When Should You See a Dietitian?
Eating disorder therapist and Kindful Body founder, Marcella Cox, and Kindful Body’s registered therapeutic dietitian, Dianna Marino, answers common questions about seeing a dietitian. You can see the conversation in video format here.
What is a dietitian?
A dietitian is a medical provider who has received at least a Bachelor’s degree from a program that has been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Registered dietitians are required to pass the Commission on Dietetic Registration examination, complete an ACEND-accredited supervised practice program (dietetic internship), and earn continuing education credits in nutrition science.
What does a dietician do versus a nutritionist?
Anyone who has studied nutrition (either formally or independently) may call themselves a “nutritionist,” but that does not mean they meet the requirements to be a professional, registered dietitian. “Nutritionist” is just a title that anyone can claim.
Therapeutic dietitians make recommendations based on research and are licensed to provide medical nutrition therapy.
When is it time to see a dietitian?
Diet culture makes eating so much more complicated than it needs to be. There’s tons of misinformation about nutrition in magazines, on social media, and in the minds of those around us.
Many people have lost sight of what is “normal” in terms of eating because disordered eating is the norm. If you learn to recognize it, you’ll start to see that nearly everyone around you has some disordered ways of thinking about food.
If all these mixed messages leave your head spinning, there is help available.
It’s time to see a therapeutic dietitian if you are:
Frustrated with eating and/or confused about how to eat
Not confident in your food choices
Yo-yo dieting
Trying cleanses
Looking everywhere for the “right” nutrition advice
What does a session with a dietitian look like?
Your therapeutic dietitian in California will start with an initial assessment of your medical history and ongoing symptoms or issues you are experiencing.
A therapeutic dietitian will also want to get a sense of your current eating behaviors and patterns, as well as how those behaviors have evolved over time.
They’ll ask about your thoughts and beliefs around food in order to understand why you engage with food the way you do. A dietitian needs the full picture in order to effectively work with you.
After the initial assessment,
Your dietitian will work with you to develop a meal plan if appropriate, as well as a list of attainable goals. Sessions with dietitians are usually weekly if you are in eating disorder recovery, but they can be less frequent if you are there to address behaviors like dieting.
In each session, you will talk with your dietitian about the progress you are making towards your goals and any barriers you are facing that keep you from reaching those goals. Nutrition counseling in California with a dietitian is an individualized process. Each session may play out differently depending on your unique situation.
What is intuitive eating?
Your dietitian may bring up the concept of intuitive eating in nutrition counseling in California. If it sounds overwhelming and impossible at first, don’t panic. You will not be expected to be able to eat intuitively right away. In your eating disorder, you may have grown used to ignoring what your body needs. Relearning to eat based on body cues doesn’t happen overnight.
Before you can eat intuitively, your hunger and fullness cues need to return. Once those body cues are back, it will take some time to learn to listen to and trust them.
Intuitive eating does not require calculations or measurements.
Your eating disorder behaviors and any kind of dieting are the opposite of intuitive eating because they involve overthinking, control, and planning. Intuitive eating is what many people would call “normal” eating, but it looks different for everyone. Your goal is to be able to eat intuitively as a recovered person, but understand that while you are in the process of recovery, intuitive eating may be challenging.
There are a number of factors that contribute to barriers in returning to Intuitive Eating including how long someone has had an eating disorder, history of dieting behaviors, and family food dynamics, to name a few. It’s important to recognize that each person's journey to Intuitive Eating will look different and there is no time limit.
The 10 principles of intuitive eating are:
Reject the diet mentality
Honor your hunger
Make peace with food
Challenge the food police
Discover the satisfaction factor
Feel your fullness
Cope with your emotions with kindness
Respect your body
Movement — Feel the difference
Honor your health—Gentle nutrition
What’s the difference between eating disorders and disordered eating?
If you have an eating disorder, you may exhibit disordered thoughts and behaviors around food as much as a few times per week or even a few times per day.
Signs of an eating disorder include:
Obsession or preoccupation with food, exercise, and/or body image
All-consuming thoughts about food
Difficulty functioning in everyday life
Struggling with social events because of food
If you have disordered eating, the food behaviors may occur less frequently and take up less space in your mind. Disordered eating can include dieting and restriction of any kind, binge eating, clean eating, or any struggles with figuring out how to eat.
You do not need to be diagnosed with a full-blown eating disorder in order to benefit from seeing a dietitian.
We have many experienced therapeutic dietitians and nutrition therapists here at Kindful Body in California who can help you make peace with food. To begin working with an eating disorder dietitian for nutrition counseling, contact us for a consultation.
Other Services at Kindful Body
Kindful Body offers body image therapy to clients 14 and older across California, as well as support for low self-esteem issues, emotional eating recovery, nutrition counseling, grief counseling, binge eating disorder, and relationship therapy. When you’re ready, we are here to help you with your eating disorder recovery whether you need eating disorder treatment in Sacramento, San Jose, Oakland/Berkeley, Walnut Creek, San Mateo, Orange County, CA, or anywhere online in California.