I am fascinated how food and lifestyle choices powerfully shape an individual’s health. Through this website, I want to share what I have learned from my own discovery, from others, and from research, hoping that something here may be helpful to you.
As a working professional in my early years, I loved coming home to the quiet, peace, and solitude of my kitchen. Not gifted in other art forms, I turned to cooking as an expression of creativity and whimsy. Over time, I have come to appreciate fresh, whole foods for the amazing gifts they provide—life force energy, balance, harmony, and a synergistic mix of the known and yet-to-be-discovered.
After retiring 25 years ago from a professional career in business, I spent two decades at home raising our children. During these years, I enrolled in a variety of food, nutrition and health courses. I also studied and then volunteered to assist young mothers in a Zero-to-Three program at the Early Childhood Development Center, which now operates out of Metropolitan Hospital in Manhattan. I am most grateful to Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D. and to Dr. Nina Lief and Rebecca Thomas, M.S., who have respectively shaped my thinking and my knowledge base in the fields of food/nutrition and child development. After 20 years dividing time between New York and Martha’s Vineyard, I moved to the Vineyard in 2008 to be in a community where I felt that I could best use my education in the field of natural health and my interest in assisting others in the prevention of chronic disease.
If sustainability is the key to our future, then education about food and lifestyle is essential to achieve this goal. I am especially interested in helping children and their parents to appreciate the importance of whole foods, of investing time in the kitchen as a shared experience, and of finding ways to integrate activity into the family’s daily routine. And, I have an equally strong interest in helping adults, no matter what age, to develop strategies for Growing, Older, Better.
The postwar baby boom group, born between 1946-64, account for 26% of the population. Despite the wealth of resources enjoyed today compared to past generations–foods from around the globe in infinite variety; refrigeration and safe food handling practices; educational attainment; the internet for food/health information; modern drugs to assist and fine-tune when needed; and modern medicine that can no only repair organs, limbs, and joints, but also replace them–the baby boom group is living longer (with the help of modern medicine) but not better than their parents.
No matter our age, it is never too late to nourish our life force with whole foods and natural therapies. And, doing so is all the more important if we must take prescription drugs and/or undergo medical treatment. No matter where we are on the health continuum, we can strengthen our systems with the riches provided by nature. Good health is both and art and a science, a fascinating personal journey of discovery.
Major Afilliations:
Duke’s County (Martha’s Vineyard) Health Council
Board, Martha’s Vineyeard Donors’ Collaborative
Advisory Board, Island Grown Schools
Steering Committee, Mass in Motion-MV
Education:
- Ph.D., The Science of Natural Health, Clayton College of Natural Health, 2007-11.
- Food Therapy: A 100-hour course for health professionals taught by Annemarie Colbin, focusing on using foods and natural modalities for healing, 2007-08.
- Institute for Integrative Nutrition and 15.5 C.E.U.s Columbia Teachers’ College, 2006-07.
- Master’s Degree, the Science of Natural Health, Clayton College, 2003-06.
- 5-Elements of Chinese Herbs, one-year certification, AADP, for health professionals, 2005-06.
- Food and Healing East and West, one-year certification, Annemarie Colbin, 1994.
- The Early Childhood Development Center, Training, 1997-98; Teaching, 1998-2008.
- B.A. Economics/Social Relations, Radcliffe College, Harvard University, 1969
Address:
Seven Gates Farm
301 Southgate Road
West Tisbury, MA; by mail: Vineyard Haven, MA 02568-7136