Often at this time of year there are so many messages about planning for 2017 and making New Year’s resolutions. How about starting by recognising your achievements in 2016!

This is by far one of the most useful exercises that I have done. Last year I worked with Cheryl Alderman of Be Ultimate and as part of our planning for the year we started by acknowledging the achievements from the previous year.

In many ways 2016 was a big year personally and also for nutrition.

On the nutrition front there was some significant progress in terms of recognising flaws in government dietary guidelines. For the first time we seem to be recognising the role of sugar in obesity and ceasing to demonise all fats as the enemy. Whether this is due to “That Sugar Movie” or “I Quit sugar” or simply that the research is showing that cutting down fat has not actually resulted in improvements in obesity . In fact we have actually seen significant increases in obesity due to the substitution of sugar in many products.

We have also seen a discussion about the introduction of a sugar tax in Australia to discourage the use of sugar in products but also to address the continued costs of the obesity epidemic.

2016 has also seen the rise of interest in traditional foods such as bone broth and fermented foods such as yoghurt, keffir, kombucha and sauerkraut. Many of these products are now commercially available providing people with great food based options for gut healing and nutrition.

From an industry and personal perspective as Chair of the Marketing Committee for ATMS I oversaw the introduction of Natural Medicine Week and the development of a microsite to support it at www.naturalmedicineweek.com.au  There was great industry support with members from my association hosting over 44 events to promote the week. This included Open Days, Public Talks and Special Offers. My own event, a Homeopathic First Aid workshop booked out, meaning that I ran a second workshop.

Natural Medicine Week occurred during the run up to the Federal election and one of the focal points was encouraging discussion on the proposal by Bill Shorten to remove natural medicine from Private Health insurance rebates. A personal highlight was seeing that measure was not successful.

From my practice standpoint I was fortunate enough to attend the Metagenics Congress in June 2016 and see Dr Dale Bredesen speak about his protocol for reversing Alzheimer’s and in December this year I attended the Buck Institute and completed the program to train you in the protocol. Watch this blog for updates as I figure out how to access the testing I need to implement the protocol !

I also found a non invasive form of testing for food intolerances which was affordable and is already yielding good results in my practice particularly with skin problems which can often be tricky.

So achievements for 2016 – launching Natural Medicine Week, lobbying on Private Health Insurance, new testing and working on Reversing Alzheimer’s . Watch out 2017!

Christine Pope is a nutritionist and homeopath based at Elemental health at St Ives. She is available for appointments on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on 8084 0081. Alternatively the website has online bookings.