Meet our New Ambassador : Louise Benning: A Health Coach Who Turned Personal Crisis into a Global Mission

From battling chronic pain, obesity, and emotional burnout to becoming a vibrant advocate for real food and metabolic healing, Louise Benning’s journey is nothing short of transformational. Now based in Hampshire, UK, this South African-born health coach and Nutrition Network Advisor is a powerful voice in the global movement to reverse chronic disease through ancestral wisdom and evidence-based nutrition. As a Noakes Foundation Ambassador and PHC volunteer, Louise brings both science and soul to her mission, empowering everyday people to reclaim their health, rewrite their story, and inspire a new generation to challenge the status quo of modern healthcare. Her story is raw, real, and relentlessly hopeful.

This is her Story.

From Burnout to Black Swans: How I Took Back My Health and Now Help Others Do the Same

In 2020, at age 40, I found myself sick, exhausted, and utterly stuck. I was living in a body that didn’t feel like mine, obese, inflamed, constantly in pain, and weighed down by fatigue and brain fog. Born with a congenital heart condition, I have been extra careful about my diet and lifestyle habits.

I had tried every diet, every weight-loss program, and every government guideline: low-fat, high-fibre, calorie-counting, eat-less-move-more, and of course, the “Eatwell Plate.” And yet, year after year, I failed because nothing ever truly worked.

I now understand that I wasn’t failing the system. The system was failing me.

Then one day, while scrolling YouTube, I came across a gripping interview with Professor Tim Noakes. It was the first time I heard someone speak about food and health in a way that made biological, ancestral, and practical sense. I couldn’t stop watching. That interview was my spark.

I began reading, researching, and unlearning everything I thought I knew about nutrition. I experimented, and slowly I began to heal. The chronic pain eased. My energy returned. My weight started to drop. My thinking cleared. I finally had hope, something I hadn’t felt in years.

This personal transformation ignited a deeper purpose. I trained as a health coach and became a certified Nutrition Network Advisor. I am in the process of launching my Lifestyle Coaching business to help others navigate the same journey, especially women like me, who’ve been misled, misdiagnosed, or simply given up.

For me, discovering the low-carb, high-fat way of life was a black swan moment. And now, I help others find theirs.

But my mission goes beyond individual coaching. I believe our entire approach to public health needs to change. We are managing illness instead of preventing it. We’re prescribing pills instead of teaching people how to eat. We have normalised a level of sickness in our population that is not normal, and it’s bankrupting our healthcare systems and stealing futures from our children.

Education must start early. We need to empower our children, parents, and teachers to understand nutrition, insulin resistance, and the toxic food environment we’re all navigating. Prevention, not prescriptions, must be our guiding principle.

Becoming an ambassador for the Noakes Foundation is more than an honour; it’s a full-circle moment. This community gave me the tools and science that changed my life. Now, I’m here to give back, to speak up, and to help others take back control of their health, one powerful decision at a time.

I am not here to sell anything, just telling my story as it is.

The fact is, there is no “magical weight loss potion/cream/pill/multi out there.

I have done many, many, many hours of research and diets, and practiced “healthy eating,” always making the better food and drink choices. Vegan/ vegetarian options, no sugar options, whole grains, skip dessert, 10000 steps a day, blah-blah-blah, and all the other government guidelines for my health and heart health, as it’s very important for me. So why was nothing working?

BACKSTORY:

Towards the end of 2020, my GP called me one evening at 19:30 (she is from South Africa, she is awesome, and I am so lucky to have her) with the big C scare as they found growths on my liver during a routine MRI scan a few weeks previously. I have a congenital heart condition that is closely monitored, hence the MRI scan.

Waiting for the “2-week urgent cancer scan” was the longest week of my life. They don’t tell you your results during the scan, and I had to wait another few weeks for a call from Dr with the results.

The scan showed that the growths are cysts, and to keep an eye on them and if they develop symptoms x,y,z, to go back to my GP.

I was relieved it was “only cysts,” but cysts don’t belong on your liver and were probably an early warning sign to give me enough of a fright to get my act together.

DEC 2020

Age: 40

Weight: 90kg.

Height: 160cm short

BMI: 34.

Waist: 102cm

UK Size 18/20

Bra 40H. (I could fit my head in the cup and wear it as a hat.)

It was lockdown, I couldn’t walk properly as I had surgery May 2020 on my foot = 3 metal plates and 13 screws.

My ex has separated from me, my mum was very sick in Pretoria, and then she sadly passed away, and I couldn’t even go. I couldn’t work as I was looking after my 3 children to homeschool during lockdown 2020 was super stressful on the entire family.

My youngest, a boy, has Down syndrome, which comes with many challenges. This is one of my biggest reasons I needed to get healthy to be around for him for many years, as I will be his caregiver until he is older and not burden his sister or the local authorities to ever care for him.

While waiting for the liver scan, I obviously used Dr Google and the University of YouTube, you all know how bad that is . However, I stumbled upon so many videos that changed my life. Prof Tim Noakes, Dr Paul Mason, and Dr Jason Fung from Low-Carb Down Under. I will add links below.⬇️

1st Dec 2020 I started my Keto way of eating less than 20g of carbs a day in a time-restricted eating window of 9 am to 7 pm. Eating any “food”

I had to have my second foot surgery 4DEC to remove all metal from my foot and as I broke one of the screws. I couldn’t walk or drive for 6 weeks again, but I kept eating only Keto. Lockdown was still a thing, and I could obviously not do any exercise, the pain in my foot, stitches on morphine, and other amazing pain killers. ‍

I then discovered “clean Keto” and eliminated some more inflammatory foods, and my health improved even more. But my foot was still a big issue, and after more scans and investigation, I was diagnosed with arthritis that I was told would only get progressively worse with time, and more surgery would follow in years to come to fuse my foot.

I kept doing research on how the human body works, and then I decided on two meals a day rather than 3. Still the same amount of calories in a compressed eating window.

APR 21. I have lost 30kg in 4 months during lockdown, no exercise & while sitting on a couch eating full-fat (2000cal) meals. .

In May 2021, I joined a gym as lockdown was being lifted, a year after I broke my foot.

SEP 2021. I started weightlifting as my foot was still a problem, and I couldn’t do any cardio or impact movements because of the Frankenfoot.

DEC 2021: A year after my Keto journey started. I was going deeper into my research I came across people living carnivore lifestyles, being only animal-based. I have basically naturally transitioned from Keto, ➡️Clean Keto,➡️ Ketovore, ➡️ Carnivore. I can go further to the Lion diet or raw meat diet, but haven’t, as I don’t feel the need to.

JUL 22 I went to my cardiologist appointment, and they are amazed by my transformation and heart health that they asked me to become an NHS ambassador for congenital heart disease.

I have been maintaining weight with ease, although my body shape has changed dramatically, I have stayed at 60kg regardless.

No calories to count. Eat only when I am hungry, no snacks, no sugar, no carbs, no fibre, no plant or plant products (except my one vice, black coffee)

Current STATS – stable since May 2021

Age 42

Still 160cm short

UK size 8

Waist 74cm

BMI 22

I can now play and swing on all the equipment in the park with my children, do handstands, roll down the hill, and do cartwheels with them.

My sleep is amazing and I get a full 7to8hours a night.

My energy level is insane, I keep going all day every day and never feel tired as my body runs on fat for fuel and not carbs/sugar.

Libido is ⬆️

Gym routine 4days on, 1day off.

I have 2 jobs, 3 children, 1 dog,

Arthritis in my foot is gone.

Blood pressure is normal.

-30kg⬇️ it is gone forever.

Blood sugar under 5.0

HDL \ Triglycerides ratio 0.5 (this is very healthy as it’s below 0.8)

LDL 13. (BUT EVERYTHING else is normal⬆️?

Why do I want to have “good” cholesterol levels and have all sorts of terrible metabolic health problems instead, that require us to be on medication.

Cholesterol is not the problem, as how do we know what normal was 30,0000 years ago)

The problem is constantly elevated insulin levels, never giving our pancreas a rest time.

No more joint pains, no bloating, no IBS, no tummy cramps and pains, used to look pregnant and had so much pain after eating, no more skin rashes, no more severe headaches, no fatigue, no period pain, no candida. No more gas . I can confidently go jumping at a trampoline park.

I can change anybody’s lifestyle habits; I can only hope to inspire in this post.

I can’t do the research for you, I have done it myself and now know all the truths and don’t believe any myths we have been led to believe all our lives.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNT:

Breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. Our ancestors did not have a fridge with available cereal and milk in the cave before they went to hunt for the day.
The “marketing” came from Mr Kellogs.
Your liver will give you enough energy to start your day (Dawn effect)
You do not need fibre in your diet. No other carnivore in the wild struggling to poo.
Carbs are not an essential nutrient. The minimum amount of carbs required to sustain human life is ZERO. See the UK dietary reference guidelines of 2005
You don’t need five a day; it’s a marketing strategy. Fructose is not your friend. Go look at the molecular structure
Don’t eat little and often, as it keeps insulin levels elevated, and you can never unlock fat cells to use for energy when insulin is high.
You do not need a snack.
Salt is good for you. Especially Pink Himalayan Rock salt.
Saturated animal fat is good for you.
Why do we love bacon biltong?
There is no such thing as a healthy grain. It all converts to sugar in the body. Look at the Glycemic Index for the grains and see what the sugar load they convert to for your body to process.
Seed oils are processed rubbish; they run McDonald’s trucks from it once they finish frying your chips in it.
Cholesterol levels are not a problem if it healthy particles and not damaged by sugar/carbs. It’s only damaged cholesterol that causes atherosclerosis. This is the diet heart hypothesis.
There is no money to be made for big pharma and big food in a healthy population.
So much research and medicine, but the human race is just getting sicker with worse health outcomes, more cancer, more diseases, more type II diabetes, more allergies, more mental illnesses, metabolic health issues, and so on.
Look at the Masai and Inuit who live healthy, disease-free lives based on their mainly animal-sourced diets.
Proper human food is the answer, not processed junk. What made us human and gave us the brains we have? Yip, animal fat and protein.
If we keep insulin levels elevated at all times, as we are “scared” of feeling hungry, we will never get rid of excess weight.
You can’t out-exercise a bad diet, ask Prof Tim Noakes.
People are mainly allergic, intolerant, and addicted to plants or plant substances. (Coffee, nuts, celery, grains, strawberries, hay fever, pollen, soy, tomatoes, drugs, alcohol, tobacco)