Hey!  I'm Kali.

My nutrition story starts with familiar scenes: brewing coffee for the masses at 5 am, working late nights behind bars and in kitchens, and chiming in on what the entrée should be for Thursday night’s special. At the time, I wasn’t looking for a career in food, but merely desperate to fund my horse habit.

By my early twenties, I was reading food memoirs for fun and lecturing friends and family on why they needed to soak their grains (those remain two of my favorite hobbies, much to everyone's dismay). I began growing my own vegetables. I was on a first-name basis with my gut bacteria. I started fermenting everything that wasn't nailed down.

But my cozy little food world was rocked when, one short year into our marriage, my husband was diagnosed and hospitalized with severe ulcerative colitis. Doctors and treatments offered few promises beyond a lifetime of medication and the possibility of colon removal. Refusing to accept the prognosis, I dug into nutrition science for a second opinion. Remarkably, I found one.  After countless hours of research, a radical shift in our eating, and a whole lotta stubbornness, we slowly learned to manage his condition with a science-meets-common-sense approach that has returned him to the active, adventurous life he loves.

The detective work that this experience required sparked a passion for the nitty-gritty of nutrition science and the microbiome. In today's world of poorly produced food products and environmental toxins, few among of us can boast of trouble-free digestion or freedom from the myriad of symptoms that can result from poor gut health, such as autoimmune disease, inflammation, hormone imbalance, acne, allergies, lethargy, depression, or persistent weight gain (just to name a FEW). As science continues to dig into the fascinating connections between our gut, brain, and body, the importance of healing from the inside out is undeniable.

Looking around at friends and family, I saw a growing abundance of these conditions. We're sick, and we can't figure out why. For some of us, it's mild enough to sweep under the rug with a prescription here or there, but for others, it's begun to interfere with our everyday life.  

As I began sharing what I had learned with those around me, I discovered a huge need for that knowledge. Unfortunately, modern western medicine, while essential in oh-so many ways, dropped the nutrition ball long ago. The deep connections between our diet and our health are largely ignored.  As one doctor memorably told us: "don't worry, the medicine will let you continue eat whatever you want!" (I'm still scratching my head on that one.)

And so I returned to school to dig as deep as I could.  I chose the Nutrition Consultant program at Hawthorn University for its solid grounding in nutrition science and its thorough exploration of the body's various systems. In early 2018, I graduated as a Certified Nutrition Consultant, and Modern Heirloom Nutrition, LLC was born.