Nutritional counseling has become an important part of the affluent society. How the body reacts to the environment and nutrition, which diet is suitable for which person, which biochemical processes take place in the organism, what allergies there are, what influence eating behavior, body awareness, daily exercise, sports and general lifestyle have on health, and what a suitable healthy diet plan looks like, these are the kinds of topics that nutrition counseling deals with.
What is nutrition counseling?
Nutritional counseling helps in the selection of appropriate foods. Many people do not even know what is really healthy and what is perhaps only conveyed or marketed as healthy. A healthy diet is the be-all and end-all for a healthy body and the mental balance of every person. The selection of suitable foods alone is difficult, which is not always clear due to a huge range of many products. Many people do not know what is really healthy and what is perhaps only conveyed or marketed as healthy. Likewise, the diet is often very one-sided or even wrong due to everyday life and profession, which in turn can lead to overweight and various diseases. Nutritional counseling, however, is not so much concerned with the resulting diseases, but rather addresses the healthy person in a supportive manner. This can be advice for children, pregnant women, the elderly or athletes, as well as, of course, people who are struggling with their weight. The coaching and a therapy, the consultation for special food, e.g. for extreme or strength sportsmen, the explanation and processing of the nutrients and the function and effect way of such on the organism form important topic areas of the nourishing consultation. Not only extensive nutrition plans are set up, but if necessary also the eating, life and movement habits of a person are changed. Naturally the nourishing advisor can specialize in the training also. Thus in the course of the time whole occupational groups developed such as the Ökotrophologen, Diätassistenten or nourishing scientists. The nutrition consultation itself is a further qualified measure, which is possible as a course only if already a training as the Diätassistenten or a study as the Oecotrophologen took place. Oecotrophology thus complements trophology, which pays attention to the scientific aspects of a diet, while the former deals with psycho-sociological, economic and scientific-medical aspects. In this respect, the field includes nutrition and health science as well as dietetics. Dieticians, in turn, work specifically in clinics or rehabilitation centers to provide targeted health promotion and nutritional counseling. The focus is also on cooking and kitchen techniques, the preparation of dietary foods and controlled food service. Nutrition counseling is provided in both individual and group sessions.
Treatments and therapies
Especially for ordinary people, the question of what really constitutes a healthy diet is not always easy to answer. Nutrients are processed in a complex way in the organism. Each person has different needs and eating habits. Likewise, the body reacts differently to the food it receives. A balanced diet remains the best alternative to keep the body and mind fit. This includes plant foods such as fruits, vegetables and grains that provide valuable fiber, vitamins and minerals, protein and animal products for protein, calcium and minerals that are essential for the body, few but high-quality vegetable fats and drinking adequate fluids. These are essential basic requirements of a nutritional consultation, that the person learns to understand the biochemical processes and interrelationships, to distinguish the ingredients, to analyze and change one’s own eating behavior, to use and prepare the necessary foods correctly. During a nutritional consultation, a person’s health condition is first examined. This is necessary to better assess the situation. In addition, questions are clarified, how the diet looks like, what allergies, intolerances or other restrictions are present.The health history plays an essential role in adapting the diet to the person. In addition to the then following education about nutrients and foods, accompanied by nutrition protocol and plan, daily routine and exercise concept, the entire thinking and behavioral pattern of the person is worked on. These are not only deepened, but also implemented with practical exercises. The nutritional counseling helps to understand one’s own eating behavior and to provide impulses for change. All this, of course, should lead to a permanent change in diet, not only to ensure a healthy diet, but also to be able to maintain their own weight.
Diagnosis and examination methods
It is precisely one’s own pig dog that is the problem of a poor diet. In fact, society excuses this weakness of will more often than assumed, turns a blind eye when a person lets himself go. Quickly, however, this behavior can then escalate into one’s own acceptance, so that overweight is no longer seen as a problem. This recognized social influence becomes then the own excuse. Here the nourishing consultation starts. The will, the own influencing of the will, the own emotionality and rationality, the insight and motivation are therapeutically accompanying measures. The fearfulness consists with many humans in the fact that with a nourishing consultation and an established meal plan and pertinent protocol no more everything may be eaten, after which the heart requires. There is in this sense no food, which makes thick. As far as no intolerance or incompatibility is present, humans may eat, which it likes. The meals are arranged only more consciously. It is learned to nourish itself “smartly” without having to do without. The creative and flexible handling of food and one’s own problem is practiced. It is not aimed at appeal and prohibition, but rather helped to get fun at the nutrition and movement. Serious is a nourishing advisor however only if it does not sell products during the consultation, at the most recommendations expresses. As in each branch of profession there are also with the nourishing consultation black sheep, which try to earn money over the branch. But these are easily distinguished by their own behavior.
