Hello and welcome. I’m Julie Babis, Nutritional Therapist, Dietary Educator and accredited NLP coach.
I was going to start by writing that I’m not an athlete, but then I paused. I read in Runner’s World recently: “you are a trail runner if you step off the pavement to run on the grass”. So, following that logic, I am an athlete – I run 3 times a week, and participate in the odd Park Run or Race for Life.
Our Club Team Director did try persuading me to run the 1.5k steeple chase at a League competitiom, but I didn’t have my trainers with me. Plus I’m not sure the Track Manager would have appreciated someone taking twice the time it takes everyone else. Although two other teams fielded have-a-go heroes at the slower end of the speed spectrum!
So how did I get into performance nutrition? Both my kids are track athletes. Knowing what – and when – to feed them has been an increasing challenge as they have grown and got better at their sport. I found I was spending an increasing amount of time researching what they need in terms of energy and nutrients. I also discovered there is a lot of unreliable information floating around the internet, and personal opinion is often presented as the latest science. Drill into it, and the lack of substance becomes apparent.
Advice from coaches varies massively from sensible to appalling. Even England Athletics currently does not offer any training on nutrition. A lot of personal trainers may have done a module on nutrition as part of their training, but I’ve heard some seriously awful diet advice in respect of weight loss from a PT at a gym I used to go to. As I found the clear links between eating well and good health fascinating, I launched in to train as a nutritional therapist.
Fast forward 3 years (studying for a Masters degree while running a family is a whole separate post), I am a fully qualified Nutritional Therapist and Dietary Educator. What do those titles mean? How do they differ from nutritionist and dietitian?
Nutritional therapists (professional body: BANT) use the principles of functional medicine – looking at the body as a whole, not as a series of unrelated systems – to understand and work on resolving the underlying causes of symptoms rather than just address symptoms in isolation. We are trained to use and interpret functional tests (such as stool tests, hormone tests …). Where appropriate we can recommend supplements. We also take into account lifestyle – factors such as sleep, stress and environment can contribute hugely to how you feel.
Nutritionists (professional body: AfN) look purely at diet and the nutritional content of food. Their focus will be much more on generally eating well, and specifics of what to eat within public health guidelines, but without taking into account individual concerns and symptoms.
Dietary educators look at what you as an individual are eating, whether it meets your specific needs and where changes can be made to meet any specific insufficiencies or reduce excesses. They create menus and recipes, again with respect to public health guidelines.
Dietitians (professional body: BDA) work alongside doctors providing diet advice in accordance with NHS protocols, and are not licensed to make individual recommendations outside of those protocols.
I chose nutritional therapy because it is based on personalised nutrition and not on taking a one size fits all approach. Each person is different and has different nutritional needs. Although basic principles of eating well apply to everyone, there may be specific reasons to vary from the standard for any given individual, which could be food intolerances, digestive challenges, existing health conditions and prescribed medication, or personal ethics.
So has what I have learned benefited my family? Both kids are both doing well on the track and both made it to the schools’ national final last year, for which their coaches can take most of the credit. For the most part they have stayed healthy along the way. Neither have had shin splints or stress fractures, they are both less plagued by teenage acne than some of their friends.
Food timing is a constant learning curve that requires constant adjustment, negotiation with a recalcitrant teen and occasional conversations with schools that seem to put actually feeding the kids at the bottom of their priorities. Overall, if anything, I have become more passionate about the need to eat well to perform well at sport, in education or at work.
