Family Doctors Are Passe – Family Nutritionists Are In | By Shubi Husain

In the recent years, transition from family doctors to family nutritionists has become more and more apparent. That is not to say that family doctors are losing their relevance in the society. What’s happening is that people are increasingly becoming aware of the value of preventive measures over curative approaches to diseases. Your family dietician helps you achieve the former, while a family doctor comes in after the disease has set in.

People are starting to see how prescribed nutrition can help them ward off a myriad of illnesses and save them a lot of pain and medical bills. In this article, my endeavor is to bring out some of the benefits you get by having a nutrition consultant vis-à-vis a family doctor.

Prevention of Genetic Diseases

If you come from a family where diabetes, heart disease, sickle-cell anemia or other genetic disorders are trending, then it’s normal to feel concerned that you too might suffer the condition. An experienced family nutritionist can help you reduce the risk of developing these chronic conditions by recommending meals that help ward off these illnesses.

But even if you or a loved one already have one of these conditions, a qualified dietitian can help you know which diets are tailored to improve your sugar levels or lower cholesterol levels. In the long run, a nutritionist can help you reduce or even eliminate your dependency on medications.

Achieving a Healthy Weight

You already know that your weight has a huge impact on your health and your lifestyle that ultimately influences your performance at work. If you’ve been looking to lose weight, then your family doctor will not help much. Turning to nutrition consultancy is your best bet.

An accomplished dietician can help recommend a diet that helps you take in fewer calories than the one you use on a daily basis, making it easier for you to achieve the ideal weight.

Meeting Your Fitness Goals

Whether you aim to perform better in sports or simply want to enjoy skiing during the vacations, your body needs to be fit enough for these activities. An experienced family nutritionist can help you come up with a meal plan that’s tailored to get your body fit more quickly and keep it that way for a long time. While a family doctor may recommend that you need to get fit, they simply don’t have the time, or the training, to help you achieve that.

Revitalization for Your Aging Body

If you are starting to feel the signs of aging such as sluggishness and your recent lab results are continually poor, then it may be time to seek the assistance of a family nutritionist.

The dietician can get you started on a whole-food and plant-based diet to address any chronic inflammation you may have and boost your cardiovascular functioning as well as hormonal balance. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables, coupled with nuts, seeds, legumes, fatty fish, and lean proteins can help enhance your overall health and keep auto-immunes diseases at bay. In the end, your body feels stronger and younger.

Eliminating Harmful Foods

While your diet plays a significant role in making you feel healthy, what you consume may also adversely affect you. In fact, many digestive problems and skin ailments are caused by allergies and food sensitivities. Instead of doing guesswork as to what exactly might be affecting you, you can consult a family nutritionist.

An experienced dietician can help take you through the process of eliminating certain foods and bringing others back so you zero-in on what might be the cause of your health woes. The nutritionist may even accompany you to the grocery store to assist you in pinpointing the harmful foods and offer suggestions on what alternatives you can begin to use.

Constant Emotional Support

You may not have realized it yet, but a lot of emotions surround food. That’s because food is at the center of numerous aspects of your life, from happy stuff to angry experiences. As you embark on changing your lifestyle and food, you’ll experience some powerful feelings, and it’s possible to feel overwhelmed. Your emotions can negatively affect your appetite.

Your family nutritionist is there to offer the support you need to keep going. They constantly remind you of how far you have come and spur you to move ahead. This can have a powerful impact on your morale.

Ultimately, your food habits have a strong bearing on your well being, so you need to be careful what you consume. It’s the reason that many people are turning to family nutritionists to keep their bodies healthy and prevent that dreaded visit to the family doctor.