What Happens During Nutrition Counseling?

Diet is critical to your health and healing after an injury or ailment. Despite this crucial part of health that diet and nutrition play, medical professionals rarely pay attention to it. Or rather, they pay little attention to it unless you go to a nutritionist or a chiropractor. Chiropractors are especially invested in nutritional counseling because they believe in holistic healing.

Nutritional counseling may seem unimportant because everyone knows what is good to eat and what is not, right? However, some diets have specific outcomes that may be desirable for particular ailments. These outcomes are the main focus of chiropractors because they deal with ailments requiring special attention.

Are Chiropractors Qualified to Give Diet Advice?

What most people do not know is that many chiropractors have nutrition training. This training makes them recognized as experts in nutrition. They use what they learned to recommend the most beneficial diets for their clients. Nutrition plays a big part in why chiropractic care is regarded as holistic health.

What Happens During a Nutrition Counselling Session With a Chiropractor?

Assessing Dietary Habits

The first step in nutritional counseling is evaluating how, what, and when you eat. Chiropractors use different techniques to assess your dietary habits. The various methods help them determine how much of each type of food you consume daily. Usually, they record what you have eaten in the past few days and what your usual meals look like.

One of the most efficient methods chiropractors use is a food questionnaire. It includes how many servings of certain foods you typically have each day or week.

Body Weight

The next step is determining your body weight and relating it to a weight-to-height scale. Every height or body weight has an ideal weight range that is healthy for it. If your body weight is not suitable for your height, it will guide the chiropractor in developing a diet.

Because this measure does not put your body frame into account, they will usually include a BMI measure. A BMI uses the measurements above to determine where you fall on the healthy weight scale.

Determine Required Changes

From the information your chiropractor gathers from you, they can determine what changes you need. As mentioned earlier, most people know what is good to eat and what is not, but they need help to institute the changes. Sometimes, you may need to learn the impact of your food choices. The chiropractor will help you understand the effects of different foods on your body.

They will work with you to identify problematic areas and the best changes to make to get to your health goal. Usually, they will recommend a gradual change to make it easier and more sustainable.

Determine Challenges to Change

Once you have developed a plan with your chiropractor, they will help you determine challenges. Some common problems are social eating habits and different budgets for the foods you need. They will then help you find ways to deal with the challenges.

Setting Goals

The chiropractor will help you set goals dependent on the changes you will start implementing gradually. Goals will help you keep track of how you are doing and if you are making any progress toward your ultimate health goal.

For more about what happens during nutrition counseling, visit Smith Chiropractic at our office in El Paso, Texas. Call (915) 233-3100 to book an appointment today.