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Home › Experts › Leanne Ely

Leanne Ely

Leanne Ely, C.N.C., Certified Nutrition Consultant


"My mission is to educate parents that their children need real food. Not the garbage Madison Avenue is trying to pawn off as food their kids need. Parents need to understand that their job is feeding hungry souls, not filling holes. I want to empower parents in that process -- not do it for them, but show them the way. I believe good, healthy, real food can make a huge difference and as far as I am concerned, the proof is in the pudding. I made my daughter well when the doctors could not."

My background has always been in food. It has taken many different directions, but primarily, my focus has been food. As a former caterer, I learned to cook from some fine chefs and cooks along the way. Even with my very busy schedule catering, I still managed to entertain a lot at home and did a lot of self-teaching. I should also mention that it didn't hurt that my mom was a fabulous cook!

But it was after the birth of my daughter that my interest in nutrition was kindled. When she kept getting repeated ear infections, I quickly became disillusioned with the traditional medical route and looked for alternative solutions. When I discovered the connection between food and allergies and found ways to actually make my daughter well, I decided to pursue this even more and began helping other moms in the pursuit of wellness for their families. In 1992, I obtained my C.N.C. (certified nutritional consultant) and began speaking to groups, consulting with clients and writing about nutrition.

Though these two avenues may seem to contradict each other, they became a most excellent pair, as I was interested in making whole, healthy foods taste wonderful. I began taking traditional family foods and "healthed" them up a bit, and made it even better in some cases.

Healthy Foods: An Irreverent Guide to Understanding Nutrition and Feeding Your Family Well My new book, Healthy Foods: An Irreverent Guide to Understanding Nutrition and Feeding Your Family Well (Champion Press) is out now. I have also written two different age-level unit studies based on the book so parents can teach their kids to become responsible nutritionally and learn sound nutritional habits early on. All three books are available through Amazon.com.

I have a radio show in the works, write features for a newspaper, have my own newspaper column, "The Manic Housewife," and have written for magazines, Web sites and newsletters. My newsletter, Healthy-Foods, is a free weekly ezine, delivered every Friday to your email box. To subscribe, send an email to: join-healthy-foods@ds.xc.org.

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