About me:
Hi, I'm Megan! I live with my husband and three young children, not far from where I grew up in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. We love enjoying our time together, especially outdoors.
​
I studied bioinformatics at the University of Waterloo, then spent a year living in Australia before studying veterinary medicine at the Ontario Veterinary College. I completed a small animal internship in Wisconsin and now I work as a companion animal veterinarian at an awesome clinic close to home.
​
I am excited to provide you with resources to help you make informed food choices. I want to make it easier for people to eat more natural, delicious food for their health and well-being.
Towards Before Natural food:
​
I always considered my diet to be very healthy and "natural", with no MSG of course. It was only when my intolerance to MSG worsened literally overnight that I discovered that MSG (or its equivalent, manufactured free glutamate) was actually hidden in almost everything I ate.
I found lists of hidden sources of MSG (or its equivalent, manufactured free glutamate) and avoided them all, with the plan to gradually add them back into my diet as long as they didn't cause problems. In doing so, the stomach aches and acid reflux I had always attributed to just being "sensitive" resolved completely, and every time I tried to re-introduce a food on the list, I had a severe gastro-intestinal reaction 8 hours later, followed by stomach aches every time I ate anything for a few days afterwards.
Consumers understandably trust ingredient lists to provide a complete description of the contents of food, but food companies can use deceptive labelling to avoid listing additives and the FDA allows many substances (such as "processing aids") to be omitted from labels. To make matters worse, much of the "science" related to free glutamate is funded by food companies with far too much at stake to allow unbiased research. Nonetheless, amongst the anecdotal evidence, pseudo-science and conspiracy theories there is important evidence-based information.
After much research and trial-and-error , I discovered more and more ways that free glutamate (and additives) can be hidden in completely unexpected foods. In the process I also realized how much of what I ate incidentally contained sugar, and I discovered how much better I felt when I avoided refined sugar (and other high glycemic index sweeteners).
​
Now I almost never have a stomach ache, acid reflux or a headache and I feel healthy for the first time in my life. My husband, who had always dealt with some serious health issues that he attributed to stress, now only has problems when he eats things I wouldn't. Which would be a pretty big coincidence unless this sensitivity is much more common than we realize.
​
It has been a major challenge for me to adapt to my food sensitivities but I have learned a lot along the way. I hope that by sharing what I have learned (and continue to learn) I can make it a little easier for anyone who chooses to eat Before Natural food, in particular those who are suffering from the side effects of food processing or additives. Please let me know how it goes for you!