When to Seek Advice from a Nutritionist
What we put in our body affects more than just the number we see on the scale. Energy levels, sleep, skin health, cholesterol levels, gut health, joint mobility, risk of heart disease, recovery time after being sick or injured--it’s all affected by the foods we’re eating. However, figuring out what you should be putting on your plate based on what your body needs can be really intimidating and frustrating.
That’s partly because there’s so much conflicting information to be found on the interwebs.
“Carbs are necessary to give you energy to workout!” vs “Carbs make you fat!”
“Healthy fats are good for you!” vs “Low-fat everything!”
“Sugar-free is a healthy way to enjoy sweets” vs “Artificial sugars actually make you gain weight!”
It’s enough to make your head spin.
And that’s just for when you’re deciding how to eat “healthy". It’s a completely different ball game when you’re trying to get to the root of a health issue. What foods are causing your stomach pain? Can something you’re eating be causing your headaches? How do you know if the supplements you’re taking won’t counteract each other or if they need to be taken with another one in order to be effective (I’m looking at you turmeric and black pepper.) That’s when you’ve got to call in the big guns: a nutritionist.
Now for the purpose of this blog article, we’ll use the terms ‘dietitian’ and ‘nutritionist’ interchangeably. They’re very similar in practice but there are variations in how they achieve their title. All that to say, do your research on WHO you’re listening to before you start taking on any nutritional changes (We’re pretty partial to our functional nutritionist, Heather Larson. She’s a phenom with all things nutrition and is great at setting up nutrition plans for our patients.)
Because food affects so much in our lives, I don’t think there’s a bad reason to go chat with a nutritionist (well, I mean, if you broke your leg...you should go to the hospital. No amount of kale is resetting that bone.) But I do think there’s three reasons when you should definitely make an appointment with one.
1. You’ve tried it all and you can’t drop the weight.
Low carb, low fat, vegetarian, vegan, Paleo, Keto. There’s not a diet out there that you haven't given your all to.