Hi there! Are you looking for healthy wholefood recipes for you and your family? Welcome to Love Food Nourish. Naturopath Hope Pearce has created a range of delicious and nourishing recipes that are gluten-free, and many are also dairy and refined-sugar-free. Plus, you can easily search by your preferred dietary category.
About Hope
Hello, thanks for visiting Love Food Nourish. One of my greatest joys is cooking up delicious and healthy meals for my family to enjoy.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work for 16 years in the natural health industry as a Registered Naturopath (NMHNZ), and for five of those years, I ran my own private practice in beautiful Auckland, New Zealand.
When I decided to become a mum, family became my priority, so I made the decision to leave my full-time practice.
It has allowed me to focus on my love for cooking and nutrition, and it’s been an incredible journey of exploring new recipes and learning how to create healthy twists on classic dishes.
Currently I see clients via online consultations, do freelance recipe development, and am a recently accredited Mental Health Coach.
I am passionate about good tasty food, nutrition and the food mood and gut connection. I have recently incorporated my additional training in mental health to my consultations.
If you would like to find out more please go to www.hopepearce.com.
About this site:
Most of the recipes you will find here will be gluten, dairy, and refined sugar-free. I originally started this site as a resource for my clients that had allergies or intolerances to gluten and dairy.
Even if you don’t have diagnosed food intolerances, allergies, or sensitivities to any of these foods, all of the recipes on this site are here to be enjoyed. The recipes all focus on unrefined whole foods that don't skimp on flavour.
Should everyone be gluten and dairy-free?
I don't believe everyone needs to avoid gluten and dairy, we are all different and what works for some does not work for everyone. Some people can tolerate raw forms of dairy better than pasteurized, others tolerate goat milk products better than they can cows milk.
Some people have difficulty digesting lactose but others have issues with a protein called A1 casein, for some people this can cause inflammatory reactions that can manifest in a variety of symptoms.
For the purpose of this site and my clients that can't tolerate dairy, I decided to keep this site mainly dairy-free, although you will find the odd recipe with a bit of goat's feta.
Working as a Naturopath, gluten, and dairy are among the most common food allergies/intolerances that would come up for clients, followed closely by adverse reactions to sugar.
This does not always mean these foods have to be avoided forever unless they are a true IgE allergy, if you would like to read more about this you can check out this post on The difference between food allergies and food intolerances.
I do believe food is our medicine, we have all heard it before but we really are what we eat and most importantly what we digest and absorb. Our body needs the energy we get from food to do everything such as growing, thinking, and moving.
Nutrients from the foods we eat provide the foundation of the structure and function of every cell in our body. What we eat affects every cell in our body and our mood and our emotions. Our diet can truly be our friend or our foe.
What is your food philosophy? Paleo? Clean? Vegetarian?
I don’t believe in rigid labels or the latest diet fads. So often with these diet trends people get stuck in rigidly following them and in the meantime missing out on various foods that are highly nutritious.
I believe everyone is different, we all have different genes, we have different stressors in our lives that affect our health, and we live in different environments and are exposed to different toxins.
We all metabolise our food differently and what diet is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. I’m not strictly Paleo, Vegan, or Vegetarian but a lover of nutritious wholefoods.
For the purpose of this blog and to help my readers easily find recipes that suit them the recipes have been placed into categories for Paleo, Vegan, Grain-free etc where appropriate.
About my journey to becoming a Naturopath
I originally trained as a Naturopath to help quench my interest in the field of natural medicine and nutrition, but also to help get to the bottom of my own health concerns where I had found no help from orthodox medicine.
I experienced severe PMT and was diagnosed with PMDD, thyroid issues, adult acne, and eczema and also experienced bouts of depression and anxiety. All things that are so very common in the fast-paced world we live in.
I always thought I already ate a healthy diet but I was to learn so much more about food and how it affects the body that I realised my diet wasn’t as healthy as I thought.
By making gradual changes to my diet and by learning more and more in my journey to becoming a Naturopath, these issues were all resolved. I did go completely gluten-free and dairy-free for a couple of years and after working on my digestive and immune systems and bringing inflammation down I can now have those foods in my diet in small amounts.
My little boy and husband are dairy intolerant so you could say we are lucky we are all on the same page on that one and as a family only have small amounts now and then.
I'm all about nutrient-dense food that works for the individual, is easy to make, and most importantly tastes good!
Thank you for visiting Love Food Nourish! I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I do.
Hope x
If you would like to work with me then please contact me at [email protected].
Hope Pearce is a New Zealand Registered Naturopath with Naturopaths & Medical Herbalists of NZ (Inc).
Legal Information:
All content on this food blog, including recipes and pictures, are copyrighted to Love Food Nourish. Please email me at [email protected] if you would like to request publishing rights or to use, purchase or republish my photography.
Disclaimer: The information on this website are my thoughts, ideas, and personal experiences around food, nutrition and wellness and hence all information presented on this website is for informational purposes only. This website is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease and is not intended to be a replacement for any medical treatment. This site is not intended to be used for therapeutic purposes, as medical advice or offer a cure to any health or medical condition nor intends to provide a substitute for the advice provided by a physician or other healthcare professional. Please seek the advice of a healthcare professional for your specific health concerns.