- The Dietician will establish exactly what it is you require dietary advice for.
- Bring along any relevant information, e.g. a referral letter from your doctor (not compulsory), recent blood results, a food diary for the 3 days before your appointment.
- The Dietician will take a full background and medical history from you.
- She will take your measurements: height, weight, body fat percentage, waist circumference etc. Once done, she will (where appropriate) advise you on weight goals and targets that are realistic and appropriate for you.
- She will then take a full Diet History from you, in order to establish your typical eating habits, and food preparation methods, and food likes and dislikes.
- The next step is that she will provide individualized nutrition education appropriate to your medical condition, considering your dietary goals, and providing rationales for WHY certain foods are good / not ideal for you. She will help you understand your medical condition, and dietary ways of treating this. She will consider medications and supplements that you take (if any), and offer advice where necessary.
- Following this initial assessment and consultation, the Dietician will calculate a comprehensive, individualized eating plan for you, together with a sample menu, shopping list, recipe ideas, and food preparation tips. This will be given to you within a week of seeing the Dietician for the first time.
- Follow-up visits to the Dietician in the initial phases of following a new eating and lifestyle plan is absolutely essential, in order that monitoring and support can be provided, to ensure that the dietary advice given is actually working for you, and if not, that appropriate changes can be made. In addition, new dietary information will be provided to you at every visit so that your overall understanding and knowledge of nutrition grows exponentially. Follow-up visits are usually for half an hour and, depending on your need, can be every 2 weeks or monthly (even weekly).
Note: Dieticians are Allied Medical Professionals, having a medical background, and thus the skills to treat all medical conditions therapeutically with diet; and also carry out preventative nutrition education assisting people in all walks of life to eat correctly.
Conditions typically treated by a Dietician include:
- Weight loss / weight gain
- Diabetes
- Hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar levels)
- Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome
- Raised cholesterol levels
- High blood pressure
- Gout
- Sport nutrition for both competitive and recreational athletes
- Vegetarian
- Food allergies / intolerances
- Anaemia
- Kidney disease
- Colon disorders