Dr. Kim Bretz ND - Fundamentals Of Health, 6-420 Erb Street W (yes, we've moved 2 doors down, right next to Beechwood Wellness Pharmacy), Waterloo, ON (2025)

Q: What is the address?

6-420 Erb Street W (yes, We've Moved 2 Doors Down, Right Next To Beechwood Wellness Pharmacy)

11/12/2025

I ate a grilled cheese almost every day for four months. And not a sourdough, organic cheese homemade grilled cheese sandwich. A Tim Hortons grilled cheese melt. I might have also had a Timbit (or three) with it on many days.

A loved one was seriously ill in hospital out of town, and between the travel, the worry, the constant decision fatigue, keeping my practice running, teaching at the university, being the chair of a regulatory college along with the rest of my life, that sandwich was about all I could manage. It wasn’t nutrient-balanced. It wasn’t vegetable-heavy. It was what I could do.

And that’s the point.

We see so many posts about non-negotiables - the habits we should “never” skip: movement, hydration, vegetables, protein, deep breathing. I love those things. They matter. But sometimes life doesn’t leave room for “ideal.” Illness, caregiving, grief, burnout, hormonal changes, children, finances - these moments test every system we’ve built. When the non-negotiables fall apart, you’re not failing. You’re being human.

Health isn’t a checklist you pass or fail. It’s a relationship that bends with your life.

So when things get hard, instead of starting over from zero, lower the bar.
🔵Movement might be pacing hospital halls.
🔵Protein might be that grilled cheese.
🔵Deep breathing might be the heaving gasps you take after sobbing because it feels like nothing is ever going to be okay again.

Don't judge yourself based on the perfection you see in someone's social media post. Health & wellness isn’t about never missing a day. It's remembering you can always come back. And then coming back.

11/11/2025

It’s a full season of conversations that matter. Between now and early 2026, I’ll be speaking with practitioners, workplaces, and the public on topics that all share one goal - making health easier.

From gut health and probiotics to misinformation in the workplace, to navigating perimenopause and menopause - each talk explores where we often get it wrong, and how to make care, communication, and decisions simpler.

Whether it’s helping practitioners feel more confident in evidence-based gut care, supporting HR professionals as they tackle health misinformation, or helping women understand their bodies with more clarity and less fear - it all comes back to the same thing: clarity over confusion, and real-world solutions over perfection.

Here’s to more honest conversations and fewer health myths ahead.

11/06/2025

People with aren’t faking being sick. They’re faking being well.

They’re holding it together through meetings, family dinners, and social plans - while quietly wondering what food, stress, or random Tuesday will set them off next.

In their free moments - on lunch breaks, between meetings, after the kids go to bed, scrolling while watching tv - they’re searching for answers. Trying to read one more article. Watch one more video. Find one more “fix.” Buy the supplement. And fail. And fail again. Go to work. Rinse & repeat.

Because we’ve made people feel like health is entirely their own responsibility - in ways we never would with plumbing, or baking macarons, or dealing with a flooded basement. We’d call an expert for that. But when it comes to our bodies, we’ve been taught to figure it out ourselves. You can't get into an appointment? Attempt to diagnosis it yourself online. Have questions after an appointment that only lasted 8 minutes? Type them into a search bar and hope for the best. Health is apparently your personal responsibility. And that’s exhausting.

If this is you, please know: you’re not faking being sick. You’re surviving in a world that asks you to perform wellness while fighting for it at the same time.

💛 You aren't broken. You don’t have to do this alone.

11/04/2025

Every time I hear someone say, “I’ve been doing my own research,” I have two simultaneous reactions.

One: good for you. Curiosity is healthy.
Two: I get nervous, because research - even for professionals - is hard to interpret. And most of us are just reading health information that has been written for clicks and sales. Not for accuracy.

That’s why I always make a point to clarify that I don’t do research - I translate it. Even as someone who reads studies most days, I see how confusing the landscape has become.

☑️Studies are often too small or poorly designed (the bananas in your smoothie study? Less than 20 healthy 30ish year-old men).
☑️Statistics can be cherry-picked or misrepresented.
☑️Headlines oversimplify complex data. Sensationalism sells, as does contradiction & confusion.
☑️And bias can creep in - not just from authors, but from all of us interpreting what we want to be true.

For many people, the decision to “do their own research” isn’t rebellion. It’s desperation.
Appointments are short, if you can get one at all. Reliable information is hard to find. Experts sometimes disagree. People want autonomy, but they also want clarity - because at the end of the day we just want to feel better.

That’s where translation comes in.

My work sits between the people generating the data and the people trying to use it. It’s about turning science into strategies that actually work - whether that’s helping clinicians integrate new evidence, guiding patients through conflicting advice, or helping workplaces identify health misinformation as a systemic risk.

Doing your own research will always be part of the modern health landscape. The challenge isn’t stopping it - it’s helping people do it better.

Because the real danger isn’t curiosity.
It’s confusion.

And the antidote is clarity, not condescension.

10/31/2025

Bananas and I have never been friends (the smell alone…no thanks). But even I can admit they’re getting a bad rap this week.

You might have seen headlines claiming “bananas sabotage your smoothie.”

Here’s what the 2023 study (that's making the rounds again like this is new information) really said:
☑️ A small trial found that when certain fruits high in an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase (PPO)—like bananas—were blended with flavanol-rich fruits (like berries), there was less absorption of one group of antioxidants, called flavan-3-ols (did you care about this chemical before today? Probably not).
☑️ The study involved fewer than 20 healthy men (the first study had 8 healthy men and the second had 11) and measured blood levels for a few hours - not real-world health outcomes (like heart attacks or dementia). The step from “less in blood” to “worse health effect” is a guess at this point.
☑️ It doesn’t mean mixing fruit is “bad,” or that bananas cause harm.

So if your goal is general health, gut support, or balanced nutrition, mix your fruits and enjoy.
If you’re chasing a specific flavanol boost, go heavier on the berries once in a while. But remember that polyphenols are found in a lot of fruits, vegetables, beverages, nuts, chocolate, herbs, beans and legumes. Not just your smoothie.

And, this study only focused on one class of polyphenols (flavan-3-ols). Fruits and smoothies contain dozens of bioactives, and the study doesn’t capture all of them. The big picture: variety, fiber, colour, and enjoyment matter far more than the micro-details of which fruit meets which enzyme.

If you love bananas - keep them (blech). And, if you’re like me, feel free to skip them for purely personal (and olfactory) reasons.

10/30/2025

“Algorithms whispered louder than my intuitions.”

That line from Kelly Wayne’s talk at has been looping in my mind. Because it’s not just about social media, in general - it’s about our health.

Every day, people are exposed to advice that’s designed to sound right, not be right. It looks credible. It feels empowering. But when misinformation is spreading faster than evidence, it quietly shapes the choices we make - and the care we seek and the care we avoid.

That’s how harm happens now. Not through one big lie (although big lies are out there), but through thousands of little almost-truths. And so we click. We click because we want to feel better. And the system is overwhelmed and women's health has been ignored. So, of course, we look for solutions.

It’s not our fault for believing them. The algorithm rewards confidence over credibility, certainty over nuance. It creates confusion and exhaustion. It feels like if you could just do it right, not just kind of right, but 'right' right, then it would all be okay. But we can't get it right when the goal posts change daily, hourly and nothing matches up with what we heard 10 minutes ago in our feed.

Health shouldn’t feel like a scroll through noise - it should feel like calm, clarity, and confidence.

Maybe it’s time we all turned the volume down on the algorithm…and tuned back in.

🎤 Inspired by Kelly Wayne

10/24/2025

What if health could be fun again?

Somewhere along the way, “healthy” started to mean restrictive, exhausting, or joyless. But health isn’t meant to shrink your world - it’s meant to expand it.

Less tracking. More laughing.
Less “can’t have.” More “can’t wait.”

Because feeling well shouldn’t be a full-time job.

💛 Your gut. Your hormones. Your life—simplified.

10/22/2025

If you’re new here, hi — I’m Kim.
I’m a naturopathic doctor, speaker, consultant and academic who spends most of my time trying to make health feel human again - in clinics, classrooms, communities and conversations .

I work in the spaces between natural and conventional medicine - between what’s proven and what’s possible. Because health isn’t black and white. It’s full of nuance, change, and context.

☑️I believe in food as joy (except bananas - they do not bring me joy).
☑️I believe that small boxes - whether they’re diets, wellness fads, or rules we can’t live by - make people sicker, not better.
☑️And I believe most people don’t need more restriction…they need more clarity, compassion, and credible information.

These photos are a little snapshot of how I think about health
Equal parts science, empathy, and a healthy dose of “let’s stop making s**t up to make your life harder, while making someone else a lot of money.”

If you’re looking for less noise and more nuance, welcome.
This is your corner of calm in the chaos.

10/21/2025

I work in wellness - which means I've seen amazing advances...and the absolute circus.

Natural medicine, conventional medicine - both have value.

But somewhere along the way, we stopped helping people feel better and started making them feel behind. Like they can never be enough.

This one is about how wellness lost its balance.

Dr. Kim Bretz ND - Fundamentals Of Health

11/12/2025

11/11/2025

11/06/2025

11/04/2025

10/31/2025

10/30/2025

10/24/2025

10/22/2025

10/21/2025

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