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1. Rose: Hi. Hey folks today I'm interviewing Alison Nichols, certified holistic health
and nutrition counselor. And the founder of Frisky Lemon Nutrition. She specializes
in empowering women to cultivate a happy healthy relationship with food. And to
have more vibrant natural energy by creating their own food. Personalize food
routine. Her goal as a holistic nutrition counselor is to support others to heal
themselves with food as she did. Now Allison I have a question for you.
Allison: Sure.
Rose: Nutrition I like that, let's start with the basic word nutrition. What is
nutrition? For our friends that are new to nutrition and what nutrition is. Because I
know a lot of our people are confused about nutrition and diet. So say for example
that in hospitals, nutrition maybe referred to as the food required for a patient. So
can you explain to us what nutrition is?
Allison: Sure I can explain my take on what nutrition is, and I would say that
nutrition is the way in which you nourish yourself, so whether you're some one
that's looking for a way to reach your health goals or lose weight or heal some kind
of chronic condition or you are in a hospital, nutrition would be the plan that you
follow to nourish yourself with food. So it includes macronutrients, which are
protein carb, carbohydrates and fats. And micronutrients, which are things, like
vitamins, minerals and vital nutrients. So it is really how you put all of those things
together in a plan and nourish and heal yourself.
Rose: Okay, so now you did mention micronutrients and macronutrients, which one
has the largest quantities of vitamins and nutrient.
Allison: Well I think so all the different macro nutrients have different micro
nutrients depending on what kind they are, so when I'm working with someone I
always encourage them to choose the most nutrient dense option or nutrient rich
option of food which means it has the most nutrition per calorie or the most micro

2. nutrient per calorie. So the most vitamins and minerals. And if it is a plant it is also
going to have vita nutrients, which are nutrients, you can only find in plants so I
would say it depends on what it is. So something like ground beef or [inaudible
[00:02:55.29]] beef which is primarily protein is going to have a lot more micro
nutrients than a chicken breast for example and kale which is one of those dark leafy
green vegetables and is primarily a carbohydrate is going to have more nutrition
and more micro nutrient than iceberg lettuce.
Rose: Okay now say for example for a typical diets, diet what would you suggest one
of your clients to have say for breakfast say to get in those micro nutrients and the
macro nutrients.
Allison: Well from when I counsel or coach people from a place where everyone is a
little bit different so everyone’s meals look a little bit different base on your body
and your activity levels and your needs. But I would always encourage people to get
vegetables into day starting in the morning. So vegetables are really one of nature's
multi-vitamins, so dark green leafy vegetable are especially a great source nutrients
and minerals, so I would always encourage people to get some of those dark green
leafy vegetables into the first half of their day, whether it is scrambled eggs with
some kale or spinach, putting spinach in an omelet or having some broccoli on the
side of the chicken that you had last night. So everyone's breakfast is going to look a
little bit different but I always encourage people to get some dark green leafy
vegetable in their morning.
Rose: Would you agree that the human body requires the seven the major type of
nutrients like protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins, mineral, fiber and water
Allison: I would agree, all of those things are definitely essential for a human to be
able to thrive and just depends on your body and your lifestyle what amount of
nutrients would you need.

3. Rose: Okay sounds good, now I must say I'm in the education field, and I am familiar
with the public school system. I'm a teacher, I'm in the classroom so I do work with
the students all day long, and one of the challenges that I have is the diet that the
students are having during the course of the day. And I find that in the morning
there is a snack which consist of some type of processed food and a sugary food,
then about half hour to maybe two hours it's lunch time and again there is more
processed food and lot of carbohydrates. Now and then after that they suggest that
we take our kids out for recess which is a lot of activities but this activity is coming
from the sugar related food that they received during their luncheon and snack time
so I just wanted to get you views on this as far as when it comes to standard meals
for school. Say for example we have this new program out now that is called the new
standard meals for school and the basic thing they want to do is have healthier
meals for kids across the nation. And this new meal requires to raise the standards
for the first time in 15 years to improve the health and nutrition of nearly 32 million
kids that participate in the school meal programs everyday. Now as a parent when
we send our kids to school, we expect them… that they wont be eating the kind of
salty, sugary food that we try to keep them from at home. So we do want the food
that they get at school to be the same kind of food that we serve at our kitchen
tables. So when it comes to our children, I feel that we must do everything to
provide them with nutrition that need to be healthy. Healthy, active and be ready to
face the future. Now what are your views about this new standard school meal
program?
Allison: I think it's great, I agree that there is a lot of work that could be done in the
school lunch system and I think a lot of schools and a lot of businesses are taking
steps to really improve that. I know that there are some grants that school can get
whole food market that bring salad bar into there schools so that kids have access to
vegetables and I know that there is a lot of legislators around getting more whole
real food into schools. Because I think it is incredible important especially if in some
cases the school lunch and snacks are the healthiest meals these kids are getting,
during the day if maybe they don't have access to food at home as much as they

4. would like so I think that it is really important to prioritize the school lunch
program and make sure that kids are getting all of the nutrition that they need. And
they do need more carbohydrates as growing kids and they do need a lot of protein
to sustain their activity levels and be able to do all the fun things that kids do. So I
think that it would give parents a great peace of mind if they knew that the school
was serving food that were on par with the food that they would ideally be serving
at home and there is a lot of great resources out there for school to have things like
salad bars and more of those whole food in our schools.
Rose: Now I do agree with you because eating healthy whole food and avoiding
inflammatory foods is the one of the best ways to start healing your body and your
relationship with food. Do you agree that kids should start building a nutritional
relationship with food at an early stage in their lives?
Allison: I do, I think that kids should start cultivating a good healthy relationship
with food because there is a lot of media around… a lot of media around that can
cultivate that not so great relationships with food especially in adolescence girls and
I know me personally I started having a bad relationship with food when I was
around 8 years old, I can't remember what grade that is like fifth grade maybe or
fourth grade maybe third grade. So there… like there is a lot of… there is more
information out there on dieting and how to lose weight than how to get good food
into your body and for a lot of kids that are in household with parents that are
dieting they are influenced by that. So I think being in a school system and having
good amount of good whole food is a good example for kids is important to help
them cultivate a healthy relationship, but it is also it goes further beyond that
because you want to get kids to be thinking about food as fuel for their bodies rather
than food as the enemy or something that makes them fat and over weight.
Rose: Yes I agree with you. I think that our parents and children and the school
systems need to know and to have a better understanding of the difference between
diet and nutrition. Now diet is when a person makes choices about food and

5. lifestyle. And nutrition would be the study of nutrients in food and how the body
uses nutrients that build a relationship between the diet and the diet health and
diseases because a lot of early childhood diseases occur because of lack of
knowledge about nutritional food. If you could suggest to anyone about how to
prepare a child or say like a parent about teaching them early information… some
information about nutritional food. Where would you start?
Allison: If I were a parent teaching my child about nutritious food is that. Is that?
Rose: Yes.
Allison: I think I would start with myself because you are the biggest role model for
your kids. So trying to work to heal your own relationship with food is really
important so maybe doing some research, there is lot of great resources out there
for how to talk to kids about food, how to heal your own relationship with food as an
adult so you can be a good role model for kids. And so that your children feel
comfortable and confident in their food choices and that they are able to really hear
what their body is asking for and choose the healthy nutritious food most of the
time. So I think for me it would being that role model that has a good balance of the
healthy food that makes me feel good and foods I enjoy and then imparting on my
children that that balance is important but and setting a good example just by
working on myself first to pass that on to them, and also provide the same food I eat
to children. I know a lot people out there that will feed their kids kid food and I
know often kid would only want to eat kids foods like macaroni and cheese and hot
dogs and things like that. But they are plenty of children out there that will eat adult
food if it is presented in a different way so feeding your kids the same food that you
are eating is a great place to start.
Rose: Yes, I agree with you because I think a lot of people are not clear that
carbohydrates and sugar addictions can make the brain foggy and they should try to
avoid foods that contain a lot of information. Do you agree with this?

6. Allison: I do I think that excess sugar is one of the main problem with our standard
American diet or the diet that most Americans follow. There are plenty of foods that
are nourishing delicious foods that don't have any added sugar so they are sweeten
naturally with fruit or honey another natural sweetener. There are studies out there
that are showing that sugar is basically… it is similar to a drug in the fact that when
you get addicted to sugar you have the same kind of withdrawal symptoms and you
build up a tolerance and you just need more and more sugar to just feel normal just
like with an addictive drug. So I think if people could change one thing about what
they eat, it would to be more mindful about the added sugar that they are eating.
Rose: The added sugar and it is never to late to start eliminating sugar from your
diet to have a healthy happy body, do you agree?
Allison: Yeah, it's never to late. If you are in stages of some kind of metabolic
condition like type two diabetics you might want to work with your doctor because
often those people are on blood sugar regulating medication so if you were on that
kind of medication you would want to talk to your doctor before you made any
extreme dietary changes but I in general agree that it is never too late to start be
more mindful of the sugar that you are eating and cutting out that excess sugar.
Rose: You sound like a fantastic nutritional counselor.
Allison: Oh thank you.
Rose: Yes it is great talking to you, do you have anything else you would like to
share with our audience about nutrition.
Allison: Sure I think my big philosophy, as a food as of a nutrition counselor is that
there is no one way of eating that works for everybody and in order to reach your

7. goals is it is really important to create your own sustainable food routine like those
that I mentioned in my introduction there. And so it is really important to
experiment with different kinds of food and feel how those foods affect your body
and then build a diet or a routine that works for you and nourishes you and heals
you and allows you to do all the things that you want to do while also reaching your
goals. So I think that is one thing that you really have to figure it out for yourself and
you could look at what other people are doing and look at all the diets that are out
there. But ultimately it is important to create your own routine.
Rose: Yes I agree with you it is very important to create your own routine and
another thing I think that people need to do is to listen to their body when they eat
some something protein or carbohydrate just listen to your body and see how you
feel like over a period of three or four hours and then you can understand your body
better and what your body needs what nutrition and just overall for a healthy happy
body.
Allison: Yeah, and I think that those inter body cues the ones that you are listening
to are going to ultimate help you create that food routine, when you are able to
listen to those inter body cues like when you are really physical hungry versus
emotionally hungry, when you are really satisfied and satiated and be able to listen
to your cravings and deconstruct your cravings. Those inner body cues are what are
going to drive your food choices. So it is really important to listen to your body and
choose food base on what your body is asking for.
Rose: Yes, now you mentioned emotional eating. A lot of people do have that
emotional eating problem and that's when they seem to gravitate towards like the
sugary food. What information can you share with our audience about emotional
eating?

8. Allison: Well emotional eating is really defined eating when you are in an emotional
state. So when you are stress eating or eating because you are sad, or eating because
you are depressed it is emotion driven, rather than actual physical hunger driven
eating and I would say often when you are emotional eating there is something else
going on. Either you're stressed or either something bad happening in your life, so it
is not bad to eat emotionally because food is comfort. Food can comfort you and
make you feel better, but it won't solve your problems, so I think when you
recognize that there is a bigger issue that maybe eating that chocolate might help
you feel better when you are stressed but it is not going to de-stress you. In fact
sometimes eating sugar when you are stressed out sometime adds more stress
because sugar stress to the emotional stress. So as long as you recognize that food
won't solve your problem it could help you feel better to take some other steps to
take some non-food way of solving those problems. So often with emotional eating
there is some thing is going on and I think the first step is to be aware and mindful of
that and then start to think about some non-food way to get at the problem covering
it up by eating something.
Rose: That is such good information to know
Well, we covered a lot of information about nutrition and this has been really a treat
for us just to be able to listen to all this knowledge from you. And I really appreciate
you sharing this information with our friends. If our friends would like to know
more about you and how to get in contact with you, can you give us some
information?
Allison: Yes definitely, first I want to say thank you so much for having me, it been
great to talk to you and I am glad to share this information with you. If people want
to find me, they can find my on my website which is Friskylemon it’s
Friskylemon.com and I am also on Facebook at Friskylemon and Pinterest at
Friskylemon and you can find all of those links through my websites.

9. Rose: Ok thank you very much.
Allison: Thank you