Corporate Nutrition Counselling Sessions: what are they?
Have you heard of workplace wellness programs? Are you and your company a part of one? These programs are initiated to promote employee health and wellbeing. Nutrition programs are a subset of the wellness programs conducted in a corporate set-up.
(For a quick list of key-takeaways, check towards the end of the article)
Why a nutrition program, you may ask! A workplace nutrition program encourages healthy eating among the employees, emphasizing the need to make healthier choices while at work or while working from home. It also aims at creating awareness on the importance of good health and nutrition to tackle or prevent the risk of developing work-related lifestyle disorders.
Wellness programs are becoming increasingly important as the employees are greatly affected by work-related stress. Poor management of stress and work life balance can have a negative impact on their health and mental wellbeing. Working for long hours, disturbed sleep cycle, pulling an all-nighter, skipping of meals and unhealthy diet patterns can greatly affect their overall wellbeing and hold them back from giving their best at work.
A healthy diet and good nutrition can benefit many factors required to maintain optimal health status. With increasing work and lifestyle related disorders, it is now more than important to include nutrition intervention programs, as they can:
- Promote weight management to reduce the risk of obesity or undernourishment
- Prevent the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes
- Reduce the occurrence of hypertension, cholesterol imbalances and other factors that might lead to heart diseases
- Provide diet interventions and lifestyle modifications to manage hormone related disorders like Poly cystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and hypothyroidism.
Nutritional counselling involves a one-on-one interaction of an employee with a qualified dietitian or nutritionist. The goal of nutrition counseling is to help employees understand the importance and the impact of their diet and lifestyle practices on health. It also assists them in achieving their goals by providing practical approaches to meet their physical activity, psychological needs and dietary requirements. They are then guided on a diet that is designed to help the employee achieve optimal nutrition and health status.
Guiding the employees by addressing their health and nutritional requirements to help them improve their diet habits and health, involves a programmatic approach including several steps. The components of a typical nutrition counselling session involve —
Step 1: Assessment of nutritional status:
The first step in any individual/ corporate nutritional intervention program is the assessment of the nutritional status of the employees of the organization. This gives the dietitian/nutritionist an idea of the health and nutritional situation of the employee population. Nutritional assessment involves the collecting of anthropometric data (height, weight and body composition assessments), analysis of clinical reports (incase of a preexisting disorder), looking for signs of deficiencies or nutritional imbalances and reviewing diet history of the employees.
Step 2: Discussing the results of nutrition assessment:
Once the nutritional assessments are performed, the data is then analyzed to determine the nutritional status of the individual. These tools are useful to identify the areas that need focus and improvement. It can also be helpful in detecting risk of obesity, diabetes or other heart related disorders. Then, the results are conveyed to the employees to keep them aware of their present nutritional status.
Step 3: Identifying individual nutrition needs and goals:
In the next step, assessment results can be used to identify the nature and cause of nutrition or lifestyle related issues that might be affecting the health of the individual. Nutritional needs of the individual are then determined based on these indices. Overweight, obese and undernourished individuals will have different goals to achieve and these goals are modified to meet their requirements. Individuals with pre-existing disorders are also guided on a path that is tailor made to improve their existing condition, also control and prevent any further advances of their condition.
Step 4: Discussing ways to meet those goals:
Employees are provided with easy approaches that can help them to achieve the diet and lifestyle goals set for them. Nutritionists guide the employees through the challenges and motivate them to follow the approaches that can help them reach their ideal nutritional state. Providing them with healthier options for meals and snacks at the in-house cafeteria is also a great way to help them to stick to their new diet and lifestyle changes.
Step 5: Evaluating the effectiveness of the intervention:
Once the employee has followed the guidelines for a brief period of time, it is necessary to go back and evaluate the efficacy of the program. This ensures that the initiative taken by the company for the benefit of the employees has a positive impact on their health, performance and productivity.
Counseling interventions help individuals acquire the skills, motivation, and support they need to alter their eating and food preparation habits. Counseling advice includes self-monitoring, overcoming barriers to selecting healthy foods, goal-setting, shopping and food preparation, role playing, and social support
— Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
While wellness programs are conducted for the whole workforce for general improvement, nutrition counselling sessions are more of an individual approach to help employees greatly focus on the specific areas that require improvement for their better health.
Nutritional counselling is important to help, guide and assist employees to increase their adherence to the program designed for them. It can improve mental health, wellness and quality of life that can boost their performance and overall well being. This not only benefits the health of the employees but also helps improve the efficiency and productivity of the organization as a whole.
Key Takeaways:
- Nutritional intervention/counselling is a subset of corporate wellness program designed to identify aspects of health that need improvement and promote good nutritional status of the employees
- Workplace based nutritional counselling is an important aspect of nutrition/ wellness programs that can help to improve physical activity and fitness, especially in people that are at the risk of developing disorders.
- Nutritional programs for employees should be combined with individual assessment of nutritional status, counselling and follow-up for behavior change to improve the efficiency of the wellness program.
References:
- https://www.onemedical.com/blog/eat-well/what-is-nutrition-counseling/
- https://www.fantaproject.org/sites/default/files/resources/NACS-Module-3-Counseling-May2016.pdf
- http://healthbng.com/blog/what-can-i-expect-from-nutrition-counselling/
- https://www.bapen.org.uk/nutrition-support/assessment-and-planning/nutritional-assessment
- https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/health-strategies/nutrition/interventions/programs.html
- https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-nutritional-counseling.htm
