Local nutritionist teaching people how to develop more vitality and live sustainably
Nutritionist Lauren Head has a driving passion for teaching community members how to cook delicious, plant-based meals that enhance their health and vitality and have fun doing it. She has launched Nourish NCW, a website devoted to offering resources to foster a healthier community.
I appreciate Lauren’s positive approach — offering individuals fresh insights about the benefits of incorporating plant-based eating and emphasizing that small changes in a person’s diet can make a difference in their personal health. She also sees the choice of eating a plant-based diet as a wonderful way to support a healthier environment and reduce the reliance on our industrial production system of highly processed food that treats animals like chickens and cows in less than humane ways.
With so many overwhelming issues in our society and the learned helplessness and hopelessness in our polarized political system, she believes shifting to a more plant-based diet is a way each of us can make a meaningful difference.
The past several weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to see Lauren in action. I participated in a cooking class she offered exploring the diets of the so-called Blue Zones, the five areas in the world where individuals live long and healthy lives.
Each week at the YWCA, we got together and jointly prepared a meal based on one of the Blue Zones.. I had no idea how much fun it would be to cook with a dozen other people and learn more about nutrition. It’s been a wonderful community experience.
I started moving toward a more plant-based diet a few years ago, thanks to the inspiration of a talk at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center put on by the Confluence Rotary Club. Previously, I didn’t think much about what I was putting in my body. I’ve fallen in love with cooking and the flavors and textures of different parts of the world.
One of the things I love about the Rotary approach to plant-based eating and Lauren’s personal philosophy is that each person is free to choose whether to incorporate plant-based eating or not without any judgment.
While over time I’ve switched to mostly a plant-based diet, I am not a strict vegetarian or vegan. I still eat meat, fish and poultry from time to time, which is what works for me.
Lauren grew up in the valley and spent time in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua after graduating from Wenatchee High School. Her father Doug was the long-time director of Children’s Home Society. She studied biology in college and later went back for a degree in nutrition at what is now the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland.
During her time in Nicaragua, she helped families develop gardens, do reforestation and also helped launch a microfinance project for women that is still operating to this day.
Lauren has a passion for making a difference in the lives of individuals in the community. She worked for a while as a trainer with Children’s Home Society, and eventually ended up teaching about nutrition and other health topics at the Chelan-Douglas Health District.
This past year, she left the health district and decided to launch her own community-based nutrition program called Nourish NCW which she hopes will allow her to do more teaching and connecting in the community. On a subscription basis, she makes meals for about 25 families, has started teaching classes and is looking to be a resource for individuals and families that want to more fully explore nutrition as preventive and therapeutic medicine.
Lauren’s ultimate goal is to build a successful business that allows her to teach these important nutrition skills to working families in the valley. Her personal philosophy is that these opportunities ought to be more equitably distributed in our communities and she’s committed to finding ways to be a resource for families who otherwise couldn’t afford her services.
What she’s learned from her nutrition education is that our standard American diet is directly linked with the explosion in lousy health outcomes such as diabetes, obesity and the like. She’s committed to helping people understand how their diet is impacting their health so they can choose, if they wish, to make positive changes in their well-being.
Lauren Head is a gifted soul with a heart for the community and she wants to share her knowledge about becoming healthier and encouraging personal well-being. I think she’s well positioned to make a big difference in the valley. For more information, check out Nourishncw.com.
