Areas of Practice
Weight Loss & Obesity, Diabetes, Cholesterol, Heart Health & Blood Pressure
IBS, IBD, Gut, Digestion & Bloating, Skin issues, Eczema, Psoriasis & Dermatitis
Food Intolerance & Allergies Mental Health, Anxiety & Depression & Eating Disorders
Migraines & Thyroid Low Energy, Chronic Fatigue, Brain Fog & Long Covid
Joint Pain, Arthritis & Sports Performance, Fertility, Menopause & Hormone Issues, PCOS & Endometriosis
Anti-Ageing & Paediatric Nutrition
The best way to achieve Optimal Nutritional Health is with Personalised Dietary planning
Drastic calorie reduction, food group exclusion and short-term dieting can increase the levels of toxins in your bloodstream and affect a wide range of biological processes (e.g. interfere with liver and kidney function, insulin action and release). Our experts understand the metabolic processes that underpin nutrition, allowing us to devise enjoyable meal plans that aid weight loss in a healthy and sustainable way without depriving the body of the important fuels it needs or increasing the level of toxins in your system.
As our dietary choices directly affect the level of sugar circulating in the blood, they play a critical role in diabetes management, as well as in managing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Designing the right diet requires expertise. Optimal meal planning must be tailored to your unique profile, lifestyle and disease state. Using our knowledge in nutritional physiology we will guide you to select the right balance of dietary elements. Your personalised dietary plan will also include cooking tips and techniques to ensure you extract the maximum protective benefit from your food.
The Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. The landmark is atherosclerosis, that happens by deposition of cholesterol and fibrous tissues in the arterial walls which build up and eventually lead to narrowing and thickening or blocking of the arterial lumen. This causes a chronic inflammatory condition, regulating the plaque formation as well as the thrombotic complications of atherosclerosis. A personalised Mediterranean and Okinawan diet to tackle that chronic inflammation and the thrombotic events is the key to improving the cholesterol level in your blood and boost your overall general health.
Regular consumption of a diet rich in salt, energy dense foods, refined carbohydrates, added sugar, saturated and trans-fat, as well as low in fruits and vegetables contributes to an increased risk of rising blood pressure. As diet is the key to your health, we will tailor a menu for you, rich in plant-based foods, phenol compounds, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, and low sodium intake which will be effective in the management of your hypertension.
If you experience periodic abdominal discomfort, headaches or skin reactions but can’t quite pin down why it might be a food intolerance. Food intolerances can present with a range of symptoms: carbohydrate intolerances can cause abdominal bloating, excessive gas, and loose stools while intolerances to compounds like histamine and tyramine are more commonly associated with migraines, hives and itching. The physiological mechanisms responsible for the food intolerance reaction are equally varied and complex, but can be managed with appropriate, personalised dietary planning. Find out more about the state-of-the-art screening tests we offer at our Edinburgh practice.
At Nutripanda, we take time to understand the components of your current diet, eating patterns and lifestyle. This helps us identify important dietary elements that may be missing and possible behavioural and emotional triggers for IBS. We then combine dietary planning and screening tests with education and self-monitoring approaches to help alleviate your symptoms and empower you to better manage your own gut functionality.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is characterised by prolonged fatigue in combination with symptoms like muscle and joint pain, headaches, tender lymph nodes, recurrent sore throat, significant problems with cognition and concentration, memory, sleep and deterioration after physical activity. Nutritional intervention plays a key role in preventing and managing chronic fatigue. Altered microbiome, sub-optimal selenium intake, high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, deficiencies of vitamin C, vitamins B, sodium, magnesium, zinc, folic acid, carnitine, tryptophan, essential fatty acids, and coenzyme Q10 have been identified as links between nutrition and chronic fatigue. At Nutripanda we tackle this condition with an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant bespoke diet with a particular attention to your gut functionality and to the detoxification process.
Healthy eating habits are essential to maintaining a healthy mind. Your eating habits, lifestyle choices, sleep patterns and individual genetic profile determine your “neuroendocrinological” balance, which affects your everyday mood and sense of well-being. Appropriate production of key neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin, dopamine, noradrenalin, melatonin and γ-aminobutyric acid) allows you to maintain and control your mood, but requires adequate dietary inclusion of nutrients such as tryptophan, tyrosine, phenylalanine, glutamine, omega 3 fatty acids, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, vitamin B6, Vitamin B12 and folic acid. These nutrients, critical to the brain’s metabolic processes, are found in many everyday foods. Yet other familiar characters; alcohol, refined carbohydrates and sugars can contribute to a depressive mood. Nutripanda’s expert team can help you to navigate these dietary friends and foes and can work with you to develop a personalised, enjoyable diet plan that will help optimise your sense of mental well-being.
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating are included in the most common eating disorders. The latter may determine a prolonged state of starvation, sometimes coupled with eating unusually large amounts of food. Eating disorders can be associated with medical complications like anemia, low blood pressure, structural and functional heart damage, muscle wasting and weakness, osteopenia and osteoporosis, brittle hair and nails, severe constipation, brain damage and multiorgan failure. Feeling cold and tired all the time, lethargy and sluggishness are the first signs that you might need to address your eating patterns. Eating disorders frequently appear during teenage years or young adulthood, however, they may also develop during childhood or in later life. Multiple studies show the complexity of the interplay in between genetic, biological, behavioural, psychological, and social factors that are playing a key role in causing eating disorders. At Nutripanda we take into consideration all those factors and we will follow you step by step with a controlled diet plan to assist the perfect functionality of your body and your mind.
An individual's dietary strategy can markedly influence their physical performance. Nutrition is fundamental in athletic performance. Pre and post-workout nutritional recommendations are essential to the effectiveness of recovery and adaptive processes. The regime and composition of your diet are associated with success in sports alongside reducing inflammation and oxidative stress. Indeed, high levels of physical performance is known to induce oxidative stress, inflammation, and muscle fatigue. Many efforts have been made to identify micronutrients and natural compounds, able to prevent or attenuate the exercise-induced oxidative stress and inflammation. Vitamin A, C, E and K, carotenoids and polyphenols are exogenous antioxidants that are a must in a diet to fight oxidation and inflammation during and after exercise. Personalised nutrition in athletes aims to optimise health, body composition, and exercise performance by targeting dietary recommendations to an individual's genetic profile. The protein and carbohydrate requirements for athletes pre, during, and post-exercise can be a fiery topic, however our assessments will give us all the information needed to tailor your diet plan and boost your sports performance.
Chronic inflammatory status due to autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis could lead to stiffness and painful joints. Re-establishing the normal functionality of the gut, identifying food intolerances, alongside a plant-based diet rich in fibre and low in animal products, processed and refined food like the Mediterranean diet, are key to fighting inflammation in the body and thus reducing the symptoms of pain.
If you suffer from arthritis, you might be familiar with the common symptoms of it like tenderness and stiffness, inflammation and pain in and around the joints and restricted movement of your joints, with weakness and muscle wasting. The food you choose to eat can directly modulate your immune response by providing a wide range of nutrients. Those nutrients will interfere with multiple biochemical pathways at both a gastro-intestinal and systemic level. Your diet critically moulds your gut microbiota, which is recognised to have a central role in the modulation of the immune response in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases pathogenesis, such as in rheumatoid arthritis. That’s why, choosing the ‘right’ diet for you will be crucial as a form of self-management intervention. We will create a bespoke diet plan for you, that could impact on disease expression, course and outcome, and help to fight your arthritis.
As we grow older, we also grow more susceptible to infection and disease. While we can’t stop the passage of time, we can delay its affects by a healthy diet designed to protect and preserve our DNA, cells and tissue. A number of factors contribute to the effects of ageing; exposure to pollutants, radiation and toxins but poor diet also plays its part. Damage to our DNA can result in abnormal protein production that impedes cell repair and contributes to a loss of cell elasticity and other symptoms of ageing. Age-related reductions in hormone production and an increase in blood sugar and oxygen free radicals can also affect DNA repair and impede biological processes such as cell function and protein synthesis. Nutripanda’s team are experts in devising diets that minimise the impacts of ageing including key dietary ingredients (e.g. coenzyme Q10, phytoestrogens, probiotics, omega-3 fatty acids) that will help you maintain your sense of health, youth and vitality.
The multitude of complex biomolecules as dietary extracts in fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices play a crucial role in skin health maintenance, skin cancer and dermal damage prevention. Nourishing the intestinal flora using prebiotics and probiotics with anti-inflammatory effects is essential for improving skin quality. Vitamin C, omega-3, coenzyme Q10, arginine derived nitric oxide, taurine, antioxidants from turmeric and ginger and polyphenols from chocolate, wine and olive oil are a few of the nutritional tools that we use to fight conditions like eczema, psoriasis, acne and more.
The thyroid is a vital gland that produces specific hormones. Those hormones are essential in activating the metabolism of your cells. Therefore, the thyroid plays a key role in the growth and development of your body, or when you need more energy such as during pregnancy or on a cold winter’s day. If your thyroid is overactive and produces too may hormones, you may suffer from hyperthyroidism. On the contrary, an underactive thyroid or hypothyroidism occurs when your thyroid doesn’t synthesise enough hormones. Both of these hormonal imbalances can lead to a great number of symptoms. Graves’ Disease and Hashimoto Thyroiditis are two of the most common autoimmune thyroid diseases, that are the major causes of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, respectively. Some foods rich in goitrin like soy and cruciferous vegetables have been described as disruptive for thyroid functionality through the inhibition of thyroid hormone synthesis. On the other hand, selenium, and zinc, in a well-balanced Mediterranean diet, are beneficial oligo-elements for thyroid functionality, preventing cell damage and premature aging. Vitamin D and calcium also play an important role in thyroid function and diseases. Nutripanda’s expert team will take all the latest evidence-based science into consideration when tailoring your diet plan specifically to target the optimum functionality of your thyroid.
Migraine is a common neurological condition linked to metabolic endocrine disorders that are accompanied by disabling headaches and a plethora of somatosensory and transient motor disturbances. Advancement in understanding the underlying mechanisms of migraine pathogenesis and how dietary factors can interfere with those mechanisms lead us to consider diet as a disease-modifying agent, which may also interfere with the gut–brain axis or the epigenetics of migraine. A Ketogenic and a modified Atkins diet, as well as a diet rich in folate and omega-3 and low in omega-6 and saturated fat have been shown to have beneficial effects. The emerging field of precision nutrition by way of a personalised diet is a promising solution to migraines.
Hormonal changes are among the major physiological trades associated with menopause, clinically diagnosed when a woman has not menstruated for one year due to the loss of ovarian follicular activity. Sleep problems, mood swings, hot flushes, night sweats, osteopenia and osteoporosis, psychiatric disorders, urogenital atrophy, sexual dysfunction and skin lesions are amongst those pathological menopausal syndromes associated with hormonal changes. The key ingredients that we use to tailor your diet and cope with menopause syndromes are omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, vitamin D and a diet rich in exogenous antioxidants, like vitamin A, β-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, plant flavonoids and soy isoflavones.
As we know, diet and nutrition play a crucial role in maintaining the general health of the population. In particular women's health can be affected by nutrient deficiencies, alongside gene-nutrient interactions. Indeed, food can alter gene expression, as well as susceptibility to diseases, including PCOS and endometriosis, through several mechanisms. Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids as well as vitamins like B1, B9, C, D and E have been extensively investigated. Some studies suggest that supplementation with omega 3 can slow the growth of endometrial implants, reduce pain, inflammation, and improve the quality of life of women with endometriosis. A plant-based diet high in fruit and veg has been associated with lowering the risk of developing endometriosis. And the protective role of the microbiome and probiotics like lactobacilli in gynaecological diseases show promising results too. The latest scientific knowledge will be fundamental to our nutritional intervention to fight against gynaecological diseases, endocrinological disfunctions and improve women's health.
Preserving the egg and the sperm from potential damage is fundamental to optimising the chance of conception. The harmful effects of circulating free radicals and oxidative factors can be minimised by informed dietary choices and supplementation with appropriate vitamins and minerals (e.g. Vitamins A and E, carotenoids, pycnogenol, grape seed extract, and folic acid). A healthy diet with appropriately balanced oils, vitamins and minerals can help ensure a mother-to-be’s hormonal balance is optimal for fertilisation. For the future father, foods that contain l-arginine, l-methionine, l-cysteine and l-tyrosine can increase sperm count and motility and protect glandular and hormonal function. The Nutripanda team keep up-to-date with the latest evidence on the potential impacts of lifestyle and dietary choices on fertility and libido, as well the implication of excess weight on fertility and dietary implications for miscarriage. Whatever stage of the conception cycle you’re at, we are happy to work with you to optimise your chances of a successful pregnancy.
Nutrition is essential for general health at all stages in life, but we want to pay particular attention from day one. How we feed our children from the paediatric age, through childhood and into adolescence is essential to establish the “right” physiological and metabolic pathways needed for a healthier adult life and to prevent conditions and non-communicable diseases in later life. Nutrients like carotenoids, omega 3, folate, choline, iron, and calcium are crucial for optimal synaptogenesis and refinement during early development. During adolescence, growth and development are transformative and have profound consequences on an individual's health in later life, as well as the health of any potential children. The current generation of adolescents are growing up at a time of unprecedented change in food environments, whereby nutritional problems of micronutrient deficiency and food insecurity persist, and weight and obesity are burgeoning. At Nutripanda we will initially focus on optimising the nutritional status during pregnancy as it impacts early embryonic development, organogenesis, and neural development. We will then closely follow the mother’s diet during breastfeeding and throughout the weaning process and we will tailor a nutritious food plan for your children.