With a last name of Kitchen,  I was pretty much destined to be involved with food in some way.  However, it has been a circuitous journey to this point, with all roads leading me back to a core belief in the power of food as medicine.  I strongly believe that the growing incidences of allergies, learning and behavioural problems, autoimmune diseases, and mood and attention disorders are linked to chronic imbalances in our gut flora.  Our diet, and the state our digestive system, can either heal or exacerbate these imbalances.

I have spent many years involved in education, both as a teacher in First Nations communities and then as an administrator for special education programs in First Nations communities in British Columbia, Canada.  Throughout my time in these roles, it became evident that nutrition was a key piece not being considered when developing plans to address learning and behavioural issues in children.  I became curious about the perception in educational academia that diet is not a factor of significance in influencing attention and behaviour specifically, when it seemed logical that it would.  As such, I endeavored to explore the research myself and completed my MA in educational psychology with a thesis topic titled ADHD and Elimination Diets: A systematic review of the literature.  http://summit.sfu.ca/item/12567

To further my education in this area, I also became a Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a view to combining education and nutrition.  This was invaluable in providing a holistic approach to health and food preparation.

The purpose of this site is to have a forum for sharing the culmination of my experiences, research, and explorations of the use of food to balance our microbiomes and obtain optimal health.

As Hippocrates stated so well, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”