Evonne Ginman DipION, mBANT, CNHC
Hi! I’m Evonne. I’m a Registered Nutritional Therapist, and I’m passionate about working with people to enhance their health and wellbeing through nutrition and lifestyle coaching. I spent four years studying clinical nutrition at the renowned Institute for Optimum Nutrition in London. I’m a member of the British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BANT) – the regulatory body for Nutritional Therapists, and registered with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) – the government’s regulatory body for complementary healthcare practitioners.
I offer nutritional therapy that is personalised, focused and evidence-based.
I can also provide nutrition workshops and talks for businesses and special interest groups.
Nutritional therapy can help with all aspects of health, fitness and wellbeing, including:
- mental and emotional wellbeing
- stress management
- optimum energy
- hormonal balance
- immune system function
- digestive health
- women’s health and fertility
- athletic performance
My Story
Growing up in the 80s, my childhood diet was fairly typical, consisting of delights such as Frosties, pop tarts, Heinz tomato soup, frozen chicken kievs, Findus crispy pancakes, boil-in-the-bag Vesta curries and Viennetta ice cream! When I stopped eating meat at age 16, I started to read up about health eating, if only to appease my mum who was convinced that I was going to become anaemic!
Unfortunately, as a young adult, I bought into the low-fat trend, and in my effort to be ‘healthy’ I was unknowingly filling myself up with sugary, processed foods such as Special K, cereal bars, low fat yoghurts, pasta salads and fruit juices. I stayed slim but my energy and mood were all over the place. I was always tired, had low self esteem and experienced anxiety and depression throughout my 20s. My digestion was terrible – I was bloated, my tummy constantly grumbled, I frequently had stabbing pains in my abdomen and would often be desperately rushing for the loo, but I laughed it all off as being the curse of the vegetarian!
At 31, I was rushed into hospital with crippling abdominal pains, so severe I could barely walk to the bathroom and was unable to eat or to lie down flat due to the pain. After several misdiagnoses (appendicitis, gall bladder infection, food poisoning), the blame was finally pinned on a grapefruit-sized dermoid cyst on my right ovary. I had an operation to remove the cyst, but I also lost my ovary and half my fallopian tube as well. As someone who always thought she was healthy, I couldn’t help wondering if there was anything that I had done that may have contributed to my declining health. I desperately wanted to feel healthy again.
I remember reading an article about the ‘Paleo diet’ that contradicted almost everything I thought I knew about healthy eating, and yet at the same time seemed to make so much sense. I started to come to the realisation that perhaps my so-called healthy diet wasn’t really as healthy as I thought it was. I started to read more and more about nutrition and then made the decision to go back to education and study it formally. And wow, what a learning curve that was!
I now love eating ‘real’ food – no more low-fat, factory-produced, food-like substances, just good old-fashioned veggies, fruit, meat (yep, that’s right!), fish, eggs, nuts and seeds. I feel more at ease with myself, my moods and energy are more stable, my tummy is flat and it no longer makes enough noise to drown out the TV!
Good food goes a long way to nurturing good health, but it takes more than just that. Stress management, quality sleep, appropriate exercise and social connection are all important too. I love walking and running with my dog along the coast, practice yoga and pilates, and take to the water on a SUP or surfboard when I can.
I feel empowered when I make choices that nourish my body and mind. I feel passionate about the power of nutrition, and I want to help others to take back control of their health too.
Evonne xx