What do I value most in my work as a nutritionist?
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Though I will encourage you to cut out junk food where you can, I won’t ever ask you to stop enjoying food, which has to rank near the top of my list of priorities. This means I’ll do my best to work with your likes and dislikes, giving you menu suggestions and recipes for foods you like.
I’ll also try to keep my recommendations as simple as possible. So my weight management program won’t have you counting every calorie you eat. How simple is that?! And if it isn’t relatively simple, how really doable is it? I assume you don’t need me fitting your neck for a dietary millstone! So if you can work with someone who values rich flavor, the joy of food and a simple life, read on…
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Recently on a cruise to Alaska, I was shocked to see the ship’s Healthy Choices Café served little more than chilled fish, cold white rice and cold, steamed vegetables. How revolting! I never ate there once. Eating healthy has to include the joy of food.
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Will the program I set you up on be expensive?
Not necessarily at all. I can work within any budget. So it can be just as inexpensive as you need it to be. If money isn’t a problem, you’ll certainly be less restricted. But you’ll still want to know which changes are most vital and how to get the biggest bang for your nutritional buck. Since I only succeed when you succeed, that has to mean giving you a nutritional program you can live with, one that fits comfortably within your budget.
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Will I ask you to take tons of supplements?
Anyone can sell you a raft of supplements, but which ones do you really need? When your body isn’t working well, taking supplements may do little more than give you expensive urine. I’m not against taking well-chosen supplements as needed, but my emphasis would be on choosing well. If you eat well and can get your digestion functioning well, you shouldn’t actually need a lot of supplements.
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Will I ask you to do some nasty cleanse diet?
Generally speaking, nastiness is something I try to avoid. Really! Depending on what’s going on with your health, I may recommend a cleanse. And that might involve cutting a number of foods from your diet and taking a herbal remedy. I definitely won’t put you on a cleanse just for the fun of it. But if a cleanse is what you need, you can be sure I’ll tell you about it, including how to do it, how to monitor it and what results to expect. My own experience with cleanses has been overwhelmingly positive: they can offer a huge payback for the trouble they are.
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Will I advise you to eat organic foods?
Absolutely. Organic food has way more nutrients and way fewer health risks than genetically modified, pesticide-sprayed, chemically-fertilized and hormonally-injected foods. Having said that, I know eating organic isn’t always within reach of everyone’s budget. So I’ll try to cut through the marketing hype to help you decide which better eating choices will fit your budget and benefit you most. This is simply about maximizing your food spending with your better health in mind.
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Will I try to make a vegan or vegetarian out of you?
Hardly. “Making” you do or be anything doesn’t fit with what I do at all. First, I believe you’re the only one who can decide what you should eat. Second, some people actually get sick eating vegetarian. What’s important is eating well for your metabolic type, which my consultation can tell you. If you choose to go vegetarian, I’ll want you to take the right supplements along with your diet. If you eat meat, I’ll encourage you to eat healthier meats within a balanced diet. In other words, I work with the whole spectrum of eating styles and choices.
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Is there any point in doing a nutritional consultation if you smoke?
Absolutely. Of course, if you want to quit smoking, I’ll be happy to help you there. But who says being unable to quit means you’re unwilling to make other changes? Or that having one bad habit means you don’t give a fig about your health? So if you smoke but still want to improve your eating habits to nourish your body so it can handle all stresses better, why not? I can work with you wherever you are on the issue.
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Who decides what? Will I be twisting your arm to make changes you’re not ready for?
One look at my picture will tell you I should have become a professional arm-twister. LOL. But if I had, what good would it do? Who but you can decide what you’re ready to commit to doing? My part in the process is simply to help clarify what may be foggy—namely, why some changes are critical to your quality of life and how you can actually make them work for you—and to empower you to make the best decision you’re genuinely ready to make. You won’t get any arm-twisting from me. So if that’s what you want, I do know this guy down at the gym…
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Will I be policing you once you commit to doing something?
No, that’s totally against my religion. And even if it wasn’t, it would cost way too much for you to consider it! I can give you tools to help you keep track of your eating, can encourage you and monitor your progress. But you’re going to have to be your own boss on this. My focus will be on helping to broker the kind of self-commitment that will really work for you. As well as offering you a measure of accountability, monitoring your progress and celebrating your successes.
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What exactly is holistic nutrition?
Essentially, holistic nutrition sees your body as both unique and understandable only in relation to your mind and spirit. Holistic nutrition also makes use of all the best research on nutrition and health, from both government and independent sources. And while holistic nutrition isn’t against the judicious use of Western medicine, it usually encourages clients to look for nutritional solutions to their health problems first.
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Why do I see you as unique and look at the whole person for a take on your nutritional needs?
Our Western approach to medicine tends to treat us all alike and make little room for exceptions. But why wouldn’t your body be just as unique as your personality? Western medicine’s mechanistic model also makes it pretty easy for doctors to treat us like a collection of parts. Many wonderful exceptions are to be found here, but alas, they do tend to be exceptions. For example, doctors tell us that more than 50% of our health problems are stress-related. But having said that, they treat most of our problems as if they were mere chemical imbalances. That is, with pharmaceutical fixes. The reality is that our physical, nutritional, environmental, social, emotional and spiritual aspects are all thoroughly interwoven. Everything affects everything else. Since holistic nutrition seeks overall balance and harmony for optimal health, I can best assess your nutritional needs only by looking at them within the framework of everything affecting you.
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Why do I include the spiritual in my assessment?
This doesn’t mean I promote a given denomination or religion. Only that I consider the spiritual as no less integral to good health than the physical, emotional or mental components. As a significant component of who you are, the spiritual plays a vital part in governing your health.
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Why do I encourage clients to look for nutritional solutions first?
I take an orthomolecular approach to your nutritional needs. Double-Nobel Laureate Sir Linus Pauling described the orthomolecular approach as one that prevents and treats disease by providing the body with optimal amounts of substances natural to it. Those include vitamins, minerals, amino acids and essential fatty acids. The point is that your body recognizes all these substances and knows exactly what to do with them. Patented drugs are something else entirely and always bring side effects. But because pharmaceutical patents aren’t available for any of the natural substances, Western medicine—for many years now driven by big pharmaceutical companies—has effectively sidelined the orthomolecular approach. In fact, the orthomolecular approach has a great deal to offer us.
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Do I diagnose illnesses or prescribe medicine?
No, as a nutritionist, I’m quite happy to leave the doctoring to your doctor. If you’re interested in alternative approaches, I may refer you to information on what’s available that might help you. But my recommendations are meant to complement whatever therapies you’re on, not be a substitute for them. What I do is determine what nutritional imbalances are causing your symptoms and I don’t need to diagnose illness to do that. So long as you tell me all your symptoms and I ask the right questions, we can come up with a program to achieve nutritional balance for you, regardless of which illness may or may not be present.
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What if you’re not into learning about alternatives to conventional medical therapies?
That’s just fine with me. How could I or anyone else know your body from the inside like you do or accept responsibility for making decisions you’ll live with for years to come? That why I genuinely believe you’re the only one qualified to decide what’s best for you. So if you can live with the conventional therapies you’re on, I can too. My advice will work well as a complement to your therapy. For a well nourished body is a body that’s better able to deal with the stress of both a given illness and its prescribed medical therapies.
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Do I do nutritional consultation for kids?
Absolutely. Some kids have huge health issues as a result of early nutritional deficiencies, toxic burdens and other imbalances. But on the positive side of the ledger, kids are also at the very best point in their lives to respond to nutritional and lifestyle rebalancing. So, yes, as the father of 4 awesome kids—now in their teens and twenties—I’d be delighted to work with your daughter or son.
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Doesn’t holistic nutrition turn people’s “pure” eating habits into a sort of religion?
With some people, yes. It can even lead to such an extreme that they become obsessed with the need to eat right, often alternating between self-righteousness over their dietary purity and guilt over the tiniest dietary lapse. I actually see this as a form of mental illness. So be assured it’s the last place I want you to go. Always thinking about everything you eat is no better than never thinking about anything you eat. My approach is all about helping you find balance between these 2 extremes. So first, we all have to decide what healthy eating means to us personally. And second, if we behave ourselves most of the time, I think we earn the right to cheat now and then.
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What’s the most important thing I do for my clients?
I’m not sure there’s one single answer to that one because each person’s needs are unique. I’m essentially a teacher/coach, educating my clients on how to make better choices to build and maintain nutritional balance. A well-nourished body will be able to handle all stresses better, including the stress of disease. So whether you’re healthy and want to keep it that way or facing one or more health challenges right now, what could be more beneficial than building and maintaining nutritional balance? One of the most important points I convey to my clients is that our bodies are actually wired for healing and wholeness. Some people have experienced so much sickness they can come to see sickness as normal. But make no mistake: wholeness is normal for you! Often giving your body the right nutrition and ensuring that proper absorption is taking place is all your body needs to restore balance and become truly whole again.
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Nutrional Counselling