Eat yourself healthy, says functional nutritionist

“Nearly 85% of lifestyle illnesses originate from problems in the gut,” said functional nutritionist Dr Nelly Silvis. “By making a few changes to your diet, you can eat yourself healthier.”

Dr Silvis presented a nutrition workshop at the Resource, Equipping and Training (RET) Centre in Mokopane on Saturday 3 March. Open to the public, the workshop was the first of many informative workshops that will be hosted at the RET Centre. Mokopane Destiny Academy (MDA), at the RET Centre, made its conference room available for the workshop and treated attendees to a healthy lunch.

“These sessions are about creating a central platform where the town’s residents can come to learn about personal wellbeing,” said the RET Centre’s Ps Thomas Marshall. The centre is situated at the corner of Geyser and Fourie Streets and is home to MDA, Marshall Gymnastics Academy, HIIT Revolution Fitness and Destiny Alive.

During the nutrition workshop, Dr Silvis, who has 35 years’ experience as a nutritionist and registered dietician, focussed on how healthier choices and eating more frequently can stabilise blood sugar levels. She explained how our bodies receive one of two messages from what we eat, either ‘energy’ or ‘harm’.

“Eating properly can reduce inflammation and other medical conditions. It is about including variety and colour into our diets,” she said. “We need to move away from the beige and brown foods that hold very little benefit for our bodies.”

Each of the attendees also received a body assessment on an InBody machine that looked at not only their weight, but also muscle tone and fat percentages. They were also treated to a healthy lunch and sent home with some healthy snack recipes for the lunchbox.

“Thank you to the RET  Centre for organising this wonderfully informative workshop,” said one attendee Adele Essakow. “Eating healthy takes planning and a bit of work but then you’ll feel a lot better if you start looking after yourself and your eating habits.”