Nutrition Consultant Nicole Andri Broke the Cycle of Malnourishment Through Bauman College

Content Summary

Bauman College Nutrition Consultant Program graduate Nicole Andri shares her profound journey of overcoming a childhood of over-medication, chronic inflammation, and severe bacterial overgrowth. Now the founder of Nikki Knows Nutrition and a wellness writer, Nicole discusses how her education perfectly aligned with her personal healing and outlines her mission to guide women, parents, and children toward foundational wellness.

• The Perfect Storm | Navigating childhood ADHD medication, severe malnourishment, and ignored food allergies.
• The Turning Point at 22 | Shifting toward organic whole foods, agricultural lifestyle shifts, and metabolic recovery.
• Real-Time Education | How Bauman College’s physiological modules directly mirrored Nicole’s personal clinical healing.
• A Mission for the Next Generation | Educating families on preconception nutrition, lifestyle adjustments, and toxin awareness to prevent chronic childhood illness.

Nicole Andri is a recent Bauman College Nutrition Consultant Program graduate, the founder of Nikki Knows Nutrition, and an active wellness writer for Go Girl Magazine. Specializing in pediatric, maternal, and family wellness, Nicole uses her extensive personal history with metabolic, autoimmune, and neurological recovery to provide root-cause nutritional consulting and lifestyle guidance.

In her writing and private consulting practice, Nicole focuses on breaking multi-generational cycles of poor health by emphasizing seasonal whole foods, environmental toxin reduction, and proactive preconception nutrition.

The Perfect Storm of Childhood Illness

Ever since I could remember, I was getting sick or had tummy issues. When I was six years old, I was diagnosed with ADHD and told I would never succeed at my private school without the help of amphetamine medication. As I grew, the pharmaceutical doses got bigger and bigger, and at times, there was a severe lack of medical oversight.

A brutal cycle of malnourishment ensued. I was chronically underweight for my developmental stage because I wouldn’t eat all day until I got home from school. My mother had to keep a Mountain Dew on standby when she picked me up just so my mood would be tolerable enough to engage in basic conversation. I essentially ate whatever stabilized my fluctuating mood or whatever appealed to my suppressed appetite.

At one point, I was even placed on synthetic Ensure shakes. Soon after, I began developing severe rashes around my mouth and the side of my face. Looking back at childhood photos, my stomach was constantly round and bloated while my arms and legs stayed thin and lanky. This should have been a major warning sign for gut dysbiosis and malabsorption.

By my early teens, I was diagnosed with several food allergies. Like most kids, I ignored them because I wanted to eat birthday cake at parties, eventually cutting out only gluten. Predictably, chronic illnesses and autoimmune conditions began surfacing. My depression and anxiety skyrocketed, my hormones crashed, and I developed severe cystic acne. Every single symptom was treated with a new pharmaceutical medication, causing the cycle to continue straight into my adulthood.

The Turning Point at 22

Finally, at 22, I had reached my breaking point. Living in an area rich in local agriculture, my mindset began to shift as I started doing independent research. I completely overhauled my lifestyle. I started eating organic produce, prioritizing well-sourced meats, focusing heavily on environmental toxin reduction, spending time in nature, and maintaining consistent exercise.

Eventually, I safely tapered off my antidepressants, having already stopped taking amphetamines at age 20. The moment those medications were out of my system, I realized they had actually been making me feel worse for the entire decade I took them. Remarkably, my ADHD symptoms started to dissipate and became entirely manageable through lifestyle and targeted food choices.

The final piece of the puzzle was solving my dependency on antibiotics for interstitial cystitis. Years of continuous antibiotic use had decimated my microbiome, causing me to develop an extremely severe bacterial overgrowth that spread throughout my entire body. This systemic imbalance, coupled with severe adrenal fatigue, finally led me to seek the help of a naturopathic doctor.

A Coincidental Healing Journey with Bauman College

Ironically, just as I started this intensive secondary health journey, my education with Bauman College began. It struck me as far more than just a coincidence that each physiological subject I was learning in school corresponded exactly to whatever condition my body was actively fighting and healing at that exact time.

When we studied the digestive tract, I was actively repairing my gut microbiome. When we covered the endocrine system, I was working through adrenal fatigue. I wasn’t just learning through textbooks, I was testing Bauman’s therapeutic concepts through my own life experience in real time.

Bauman College was everything I had been looking for. The curriculum supplied me with the in-depth knowledge and formal education required to understand the mechanisms of deep cellular healing. Now, at 25, after almost an entire year of dedicated recovery, I feel the healthiest and most motivated I have ever been.

Launching Nikki Knows Nutrition

No one should have to spend their adulthood undoing decades worth of avoidable physiological damage. That realization is what fueled my professional mission: to help women, parents, and children break the cycle of malnourishment and poor health through whole foods nutrition, proactive lifestyle guidance, and environmental toxin awareness.

Immediately following my recent graduation, I launched my website and Instagram platform to offer my services as a certified Nutrition Consultant. What I love most about this career is educating individuals on how critical food is to the body before a child is even conceived.

The way I was conceived, birthed, and raised created the perfect storm for me to develop chronic illnesses. By working closely with families, I want to help parents prevent that storm from gathering, or guide them skillfully through whatever health issues their children are currently facing.

Beyond my private consulting practice, I have also channeled my passion for education into journalism as a wellness writer for Go Girl Magazine. It has been an incredible platform for expanding my advocacy, even giving me the opportunity to interview prominent longevity figures like Julie Gibson Clark to discuss the future of proactive health.

Advice for Future Nutrition Professionals

If you have a clear mission going into this career, do not wait until your graduation day to start making it happen. Make your passions known immediately. Share your ideas openly, and actively reach out to your local community to begin putting things in motion while you are still a student.

At Bauman College, the tools to make your goals a reality are accessible from day one and continue long after graduation. The staff and instructors are exceptionally well-educated, warm, and helpful.

Most importantly, enjoy the process while you are in it and genuinely connect with your classmates. The holistic health community is tight-knit, and you never know how those foundational classroom connections will support your professional journey in the future.

Connect with Nikki

• Instagram | @nikkiknowsnutrition
• Website | nikkiknowsnutrition.com
• Editorial Work | Go Girl Magazine