Nourishing Brain Health Through Risk-Avoidance and Health Optimism – Interview with Kate Taylor

Kate is a Registered Nutritionist and the Founder of Eat Drink Think Nutrition Limited. Kate supports systemic health & wellness through pesonalised nutrition, diet and lifestyle strategies & recommendations, and particularly specialises in brain health, cognitive function and Dementia risk-avoidance.

Kate Taylor, Registered Nutritionist

Who is Kate Taylor? Introduce yourself, your hobbies, your favourites, you at home and in business. Tell us something interesting about yourself.

Hello, I’m Kate, a Registered Nutritionist in the United Kingdom. My nutritional specialism is Brain health with particular focus on cognitive function and decline in the form of Dementia risk-avoidance.

In the nutrition business and in my client consultations, I am an advocate of dispelling the sentiment of ‘false hopelessness’. I sincerely believe that ‘health optimism’ should be the prevailing stance since research is increasingly demonstrating that there are more & more ways to support cognitive function and risk-avoid cognitive decline through a multi-disciplinary support programme overseen by appropriately qualified professionals across the health spectrum. In an era where we as a species are in danger of increasing our lifespan simultaneous to decreasing our healthspan, my stance is that quality of health and life are just as important as quantity, and this is what I advocate in my Nutritional Therapy consultations.

When I am not working, the more adventurous side of me likes to ‘do something new’ which encompasses everything from learning sign language (to be able to communicate with my Aunt who has Down Syndrome) and attending a ‘Fight Fake Food’ march in London, to trying a Tarot card reading and planning a once-in-a-lifetime trip to a Bhutanese Monastery. To relax (relatively speaking) I like to keep myself fit (nothing too strenuous, I was a Gymnast throughout my childhood, but nowadays I simply like to maintain strength, stamina, and flexibility). I also enjoy baking (always using much less sugar than a recipe recommends), and I typically unwind in the evenings by immersing myself in an absorbing book or watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory.

What inspired you to create Eat Drink Think Nutrition?

My inspiration to create Eat Drink Think Nutrition is simultaneously an accident and an inevitability; an accident because it is not my first career (I moved from working in Central Government to retraining as a Nutritionist in my thirties), and yet an inevitability because throughout my life, food and nutrition influences were always subtly simmering in the background. I have an English father and a Polish mother who introduced me to very different culinary cultures and perspectives on healthful, wholesome food, and a short spell living in Sweden introduced me to yet another culinary nutritional perspective, so this potentially generated a subliminal intrigue about food and nutrition. Then, when I was in my twenties, I watched relatives diminish with Alzheimer’s Dementia and decided that ‘life was too short’, so I retrained in an industry which interested & intrigued me in its ability to prioritise proactive, prevention-centred health support and bestow meaningful benefits to people’s lives.

What sets your approach apart from other nutrition coaches?

Nutritionists typically work to a similar framework and personalisation-centric approach, but something I recently actioned with a client who was feeling flummoxed by the ‘constant chatter’ around nutrition was to take them ‘personal food shopping’. My rationale was that this bespoke service is offered in clothing and gift buying, so why not try it in food? Because I had worked with the client for a number of consultations, I knew their health history and health aspirations, so it was a simple matter of walking up and down the aisles and making nutritional tweaks to their food-buying choices. It was an effective way to convey a message in a memorable setting, and also beneficial for brain health since this activity supported Neuroplasticity through the client learning new visuospatial information about item positioning, gaining a bit of nutritional education regarding the whys around their food choices, and it added to their step count, thereby introducing a bit of gentle exercise into their day. It was also beneficial from a wider food industry perspective because I could support the client in minimising food waste by recommending the quantity of food to sensibly buy for their domestic circumstances. This approach was conducted in-person so of course, geography is an important factor, however, it could easily be achieved in an online food shop through virtual connecting and screen-sharing. Given the success of this experience, it is something I would like to increasingly introduce as an integral part of my Nutritional Therapy programmes.

What role does education play in your work with clients?

Educating clients within the nutrition landscape is crucial since there is now so much generic nutrition advice instantaneously available. It is therefore paramount to reassure clients that their own nutritional education alongside professional guidance is at the forefront of a Registered Nutritionist's intentions. I also find it important to emphasise that their health aspirations may not be a ‘quick fix’; sometimes it is, and if so, great, but I prefer to manage expectations at the outset and then join clients in their excitement about the developing and evolving Nutritional Therapy experience. Once a client appreciates that they are getting highly personalised nutritional support, they are always receptive to understanding how established food, diet, and nutrition principles can be applied to their health and diet, and also why certain myths or trends should be sidelined in the context of mixed-messaging, incorrect-messaging, or an inapplicability to their personal health situation. Every client I have worked with has embraced their education on nutrition, which has been reassuring for me since nutrition it is such a dynamic industry; it really is a case of continually evolving research and learning something new every week. Credible scientific advancements are being achieved in our knowledge of how nutrition, diet, and lifestyle impact our health and healthspan, and clients appreciate applying this education to their Nutritional Therapy programme.

Who are the clients that benefit most from working with you?

Since my nutritional specialism is brain health, cognitive function and decline (nuanced in Dementia risk-avoidance), clients achieving the greatest benefit from working with me are those with a proactive and prevention-oriented mindset before they reach an age where they perceive cognitive function might start to decline. Symptoms of cognitive decline may begin up to twenty years before outward symptoms start to show, so the client who achieves the most benefits from working with me is motivated to tweak their nutrition, diet and lifestyle early on in their lifespan. This motivation typically stems from a lived experience; having witnessed cognitive decline of a beloved relative, friend, or even colleague, so that they understand the heart-wrenching impact that cognitive decline has not only on the person, but also the people around them who recall their former glory and now compare it to the diminished form of the person afflicted with cognitive decline and Dementia. Indeed, this was my own motivation for specialising in nutrition for Brain health; I qualified in the ReCODE 2.0 Protocol for Brain health and Alzheimer’s Dementia risk-avoidance because I will never forget the expressions on the faces of those I have personally watched wither with Dementia. The confusion, denial, fear, and rage, parallelled with abject indifference once the person has succumbed deeply to Dementia, are not memories one easily dismisses or forgets.

How can people connect with you and start their journey with Eat Drink Think Nutrition?

For anyone interested in nurturing and nourishing their greatest wealth asset – their Brain – thorough nutrition, diet and lifestyle, you are warmly welcome to Follow my Instagram Account: eat.drink.think.nutrition or connect with me on LinkedIn (Kate Taylor – Eat Drink Think Nutrition), where I like to keep the content quite educational so that a bit of pragmatic value is given to my followers and connections.

I also have a website where you can read a bit more about nutrition and my brain health specialism within nutrition, and you can book a free, non-obligation, online 30-minute ‘Discovery Chat’ with me if you think you might like to embark on a programme of Nutritional Therapy. This can be found on my website.

I am sure the Brainz community feels similarly to me, with a professional mantra that an investment in brain health is one of the wisest decisions one can ever make, so I look forward to keeping in touch with all the Brainz’ies in this community.

Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info!

Read more from Kate Taylor