Practitioner Spotlight: The Nourished Mother
At Golden Roots Kitchen we are inspired by the knowledge and wisdom of the healers and practitioners in our local community. In this post we are so happy to welcome and introduce Magda with The Nourished Mother for a Practitioner spotlight. Magda is a Functional Medicine Practitioner whose passion and focus lies in supporting women desiring to become pregnant, are currently pregnant, and those whose bodies are in need of a little extra TLC post pregnancy. In this post we will go deeper into what called Magda to Functional Medicine, what it looks like to work with her, the many ways she offers support, as well as how to connect with her.
Magda’s passion for holistic medicine began when her mother’s health declined rapidly, and they were left with no answers or precise diagnosis as to what attributed to her pain & dramatic loss of weight. After months of Dr. to Naturopath to chiropractor visits, combined with many late nights of research, her mother was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Magda became her primary caretaker, and while she believed in her mother’s strength and ability to heal, her mother was tired and, after a few short months, passed away in their home in the Santa Cruz mountains.
This was the greatest motivation to help others understand their biochemistry, to be able to view symptoms as blessings and take action early on before they manifest into full-blown diseases. While studying biochemistry at UCSC, Magda was accepted at the school of applied functional medicine, where she obtained her license as a functional medicine practitioner.
Magda knows that a healthy family begins with the mother, and how impactful it can be to have support along the way. By addressing hormonal imbalances, optimizing digestive function and meeting nutritional demands prior to conception, the body is better able to adapt to the increased needs of carrying a child. She has seen in her practice that this can feel empowering, yet other times overwhelming for the mother. Looking through a functional medicine lens, Magda supports women to address imbalances in the body and follow symptoms like a map to get to the root cause. If you or somebody you know is experiencing fatigue, hormone imbalance, digestive issues, anxiety, weight gain or infertility, and are desiring to become pregnant, working with Magda to address what is causing dis-ease in the body could be a great next step. Magda focuses on helping mamas & mamas-to-be to develop their unique wellness protocols, build intentional and sustainable habits, and make daily choices that have in mind long lasting health of the mother and her family.
Below Magda provides insight on the areas that she has found to be the most critical in supporting a mother on her journey to and through pregnancy.
Meeting Nutritional Demand
The nutrients that help you get pregnant are also those key nutrients that help you stay pregnant and grow a healthy baby. It's important to recognize that the food you choose to eat influences your menstrual cycle, ovulation, egg quality, the health of your uterine lining, vaginal microbiome and your immune system, which all impact fertility.
Food quality, food variety, nutrient density, and your ability to digest + absorb those nutrients all play a key role in supporting your vitality and boosting fertility. It’s important to recognize that we each have a unique demand for nutrients which must be met from the food we consume in our diet.
Your nutrient demand is the amount of macro & micro nutrients that are required to properly fuel your unique biochemistry. One’s nutrient demand can vary day to day depending on activity level, genetic expression, the amounts of toxins the liver is currently processing, how stressed or relaxed one may be and the everyday environment in which we choose to live in.
It’s important to recognize the connection between the food you choose to eat today and the impact that has on nutrient availability to fuel the tens of trillions of cells in your body.
Supporting Proper Digestion is Critical for Optimal Health
In order to fuel the tens of thousands of cells in your body, let alone the nutrients for a growing baby, we rely on proper digestion and absorption from the food we consume. Unfortunately the old adage of “we are what we eat” is rather over simplified. We must be able to break down the food, separate minerals, nutrients, proteins, etc., digest those compounds to prepare for absorption, convert to final bioavailable forms & then get them past cell membranes where they can be utilized for fuel. If we have an impairment any step of the way, we can struggle.
One of the simplest yet most profound habits to incorporate is to avoid drinking large volumes of liquids with each meal. Alkalinizing liquids can dilute stomach acid making it less effective. We rely on a strong stomach acid to begin to denature proteins, separate minerals (zinc, magnesium, iron), vitamins and nutrients for proper absorption. In particular vitamin B12 absorption requires strong stomach acid release, which allows intrinsic factors to be released for absorption further along the GI tract.
Nutrient Diversity
The more diversity of plant foods you consume, the more diverse the nutrient supply of dietary fibers, prebiotics, and polyphenols you provide for your gut microbiota. At Golden Root Kitchen our goal is to make it as easy as possible for our community to have access to an array of flavor driven, seasonal and nutrient dense foods. We are honored to provide nourishing meals to busy families who desire to have nutritious options. We offer a variety of options to keep everyone happy, satisfied and nourished.
In addition to the offerings here at GRK, Magda provides tips to boosting nutritional diversity:
Try to buy one fruit & one vegetable in each color of the rainbow weekly.
Choose a fruit or vegetable that you have never eaten before.
Toss in fresh herbs onto your dishes for added flavor & antioxidant support.
When cooking grains such as steel-cut oats, consider adding millet, chia seeds, or hemp hearts to your pot (don’t forget to add appropriate amounts of liquids).
Make a weekly vegetable soup, stir fry, or salad that has at least 6 types of different vegetables.
As always, our goal is always to share helpful information and connect with our community. Our hope is that this information reaches those out there who are needing support on their journey, and offer tools and resources to dive deeper. We love spotlights as a way for our community to connect with skilled and supportive practitioners such as Magda. It was a pleasure getting together with Magda and her sweet little girls for a Golden Roots picnic, and witnessing the nourishing mother that she is in real time
How to Connect with Magda
Follow on Instagram: @Thenourishedmother
Connect by email: hello@thenourishedmother.us
Book a complimentary 20 minute session here
Book a comprehensive consultation through her website: https://thenourishedmother.us/workwithme
Wishing you wellness always,
Mary, Magda and the GRK Team