Apple Cider Vinegar show on Netflix - Differentiate between guilt and agency!

For those who have not watched this show, this is about the fraud created by this woman who claimed she had brain cancer and was able to "cure" it or "manage" it with natural therapies. I felt a bit uneasy at first when I watched this show because I wondered how naturopathy could be perceived after a show like this.

But then, I clearly differentiated my profession from these influencers. A properly trained naturopath aims to address the dysfunctions that can occur in the body from organ function to biochemistry pathways. Naturopathy is an evidence-based practice, we provide healthy nutritional advice backed up by research, and we use individually-centred herbal medicine, but we are trained to recognise red flags and conditions/situations that are beyond our scope of practice and cancer treatment is beyond our scope of practice as a single therapy, however, naturopathy is very helpful in supporting treatment side effects.

With all the information you get online, it appears easy to believe you understand what to do to remain or become healthy. You eat "good" foods and you exercise... easy, right? I oversimplify but not completely.

There's a character in the show who was convinced of her guilt in her cancer because she drank a lot and ate junk food and else, being a young woman in her twenties. The guilt of being sick should always be removed from the equation. The equation is not that simple.

 We are complex and so is our health. In natural health, we tend to give lots of advice about lifestyle and food to empower our clients to increase their agency and feel better but for some persons, failing at following these recommendations can be very very anxiogenic and drive a lot of guilt in the person, which is NOT helpful. If you are part of those people, please, please! know THIS IS NOT your FAULT! I mean it. Only, keep trying, keep searching for the persons who will support you and will help you identify your barriers with kindness, without judgment and who will give you the push you need, when you are ready.

Yes, eating healthy nutritious foods and exercising are good for your health and help your body; but the factors of disease can be so complex, your genes, your predispositions, your composition, your mindset, your thoughts, your environment, the microbes that have entered your body (good ones and bad ones), toxins, chemicals, - without seemingly no acute presentation but a lifelong low-grade impact -, your knowledge, your readiness to change, ALL this comes into play. 

Wanting to change and being able to change are 2 distinct steps; for some, they occur almost simultaneously, for others, it can take weeks and weeks, and in some cases months to get to a change, depending on how much internal battle there might be happening, more or less consciously. There can be a need for a physical change or for an emotional change, and of course, they're often interrelated. For some people, the change is transformational and we love these stories, but for others out there, the change is a slow long process that requires support and patience. I am part of the 2nd category by the way! Only when we look back we realise: yes, I did change eventually, what a journey… The realisation (or perhaps the acceptance) that the journey is often a life-long one is already a huge step…