Nutritional Counseling Specialist

What is nutritional counseling?

Nutritional counseling is focused on the role of diet in maintaining optimal health and avoiding serious medical issues. The goal of nutritional counseling is to develop a lifestyle plan that helps patients make healthy choices including dietary changes and use of supplements to ensure the body is receiving the nourishment it needs for normal, healthy functioning. Because cardiovascular diseases can be affected by diet, patients with heart disease or risk factors for disease can benefit by ensuring their nutritional needs are being met. Nutritional counseling helps patients understand their dietary needs and meet them with programs focused on their health, their lifestyle and even their food preferences.

What role can nutritional counseling play in helping me maintain good health and avoid cardiovascular disease?

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death, but many factors contributing to the disease can be avoided or lessened by optimizing diet and nutrition. That's because the heart and the blood vessels rely on a steady supply of the right nutrients as well as the avoidance of foods known to contribute to heart disease. Nutritional counseling helps patients understand their cardiovascular risks as well as identifying the steps they can take to help reduce those risks on their own. Patients with risk factors like pre-hypertension or slightly high cholesterol levels may be able to mitigate those issues with nutritional counseling and other lifestyle changes without the need to resort to the long-term use of medication. Even when medication is needed, many patients may be able to reduce their dosage by adopting better nutritional habits.

How does nutritional counseling work?

Nutritional counseling begins with a physical exam and lab work to identify risk factors for disease as well as evaluate the patient for nutritional deficiencies that could increase their risks for disease and other serious medical issues. Based on the information obtained from the exam and tests, a custom nutritional plan will be developed to help lessen those risks and optimize overall health and wellness. Nutritional counseling also takes lifestyle factors like busy schedules and special dietary considerations like vegetarianism into account.