Tell us a bit about yourself and your journey to become a holistic nutritionist
I truly believe that everyone is born with a set of unique gifts that they cultivate and develop through time spent in the field. As children, it is easier to connect to these gifts as we have been exposed to less societal programming. Now that I am a holistic nutritionist seeing clients 1:1 and the co-founder of two nourishment projects (Spoon and ODE), it makes perfect sense that from childhood you could always find me helping my mother peel and chop veggies perched on the kitchen counter, or playing outdoors with my hands in the earth, making little homes for my animal figures out of bushes, mini palm trees during my three years in India or snow igloos while living in Canada. It feels clear now that my work is rooted in this early connection to food, nature, and more natural ways of living.
How I became a holistic nutritionist was through my own chronic digestive issues. In my early twenties, while working corporate, it was rare that I could finish a meal without digestive discomfort such as pain, bloating, and gas. Around the same time, I had been on several courses of antibiotics after an intense staph infection and colonized infection (MRSA). I loved food but began to feel scared of how my body would react. That’s when I started researching, experimenting, sourcing better ingredients, and slowly healing. I tried elimination diets, worked with a naturopath, and learned what worked for my body and what didn’t. It became clear that the antibiotics had wiped out much of the good bacteria in my gut, leaving me unable to properly break down food.
At the same time, I was already immersed in the natural food and living space, making nut milks and celery juice at home, and reading every health blog I could find. The natural next step was to study formally and pursue holistic nutrition as a career. What began as personal healing has become my path and my work, reconnecting others back to food, earth, and more natural ways of living.
Can you explain the gut–skin connection in simple terms
When your gut is thriving and your microbiome is healthy and happy, your skin will have a vibrance or sense of aliveness to it. This is because your body can absorb nutrients, balance inflammation, and regulate immunity. If digestion struggles, the skin often becomes a mirror of what is going on internally. Resulting in redness, breakouts, or dullness. To expand on this, the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain through the digestive tract, is like a communication highway between gut and mind. When it is activated, it helps calm the nervous system, improve digestion, and lower stress signals in the body. This sense of balance ripples outward, and the skin reflects that inner calm with more clarity and radiance.
What are some common signs your digestive health might be affecting your skin?
Since our skin is often a mirror of what is happening in the gut. When the digestive tract is unhappy or inflamed, it sends physical signals that show up on the surface, such as acne, eczema, rosacea, dermatitis, or even psoriasis. For others, it might be a dullness or lack of vibrance, or skin that feels extra sensitive and reactive. These are all forms of skin inflammation, different ways the body communicates to us when something inside needs tending to. Breakouts can reflect the body struggling with detoxification, eczema or rosacea may flare when inflammation is heightened, and dullness can mirror poor nutrient absorption.
What dietary habits are the most important for supporting digestive health?
Hydration is the foundation for me. I drink filtered water because tap water can often contain chemicals, heavy metals, or residues from treatment processes that put an extra burden on the body. Having access to a clean spring or well would be the ultimate dream in my opinion, since those waters often come naturally rich in minerals. In my filtered water at home I like to include natural electrolytes from Celtic salt, minerals from herbal infusions, and water-rich foods. I always ensure to hydrate my body first thing in the morning and also make sure I’m well-hydrated before meals. It’s simple, but it makes all the difference for digestion. Diversity is just as important. Each food carries its own nutrient profile, and our gut thrives when it’s exposed to many different nutrients. Eating seasonally and locally adds another layer, because the foods grown closest to us are often what our bodies need most at that time of year. Fiber is also key, both soluble fiber (like oats, apples, chia seeds, avocado, or flax) that helps form a soothing gel in the gut, and insoluble fiber (like leafy greens, root vegetables, nuts, and seeds) that helps keep everything moving. Fermented foods are another great gut supportive food that I love to incorperate, not just for their probiotics, but because they connect us back to ancestral ways of eating. Ancestral diets always included cultured, living foods, and I try to follow those principles in my own approach to nourishment.
What is your perspective on supplementation?
I would love to say we don’t need to supplement because food could give us everything we need, but that’s becoming less true over time. Nutrients in food come from the soil they grow in, and the healthier the soil, the more nutrient dense the food. With today’s soils increasingly depleted, our food contains far fewer nutrients than it did even 100 years ago. That said, I see supplementation as bio-individual—what works for one person may not be right for another. The best approach is to test first, whether that’s working with a functional medicine practitioner on nutrient panels, running stool tests for microbiome health, or even something simple like a blood test for vitamin D or hormone balance. That way, supplementation is guided by what your body truly needs. For the average person, though, there are a few basics that can be supportive for almost anyone. I like and often recommend magnesium bisglycinate or a good magnesium complex, cod liver oil for omegas and vitamin D, and immune supportive additions like propolis or ACTIVIST Immune Elixir.
How does inflammation show up on the skin?
Inflammation isn’t always negative. It’s part of the body’s natural way of protecting and repairing. But when it becomes systemic and lingers long-term, almost like the body is holding onto a stressed state, that’s when it starts to show up in ways that don’t serve us. Much of this begins in the gut. When the digestive system is inflamed or out of balance, it is often mirrored on the skin. On the surface this can look like flare-ups such as redness, breakouts, rosacea, irritation, or even a kind of dullness or lack of vibrance. It can also show in the whites of your eyes appearing less bright, even slightly yellow. Stress and environmental exposures only add to this. The good news is there are ways to guide the body back into balance. Antioxidants from local and seasonal plants like berries, leafy greens, herbs, or raw honey help to soothe inflammation and restore.
What role does sugar play in gut and skin issues?
Not all sugars are the same. Refined sugar, the kind found in processed foods or sodas, can feed the wrong bacteria in the gut, spike inflammation, and throw off balance in both digestion and the skin. Natural sugars, like those in honey, fruit, or pure maple syrup, are very different. They come packaged with enzymes, minerals, and sometimes fiber, which help the body break them down more gently and even offer nourishment in the process.
