7 reasons to see a registered dietitian

Trying to lose weight isn’t the only reason to see a dietitian. A dietitian can help manage diseases, provide advice during pregnancy, help with meal planning, and more.

There are many reasons someone might see a dietitian. A dietitian can help manage diseases, provide advice during pregnancy, help with meal planning, and more.

Both nutritionists and dietitians can give diet advice, but dietitians tend to have more formal training and credentials.

A registered dietitian nutritionist, or RDN, can help you come up with a personalized healthy eating plan to suit your needs.

After all, maintaining a healthy diet impacts how our bodies function physically and mentally. A healthy diet can help prevent or manage disease, improve athletic performance, and boost overall wellbeing.

Here are seven reasons someone might see a dietitian.

1. To manage chronic disease

A dietitian can help manage chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol.

The dietitian may recommend a therapeutic diet, which is a diet that controls the intake of certain foods or nutrients to achieve certain health goals, promote healing in the body, manage disease symptoms, or prevent disease in the first place.

A dietitian may also work with a team of medical professionals to help diagnose or treat eating disorders.

2. To gain or lose weight

Maintaining a healthy weight is important for health and ideal body weight differs for every individual. The number of calories you need to eat daily also depends on age, metabolism, sex, physical activity, and other factors.

For those looking to lose weight, fad diets are not the answer. These popular diets claim to help you lose weight fast, but they aren’t always healthy and after some time people often put back on the pounds they lost.

A dietitian can help you come up with a sustainable healthy eating plan to gradually lose weight and keep the weight off. They can also help people who are trying to gain weight.

3. To manage digestive conditions, allergies, or food sensitivities

Certain foods can trigger symptoms for people with diseases like celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (a condition of chronic acid reflux known as GERD).

People with food sensitivities or allergies may also be triggered by certain foods or ingredients, like gluten or dairy.

A dietitian can help identify food triggers and then suggest a healthy eating plan that avoids those triggers and provides a balance of nutrients without compromising taste.

4. To improve athletic performance

Some dietitians may specialize in sports nutrition and can help athletes come up with a diet to optimize their performance.

This may include concepts like carb loading, a technique of increasing carbohydrate intake which some endurance athletes use to increase the fuel stored in their muscles.

A dietitian may also recommend recovery foods to help an athlete’s muscles recover after a hard workout or an injury.

5. For support in going vegetarian or vegan

Ever wanted to go vegetarian or vegan but didn’t know where to start? A dietitian can help people transition to a vegetarian or vegan diet by coming up with an eating plan that provides sufficient nutrients.

The same goes for a paleo diet, a ketogenic diet, or any other diet change that you may be considering.

6. Before, during, or after pregnancy

Prenatal vitamins aren’t the only element of a healthy diet for pregnant women or women trying to get pregnant.

Pregnant women actually need to consume about 300 extra calories per day to support both her and the growing baby. These calories should come from healthy sources.

A dietitian can help come up with a healthy eating plan that includes all the extra nutrients needed during pregnancy, such as folic acid.

Even after pregnancy, it’s important to maintain a healthy diet especially if breastfeeding.

7. For general wellbeing

You don’t have to have a specific disease or condition to seek advice from a dietitian. Wanting diet advice for your general wellbeing is a great reason to see a dietitian.

Dietitians can provide meal planning tips, grocery shopping tips, recipe ideas, and more. A dietitian can teach you how to read food labels correctly and they can debunk food myths and misinformation.

A dietitian can also help you stay on track with your healthy eating goals. Seeing a dietitian is not usually a one-time visit. It requires follow-up visits to track progress and make changes to the diet plan as needed.

Alpha provides diet and nutrition counseling online. Once you complete an online consultation, one of our registered dietitians will help you come up with a nutrition plan that suits your needs. Please note that dietitians cannot prescribe medication for weight loss.

To learn more about the conditions we treat or get started with your online consultation, check out our website and sign up today!