The Nutritional Supplement

What Course(s) did you graduate from at CNELM and when did you graduate?

I studied the MSc in Personalised Nutrition, graduating in April 2014.

What did you do before doing this course?

Prior to my MSc I had qualified as an NT from IINH (Irish Institute of Nutrition and Health) and I was practicing very part time but actively. I also worked as a full-time parent of three children.

Before that I was a broadband engineer involved in one of the first wireless broadband rollouts in Ireland.

What made you decide to embark on this course of study and what attracted you to doing the MSc?

I find that a hard question to answer.  The gravitational pull of nutrition slowly pulled me into it but the final impetus for going to study it was a redundancy.  It’s a toss whether I would have studied and qualified had I stayed working as an engineer, which was a job I loved doing.

After qualifying I realised I had functional health problems myself so perhaps this is what seeded the ‘gravity’!

I had made up my mind to study an MSc before I even did my Diploma because I felt I wanted to get a degree for the sake of confidence and to make sure I would be on top of my game.  I guess there is some level of kudos involved too that attracted me.

Were you working whilst studying?

Yes, as a full time parent of three.

What work did you do after graduating from the MSc?

I continued practicing as an NT and still do today.  I chose to specialise in preconception care helping couples overcome fertility challenges.  But I still do see many different types of people with a diverse range of health challenges.

Only lately I have also begun periodic lecturing and student clinical supervision at my alma mater IINH.

Tell us more about the conferences you organise in Ireland.

I am a co-organiser now of three annual weekend conferences which we run under the banner of the Weston A Price Foundation (WAPF).

WAPF is a US based non-profit nutrition teaching organisation which was originally set up to teach the nutrition research findings of dental scientist Weston Anthony Price.  During the 1930’s he embarked on epic investigations into the dietary habits of super healthy tribes of people worldwide and what he found stands in marked contrast to the current dietary dogma underpinned by the food pyramid.

Based on this, the foundation – and by extension our conferences – challenge what we call the diet dictocrats, in an evidence based manner.

Our conferences have been attended by up to 300 people on each of the two day events and the atmosphere in them is really extraordinary; it is charged and yet very family friendly.

It has been a deep privilege to be involved in organising these conferences and to interact with not only many internationally respected speakers, but with the regular people who attend and who later profess that the conferences have changed their lives.  The effort involved is huge and so we will not be organising another one next year. After that we’ll see!

Is there anything you wish you’d known before finishing your studies that you might have prepared for differently?

No, I pretty much tried to stay with the program and not fall behind.  Actually, if I’d really known in advance what lay ahead I may have chickened out of the MSc!! I’m so pleased now that I didn’t, but it helped a lot to have a supporting wife.

What or who has most inspired you in your work?

Weston A Price...his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration changed my life by changing my perspective on the extraordinary power of food. In fact going back to your first question, it definitely had a big part to play in my decision to become an NT.

Do you have any tips, hints, things you’d have done differently...?

I’m glad I spaced out the MSc over 3 years (which included at the time a transition period I needed to fulfil), so the MSc proper took 2 years.  Some of my peers tried to do it over one year and most failed due to the stress.

I’d have become familiar with a reference manager earlier in the course and not left it all for the dissertation.  I used Mendeley which I found pretty good.

I wish I’d dressed better for the grads!!!

Overall I loved studying at CNELM despite (actually partly because) I had to travel over and back to the UK for the modules!