Episode Transcript:

The Nourished Mama - Ep 9

 [00:00:00] Welcome to the Nourished Mama podcast. I am your host, Anna Robinson, certified nutritionist and wellness coach, plus fellow mama. This podcast is here to show you that you can live your healthiest, happiest, most vibrant life as a mama. Each week, I will be sharing different nutrition Lifestyle and mindset hacks that are going to support you in your health journey.

You can expect realistic and sustainable advice, plus strategies that can easily fit into your busy life as a mama. Because without a nourished mama, there can't be a nourished home. So if you are committed to creating a life filled with vibrance for you and for the ones you love most, then you are in the right place.

So let's get into today's life changing episode.

Sharon, welcome to the Nourished Mama [00:01:00] podcast. I am absolutely honored to have you on here and I know so many mamas are going to benefit from this episode. You are such an incredible light in the women's and family health space online. I have loved following your journey, over the last couple of years.

It is. It's just so lovely to watch you grow and all the beautiful things you share online as well. and yeah, I'm just so honored to have you on the podcast. Yeah. Thank you. And the feeling's really mutual, Anna. I love following you as well, and I'm so glad we've connected. Oh yes, definitely. I am just going to let everybody know what you do and who you are, and then I'm going to get right into questions because I have so much to ask you and I can't wait for everybody to listen, to this episode.

So Sharon is a nutritional health coach and she is on a mission to show us that we have far more power than we think to transform our health and mental [00:02:00] wellbeing. she is an absolute expert in gut and immune health. She runs classes, workshops, and online courses, teaching audiences how to use Food to thrive and overcome chronic health conditions.

And Sharon is also going to be sharing with us at the end, how you might be able to attend one of her incredible classes and workshops. I absolutely cannot wait to attend your latest one. But before we do that, you have such a powerful personal story when it comes to your own health journey. Can you share with us that journey?

Yeah, so believe it or not, years ago, I was never into nutrition or health or food. And in fact, before becoming a mom, I took pride in the fact that I didn't know how to cook. And I was, I had a big career and I could eat out and order in, and I was. And I thought, I was, that was something I was proud of, like I didn't need to stay home and cook.

I was into my [00:03:00] career. And then life had different plans and I think it's got a very good sense of humor because I can't believe what I'm doing nowadays, which is teaching how to cook and how to use food to heal. But my journey started almost over 12 years ago when I became a mum for the first time.

My husband at the time and I decided when we wanted to have a family, we, I had my son and we decided, let's just move overseas at the same time. So when my first born, yeah, I know, totally naive and rather stupid, but totally underestimated parenthood big time. And we thought, let's move to Sydney.

That's where my husband was from and, raise our family there. And it was a lovely idea and up until that point, my health was pretty normal. I had some IBS issues, but nothing that made me want to see a doctor or that impacted my life in any way. And then I moved to Sydney with my family. [00:04:00] Jake was seven weeks old.

And as soon as we moved to Sydney, suddenly my health started to deteriorate very rapidly. And I developed asthma and hay fever, but to such a chronic state that my GP fast tracked me to see a team of experts because I was getting asthma attacks and medication wasn't working. And my hay fever was so bad that I was literally sneezing all day and had itchy eyes, itchy throat.

I couldn't hear out of my ears, and it was so unpleasant dealing with that as a new mum. Especially also trying to be a mum. Yes. Young kids at the same time, wow, that would have been. Really difficult. Very difficult. So I went in and got all the tests done and found out that I was hyperallergic, severely allergic to the dust and pollen in Sydney.

And that's when the GP very proudly shared with me, you are living in the asthma capital of the world. if you get asthma, it's going to be a lot worse in [00:05:00] Sydney. actually didn't know that. Yeah. It's true, in Sydney as well. And so she gave me two choices because my condition was so bad, and she said, my best advice to you is to leave.

Which wasn't an option. And if not, with my team of experts, we begin a journey of prescribed medication. So that's what I did. I started with eight, eight rounds of steroids a day. Eight. Four puffs in the morning for asthma and hay fever and four puffs of steroids at night for the same condition. And initially, and I knew nothing about food at this stage, initially, it was brilliant because the symptoms started to disappear.

And I could get on with my life and actually start, being a mom and participating. But then, after a while, I developed migraines. I had weekly headaches and migraines. I was on a packet of [00:06:00] painkillers a week. And I'm not exaggerating. It was just something I did every day. And then my son started daycare, so he then caught all the different things.

and I then caught every infection and bug and I, my immune system, I seem to have no immune system, so I caught pneumonia twice, went on antibiotics. It is just a roller coaster of things. Then came chronic fatigue, and that's brutal. I think out of all the conditions, chronic fatigue really depletes you of any joy, and happiness.

And then the wake up call came when I decided to I realized my mental health, my son was now two years old and I, my mental health wasn't where it needed to be. So I went back to the GP who, we were on a first name basis, knew everything about each other. That was my social life really. And,she decided to do a [00:07:00] questionnaire.

So I did the questionnaire and we came back and we got the results and she said, And I thought I'd answered them pretty positively and she said, your diagnosis is severe depression. And that really hit me hard. And in that moment, I suddenly had a flash of my life of the last two years and I realized I had suddenly.

I don't know how, but I accepted becoming ill and losing my joy and losing my passion and losing my purpose and it was just getting through the day. That was enough. All I wanted to do was get through the day and I accepted becoming very sick. And when she mentioned severe depression and another script, which was this time antidepressants and let's go and see more experts.

I took the script home, and I just had a gut feeling, I can't take this, and the gut, I never listened to my gut, I never, but it was this voice, quiet yet powerful voice that said, we need to change things [00:08:00] up, and I decided to, very randomly, with no idea of food or nutrition, but I think it was my last attempt of having control in my life.

And the only thing I could control was what were my eating. And up until then Everything else was based on medication. Everything like my, I couldn't control my happiness. I couldn't control my sleep. I couldn't control my health. I couldn't control my relationship, my joy as a parent. And really anything I could control was what I ate.

And I started eating, I always thought I ate fairly well. but I definitely started eating more cakes, biscuits, with my cup of tea. And when Jake would go to sleep, I would just start munching or at night I'd start munching. Unfortunately, it is what a lot of mums are doing. It is that fast option.

It's that mindless option of I'll just pop something in my mouth quickly. And there's not a lot of nutritional value to it because we're just trying to fill our [00:09:00] bodies, fuel with energy. But, yeah, and it's unfortunate that we have gotten to that. A lot of mums have gotten to that point, but it is just trying to keep up every day.

And if that means putting the fastest, easiest option in our mouth, it is, yeah, what tends to happen. And I think with me, I was also using food as an escape, for myself. And that was the pleasure I had in my day. And the next morning, I, I remember, I just remember it so clearly, getting up a bit earlier than usual.

I was in my dressing gown and I started going through, rummaging through all my cupboards and I was looking for my Nutribullet and I decided for two weeks I would ditch my toast and avocado or Weetabix, which again I thought was healthy for me, and I decided I'd make a smoothie. And I made two other decisions, for two weeks, and I thought, I'll just do this for two weeks.

I'm just going to have a smoothie in the morning, and I'm going to take out the processed food. And I did that for two weeks, and [00:10:00] pretty much instantly, things started to change. It didn't even take long. But by the end of the two, yeah, by the end of the two weeks, didn't take any Panadol. I had, I'd never had another headache.

Wow. I started to actually have a bit of energy and I wasn't getting sick and it was pretty much immediate. I thought, okay, I'll continue this and I continued. by this stage, I was getting a bit strict. I was like, I'm not going to have any dairy, I'm not going to have any gluten, I'm not going to have any white sugar at all, but what I'm going to do is have more fruit and vegetables.

And I had a goal. Before I go to bed, I'll have five or eight, I can't remember if it was five or eight pieces of fruit or veg a day. But I wouldn't go to bed unless I had that. I love that. And it was just, that was my goal. No dairy, no gluten, no, no sugar, and just have more fruit. And I had no idea really how to cook still.

So I was still relying on processed things like rice crackers and a few things. But It was definitely a lot better. It was that concept as [00:11:00] well, I think, where you went, okay, I'm not going to focus so much on what I need to, even though, yes, you cut out certain things, but a big part of your goal was adding in more of the good stuff.

Yeah. Which is what I love, like that. Even just that thought of, I'm not going to go to bed until I have this amount of, fruit or veggies, that in itself is so powerful. And when we put our focus on that, rather than so much of what we need to cut out, it's such a testament to how powerful food can really be.

And, to feel that way in less than two weeks. Yeah. Again, a huge testament to just how powerful food really is. Yeah. And, I started enjoying feeling better, so I was like, I'm going to continue doing this. and the amazing results started happening. And bearing in mind, at that time, I had no idea food could impact my health.

And a bit like how I didn't really recognize my health declining so much, I did recognize I was feeling better, but I didn't associate it with the food. But I [00:12:00] thought, you know what, I'm feeling better on this. I'm going to carry on. By three months, I no longer had hay fever. Wow. So even though I was extremely allergic to dust and pollen, it wasn't affecting me anymore.

So half the steroids had gone, and then I was like, I'll keep going, I'll do this for a bit longer. Still not really putting the two together, I carried on then within five months from that moment I started, I no longer had asthma. So all my medication suddenly had gone. Yeah. And I was symptom and medication free.

And the best part was my energy was through the roof. So I started going to the gym for the first time in my life. In my. mid to late thirties, going to the gym in the morning before my son would wake up. And that was unheard of. Especially as a mama with young kids, yeah, that is incredible. Wow.

So after that,I went and I was blown away by what happened. I didn't really understand what happened. So I went and out of curiosity, [00:13:00] no, no desire to run a business or anything like that. I went and studied nutrition. It was a one year online course that I didn't even know at the time qualified me to become a health coach.

And it was there that I realized that this was no coincidence. This was absolutely down to what I was eating. And it made me think about the system we were in because It made me think, how did a severely depressed stay at home mum accidentally heal herself when the experts could only manage my symptoms with a lot of medication?

That is just so powerful. And in any, at any point in your journey, did anybody talk to you about food or lifestyle? No. No one? No one. Wow. No, and I didn't even work it out until after I got the results. It took me a while to work it out. I'd never heard of it before. Yeah, similar to my journey I've shared with you with my autoimmune condition, at the age [00:14:00] of 29 being told that I needed to be on immune suppressants for the rest of my life.

I just thought, I remember getting home with that script. I know, similar to your situation, I got home and I thought to myself, Oh my God, Anna, you're 29 and you were just told that you needed to start medication with no end date.how did we get to this point? I just kept saying to myself, like, how did we get to this point?

And I remember saying, okay, at this point in time, I don't have an option. Because my symptoms were so hard it all came down to my own research. I started understanding that a lot of immune conditions were based on an inflammatory response. Okay. So where did, how does an inflammatory response start?

Where does it come from? And that's when I went, okay. I need to figure this out. I need to work this out on my own because I don't think any of the experts are going to help me figure this out. and that's when [00:15:00] I, like you started anti inflammatory eating and within three months, I not only came off my medication, I was completely symptom free.

Wow. There you go. So that says a lot. And I don't claim that my approach cures disease, but most experts in the medical space will say to you that there is no cure for autoimmune disease. And I don't want to claim that I'm completely cured, but I have had no symptoms now for almost five years.

Wow. Yeah. That's amazing. And the amount of things that you'll prevent from developing as well. that's exciting too. Yeah, I love that journey and that story of yours Sharon is so powerful and I hope that there are a lot of mums listening to that out there and I know that they will be relating to a lot of that as well and whether it's chronic symptoms like yours or simply just being burnt out, I think one of the biggest messages here is that we should not be [00:16:00] settling for those symptoms and putting them in this category of, okay, this is just motherhood, It's not, we can't let those symptoms define us.

And I get it, motherhood's hard. We are going to naturally experience fatigue and all those other symptoms of burnout, but it's not something that we should let define us. And I think it's really important to note that if these symptoms are persisting, then they're not normal. And we have to stop letting people make us believe that they're normal.

Not normal, but very common, so then we think it's normal. Exactly. Now, I know you, obviously, you are the queen of gut health. You specialize in gut health, immunity, and allergies, especially for children, which I love. What made you take this particular path? Yeah, I am so passionate about this because it affects mums.

Of course, our children's health really affects mums. when I recovered from all [00:17:00] these health issues, I decided to have, try and have another baby. And I did, and that's my second son, Cooper. And although I had studied nutrition at this stage, even I wasn't prepared for his health issues. And I think that is an accumulation of many years of medication having an impact.

So when he was born, he had reflux, eczema and multiple food allergies. So he was on the list of 10 safe foods. So if he ate something like obviously dairy and eggs, massive reaction, but if he ate even an apple, he would develop full body hives and throw up profusely. He was like a ticking time bomb.

And I probably changed my clothes six times a day to cause he was constantly, throwing up. So that was. Really stressful, but the advantage I had was I already, I had an education, so I actually, although I was anxious with his symptoms and things weren't going out, going the way I planned, I, I had an action [00:18:00] plan and so this time with education from the course, and studying nutrition, I, applied the knowledge that I learned and this time it was more targeted, it was very much his gut health.

Yeah. And what I don't recommend. to your viewers is there is a place for GPs and practitioners, but for me at the time, I was now very scared to use them because I knew all that they could do was give him medication, do tests and confirm everything I knew. So I didn't see practitioners and I really worked it out on my own, spoke to a few naturopaths, definitely was a lot more educated and had a network, but I needed support.

And where I went was Facebook groups. And that's where I realized I was not alone in this journey because I felt no one else is dealing with all of this. And I joined groups where there are tens of, there were tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of women, mums, whether it was the eczema group, the acid reflux group, the [00:19:00] irritable baby and allergy group, allergy baby group, the cow's milk protein Facebook group.

And what I noticed was With Cooper and I, we were getting better and better. He was getting, his immune system was getting stronger and stronger. But what I noticed in these groups was this spiral of sickness care that mothers were going through. no matter the huge amount of effort they were making, their kids were getting sicker.

They were getting more medication. So there'd be this. a topic much of allergy conditions, so it'd be colic, reflux, eczema, and then allergies, and then hay fever, and then behavioral issues, because I was in these groups for a long time. And I was trying to help these mums, with commenting here and there, and it wasn't enough.

And so by 18 months of really focusing on Cooper's diet, and I treated every meal as medicine for him. So there was no processed food. everything was homemade. It had a [00:20:00] purpose to heal his gut. And by 18 months, he was eczema free, allergy free, he could eat raw egg white, and unbelievable could eat whatever he wanted.

Oh my god. And at the moment, is that the same situation? Same. He's never been on antibiotics, he's nine years old, he's got such a rocking immune system. And what I noticed is that parents who have kids with allergy conditions, whether it's food intolerances, allergies, or eczema or hay fever, asthma, they're all allergy type conditions that are extremely common these days.

The immune system is hypervigilant and overreactive to things that are safe. even pollen and dust, we're supposed to live in harmony with that. With cow's milk protein, we should be able to have those things. They're not the problem, they're just the trigger that suggests that there's some serious inflammation going on.

And then what happens is the immune system can be very weak when it fights infection. So a lot of these mums in these groups would have to take antibiotics because [00:21:00] their kids would have certain infections, reoccurring ear infections, whatever it was. So the immune system is doing the total opposite of what it should.

what it's supposed to do. But did you find that, in your experience as well, was there a common trigger to set off the gut health and immune system that way? So the trigger, not the root cause, was certain foods. So cow's milk protein and gluten. major inflammatory, triggers. And a lot of people that I work with, they'll be like, but I don't have an allergy with dairy or gluten.

Yes, that's what happened to me, yeah. Yeah, and I was like, you might not have an allergy. yeah, an allergy is It's about the way the body digests the gluten and the dairy. It's causing inflammation. Yeah. and then that inflammation makes us hypersensitive and creates those symptoms. So when Cooper had those results, it was the most exciting thing, that freedom because we didn't go to birthday parties.

We didn't, do so many things. We stayed at home and cooked a lot and it was actually, looking back, [00:22:00] was a beautiful way for me to slow down and just really be in the present moment with my son and help him heal.and then that's where I. got those results, I couldn't keep that information to myself and see that volume of suffering.

So I created my course, the gut health course, which is for parents who need to heal their kids. I love the story behind it because there's so much passion there and there's so much history, and just your, and you can see it through like your desire to just simply help people.and just because the level of pain and suffering that they can go through themselves and also watching their children go through that as well.

And it's unnecessary. And the worst thing is about, when we have sick kids, chances are the mum's not well either. Yeah, exactly. So it's such a miserable cycle. And I just wanted to share a couple of stats with you about chronic health issues with kids. So [00:23:00] one in two kids are diagnosed with a chronic health condition now.

This is one in two. This is stats in the U. S., but Australia, the U. K., Western world is very similar, if not the same. Allergies and food intolerances now affect one in three kids.asthma one in four, ADHD one in ten, and now autism is one in thirty six. Those numbers are scary. Very. Really scary. And I think because these conditions are so common, we're like, oh yeah, my son has a dairy allergy or, has eczema, we'll just put the cream on.

And this is the thing and the saddest part about that as well, I think is the fact that there are a lot of people that, a lot of moms that are not necessarily ignorant, they just don't know. We are not given the information. And that is the saddest part. And what frustrates me the most about the medical system [00:24:00] is, okay, you've done this blood test, your child is.

Dairy intolerant, cut out all dairy, all cheeses, all these beautiful foods that they really should be having for their growth, for their development, for their bones, for their muscles. and there's no talk about the root cause. potentially in a lot of cases be cured.and this is the most frustrating part about this.

And it's sad because a lot of moms just simply don't know they're not given the right information. Yeah. And that's why I love what you do. Yeah, me too. That's why I love what you do. Yeah, and if we can just share a little bit of that, or just open people's eyes up that tiny bit, because like you and me, it only took, it did take us to get into a situation we were, where we were quite severely ill, for our eyes to open up to the medical system.

But if we can be there to show people before they get to that point, then it's good. always been my mission, and I [00:25:00] always come back to that mission. If I can prevent someone from getting to the point where I did, where they're able to recognize the symptoms early on, that is so powerful. That is key.

Unfortunately, people, if they're anything like I was, won't pay attention to the small signals. Yes. You have to wait for the big sledgehammer to come at the most inconvenient time. Exactly. And that's why we can change that for a lot of mums and children. Sharon, you have taught over 20, 000 students. Wow.

That is incredible. You have taught them how to transform their gut health. What are the first simple steps someone can take today to start improving their gut health? That is probably the question I get asked the most. So I think what's important is to first understand what we're talking about when we talk about gut health.

And what we're talking about is the gut microbiome, and that is the microorganisms like the bacteria, [00:26:00] viruses, the fungi, and parasites that are in the gut.and the reason we need to do that is because Our overall health is very dependent to the quality of bacteria we have in the gut. So if we have a lot of good beneficial bacteria, We are going to feel fabulous.

We're gonna have great mental health. We're gonna poop like chaps, we're gonna sleep well, we're gonna have good quality cravings. but unfortunately many of us are walking around now with gut dysbiosis where there's too much bad bacteria in the gut and not enough good back, good bacteria. So we wanna aim for about 80% good bacteria, 20% bad bacteria.

We're always gonna have pathogens and things like that in the gut, but when we have a lot of good bacteria in the gut.we feel our best and it's the bacteria in our gut. When we eat, we have a choice, we're not actually feeding ourselves, we're feeding the bacteria in the gut. So we can make a very conscious decision, what I want to do here.

And that's what I love about food and eating and [00:27:00] understanding the basics of gut health. good bacteria love to eat fiber. So the whole Mediterranean diet, the anti inflammatory, anti inflammatory diet that you share so beautifully, Anna, is what feeds good bacteria in the gut. They love vegetables and they love fruit and they love anything that's plant based fiber like nuts, legumes, gluten free grains.

and seeds and things like that. Now the bad bacteria thrives on sugar, white sugar, refined processed foods, flours, fats, fried food, processed foods. So that's an all you can eat for, all you can eat buffet for bad bacteria. So my number one tip is.to somehow get more fruit and vegetables in the diet.

If you can do that, even if it's just one extra fruit, one extra vegetable, so cooking at home is going to make the biggest difference to the quality of your life. I want to say the quality of your gut health, but the quality of your life. [00:28:00] and there's so many, and now a lot of parents who are listening to this, they can say, my kids are super fussy, or I have allergies, or we can't eat this kind of thing, or I have no time and I'm just not a good cook.

so you just have to make a little bit of effort and take. the easiest wins. for example, if I'm going to make a spaghetti bolognese, instead of putting tin, yeah, load it up, but even if it's tin tomatoes, which have no nutrients by the time it's been sitting on a shelf for a year, just blend.

Fresh tomatoes. I got that from you. I remember that recipe. I was like, oh, I love this. And I've been doing it. I've got my jars in the freezer. I'm always like, Sharon taught me this. I tell all the mums at school as well. I'm like, you have to follow this. I've shared your reel. Oh, the tinned tomato one.

Tomatoes, yeah. Yeah, so it's just quick wins. If you're gonna have Weetabix in the morning and you, it's too much to go [00:29:00] gluten free or dairy free, maybe add some berries in there. Yeah. Or have an apple or anything to load up on fruit and vegetables and start slowly. So maybe dinner is the easiest place to start.

like sneaking in vegetables in things. And it's also about, I tend to tell a lot of my clients as well. It's about making fruit and vegetables familiar in your family home on your dinner table. Sometimes it can take, there are studies that show it can take up to 27 times of exposure for a child to actually even put that piece of vegetable on their plate.

But I can guarantee you that eventually they will. You need to make it familiar for them. Get them involved in the kitchen, serve it on the dinner table. Let them watch you eat it. Let them have the power to grab it and put it on their plate. Don't put it on their plate and force them to eat it. Just make it familiar to them.

Make it part of your family dinner [00:30:00] time. even if that means you don't, like you said, you don't have the time, cut up some carrots, capsicums and cucumbers, and put them on a plate and just let them see that on the dinner table. Let them watch you eat it. over a period of time, they will feel comfortable to grab it, but they need to be familiar with it.

Yes, because if it's not on the plate, they don't see it. They won't go near it. And actually one tip, and I just popped in my head, because I don't do it anymore now, but growing up my two kids, if I said to them, do you want an apple or a cucumber or, tangerine, every time they're like, no.

So they, they watch TV and they have something on, they'd be watching something on TV. So I'd chop up these, I'd call it a fruit and veggie plate. And I would just put it on the table next to them and I wouldn't even say eat it. And I would then prepare dinner. And then before I know it, them eating in front of the TV, everyone loves to do it, but if it's there and it's healthy, they're going to eat it and the plate would be clean.

Exactly. [00:31:00] Keep exposing them to it. Keep exposing them to it in a pressure free environment. So powerful. Something as well that I have found over the years that's really important is those incredible studies that are coming out where we should really be eating 25 to 30 different plant foods a week, in order to feed that good bacteria in our gut.

And a lot of people hear that number and freak out. but. we were talking about how this can include herbs, spices, things like that. So some great tips as well is go that extra mile and add a little bit of parsley or some rosemary and things like that to your bolognese sauces, to your casseroles, because it does go a long way and it does add to that 30 plant food number.

The other thing as well that I tend to say to a lot of the mums is, I know with kids, it can, you end up. Buying the same things that you know they're going to eat. Like for example, with toddlers, it seems to just be bananas. So you see all the mums feeding them the bananas and this is great. But [00:32:00] every week, give yourself a goal to buy one fruit or vegetable, one fruit and vegetable that you either haven't had in a long time, or you haven't had at all.

And somehow add that, incorporate that into their diet every week. Just expose them to something new and also for yourself as well. Yeah, and I remember, I post a lot of things on Instagram about recipes and stuff of sneaking in things, and I'm a, I'm so good at sneaking stuff in. You are.

Years of experience, and one mum wrote, and I thought it was a great, valid point. She said, but you should be showing your children what's going in the meals. And yeah, in the ideal world, show them, but if your kids are like really grossed out by vegetables in their food. Don't show them because if you start eating that good, if you start feeding the good bacteria in the gut more your cravings are gonna change because you're gonna have more good bacteria, more diversity and then they'll send messages to the [00:33:00] brain saying actually I do want a bit of broccoli or not even I want it but I just won't be opposed to it.

Yes. So sneak away, whatever it takes. You need to. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. I love that. Now, Sharon, a little bit more about you, I would love to know what some of your non negotiable daily health habits are as a farmer. For me, yeah, so my non negotiable is my morning routine. I think if you set up the morning well.

And create a routine that gives you energy and clarity, that's the most important thing for me. So I've had the same morning routine now pretty much since I started that detox years ago, which is a morning smoothie.I can't have any other breakfast now, and I have a lemon water first thing in the morning, so I have a big jar of lemon water, and so I really hydrate my body, and then I'll have a morning [00:34:00] smoothie, and then I'll have a cup of tea, and my kids have the same, they don't do the lemon water, but they have a smoothie for breakfast.

every single day. Do they love it? No. Would they love cereal? Yes. Did they give you the finest time on the planet?but I didn't care. it was like, that's what we're having. And then the nice thing about having a really nutritious, healthy breakfast is that you can let it slide a little bit for lunch.

And dinner if you need to. As long as you set yourself up in the morning, it's so powerful, isn't it? My kids, talking about the 30 plant based fiber a week, my kids will go to school with at least 10. Yeah. In the morning. And then lunchboxes and dinner, There's just so much you can pack in those smoothies.

And the protein that you can add, like there's so much there that you can do for your own energy as a mama, but also to set them up for learning in a school environment. As well, like so many of these kids are going to school,on [00:35:00] cereal. And by the time they get there, they can't concentrate.

They're fiddly. they're struggling to sit still. Then all of a sudden, I hate to say this, but they're being asked to get tested that, it's just this vicious cycle. I know, I probably shouldn't say this, but I couldn't believe that when my kids started school, that there was. people still giving them sweets in the classroom.

And then I was being told that, my son maybe needed some testing. And I thought, okay,it's just, at the time there was a bit of testing for autism and he actually nailed his tests. It was actually ended up coming back down to, it's just his personality. He's a reserved, shy, quiet boy, but I just found it really interesting that there is.

There's a lot more us, there is a lot more environments at school where children and now there's record numbers of children being asked [00:36:00] to get tested for the ADHD autism. The one thing I did find really strange, though, was that there was a lot of sugary rewards being given out. Yeah, it was just very contradictory.

That's all I will say. I won't get too much into it because I love my children's school. But I found that very interesting. my other no, non negotiable for me is I just don't buy my kids juices or fizzy drinks. It's just the thing I don't do. Yeah. I'll buy them treats occasionally and I call them, when they were young, it was a sometimes food.

I never got a treat. Speaking about sugar, the average teenager in the US eats 34 teaspoons of sugar a day. And that's probably because of all the drinks. Drinks. 34. So the World Health Organization says no more than three. four teaspoons a day. So if we're, I see kids, it's, soccer, rugby, basketball, there's always the snakes and then the fizzy drinks afterwards.

And it's a [00:37:00] tremendous amount of sugar that's feeding pathogens. Bad bacteria, parasites, bad bacteria. Yeah. And the saddest part about it as well is that, both of us I just refuse to buy that for my kids. But then somehow I am looked badly for that. I've been called an almond mom. I've been told that I deprive my children.

And it's crazy that we've gotten to that point in society where me protecting my children from harmful chemicals, really, that aren't actually real food makes me the bad person. But how did we get to that point in society? It's crazy. It's true. It's true. And then also you have that with your family members as well.

Like a lot of the mums that work with me in my courses, they'll say, I don't want to give my son dairy or child dairy. It affects their digestion, their whatever. and that's considered, that's cruel. You're being cruel. You need to give them the ice cream and you [00:38:00] just have to.

Tune into your gut instinct, because it's never wrong. Exactly. The gut can deceive you, the brain can deceive you, the gut is never wrong. 100%. Yeah. Speaking of gut health, there is so much advice out there, but not all of it is obviously helpful. What are some of the biggest mistakes people make when they're trying to heal their gut?

Yeah. I totally get that it's overwhelming, because there is so much information. There's so many. Companies that wanna sell things and here's a miracle cure and here's the supplement and here's the super food. And you can't do that. You have to do the work. But there's a lot of, there are a number of gut microbiome disruptors that impact that gut balance of bacteria.

And that would be obviously the diet, stress, toxic chemicals. And every child is different. a parent would be like, okay, so what do I do? But the number one. The single fastest way to absolutely affect [00:39:00] the gut microbiome negatively is antibiotics. That in one spelt swoop, you will literally drop a nuclear bomb in the gut.

And what really upsets me, and I did this for my eldest son kept getting a reoccurring ear infection. And so I kept going to the GP, ENT, couldn't see any inflammation, but they could see my child was in pain. antibiotics. I gave my son multiple antibiotics for a reoccurring ear infection.

And that will kill off the bad bacteria, but also the good bacteria. And these are some really alarming stats here, but if you take antibiotics just once before your child's the age of two, you will increase obesity by 24%, increase learning disability by 21%, you'll get a 32 percent increase in ADHD, 90 percent increase in asthma, and All of the allergies and food intolerances and eczema and hay fever all related to [00:40:00] medication.

It's not just, it's not just antibiotics, even baby Panadol birth control has impacted our gut microbiome. what I would say to parents is, unfortunately, your GP who's very well meaning is just going to hand out antibiotics, or if you've got a reasonably good GP, they might say, you know what, let the immune system try and work this through.

The parent is so overwhelmed by the amount of things she has to do, maybe she has to go to work, she can't afford to stay at home all day with her son or daughter. So they'll encourage the antibiotics, but just one round of antibiotics will have a devastating impact on the gut microbiome. And so you won't watch it here.

I watched this firsthand with my daughter because she unfortunately, caught pneumonia at the age of two weeks old. Yeah, so she ended up in ICU in Sydney Children's Hospital. And at the time there was no other option. and I [00:41:00] had to agree to the antibiotics, which was heartbreaking. What I did do.

Power through with and had my mom gut instinct was because she was my 2nd. I knew to follow my own gut. I knew to, to, with my 1st, it wouldn't have been the same, but something that they said to me was, we think that because her left lung. was, so damaged at the time. we think that it's just best to give her formula.

it'll just be easier on her. And I didn't agree. I powered through and I said, no, because I'm going to give her my breast milk because I know that's actually what's going to save her life. and I did, and I powered through and I made them set up an intravenous with my breast milk. And I said it's the only way I'm going to feed her.

And I sat by that hospital bed and pumped for two weeks straight my breast milk. Wow. In the end, my, the pediatrician actually said to me that they [00:42:00] have never seen a two week old recover that quickly from pneumonia, and he ended up admitting that. He said, I think it was your breast milk. Of course it was hands down.

Yeah, because you connected. The body is so smart and it's exactly the type of nutrients and what bacteria she needed to support her gut health and immunity. In fact, if you then put the formula in, and I made all the mistakes with my eldest son. once I took out dairy from his diet at the age of two, he never had another ear infection.

He was actually dealing with a dairy intolerance. Yes. Never been on antibiotics since either. Wow. and that's the thing, and I'd say the biggest disruptor to gut health actually, of course it's medication, but it's, as busy mums, the thing I want to share is healing doesn't happen in a doctor's office.

It doesn't happen at the GP. It doesn't even happen at a naturopath's office. Healing happens at home. You can get the advice and the tests and the information, but unless you [00:43:00] know what you're doing at home, and you have some level of education, you are then at the mercy of other people. And what you did for your daughter then, is life changing.

You would have a very different daughter on your hands right now because she would have been gone on, she would have gone on formula. I did this with my eldest son, didn't know any better. She would have developed inflammation. You might be dealing with a whole host of health issues that you don't even have to, you're blissfully unaware of.

But the trajectory would have been pretty poor. actually she, because of those antibiotics, and I do believe that it was because of the antibiotics and people can come after me for that, she ended up being a bronchiolitis baby. So we spent endless nights. So her brother would get sick. He would be sniffling for a couple of days.

Hers would start that way. It would end up in her lungs, affect her breathing. We would end up at North Shore, she would need oxygen. We would go up to the ward and it was [00:44:00] this vicious cycle. And I actually had multiple doctors say to me, she will have asthma when she's seven or eight. She'll be tested and she'll be di.

'cause yeah, they don't diagnose until they're a bit older. She had that test. and thankfully she now is, yeah, completely fine. No asthma, no more puffers. No more steroids. But she did go through those years of bronchiolitis, asthma. she did have, croup, we had to call the ambulance one night.

I do believe that it was those antibiotics at the two weeks, but I do think if I hadn't persistent with feeding her that breast milk, that it could have been worse. It would have been. That's just. Yeah. Yes, I have a very similar story with my eldest as well. But I was not educated like you, so I succumbed to a lot of advice.

That I have mum guilt over, but, you just have to, yeah, you do what you can [00:45:00] with what you know at the time and you're always doing your best. Yeah, exactly. And so what do you, when moms do you start to, heal their gut and try to support their gut health, what's something that you constantly hear from them, like the resistance or what do you, what struggles do they come across?

with over, with so many thousands of students, I know which moms are going to be successful, from the moment I meet them. And actually, no one can actually buy my course, the gut health course, unless they do a free class with me first, because I don't want people spending, cause it's so expensive raising healthy kids.

So I need to know that they'll do the work, because unless you do the work, you're not going to get the results, but I can tell pretty much, and that would be a mom's belief system. And if I can look at a child and I'll know what foods are bothering that child. I'll know what's wrong. I've just been doing it for so long.

And so I might say, the child's got [00:46:00] eczema. It's constantly snotty, constantly needing antibiotics. And I'll say to the mom, this is years ago, I don't ever share my opinion now unless someone really wants it, cause it just makes them feel bad when they don't get the advice otherwise.

Bye. I'll say, gosh, if you just take out dairy and you have a different child on your hands in two weeks, and the look on the mum's face is, oh my gosh, that sounds so hard, I'm not going to try. And that's heartbreaking. Yes. It is. Because it's not that hard. And I think mums who have kids that are very fussy, that battle is so huge that you'd almost rather deal with the pain of today by getting rid of that pain quickly rather than the long term potential of healing.

So we have to pay the price of inconvenience, whether we're put out today by making the effort on the food and changing things up. It's inconvenient because we're super busy, [00:47:00] we're overwhelmed. But I'd rather spend time doing that than dealing with the inconvenience of ill health and the heartbreak of watching my child rely on prescribed medication, not reaching their best, dealing with doctors, dealing with appointments, tests, finding medication.

You're going to, where do you want your inconvenience? Where do you want your heart? 100%. And what's your opinion on healing from that dairy intolerance, the lactose intolerance? Thanks. So when I, so with, when it comes to healing the dairy and the lactose intolerance is not a problem. It's a trigger.

Yes. And so even when you have a good practitioner and actually they say, I've had, I've heard of gps now say, you know what, dairy is probably not helping with the eczema. Yeah. So let's take it out. So the mother will take it out. That is also a form of management. Depriving yourself of food is a form [00:48:00] of management.

So as long as I don't have dairy, I feel better, my symptoms go. But if I have it, I'm going to react. Now the beauty, real healing, is when you get rid of that inflammation. Yes. And you heal the gut. Then what happens once you've done that you can have dairy. My favorite food is pizza. It's gluten. It's cheese and I can eat it and I don't react.

Yes. I don't have it often. I'll have it maybe once every Gosh, it's probably sneaking in once every three or so weeks, but I love it. Me too. Yeah And this is what I say to a lot of my clients because I get that resistance because in my programs You need to cut out the gluten and the dairy Yeah, then I get that.

Oh, but I'm not celiac. I'm not lactose intolerant. And I say to them, got nothing to do with that. The idea of this is we need to reduce that inflammation in your body and inflammation in your gut. Once we are able to heal your body from that inflammation, it is going to digest dairy and gluten [00:49:00] so differently.

But it's going to take a while. And at the end of the day, gluten and dairy cause inflammation in everybody. Yes, whether you want to admit that or not, they are inflammatory foods, especially in Western countries, because, that's a whole nother topic, but the way that they're made, the way that they're processed.

At the end of the day, yes you can heal, yes you can eat your favourite foods in the future, but we need to get your body into that harmonious state first. Yes, 100%. And some people say, but especially parents or grandparents, I used to eat dairy, I eat gluten, it's not a problem, but the actual fact is over the last few generations we've wiped out a third of our bacteria diversity in the gut.

So we are all in deficit. So not only has the food become highly processed and inflammatory, so it has a longer shelf life and is far more profitable for big commercial companies. We [00:50:00] are actually weaker. Yes. And that is in turn because of all the, the toxic. Things that we're consuming, breathing in every single day as well, that is damaging our gut.

It's multiplying our bad bacteria. And we just don't have the same gut health that our grandparents did. So we have to look at it differently. And the thing is, once you start, it is so many of my clients say to me, Oh, my God, it was so much easier than I thought. This is the thing I constantly hear, is that it's so much easier than I thought.

They all say it. I couldn't believe it. And especially because, you're both of us, we guide them with these beautiful recipes. So once you start eating this beautiful food, and the best part, which is what I love about what you teach as well, is that we're not asking you to go and get some fancy greens powder or, ingredients that are really hard to get.

We are just asking you to prioritize simple whole foods in their natural state. [00:51:00] They haven't had their nutrients stripped from them. They are just beautiful whole foods, which you can get their everyday ingredients. Yeah, absolutely. Now, yeah. For busy mums who do feel overwhelmed by all of this, what's probably one shift that they can make right now?

To take control of their own and their family's health without feeling like it's going to be this huge, time consuming, massive change that they need to make. I would say biggest, most powerful thing you can do is get educated. Listen to your podcast, find someone where you like their lifestyle, you like the way they look, they've got energy, they feel great, they're an amazing mom, follow that, don't follow science, follow people that are getting results and find something, whether it's a course or a class or an ebook or something, or listening to a podcast, because I [00:52:00] feel once you hear something, just how something has to resonate, then you spark curiosity.

Then you want to find out more. And then as you start learning, you start getting inspired. And then you start realizing, actually, I can heal. I don't have to live with these conditions. So then you get motivated. Oh, my child doesn't have to live with asthma or even anaphylactic allergies. Really? I need to learn more.

I know now who to go to. I'm going to listen to more. And then once you get motivated, change will naturally happen. Change will naturally, he starts with one little bling moment, and then it all goes from there. I know that's what happened with us. we had to get,a point where we were really ill, but it only took that moment to go, okay, we need to change something.

And that's when, like you, I just went crazy on the research. I started listening to podcasts, joining Facebook groups, listening to audio books.

In saying that, is there a book that you recommend, that you love, that can [00:53:00] change something? It doesn't have to necessarily be about nutrition. But I love getting people's book recommendations. Oh, funnily enough, the book that really stands out and it's got, it's not to do with nutrition, but the book that really was a real game changer for me was A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson.

Oh, I haven't read that one. I'm going to write that one down. And what she says is that whenever we're in a situation that Makes us upset. We can choose fear or we can choose love. Yes. And for example, a mum might feel very anxious. My child's got these conditions and you can really well in the fear, or you can really focus on the love, and the opportunity.

And that book was a real game changer, actually. Yeah. And it's also, that's also a very famous Oprah quote. Is it? Using love over fear. Oh, using love over fear. Okay. And I feel I've become quite a spiritual person. I feel that every person who has certain [00:54:00] challenges. These are gifts in disguise and you are receiving them because you have the capacity to resolve them and grow and become resilient.

And then you become the game changer for other people in your community. Yes. I 100%. I think that's a topic for another day, but I love delving into that topic. now Sharon, I'm so excited to ask this. Tell us about your incredible program coming up. What can people expect? What is it about? How can we join?

Oh, that is so lovely for you to ask about that. So in about three weeks time, I'm hosting my free four day Supercharger Kids Immunity Cooking Challenge. It's a four day event, 45 minute sessions, and the first day is a gut health masterclass teaching how Gut health impacts the immune system and then the next three days and you mentioned it for optimum health and well being We need to be eatingabout 30 different plant based foods a week I'm going to show you how to do that for breakfast in a cooking [00:55:00] demo Lunch boxes and then dinner and it's going to take me a minute.

So I'm going to show you everything I've learned in the last 10 years and how to do it quick and fast and how to make sure fussy eaters enjoy the food as well. And that's the practical side. So that's available in the next three weeks. If you enjoy that, you can then get invited to join my gut health course.

Oh, I love that. I'm so excited. It is really good. I've had thousands of mums on that course. And in the four days, they'll cook with me and they will feel a difference on the fourth day. That is incredible. I love that. You guys, we need to get into this. We need to sign up. Where can we sign up? So just go to my website, deliciouslyallergyfree.

com. Everything I'm going to share is gluten and dairy free. Yes, that's how I specialize in allergies and gut health and immunity. So deliciouslyallergyfree. com, you'll find everything there. We'll pop all of those links in the show notes as well, guys. So you'll be able to scroll down and find those. And [00:56:00] Sharon, where can we find you on socials?

So again, deliciouslyallergyfree. com and I'm most active on Instagram at the moment, eventually going to sort out YouTube and TikTok, but it's one of the things I don't do. Forever on our list of things to do. yeah. But Instagram seems to be where it's happening. Amazing. Sharon, thank you so much for sharing all that incredible knowledge with us.

It has been such an honor to have you on the podcast. I know so many mamas are going to resonate with your story, with your advice, and I cannot wait to join you in this incredible program as well and learn more from you. Thank you again for joining us. Oh, And it's been such a pleasure and I'm such an advocate for your work as well.

I love it. Thanks Sharon. Thank you. Bye.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope this conversation has inspired you to live your healthiest, happiest life. Don't forget to subscribe and tune in next [00:57:00] week. Bye for now.