feel good, loose weight or manage a certain condition.  Nutritional therapy is about changing your attitude towards food and eating healthily for the foreseeable future.



Your job involves guiding people towards healthier lifestyles and achieving physical goals, where do you start?

The most important thing to do is to listen to the patient and try to address their goals in a way that is realistic for them.  No two clients are the same.  Some people can cope with a lot of change, where as others find small changes very difficult and will require more support.  To that end, during the fist consultation I try to gain a complete picture of the clients goals and priorities, issues and concerns, medical history, current lifestyle and diet, needs and ability to change, access to food and cooking skills.  This information will help me devise a personalised protocol that is realistic and achievable for the client.  Clients generally have two consultations within two weeks of each other and then typically do not need to come back for 6-8 weeks.



Do you have any valuable insider lifestyle tips for us, or a motto you try to live life by?

Food is important emotionally as well as physically, and it is really hard work to have a perfect diet 100% of the time.  I love eating out or having indulgent evening in with my husband and friends to celebrate something, or just for the hell of it, and dont want to feel guilty about it.  I try to eat really well for 80-90% of the time, meaning guilt free enjoyment of delicious meals the rest of the time. That does not mean that healthy food is boring or tasteless - just sometimes its nice to not worry about what you are eating.  However for some people there are foods that will need permanently excluded to maintain health.   



What three  foods do you think we should all include in our diet?

This is a tough question as everyone has different requirements but generally...
1) Oily fish like salmon, trout, sardines or herring at least twice a week.  As well as being a delicious source of protein it’s the omega 3 fats EPA and DHA (which have anti-inflammatory mechanism) that are found in a form the body can readily absorb that makes oily fish so important.  

2) Cabbage, well sauerkraut - I know… who would have thought!  I’ve just come back from a few days in Cologne where i ate vats of saurkraut and other slightly pickled cabbage.  Homemade sauerkraut is an excellent source of probiotics - the bodies beneficial bacteria.

3) Flaxseeds (or linseeds) are a great source of soluble and insoluble fibre as well as having omega 3, although not is as readily a usable form as oily fish, and lignans (phytoestrogens with antioxidant properties). Having two dessert spoons of ground flaxseeds a day delivers nearly half of our average daily fibre requirement.  Be sure to soak whole flaxseeds in a little water overnight before you eat them.


Is there any food you rely on when dealing with periods of stress?

I don’t rely on any one food but try to be more organised and eat regularly to manage my blood sugar.  When I’m stressed, frequently I do not having time to eat. This can mean I am tempted to skip a meal or think I will get something when I’m on the run.  Often I suddenly get very hungry and find it hard to make a healthy choice.  I try to make sure during these times that there is always something healthy and quick to eat that is easily accessible.  For example I will carry a high protein snack, like a 'bounce ball', in my bag so that if I have not had enough time for breakfast and have to leave the house I will have something to eat rather than be faced with eating the quick breakfast options available in cafes like pastries.  I will also always have some soup in my freezer which I can quickly defrost and top with some tinned flageolet beans for extra protein and a handful of watercress for vitamin C. I always have eggs too so I can have a poached egg with avocado or sautéed spinach and garlic.  


If you would advise limiting anything our diets, what would it be?

Without a doubt, sports drinks and fizzy drinks - you know the ones.  Unless you are a top class athlete, you do not need to drink sports drinks after exercising.  These processed drinks are full of sugars, salt and other things we just do not need.  They are just making us fatter and have all sorts of other issues besides if consumed all day every day.  Ideally adults should drink 1-2 litres of liquid; water, herbal and fruit teas etc, a day - slightly more if intensively exercising or it is very hot.  


Most of us have just had returned from our Christmas holiday, which often involves varying amounts of relaxation and stress! How do you relax? 

Hmmm I have a small child who has just started walking so not much relaxing goes on in the day time, if i’m lucky I can squeeze in an afternoon nap with him which is great after waking up at 5am! However, when our baby is in bed, my husband and I will cook supper together and talk.  Slowly pottering in the kitchen with some nice music in the background I find very relaxing.  But if we are really being honest here, there is nothing like a day in a spa with various treatments and saunas and... well if i’m very lucky that might happen every couple of years!


You're a local to the Notting Hill area, what is it about this part of town that you love?

I have lived here for a few years now and I love seeing the same faces at the market stalls and in local shops and building up relationships with them or haggling with the vendors on Golborne road for the odd bit of junk I think would be perfect for our house. I try to buy all my food from the market and I'm very partial to George’s Fisheries on Ladbroke Grove.


If you could take only 5 things to a secret deserted island, what would they be?!

A really good heavy based frying pan for cooking my foraged food,  Larrouse Gastronomic - so I can spot up on my french cookery terminology and wonder at some of the food people have eaten in the past. A Bialetti coffee maker and good quality coffee, my sewing machine so I can attempt to improve my appallingly bad sewing and my husbands iPod - he’s got much better music selection than me.




Totally with you on the Bialetti! And finally Jemima, who inspires you? 
Mothers, ones who go out to work and ones who stay at home with their children. 


Jemima will be giving a short talk at Golborne Place on Sunday 19th January from 2.30pm focusing on starting the new year in the right frame of mind. Jemima will be covering the ways in which Nutritional Therapy can help us all, weight loss and how to cope and importantly, the post Xmas detox!

Afterwards there will be a chance for a Q&A with Jemima so you can ask some specific questions. If you want to come along send us your name to amy@golborneplace.com. Thanks and all the best for 2014 from Golborne Place!