Liz Lipski is passionate about the power of nutrition to transform health. Her interest in nutrition began with herbal medicine. Although she enjoyed teaching about the medicinal value of herbs, including how to make herbal tinctures, it occurred to her that although herbs can be used to restore and maintain health, food and nutrition are the foundation for health. This realization led her to pursue a PhD in nutrition from the Union Institute.
Liz is an inspired nutritionist who has many interests and forward thinking ideas about how nutrition can take the front seat of health. One of her visions is transforming an ordinary yearly physician’s visit into one that addresses the core issues of the health and well-being of a person: nutrition and lifestyle. Getting to the heart of a patient’s lifestyle is challenging for physicians due to the time demands. Consequently, they have about 15-minutes to interact with their patients, rarely enough time to learn how about how complex psychosocial issues affect peoples’ health. Liz envisions a solution to this dilemma. Imagine this… upon arrival to the health care provider’s office, clients meet with a health educator, coach, or nutritionist. During that visit the client and health care advocate start to establish rapport and begin a dialogue about the clients’ lifestyle. The health coach will ask questions with a sense of curiosity, trying to get to know the person and his or her lifestyle. The coach will ask questions such as, “What is your life like?” “Tell me about your nutrition?” “Do you exercise?” “If so, what do you do and how often?
Through conversations guided by open ended questions, the health coach will help clients gain insight into their own lives, and how their lifestyle impacts health. Initiating change is a complex phenomenon that looks different for everyone. Rarely will one interaction be sufficient to produce lasting lifestyle changes, however, beginning a dialogue between a health advocate and the client is a start toward impacting the core of health issues.
Liz’s other interests range from industrialized farming, genetically modified foods, food as information, to how demands for new foods affect other cultures. She pursues issues such as: What are the physical and sociological ramifications of industrialized farming? Specifically, what are the consequences of mass-producing food to our soil, bodies, and our culture? What about the travesty of genetically modified foods? What effect does changing the DNA of plant have on human beings that eat it? Genetically modified food, and changing DNA, is of particular concern to Liz because she is interested in “food as information.” She explains: ”The RNA in food talks to our cellular RNA. Food is so much more than nutrients … it is central to cellular communications.”
Consumer demand in the US can also have consequences in other countries. Consider how our desire for quinoa affects the host country. Our appetite for quinoa in the US has grown due to the high protein nutrition profile of this seed and effective marketing. However, how does our appetite for quinoa affect the people of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador where quinoa is grown? Is quinoa still available to them, or is it s much a commodity that they prefer to sell it?
These are some of the questions that stimulate Liz’s desire to continue to learn, teach, and influence others about the essential power of nutrition. To learn more about Liz, follow a link to her website: http://innovativehealing.com/about-liz/biography