Health and Fitness Innovators: Sage and Salt Nutrition

For Nutritional Therapy practitioner Meredith Brown, her interest in helping people feel better started when she herself was feeling lousy all the time. Growing up, any time she had any kind of health issue her family physician - like so many other family doctors - had a simple solution which usually started and ended with a round of antibiotics.

Brown now believes that her prolonged use of antibiotics lead to anxiety, hyperactivity, moodiness and lethargy, throughout her late teens and into adulthood.

“In my 20’s,” she explained, “I started eating more fruits and vegetables, mainly because they were inexpensive, and I noticed that I felt better. This was how it all started for me.”

Another driving force in Brown’s developing health knowledge was having children.

“It really made me take a critical look at the food culture in this country, and realize that I did not want to feed my children a highly processed, high sugar diet that is advertised as ‘kid food,’” she said. “So, if I wasn’t going to feed them that, then I had to figure out what I was going to feed them.”

From such concerns, a new outlook on life - as well as a brand new career path - was forged.

Early in her quest for better health practices, Brown learned about Dr. Weston A. Price, a Cleveland dentist nicknamed “The Isaac Newton of Nutrition.” It was Price who, in the 1930s-1940s, launched studies into how diet can affect things like tooth infection and decay. Though his initial studies were focused on his career field of dentistry, his focus soon expanded to include an array of overall health issues.

“Dr. Price found that the cultures that did not eat modern foods of convenience - otherwise known as junk food - were free from diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, autoimmune disorders, and depression,” Brown said.

The more that she learned about health and nutrition, the more strongly she became converted to the practice of healthy, clean eating. Following the path to its natural conclusion, Brown eventually earned her NTP certificate (Nutritional Therapy Practitioner) from the Nutritional Therapy Association. She now annually attends the Women’s Herbal Symposium, where she regularly discovers new ideas and fresh inspirations.

Originally interested in working mainly with children, helping them to adopt healthier eating habits, Brown soon expanded her practice to all ages. Her business was designed to not only help people lead healthier lives on a daily basis, but also to receive instruction and support in somewhat “trendy” things like detoxification, purification and healthy eating programs. After some thought, she named the business “Sage and Salt.”

“The name is both literal and figurative,” explained Brown. “Literally, this name represents that I believe healthy food should taste good, and that we need to use herbs and mineral salts to help food taste good. Figuratively, sage refers to the traditional wisdoms I’m tapping into, while the salt can refer to the way I am able to deliver information in a no-nonsense cut-to-the-chase way, though I always offer humor and compassion.”

As 2018 begins, Sage and Salt is offering a number of classes specifically designed to help people kick off the New Year by kicking out bad food habits and choices. Upcoming classes include a “10 Day Sugar Detox Program,” running from Feb. 12-21, costing $185, and taking place at the Sage and Salt classroom at The Luma Center, 616 N. Petaluma Blvd, Suite B. Another course, titled ‘Nourishing Stocks and Broths’ teaches attendees how to improve their health by creating healthy, cozy meal options during unseasonably cold weather. This class meets Tuesdays, Feb. 27 from 6-9 p.m. at the Wind & Rye Kitchen in Penngrove.

Some past classes include “Secrets of Fire Cider, Elderberry Syrup, and Herbal Tinctures’ ($120) and “Mood Management using Food, Nutrients and Herbs,” and “Elevated Stocks and Broths” ($75).

Ever since Sage and Salt opened, Brown says she’s heard from the occasional naysayer or skeptics. But Brown, often described as focused yet spunky, just smiles at such suspicion, replying, “Naysayers would be people who don’t believe that there is a fundamental connection between what we eat and our health. But often times, these people just haven’t taken the time to consider the connection.”

Asked if the prices for her classes and workshops aren’t perhaps a bit high, Brown nods knowingly before saying, “I don’t think the classes are pricey at all. In fact, I believe the value of the class is well beyond the price.”

She pauses before adding, “Just to put things in perspective, think how much money people spend on other things and don’t bat an eye. Women regularly spend $100.00 on a haircut and $50.00 on a manicure. You can’t tell me that learning life-long skills around improving health and immunity aren’t more valuable than that.

“Nutritional therapy,” Brown says, “is way cheaper than diabetes.”