I am a mother to a beautiful little boy and I love preparing delicious healthy dishes for my family. I’m also a NZ Registered Naturopath who has worked in the natural health industry for 14 years and ran my own private practice for 5 years in Auckland, New Zealand.
I currently see clients via online consultations, do freelance recipe development and am completing some additional study in nutrition and mental health.
I initially gave up my full time practice to be mum. My priorities changed and I wanted to have more family time and focus on my love of cooking and nutrition. I love being creative in the kitchen and coming up with new recipes as well as putting a healthy twist on traditional recipes.
About this blog
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 on this site all focus on unrefined wholefoods 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 goats milk products better than they can cows milk, some are ok with yogurt but not milk and some are fine with all types of dairy.
However for the purpose of this blog and all my clients that couldn't eat dairy I decided to keep this blog mainly dairy free, although you will find the odd post with a bit of goats feta.
Working as a Naturopath, gluten and dairy are among the most common food allergies/intolerances that would come up for people, followed closely by adverse reactions to sugar and most of my clients would experience a significant improvement in their health and energy levels from removing or limiting these foods in their diet for a while.
For some individuals, they would just avoid these foods for a few months while doing some digestive healing, others limiting or rotating these foods going forward and for a small amount it would be elminating alltogether.
I do believe food is our medicine, we have all heard it before but we really are what we eat. What we eat metabolises into the cells of our body and the food we eat becomes literally us! 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, we live in different environments and are exposed to different toxins. We all metabolise our food differently and what diet fad is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. I’m not strictly Paleo, Vegan, Vegetarian or even clean but a lover of nutritious wholefoods and my recipes are mainly gluten, dairy and sugar-free.
For the purpose of this blog and to help my readers easily find recipes when following a certain diet 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 all resolved. I did go completely gluten-free and dairy-free for a couple of years and after working on my digestive and immune system and bringing inflammation down I can now have those 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.