I refer to our meeting as a “journey” as I don’t just meet with you once and send you on your way. We meet in person twice for a total of 2 hours and we communicate with each other between the meetings via the Healthie platform.
Your full nutritional assessment journey is made up of the following 5 steps:
You will book an appointment via the site to meet with me either online via video call or in person (depending on where you live).
Before our first appointment, you will be sent an online health history form and a symptom questionnaire form that gives me a detailed picture of what underlying issues are. You will also be sent a template for a 4-day food diary which, together with all the information you have supplied me with, will enable me to have a deeper understanding of your health concerns before we meet.
After I have reviewed your food diary, your intake forms, and any other blood tests you may have submitted to me, we will meet to dive deep into your health history, goals, concerns, and symptoms and review your current diet and lifestyle. This time together enables me to be able to have a clearer understanding of what we need to focus on together to meet your health goals. We will agree on a plan that is both personalized to your needs but also suitable for your lifestyle. I may discuss supplementation relevant to your needs and further testing (whether with your GP or through private functional testing options) to help us gain more in-depth knowledge of your health issues.
Following our initial consultation, I will provide you with a full nutritional, lifestyle and supplement plan based on your unique needs.
This follow-up appointment is 30 mins and the appointment is generally scheduled for 4 weeks after the initial appointment to assess how you are progressing with the program and to make any adjustments to the protocol.
“It is more important to know the person who has the disease than it is to know the disease the person has” – Hippocrates
I get this question a lot and I am so glad you asked!
A dietician has obtained a science degree in dietetics and is regulated by the health professional council of the country they are registered in. Dieticians will commonly work with a patient’s diet to correct a medical condition that they have been diagnosed with by a doctor. A dietician often works in a hospital environment as part of a clinical team or in private practice.
A registered nutritional practitioner is formally qualified through a recognized learning institution and is registered with a regulated governing body such as The South African Society of Integrative Medicine (SASIM) or the International Organization of Nutritional Consultants (IONC). This means that the nutritional practitioner is bound by a strict code of conduct for practice. Nutritional practitioners recognize that we are all biochemically unique and look to the root cause of their client’s conditions. They support the client holistically by providing recommendations around diet, lifestyle, and quality supplementation to bring the body back into balance and restore health.
Registered nutritional practitioners are most commonly found in private practice.