Berkeley Nutrition

Berkeley Nutrition Nutritionist (mBANT CNHC)
Fix gut issues & increase energy levels without long term restrictive diets

18/04/2026

If you’ve spent months adjusting your diet and still aren’t seeing the progress you expected - this might be why.

Digestion is a parasympathetic process. Your gut needs your nervous system to be in a reasonably settled state to function well.

Chronic stress, rushed eating, poor sleep, and persistent low-grade tension all create a physiological environment where even a well-constructed diet can underperform.

In clinic, the nervous system picture is one of the first things I assess - because it’s frequently the piece that’s been overlooked, even when someone has already done significant dietary work.

If this sounds familiar, I offer a free discovery call where we can look at your full picture and work out what the most useful next step actually is.

👉 Link in bio to book.

16/04/2026

Most people associate serotonin with mood. But the vast majority of your body’s serotonin is produced in the gut - and its primary role there is regulating how food moves through your digestive system.

Your gut has its own nervous system (the enteric nervous system) with around 500 million neurons. It communicates constantly with the brain via the vagus nerve. When that communication is disrupted - by chronic stress, dysbiosis, poor sleep, or inflammation - gut motility becomes unpredictable.

Alternating bowel habits, urgency, bloating, and a gut that seems to have a mind of its own are often signs that the nervous system piece needs attention - not just the diet.

Save this if it adds something useful to how you think about your gut. And comment below - had you come across the gut-serotonin connection before?

Most people know stress affects the gut. Far fewer understand why - and that gap matters, because once you understand th...
15/04/2026

Most people know stress affects the gut. Far fewer understand why - and that gap matters, because once you understand the mechanism, you can actually do something useful with it.

This carousel breaks down what’s happening biologically when stress hits your digestive system: the nervous system shift, the motility changes, the cortisol piece, and why some people get diarrhoea while others get constipated from the same stress response.

14/04/2026

Your gut getting worse during stressful periods is not a coincidence - and it’s not in your head.

There’s a direct biological connection between your nervous system and your digestive system, called the gut-brain axis.

When stress activates your fight-or-flight response, your body deprioritises digestion. Motility changes. Enzyme production drops. Gut sensitivity increases.

This is why a period of work pressure, poor sleep, or emotional strain can unravel months of dietary progress seemingly overnight.

Understanding this mechanism is the first step to addressing it properly - because if you only adjust your diet during an stress-driven flare, you’re working on one part of a two-part problem.

Save this if it explains something you’ve been wondering about. And drop a comment below - does stress reliably affect your gut?

11/04/2026

If you’ve had a food intolerance test and you’re still symptomatic - or you’re now eating a very restricted diet and still not feeling well - this is one of the most common situations I see in clinic.

And it’s rarely because you’ve done something wrong.

The popular consumer tests haven’t been shown to reliably identify which foods are driving IBS-type symptoms. Following a long elimination list based on IgG results can sometimes make things harder, not easier.

What tends to produce clarity is a structured, systematic approach - removing specific categories, for a defined period, and reintroducing methodically. Combined with a look at what else might be driving symptoms: motility, digestive function, gut history, stress.

If you’ve been stuck in this cycle of restriction without resolution, a discovery call is a useful starting point. We’ll look at what you’ve tried, what the gaps might be, and whether there’s a more structured approach that makes sense for you.

If you’re about to spend £150 on a food intolerance test, read this first.Not because testing is never useful - but beca...
10/04/2026

If you’re about to spend £150 on a food intolerance test, read this first.

Not because testing is never useful - but because most people skip these five steps, buy the test anyway, get a long list back, and end up more confused than before.

These five things are free. They’ll give you a clearer picture of what’s actually going on than most consumer tests will.

Swipe through, save it, and do them in order before you spend a penny.

And if you want help working through it properly - book a free discovery call via the link in my bio.

09/04/2026

Allergy and intolerance. Two words that get used as if they mean the same thing - but clinically, they don’t.

Food allergy involves IgE antibodies and tends to produce rapid, sometimes severe symptoms. It’s diagnosed through proper allergy testing and managed under medical supervision.

Food intolerance doesn’t involve IgE. It’s typically slower to present, dose-dependent, and linked to a range of mechanisms - enzyme deficiencies, gut fermentation, immune responses at the gut lining, and others.

This distinction matters because the two conditions need different approaches. IgE testing has a clear clinical basis for allergy. The popular consumer intolerance panels don’t have the same evidence base.

If you’ve been confused about which one applies to your symptoms - that’s completely understandable. The language around this is genuinely muddled.

A good place to start is working out what your symptom pattern actually looks like - speed of onset, dose-dependence, what makes it better or worse.

Not sure which category your symptoms fall into? Drop me a DM and we can work it out together.

One of the most common things I see in new clients: a long list of foods to avoid, based on a test that wasn’t measuring...
08/04/2026

One of the most common things I see in new clients: a long list of foods to avoid, based on a test that wasn’t measuring what they thought it was.

Not all food sensitivity tests are the same. IgE testing has a clear clinical basis - it’s used in NHS allergy clinics and measures immune antibodies linked to genuine allergic reactions.

IgG panels, the most widely sold consumer tests, measure something different - IgG4 antibodies that reflect how often you eat a food, not whether you’re reacting to it.

The British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology doesn’t recommend them for diagnosing food intolerance.

Hair strand and bioresonance tests have no recognised scientific mechanism for identifying food reactions at all.

Swipe through for a clean breakdown of what each test measures - and what the evidence actually says.

Save this one. It comes up a lot.

07/04/2026

Food intolerance tests are one of the most common things clients bring to a first appointment.

A long list of foods highlighted in red. Months of restriction. And still symptomatic.

The issue is often the test itself. IgG4 antibody panels - the most widely sold type - measure immune exposure, not immune reactivity. A raised result to a food is more likely to reflect how often you eat it than whether it’s causing a problem.

The British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology does not recommend IgG testing for food intolerance diagnosis. Hair strand and bioresonance tests have no recognised scientific basis.

This doesn’t mean your symptoms aren’t real, or that food isn’t involved. It means the test probably isn’t the right tool.

There’s a more structured way to identify your triggers - and it doesn’t require a postal kit.

Drop a 🙋 in the comments if you’re interested in finding out what it is.

04/04/2026

SIBO is genuinely difficult to navigate without proper support - and here is why that matters.

The diagnosis requires a breath test in clinical context. The type of SIBO affects what the right approach looks like.

And there is almost always an underlying driver - a reason why bacteria accumulated in the first place - that needs to be identified and addressed, otherwise recurrence is common.

Self-directed approaches often partially work, or work briefly, and then plateau. That is not a personal failure. It is a reflection of how complex the picture usually is.

If you have been going round in circles with SIBO symptoms - or with bloating you suspect might be SIBO - a structured assessment is usually the thing that shifts it.

Discovery calls are free and there is no obligation. Link is in my bio if you are ready to get some clarity.

Before you assume your bloating is SIBO - it is worth checking the picture against some of these markers.SIBO is a real ...
03/04/2026

Before you assume your bloating is SIBO - it is worth checking the picture against some of these markers.

SIBO is a real condition, but it is also one of the most over-assumed diagnoses in the gut health space.

Symptoms alone cannot confirm it. And treating for SIBO when something else is going on tends not to move things forward.

Save this one and share it with anyone who is stuck in the SIBO loop.

👇 Which one resonated most with you?

02/04/2026

Stomach acid is one of your gut’s most important defences - and it does not get nearly enough attention in the SIBO conversation.

When stomach acid is functioning well, it creates a hostile environment for bacteria before they reach the small intestine. When it is low - whether due to age, stress, or medication - that protection is reduced.

PPIs (proton pump inhibitors), commonly prescribed for acid reflux, work by reducing stomach acid production. They are often prescribed appropriately and helpfully in the short term.

But long-term use is associated with microbiome changes and an increased risk of SIBO - something many people taking them are simply not aware of.

This is not about stopping medication without guidance. It is about understanding the full picture - and having an informed conversation with your GP or practitioner if symptoms are persisting.

Save this if it is relevant to you. Share it with someone who has been on a PPI long term and is still struggling with gut symptoms.

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