BY: ALYSSA MAHADEO
The importance of healthy eating and nutrition is a concept many have worked toward understanding and implementing in their own lives. The use of natural, holistic homegrown foods allows us to know exactly what it is we are putting into our bodies, to keep us feeling great as well as maintaining proper nutrition to keep up with our busy lifestyles.
Celeste London hails from Trinidad and Tobago and grew up on her grandmother’s farm in Darrell Springs, Tobago. She spent most of her childhood submerged in nature, picking fresh fruit right off the trees, or pulling them straight from the earth.
“I came to Canada as a little girl, and it was difficult to understand why you had to go to the store to buy food,” Celeste shares. The access she once had on the farm to gather her own fruits and vegetables had been replaced by a trip to the supermarket.
Eventually she grew accustomed to this new type of lifestyle, but nutrition was something that she still felt very passionate about. “Nutrition is something I got into because I’m the type of woman who has attracted certain kinds of relationships into my life and so as I went through my own journey seeking therapy, personal coaching and counseling as well as mentorship I learned what I wanted to do with my life,” Celeste says.
She originally considered a career as a psychotherapist, thinking this was something that she wanted to do, but quickly realized that she didn’t want to spend all day listening to sad stories, unable to provide realistic solutions.
“I found something called holistic nutrition and special medicine certification,” Celeste explains, “I wanted to use something to empower people and I found out that you could use food medicine to heal emotions something that I found that was very powerful.”
It is well known that Caribbean food are meals that consist of things heavily fried in oil and it doesn’t do justice to the human body after you reach a certain age. Many people in the Caribbean suffer from illnesses that are amplified by the food they put into their bodies.
Celeste became a Holistic Health Certified Natural Medicine Practitioner, hoping to change the dialogue around these type of epidemic, “I chose this profession because I saw a need in the Caribbean/Afrocentric community to combat diabetes as well as other diseases that plague us particularly T2 Diabetes because of the lifestyle lived in the Caribbean.
“Through my own soul-searching, I realized I also wanted to be my own self-healer,” Celeste says. “Food medicine is a protocol that I was able to use on myself, to promote my own self-healing.”
“Food medicine includes all of the food given to us from Mother Earth and nature and it provides a lot of mental, emotional, psychological and physical ingredients and requirements that the human body needs on a deep cellular level,” Celeste explains.
Celeste says that she chose to specialize in diabetes because it is something that affects many from the Caribbean, including members of her own family. Through her own research, she discovered diabetes is something largely affected by lifestyle and can be treated by implementing dietary changes.
“If someone is suffering from mild depression mother nature is really incredible, you can drink something like pomegranate juice to help pick your mood up and boost your energy levels,” she explains.
“Food medicine can be a powerful tool that a person can use to bring up their positive emotions in the right way. A Lot of people aren’t aware of the power of food medicine and that it can really help them in this way.”
Celeste is the author of Diabetes 2 Nutrition a book designed to help educate those looking to make the necessary dietary changes to better treat first and foremost T2 diabetes, but also any other illnesses or disease they might be suffering from.
“It is designed to help people suffering from T2 Diabetes or any type of chronic disease because you can apply those same principles to your chronic disease,” Celeste explains. “It shows you all of the different ingredients you can use, but also allows you to eat food you are accustomed to.”
Celeste is currently in the midst of rebranding herself to better accommodate the needs of the community and better serve the information that they need to live better and feel better.
“I want you to learn how to Rejuvenate, Restore, and Redefine you,” Celeste says. “Never allow another human being to define you, you are the one who defines you.”
“My company is a reflection of who I am, my journey and my struggles as a single mom, looking for love outside of myself, but I realized I’m the only person who can truly love myself, fill up my own cup. Whatever you think you have given so much of yourself, I am here to let you know that I will help you to rejuvenate yourself through self-love, self-expression, and help to give back what you think you lost. Feed yourself the love you give to the world.”
