ABOUT THE AUTHOR KATHRYN MARSDEN
'Here, at whatever hour you come, you will find light and help and human kindness'
Dr Albert Schweitzer
Kathryn Marsden is probably best known as the author of bestselling books such as The Complete Book of Food Combining and Good Gut Healing. But she’s also a nutritionist and was for many years in full time clinical practice in the UK. Since the success of her first series of articles and her first book The Food Combining Diet (HarperCollins) way back in 1993, she has contributed regularly to a wide range of media including national, international and local press, magazines, television and radio.
Kathryn has written for a long list of publications including Active Lifestyle, Best, Company, Cosmopolitan, Essentials, Health & Fitness, Healthy Eating, Here’s Health, Intermedica, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror Magazine, Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, Marie Claire, New Woman, Next, Sunday Express Magazine, the Townsend Letter for Doctors, What Doctors’ Don’t Tell You, Woman & Home, Woman’s Realm. Woman’s Day – Australia, Woman’s Weekly, You Magazine and Zest. In addition, her regular columns have appeared in The Daily Express, Sunday Business, Woman Magazine, New Woman Magazine, Family Circle, Beauty Counter and Pharmacy Magazine.
Kathryn has been called a ‘communicator supreme’ and it’s true that she loves nothing more than to spread the word that good food is the root cause of good health and that getting the diet right doesn’t have to be hard work. She hates extreme regimes with a passion and believes unwaveringly in balanced healthy eating but is also certain that one of the best sources of nourishment is a sense of humour. She has an unquenchable interest in all things digestive and bowel, especially if it farts, burps, bloats or belches - which is why she had so much fun writing the incredibly successful Good Gut Healing, so popular that it is now in its 15th Reprint! In between getting excited about people’s excreta, she’s traipsed to many a far distant shore to present nutrition lectures and seminars on health and fitness and really enjoyed the several years spent in adult education where she says she learned more from her students that she ever did from text books.
Kathryn is an expert in the use of therapeutic nutrition, a method of introducing dietary changes which have been found to help:
- Improve general health and well-being
- Enhance digestion and absorption of nutrients
- Improve bowel function
- Balance bodyweight
- Boost immunity
- Relieve existing symptoms
- Her methods are also aimed at trying to reduce the risk of dis-ease, in particular, problems concerning the cardiovascular system including high blood pressure, elevated blood fats and excess cholesterol, also bowel complaints, Type II diabetes and illnesses related to obesity.
When it comes to getting the message home that eating healthily is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of a whole range of illnesses, Kathryn makes no bones about being perpetually disappointed that good information is so poorly co-ordinated and seems to be so confusing. "I think it's terribly sad that dietary advice can't be generally available at health centre and GP level," says Kathryn. "A patient might be advised to eat more fibre, less fat or less sugar but, in most cases, not much else in the way of dietary recommendations is provided. No-one gets referred to a dietitian in order to prevent a disease but only once something is really wrong. People rely more on books, magazine and newspaper articles for healthy eating info than they do on their doctors. We all know there's a mountain of medical information and support available but the majority has to do with the drug and/or surgical treatment of existing conditions. Little attention is paid to trying to prevent illness before it begins."
"It's also the case," believes Kathryn, "that hardly anyone realises how powerful nutritional therapy can be in helping the body to cope with existing symptoms. See my article on Lyme Disease, for example. Yet, when it comes to self-help, people are understandably confused by the conflicting array of nutritional advice that's out there. I'm so grateful that I was able to work in this field and have always believed wholeheartedly in promoting and sharing information about diet and balanced healthy eating so that other people might benefit. That's the main aim of this website."
Kathryn has always felt very strongly that dietary advice should be available to everyone, especially to those who would not otherwise have access to nutritional support. Over the years, she has always been delighted to set aside considerable chunks of her time to free admission lectures and seminars on diet and healthy eating, including a three-year stint of voluntary work as dietary adviser in a medical centre, working alongside GPs and other specialists. Instead of being paid for her clinic work, she chose that the money went instead to children's charities and to the International Red Cross. She is now retired from full-time practice but is still writing.
When she does break free, Kathryn indulges her love of plants and gardens. Truly passionate about wildlife and the environment, she believes that one of the best ways to help the planet is to plant trees. "Even the smallest garden can support some kind of tree or shrub that will attract bees, birds, butterflies or other wildlife. A tree doesn't actually cost much, especially when compared to clothes, shoes, holidays, cigarettes, meals out, etc. and yet a tree contributes so much benefit to our polluted world. Whenever funds permit, we plant a tree. We've planted something like 50 trees in the past 3 years alone and in excess of 250 in the last decade." In addition, Kathryn takes a reasonable photograph (one of her pictures has hung in the Lowry) and she is a certifiable bibliophile. “I came out of the womb with a book already attached”, she says. “My addiction is so bad that I’m no longer allowed inside a bookshop unless accompanied by a responsible adult.” Kathryn is the author of more than a dozen titles and is published in fifteen languages including Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Russian, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Hungarian, Finnish, Spanish, Swedish, German, Indonesian and Arabic.
Kathryn’s credo:
“One of the most important things I’ve learned over the years is that top notch nutrition is incredibly powerful stuff. If I can use my work as a writer and as a practitioner to change for the better the way people look after themselves (and in particular, their forgotten intestines) and if because of it their health improves or the risk of illness is lessened, then that makes me very happy indeed.”