Sophie Steevens: eating her way to good health and encouraging others along the way by Peter Barclay
U
nderstanding the full value of plant-based eating was a process, not an overnight realisation, for Kiwi whole food devotee Sophie Steevens. It was a learning curve, and as her knowledge grew, so did her confidence and a dramatic improvement in her health. It all began in a state of shock when, at the age of 27, she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease. Graves’ is a nasty immune system disorder that results in the overproduction of thyroid hormones. It can be fatal if not adequately monitored and medicated. Well, that’s the traditional approach, and it works. Calling it a cure though might be a stretch. It depends on your viewpoint or your food addiction. Sophie wanted something better, and through that process, she inspired thousands as she took a deep dive into whole food plantbased eating and began cataloguing her experience on social media. Coming to grips with Graves’ is no mean feat. It’s a condition that not only has dire consequences if untreated, but the medicines created to deal with it, although effective, can also have serious side effects.
Graves' disease
As Mayo clinic’s online information explains: “Graves’ is caused by a malfunction in the body's disease-fighting immune system. It's unknown why this happens. “The immune system normally produces antibodies designed to target a specific virus, bacterium or other foreign substance. In Graves' disease — for reasons that aren't well understood — the immune system produces an antibody to one part of the cells in the hormone-producing gland in the neck (thyroid gland). “Normally, thyroid function is regulated by a hormone released by a tiny gland at the base of the brain (pituitary gland). The antibody associated with Graves' disease — thyrotropin receptor antibody (TRAb) — acts like the regulatory pituitary hormone. That means that TRAb overrides the normal regulation of the thyroid, causing an overproduction of thyroid hormones (hyperthyroidism).” Today, at 35, Sophie sees her autoimmune disease as a blessing. “It was a massive wake-up call and has taught me how to truly nourish and look after my body, and I will be forever grateful for that,” she says in her book Raw and Free. “We get one life and one precious vehicle to drive us through it, and one of the biggest lessons I have learnt through this experience is to never take my health for granted again." She also points out that she’s not a qualified nutritionist or a professional chef. Still, she is a dedicated mother who learnt some big life lessons and was “thankfully forced” to teach herself “the importance of true nourishment and, in turn, how to begin mastering the art of plant-based food." Sophie profoundly believes in the power of food to heal the human body, but our overall health has a broader picture. “What we eat, drink, breathe, put on our skin, think and feel all affects our health,” she says. And really, after a lot of research, “it
10 wholefoodliving.life | Summer 2022
Above left, Sophie's latest book, Simple Whole Foods and her previous work, Raw + Free. Images and text extracted from Simple Wholefoods by Sophie Steevens published by Allen & Unwin NZ, RRP: $49.99. Photography by Lottie Hedley. Meet Sophie on Instagram at: instagram.com/rawandfree/?hl=en was just common sense at the end of the day. “I went down the medical path for the first year and a half after my initial diagnosis. That’s the standard protocol you would take with Graves’ disease and it definitely helped me at the time to get my body into a safe place,” but when she discovered that food could make a difference to her condition, “it was a game-changer,” she said. But how and why is it that people have seemingly lost the connection between food and health? “I think it’s happened over the last 50 years, especially because of a lack of education and heavy marketing everywhere in sight. If you really think about where our food is coming from, people seem to think that a man-made item is superior to something you can gather from the earth. When you really stop and think about that, how does that make sense?” She believes that over several generations and combined with all the advertising and marketing and the creation of the big corporations that now deal in food, “we’ve just lost perspective and a big part of our natural intuition as the generations have gone by.”
Normal, but not okay
“I think what is accepted as 'normal' now isn’t actually okay. Even what is accepted in celebrations and traditions, just because it’s been a certain way for generations, it doesn’t mean it’s going to benefit our health, especially long-term. Everything in moderation is ok but as a society, I feel we have become extremely out of balance with what we choose to put into our mouth. A lack of education about the appropriate foods to truly nourish our bodies is one of the biggest hurdles but that’s not entirely supported and so it’s a really tricky area to get around.” As the mother of three children, Sophie doesn’t only hold her
