The American Hospital Association projects that by 2025, 164 Million Americans will be living with at least one chronic condition.
If this is the case, should we not be be taking actions now to seek treatments such as nutrition counseling and work on preventing the rise of these numbers.
What is nutrition counseling and how can it help you?
Nutrition counseling focuses on a 4-step process to get to the root of your health and nutrition concerns and develop a manageable treatment plan for you and your daily life.
The four steps of nutrition counseling are:
Nutrition Assessment: Nutrition assessment allows a dietitian-nutritionist to systematically assess the overall nutritional status of a patient, diagnose nutrient deficiencies, identify underlying pathologies that lead to nutrient imbalances, and plan necessary interventions.
Nutrition Diagnosis: The purpose of a nutrition diagnosis is to identify and describe a specific nutrition problem that can be resolved or improved through treatment/nutrition intervention by a food and nutrition professional.
Nutrition Intervention: A nutritional intervention is a set of actions intended to change a nutritional aspect in an individual. Both diet and lifestyle changes are incorporated to create long term impact.
Nutrition Monitoring and Evaluation: The purpose of nutrition monitoring and evaluation is to determine and measure the amount of progress made by the nutrition intervention and whether the nutrition related goals/expected outcomes are being met.
What goals can be accomplished with nutrition counseling?
With consistent intervention and practice many patients accomplish the following goals:
Optimize their nutritional status
Prevent the development of nutrient deficiencies
Optimize weight and lean body mass
Maximize the effectiveness of medical and pharmacological treatments
Minimize health care costs
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