As a registered dietician, Lucy Hutchings places great emphasis on foods that reduce inflammation and improve gut health.

“The best foods for gut health are fermented foods like sauerkraut, kefir and kombucha,” she said. However, vegetables and fruits are full of anti-oxidants which act as anti-inflammatories and are just as necessary, she added.

“I tell my clients to avoid gluten, processed foods and sugar at all costs,” Hutchings said, noting that all three can ruin a healthy gut.

Hutchings has worked as a registered dietician in New England for over 20 years. She spent her first 17 working as a clinical dietician at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass., before starting her own practice, Wellness From Within Nutrition, at the New Ipswich (N.H.) School Yard building in 2022.

“I primarily work with women over 40, but of course I take other clients as well,” Hutchings said.

She switched from a clinical setting to a private practice to work with clients holistically. “In a clinical setting, you give a 10-minute consultation and focus primarily on managing symptoms,” she stated, adding that she didn’t want to just manage clients, she wanted to find the root of their ailments.

According to Hutchings, inflammation is the reason behind most health issues and stems from an unhealthy gut biome and stress.

“When treating clients, I look at their lifestyle and build a strategic plan from there,” she said. “I look at sleep patterns, physical movement, stress and gut health. If any one of those aspects is out of step, the whole system suffers.”

She elaborated that in our modern world, it’s hard for people, particularly women over 40, to lose weight when one or more of the listed factors is out of balance. To address the issue, Hutchings tailors a nutrition plan to each individual client according to their needs.

“When women cross the 40 threshold, they need to change their lifestyle. I teach them to work with their body, not against it,” she said.

Hutchings asks clients to listen to their body when they eat and to become aware of how they feel before, during and after doing so. She can then better design a food plan for them to follow.

“As an example, one of my clients who was both a high-level professional and a mother, she tried lots of diets, but none of them did the trick. After working with me and discovering what foods worked for her body, she ended up losing 20 pounds over three months,” Hutchings said.

“Another notable one I like to discuss is about a mother with chronic joint inflammation. She was in her mid-forties and was unable to walk up stairs normally due to excruciating joint pain. She decided to make a change when she couldn’t stand up to cheer on her kids at their basketball games,” she added.

Once the client reached out to Hutchings, she put her on an individualized nutrition plan that improved her gut health and, by extension, reduced her joint inflammation.

One way she likes to test clients is through her “No Sugar Challenge.”

“I ask clients to remove all processed and artificial sugars from their diet for five days. Natural sugar from fruit is fine, but the point of the challenge is to bring about an awareness of how they feel after the five days.”

While Hutchings gets about one-third of her business through referrals, she spends most of her time promoting the business on social media, public presentations, via her website and through her “Healthy Mama” podcast.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.