How we can help you
Did you know that your dietitian is working hard to better serve you even before you arrive for your first visit?
The food and nutrition experts
Dietitians are your food and nutrition experts. Sometimes called the 'food doctor', dietitians can advise you on all things related to diet and eating for good health. Many people don't realise that it takes five years of university training to become a dietitian in Australia. The courses are at Masters or postgraduate level.
Lifestyle medicine
If you have a medical condition, such as diabetes or arthritis, your dietitian can show you how to better manage this - often with less or no medication. Your dietitian will help you fine-tune your food choices. Your dietitian can also help you reverse risk factors for chronic disease, such as high cholesterol, by introducing you to a range of superfoods, rich in phytonutrients that strip cholesterol.
New research in the field of nutrigenomics tells us that the nutrients in our food are very powerful as they can literally 'talk to our genes', affecting whether certain disease controlling genes get switched on or stay switched off in the body. This means that your personal diet can directly influence whether you present with an illness for which you may have inherited a genetic predisposition, or whether you keep it at bay. In other words, you have a great deal of control! Generally, western style eating patterns (think Australian or American diets) tend to switch on the genes for chronic diseases whereas plant-based diets (like traditional Mediterranean, Asian or vegetarian diets) have the power to guard from such diseases.
But that's not all. Even if you feel you are healthy, your dietitian can probably still enhance your eating style. For example, we help athletes improve their stamina and performance and young women to boost their fertility and chances of a healthy pregnancy.
Food allergy and intolerance
Do you have a diagnosed food allergy or intolerance and are finding it hard to cope? Have you had ongoing gut issues with no medical explanation? Our team of expert dietitians are experienced in working with people with food allergies and intolerances and commonly use the low FODMAP and RPAH Elimination Diet for dietary investigation and management in both children and adults. Aptly referred to as ‘Diet Detectives’, your dietitian can help you identify the potential food triggers that may be causing you ongoing discomfort with eczema, headaches, sinus problems, asthma and irritable bowel. They can assist you to regain balance and control over your diet for long term health.
Wellness programs
You can see your dietitian one on one, over a series of structured visits as part of a set program. Or, if you prefer, we can plan each of your sessions with you as you go, basing them on your unique needs, which might change from week to week. Either way, we will always first conduct a thorough nutritional assessment before advising you on any dietary change. See what can I expect from my first appointment.
Many people also benefit from the dynamics experienced at our group health seminars and cooking workshops. You can listen to answers from other peoples questions and also gain peer support. These programs are a cost effective way to further increase your knowledge about food and health and stay motivated. Why not check out our supermarket tour, health seminars and cookshops?
Food and eating information leaflets
When you see your dietitian at the Nutrition and Wellbeing Clinic, you will receive a range of original information leaflets that are relevant to your goals and packed full of practical tips to make changing your lifestyle easier. Sometimes, we may also use materials sourced from other reputable organisations when we believe the information is current and of high quality.
Staying up-to-date to serve you better
There are numerous ways your dietitian continues to learn after university training.
- We attend conferences both in Australia and overseas where the latest nutrition research findings are presented and we incorporate these into our practice as soon as possible so you can benefit from cutting edge science.
- We run a monthly journal club at the Nutrition and Wellbeing Clinic with a small team of dietitians from the local area, where we discuss interesting developments in nutrition, new food products, complex medical cases and various counselling techniques, with the aim of constantly improving how we serve you.
- We regularly visit supermarkets to keep up to date with new product lines so we can alert you of healthy food choices and those to keep away from.
- We are invited to media product launches to be informed of unique functional foods that are about to be released on the Australian market. We earmark those that could benefit your care.
- We cook and share innovative wellness recipes with each other and our friends and gain feedback to adjust new tastes and techniques, before passing on the easy steps to you.
- We keep up with popular diet books published in Australia and abroad to evaluate them and make reading recommendations for you.
- We screen the food media news from around the world on a daily basis and select items of value to share with you during consultations and in our free e-newsletter?
Helping to keep your doctor informed about nutrition
Is your doctor keeping up to date with new developments in nutrition?
We can send them a free, full colour, quarterly newsletter with the latest food research news. We especially design this for medical practitioners and practice nurses to keep them informed about what's new in nutrition. Just drop us a line or call the clinic and we'll arrange the rest.