Therapeutic Nutrition

Specific conditions require specific diet strategies

There are healthy diets, and then there are therapeutic diets.

For some health conditions, there are specific food swaps or diet patterns that improve outcomes in a targeted way.

It’s not always obvious which diet changes work best for which conditions, and sometimes the strategies that are needed seem like the less healthy choice. Or multiple conditions seem to require conflicting diets!

Let me help you get clarity and start making strategic diet improvements to add to your treatment plan.

Mediterranean

This is the diet with the most rigorous research behind it to improve health for a number of conditions.

It’s also the most flexible diet pattern and does not exclude any food groups.

But, there is a specific structure needed to benefit from these identified health effects:

lower risk of certain cancers
lower risk of Diabetes (by more than 50%) and improved blood sugar control
lower risk of Cardiovascular events (by up to 30%)
protection against cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's Disease
protection from kidney disease
lower risk of depression and anxiety

Cholesterol

There are a lot of dietary opportunities to influence cholesterol levels, but more importantly, dietary changes that reduce inflammation have been shown to reduce risk of cardiac events even if cholesterol does not change, or is already lowered with medications.

We start by reviewing and optimizing the types of fats and fibre in your diet.

Then we see how your diet stacks up to the Mediterranean or the Portfolio diet patterns, which are the most effective approaches for heart health in current research.

Blood Pressure

We start with Sodium and Potassium.

The first step is to assess just how much these nutrients feature in your diet, since most people are genetically ‘salt sensitive’, meaning their blood pressure responds to their salt intake.

We’ll go over how to broadly assess the sodium content of your meals, make the best use of food labels, and plan out smart swaps and strategies to get in control of salt.

We’ll also focus on increasing the food sources of potassium, which helps to lower blood pressure when it’s abundant in the diet.

Then we’ll move you towards the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stopping Hypertension), which is literally designed to lower BP.

Blood Sugar

If you’ve been diagnosed with elevated blood sugar or pre-diabetes, the time to act is now, now, now!

With just a few key diet principles, you have the chance to reverse your condition before it progresses to diabetes.

You will get clear on which foods elevate blood sugar, which foods have a stabilizing effect, and how to portion and balance meals. We’ll also equip you with ideas for alternatives to take the place of problematic food choices.

Lastly, we’ll round out your diet with foods shown to reduce the risk of diabetes, like yogurt, coffee and tea (and more).

Fatty Liver

There are several causes for a liver to accumulate fat, but this condition is not uncommon.

In most cases, the liver responds very well to the right diet and lifestyle changes and can fully regenerate over time.

The dietary strategy here is a bit of a combination of what we do for cholesterol AND for lowering blood sugar, so it’s helpful to take a longer-term diet coaching approach similar to how we would work through personal weight management.

Reflux or Heartburn

Before starting on acid control medication for life, let’s see if we can impact your acid production through food.

There are several key foods most associated with chronic heartburn (coffee, peppermint tea, tomatoes, garlic, etc), but there is also a more robust diet strategy that’s far too underused!

Since acid in the stomach depends in part on your body’s level of histamine, a low histamine diet can provide gentler acid control than medications do. I have walked many people through managing the histamine in their diet with terrific results. But beware of internet info on low histamine eating, it’s all over the place and often misleading!

If there’s a condition or diet pattern you need help with

I’m happy to assist!

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