The Benefits of Nutrition Counseling

Whether you’re trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle or working to adapt to health challenges, your diet will likely come into question. The foods you eat might be only part of the problem, though. You could also have nutritional voids, less than optimal eating habits, or other potential issues that you might not be aware of.

That’s why treatment for your health concerns often includes counseling sessions with a dietician. Nutrition counseling assesses your approach to food to make sure that your diet doesn’t contribute to current or future health problems. Even a wholesome diet full of fresh foods can sometimes benefit from minor adjustments.

Diet versus lifestyle

“Diet” is one of those words with more than one common definition, leading to confusion. All the food and drink you consume is collectively your diet, yet many people think that a diet is the regime of restricted eating they must undergo to lose weight or manage an illness.

Nutrition counseling addresses what you eat from a lifestyle perspective, identifying dietary needs, suggesting the required changes, and assisting in the maintenance of these changes. Typically, nutrition counseling targets one of three areas. These are:

• Changes for healthy eating: eliminating dietary extremes, such as foods that are high in fat or sugar, targeting overall health and balanced nutrition
• Therapeutic changes: modifying eating habits to address particular health issues, such as introducing low-salt recipes and techniques as part of hypertension management or changes to promote a healthy pregnancy
• Drug interactions: raising awareness of how some otherwise healthy foods may interfere with drugs you’re taking

Conditions that benefit from nutrition counseling

You are what you eat, so virtually every aspect of your health can be influenced by nutritional improvements. Counseling is often recommended for patients dealing with:

• Allergies
• Athletic training
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Digestive issues
• Eating disorders
• General fitness
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• HIV
• Hypoglycemia
• Menopause
• Organ disorders
• Weight issues
• Poor eating habits

Benefits of nutrition counseling

Even when you’re taking medication for a condition, it represents only a tiny fraction of what you consume. Thinking of food as medicine is an increasingly popular attitude, and a welcome change for many people dealing with chronic illness. When you combine the pleasure of eating a range of delicious foods with improved nutritional value for your body, it’s a true win-win situation.

Healthy eating is an excellent preventive maintenance plan for your body. Making small changes now, based on nutrition counseling, can greatly reduce your risk for health complications later in life. Maintaining a healthy weight not only benefits your body chemistry, but it also reduces the physical strain on your joints, making it easier to move and stay active.

Nutrition counseling also provides the support needed to maintain and adjust lifestyle changes. That’s why a call to Nova Physician Wellness Center is a smart move when you’re ready to follow the path to better health. Nutrition counseling, combined with medical supervision and your commitment, offer the best chances for long-term success. Call to schedule your consultation today.