Pantry refresh
Monica Cote offers Zoom nutrition tips
LuNMNDuRS » Monica Cote is passionate about making eating healthy, simple and fun for others, and she is thrilled to be able to take your spring cleaning to the next lev
el with a pantry clean out.
Cote, in partnership with the Lunenburg Public Library, will host “Let’s Spring Clean Your Pantry” from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.
In this Zoom presentation, you will learn the impact processed food has on your health, emotionally and physically, and know what ingredients to look for in your pantry that you should toss out.
Cote, a lifelong Lunenburg resident and Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, is trained to assess each person on a case-by-case basis and provide personalized recommendations for their food choices and is delighted to help you clean out your pantry and make it healthier.
“I got into the nutrition field after I personally experienced how food and health are connected,” she said. “When I was young, I was able to clear my acne with diet. Through this process, I discovered how eating healthy brings joy, energy and excitement to life.”
Cote started reading many health and nutrition books and cooking more healthy food and baked goods. Through this process real food became her passion and something she wanted to share with others.
“Spring is a great time to clean the house and get ready for the nice days of summer,” Cote said “It is also a nice time to support our health and clean up the diet after the cold winter months.”
Cote will explain that the first step to supporting your health and eating healthy is to decrease the processed foods in the house and replace them with healthier options so that you are able to eat healthy every day.
“I will show you how to navigate the grocery store with confidence knowing you are buying the right foods for your health and have clear ideas of healthy foods to replace processed foods with,” she said.
Handouts will be available to help you through this process.
“I have personally seen that stocking the house with the right food is the first step to reaching your health goals and have spent many years reading food labels and researching ingredients to figure out what was healthy or not,” Cote said.
After this presentation, it is Cote’s hope that her guests will be able to fill their homes with healthy and delicious food to keep energized and feeling good all summer long.
“My goal is to give my audience practical tools so that they are able to eat healthy everyday with ease to support daily energy, mental clarity, sleep and long-term health,” she said.
Through her business, Monica Cote Nutritional Therapy, Cote says she enjoys working with her clients to help them do pantry clean outs and kitchen restocks, navigate the grocery store more effectively and efficiently, and teach them proper cooking skills to help them feel confident in the kitchen.
With these resources, skills and healthy recipes as guides, Cote believes she can teach her clients how to eat tasty and satisfying food every day without wasting time, money or food.
“What we eat impacts our daily energy, sleep quality, mental health, digestion, blood sugar and more,” she said. “When we are hungry, we are going to eat whatever we find in the house. I feel that most of us are not thriving or living to our fullest potential, and I believe diet plays a huge role in this.”
Cote adds that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, grocery shopping has been a challenge, “people had to buy more shelf stable foods and be creative in what they made with what they had,” she said.
“This was a good thing and a bad thing,” she added. “Good because we were able to try new foods and be creative in the kitchen, but not so good because most shelf stable food contains lots of additives.”
Cote believes that one positive outcome of the pandemic is that people started cooking more since they were quarantined at home.
“I know many people gained weight or possibly fallen back into bad habits due to being stressed, overwhelmed, or bored being home over the past year,” she added. “That is why it is important to me to give them a solid plan that will help them stay on track to reach their health goals.”
Cote will also talk about the book “Nutrition & Physical Degeneration” by Dr. Weston A. Price. Price studied indigenous tribes around the world in the 1940s and ’50s and found that tooth decay and crooked teeth were extremely rare in these communities. Once they were introduced to processed sugar and white flour, their oral health and whole-body health suffered.
“This really opened my eyes to the pain and suffering we are feeling because of our food system,” she said. “I am confident that if one-by-one we change the way we eat to more whole foods, we will alleviate so many of the health issues and pain in our world today.”
For more information, or to register for this presentation (which is required), call the Lunenburg Public Library at 978-582-4140 or visit lunenburglibrary.com
For more information on Monica Cote, visit her website at monicacotefntp.com; follow her @monicacotenutritionaltherapy on Instagram; or contact her at monicacotefntp@gmail.com or 978-403- 0401.