#this is something we are taught when we study to be dietitians
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alexneilan · 3 days ago
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From Frustration to Freedom: Weight Loss Strategies That Actually Work After 50
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Understanding the Reality of Weight Loss After 50
Research consistently shows that weight management becomes more challenging with age due to physiological changes including decreased muscle mass, hormonal shifts, and metabolic slowdown. Studies indicate that long-term maintenance of lost weight is particularly challenging, with obesity interventions typically resulting in early rapid weight loss followed by progressive regain. However, this doesn’t mean success is impossible — it simply requires a different approach.
The fear of failure in weight loss is remarkably common. Research indicates that 79% of people identify fear of failure as their biggest concern when embarking on weight management journeys. This anxiety often stems from previous experiences where initial success was followed by weight regain, creating a cycle of shame and avoidance — a pattern that Alex Neilan the sport dietitian has observed in his practice with athletic and general populations alike.
Reframing “Failure” as Learning
Weight loss researchers compare the process to smoking cessation, where current smokers typically require nearly 30 attempts before successfully quitting for one year. These aren’t failures — they’re learning experiences that provide valuable information about what works and what doesn’t for your unique circumstances.
Professor Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset is particularly relevant here, and aligns with methodologies used by professionals like Alex Neilan the sport dietitian. When we view setbacks as opportunities for learning rather than personal failures, we develop resilience and maintain motivation. Each previous attempt has taught you something valuable about your triggers, preferences, and sustainable habits.
Evidence-Based Strategies for Success
Focus on Health, Not Just Weight
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Embrace Gradual Changes
The “all or nothing” mentality is particularly detrimental after 50. Your body requires more time to adapt to changes, and your lifestyle likely involves more complex commitments than it did in your younger years. Following principles advocated by Alex Neilan the sport dietitian, aim for 1–2 small, sustainable changes every few weeks rather than dramatic overhauls.
Build a Support Network
Social support significantly impacts weight management success. Whether it’s joining a walking group, working with a registered dietitian like Alex Neilan the sport dietitian, or finding an accountability partner, having people who understand your journey reduces feelings of isolation and provides practical assistance during challenging periods.
Address Underlying Psychological Factors
Anxiety about body weight and stigmatisation can significantly impact weight management attempts. Consider working with a counsellor who specialises in eating behaviours if past experiences have created significant anxiety around food and weight.
Practical Steps to Move Forward
Start with Self-Compassion
Treat yourself with the same kindness you’d offer a dear friend facing similar challenges. Acknowledge that weight management after 50 is genuinely more difficult due to physiological factors beyond your control.
Set Process Goals, Not Just Outcome Goals
Instead of focusing solely on the number on the scales, set goals around behaviours you can control: “I’ll include vegetables with every meal” or “I’ll take a 15-minute walk after dinner.” These process goals, endorsed by practitioners like Alex Neilan the sport dietitian, build confidence and create sustainable habits.
Celebrate Non-Scale Victories
Monitor improvements in energy levels, sleep quality, mood, fitness, and how your clothes fit. These markers often improve before significant weight loss occurs and provide motivation during plateaus. This holistic approach, similar to that used by Alex Neilan the sport dietitian in his practice, recognises that health encompasses far more than weight alone.
Plan for Setbacks
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The Path Forward
Remember that successful weight management after 50 isn’t about perfection — it’s about persistence and adaptation. Improved health and mobility can provide renewed energy and independence, enabling you to approach life with greater vitality regardless of the number on the scales.
Your previous attempts weren’t failures; they were research. Each experience has provided valuable data about your preferences, challenges, and strengths. Armed with this knowledge and a compassionate, evidence-based approach similar to methodologies used by professionals like Alex Neilan the sport dietitian, you’re better positioned for success than ever before.
The fear of failure is natural, but it shouldn’t prevent you from pursuing the health and vitality you deserve. Drawing inspiration from the balanced approaches advocated by experts like Alex Neilan the sport dietitian, take the first small step today — your future self will thank you for beginning again.
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edwardslostalchemy · 2 years ago
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Okay okay okay okay so what I've noticed about some cooking videos I've watched, the person cooking only uses salt and pepper to season their food. And i mean, nothing wrong with that, but. SPICE things up ohmgggg there's so many spices and herbs to give flavor to food, I'm begging people to use more things other than salt and pepper.
Like I saw a video of someone cooking salmon. Only used salt and pepper. And I'm here like. That is your prerogative, but make use of other spices.
This is how I prepare salmon: either add the juice of an orange or a lemon to give it some good marinade. You can use both citrus fruits if you want, but I use whichever is available in my basket or I pick one over the other to change things up.
Next, I get my spices. I am not into hot foods, so I don't add any hot peppers or hot sauce. But I love certain spices. I add cumin, garlic powder, ground pepper, lemon pepper, and onion powder, in that order. Let the salmon rest for a bit. Then cook it on a pan with oil. It takes like 4-5 minutes to cook each side of the salmon, maybe a bit more depending on your stove, but I don't leave it for too long so it doesn't burn, and I check to see if it's cooked all the way by cutting it in half with my spatula because in this house, we care more about food being fully cooked over aesthetic. My dad brings out the hot sauce, the home made salsa mom makes, and the tartar sauce, and we can add those on the side so we don't cover the salmon with sauces after plating.
It tastes amazing. You don't even have to add the sauces at the end for it to taste good. I use ground pepper, but I never add salt. I don't recall ever pulling out the salt container to add it to salmon. Lemon pepper already has sodium and it gives it good flavor. I do NOT put limits on how much spice i add to the salmon; I put as much of each as I want and feel comfortable. Cumin can have a deliciously overwhelming smell and ground pepper makes me sneeze, but heck if I don't add them.
Sometimes if I feel fancy, i add oregano or parsley flakes, or cut onion and cook it with the salmon so it can give it flavor, too. I've added honey to it when my roommate suggested it. If I want the salmon to be a little red, I add paprika. Sometimes i just go HAM and add some more spices i have in my pantry. Give it flavor!!!
Don't stay in the same cycle of cooking. This is one reason it can become boring. Make it exciting. Idk about others, but only using salt and pepper is boring to me. I will use steak seasoning if it means using something new and different (and I have steak seasoning in my pantry, I will use it). Rub some cilantro on the salmon or some parsley or marinade it over night. SOMETHING. Just don't limit yourselves to salt and pepper.
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maricruzhackler-blog · 6 years ago
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Huge Health Website & Complement Retailer
It is summertime! The protein supply of this product is not only distinctive but additionally it incorporates 5 grams of added creatine monohydrate. Such people often eat unhealthy food as they have high calories food in their inventory. The precise calorie and macronutrient content material of mass gainers differ wildly and there is quite a lot of debate as to whether or not a 1:1 ratio of protein to carbs is finest, or in case you ought to go as high as 1:4 or 1:5. Study the nutrient profile of foods you are eating to make accurate dietary decisions. It is very important realise that many genes concerned in muscle growth pathways are discovered as a number of copies because of paralogue retention following an entire-genome duplication (WGD) event at the base of teleost evolution ( Jaillon et al., 2004 ). In salmonids, another WGD event occurred at a later time and most of the ensuing paralogues had been also retained. Junk meals is trap food, designed to make you lose cash and achieve kilos. If you go slower, you could possibly exercise rather a lot longer, so you will find yourself burning extra calories and fat that way. But for individuals who wish to optimize their outcomes, get an edge on competitors, and speed up their fat burning potential, a fats burning complement is the best way to go. For professional advice on health program, diet information and nutritional supplements, is your own home that can assist you grow to be fit for all times. Despite the literature's limitations, the outcomes of this review remained consistent across subgroups, indicating that the general physique of literature has not shown a significant affiliation between HT and muscle mass. Following a plan created by an expert nutritionist or http://baraita.net/reliable-remedy-for-slimming/ dietitian is usually the smartest selection. For instance, chances are you'll acquire details about HMR Programs, find a local impartial HMR Program that is clinic-based or in any other case offers a "brick and mortar" program facility, use the "Contact Us" characteristic, sign up for advertising emails, inquire about changing into a licensed HMR Program provider, or make "guest" purchases of HMR Products, with out an Account. Because of this, the muscle mass will not be affected by catabolism, while additionally bettering the protein synthesis. So in Joe's case, he could be shooting for roughly 150g of protein, 70g of fat, and 505g of carbs per day. Should you do not observe this rule and seem to be having a hard time building muscle, heeding this recommendation could effectively turn issues round for you. A very good mass gainer supplement gives roughly seven hundred- 800 Kcal per 200 g powder, through nearly 140-one hundred sixty g carbohydrates and 28-36 g protein (plus some amount of fat). This product affords a whopping 1,250 energy in every serving, including vital energy to the weight loss program of intense weight trainers and athletes. Oh, http://penisvergroter-pillen-nl.eu/erogan.html and add the twin "greatest muscle building complement" to your program - protein and creatine. People who are obese or should not zero determine are body shamed, this might come as a surprise, but even thin persons are victims of physique shaming. The three Day Cardiac Diet has set menu plans for breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days. It's a identified weight gainer, which makes it an ideal selection for these people who have a thin body or low muscle mass. You needn't spend hours a day lifting weights to profit from power coaching. Secondly, good" pre-exercises comprise elements that make it easier to obtain your aesthetic goals by including essential muscle-building blocks such as amino acids. NOW Sports activities Carbo Achieve from Now Foods is a fancy carbohydrate muscle complement that's made with out synthetic components or sweeteners. Weight gainers are rich in fiber, which implies that it's going to help digest the strong foods that you will eat. The journey to muscle constructing and weight achieve could be difficult and that's why Mass Gainers are the holy grail to weight achieve. These supplements are designed to offer features just like Olympic heavy weight lifting levels. If you're a beginning bodybuilder, you may be taught to add 15 lbs (6.eight kg) of muscle. Full integration with Apple's Well being app for weight and calories. These days, the market is stuffed with merchandise that may help to increase bodyweight. It is a smart choice whenever you select Nutiva Organic supplement as your accomplice in gaining weight. Finally, now we have skeletal muscle tissues. Use your personal expertise to determine if dairy is a wholesome part of your eating regimen. Mass gainers are for individuals who need to give their muscle groups the very best circumstances to develop and broaden, and specifically for people who have bother rising their mass from regular dietary plan. Generally, quantity of protein intake per day must be between 1 and 1.5 occasions that of your body weight. As evidenced by the truth that people who haven't got ample access to protein experience muscle atrophy and infrequently waste away, insufficient protein is certainly a great system for losing muscle. Some individuals be a part of the health club to burn their fats fast while others begin tough dieting to restrict their energy intake, which typically, have opposed effects on well being. When one is ready to discover one of the best pure herbal muscle gainer complement pills for men and women then she or he ought to learn and understand correctly the routine which is required to be adopted whereas taking the supplement pills. Boosting digestion, relieving stress and boosting confidence degree are other well being benefits of consuming natural weight gainer complement capsules for women and men. Chocolate flavoured mass gainer protein is flexible in making protein shakes, smoothies and recipes. You want this Hardgainer train as a way to acquire muscle mass and construct your body. For girls, often it's easy enough to realize weight by including food or whey protein. It's a form of gradual digesting milk protein which improves the presence of amino acid in body. Together with any meal plan for weight loss, there needs to be some type of exercise regime for those who plan to succeed in your weight reduction objectives. The larger the rise in body weight, the smaller the relative contribution of SM to the load achieve. We are very satisfied with the healthy and tasty meals. Whatever the symptoms, eating disorders will be extremely dangerous, even if they have not brought about obvious weight loss. In line with Santiago, proscribing carbs is one of the largest errors individuals make when trying to construct muscle. During the second phase, you comply with an ultra-low-calorie diet of only 500 energy per day, along with HCG complement drops, pellets, injections, or sprays. Before anybody convinces you to invest lots of of dollars, here is what it is best to find out about four of the extra well-liked muscle-constructing dietary supplements. Here are four supplements that hardgainers can attempt. Leucine is a really particular branched-chain amino acid, thought to be the important thing that activates muscle protein synthesis by way of the switch known as mTOR. In this article, you will see that all the wanted info corresponding to a complete consumers information , Our High Picks and FAQ's to help you choose the best weight gainer In India. Optimum Diet Pro Gainer additionally comprises a pleasant mix of whey, casein, as well as egg protein, so this will probably be a good option for many who are likely to struggle with having an excessive amount of whey (lactose illiberal individuals) of their weight loss plan plan. For those who find that you simply're not gaining weight otherwise you're gaining an excessive amount of weight - specifically as fat - cut back your consumption. Probably the greatest issues about Dymatize Diet Super Mass Gainer is that it offers 7.7 grams of L-Leucine, which helps in activating the synthesis of muscle protein. Moreover, you might be supposed to eat wholesome foods in addition to mass gainers. Muscle mass is the physical measurement of the muscle; muscle mass are sometimes massive because of train and concentrated bodily coaching, but not completely. Recalls aren't enough to guard people from dietary supplements containing unlisted, unapproved ingredients. Reducing down on carbs is another simple way to improve the standard of your food regimen and further weight loss. It is advised that if you will use a mass gainer, it is best to consider using a blender instead of a shaker bottle. Optimum Diet's 100% Whey Gold Customary Protein gained the Supplement Of The 12 months and Protein Powder Of The Yr award for 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. In these situations, a high quality mass gainer can be the perfect answer for anybody who needs to stay on top of their food regimen - something that could be not possible otherwise. Totally Dosed Actual Meals Muscle Gainer is a premium lean mass gainer, formulated to nutritionally assist athletes searching for improved muscle restoration and lean muscle positive factors. The mix of non-GMO pea protein, organic brown rice protein, entire grains and sea vegetables makes it a dependable complement to develop lean muscle mass and promote its fast restoration. For a fast weight-loss recipe, throw together this farmers' market quinoa salad from Epicurious, which additionally options green beans, snap peas, broccoli, and pistachios in a Dijon dressing. Since VPA Muscle Gainer used the best quality whey protein, in combination with carbohydrates and creatine monohydrate, it's the splendid put up-exercise shake for maximum repair and development. It's not uncommon to find ​a vegan weight achieve powder with some wholesome fat thrown in for good measure. Have this combination two instances a day that can assist to reduce your body weight. Not solely does greeting the day with lively energy get your blood pumping and physique shifting, nevertheless it's also the best time in case you're operating for fat loss. A number of weight-acquire dietary supplements comprise loads of calories to assist people transfer up in terms of weight and muscle and eat greater than their average dietary intake without having to eat so much in several meals each day. Summary To achieve weight, eat not less than three meals per day and ensure to include loads of fats, carbs and protein. Some folks may also benefit from supplementing their eating regimen with creatine, caffeine, or each. Nevertheless it's vital to take the product's calories per serving and your personal calorie requirements under consideration when deciding how much product to make use of. Using mass gainers for optimum results. However to gain overall muscle mass, you want heavy lifting in the first place to stimulate progress. Whey protein supplies the physique with a excessive amount of protein and amino acids that assist to jump-start the anabolic process. Whey protein powder provides you an incredible quantity of protein without the empty calories. Kim grew to become good friends with Aline, and due to this, in her youtube video she is sharing the first 2 exercise videos from the burden loss program. It helps in getting a nicely trimmed body with lean muscle mass. Since fats conducts much less electricity than muscle, the current can measure how a lot body fat you may have. Maintaining a healthy muscle mass then gives your immune system with the vital chemicals it must preserve you wholesome and free from illness. Also, we'll be reviewing the top weight gainer dietary supplements available on the market. On long area journeys in prolonged weightlessness, astronauts undergo crippling muscle and bone loss. Well, in case your aim is to drop a few pounds, we advise following all the guidelines above, together with eating a low-carb weight loss program. To provide your muscle mass time to recover, rest one full day between exercising each specific muscle group. Most individuals who wish to drop a few pounds have greater than 12 pounds to lose. You will be able to tell exactly what number of calories you are consuming each day and what vitamins does your day by day eating regimen include. Extremely Mass Gainer comprises glutamine which supplies you energy and helps in fastening muscle restoration. Now, you don't only have a purpose, but a concrete plan on how one can really begin working in the direction of it. Mentally, it'll be a lot easier to motivate your self to grocery shop for wholesome elements, or head out for a stroll around the neighborhood then to lose 1.5 kilos," which is more summary. As a substitute, it may give your muscular tissues a fast restoration time with out feeling those aches and http://machinalansu.pl/kreatyna-skutki-uboczne-i-wplyw-na-organizm/ sores. It also helps in enhancing protein synthesis and dashing up recovery for http://laihdutustablettienfi.ovh/ higher acquire in fats-free muscle mass. Proteins like chickpeas and lentils preserve you feeling fuller for longer and help your muscle groups repair faster. Consumption of smaller meals at regular intervals is a superb pure means of losing weight. But when your paleo ancestors wished to eat, they picked up their looking weapons and walked, typically for days, to hunt for food. Too much protein will not improve the benefits or trigger you to develop muscle tissues more rapidly, and may have a unfavorable impact in your health in the long term. The majority of the calories come from the carbohydrates, http://paraagrandarelpenees.ovh/eracto.html which sit at a heavy 252 grams and the 50 grams of protein. This required quantity is fulfilled by including a mass gainer complement to the individual's weight-reduction plan. Supplements play an necessary position in including mass to our ectomorph frames, however diet is definitely going to play a a lot bigger role. No main unintended effects of ZMA have been reported, but there may very well be health concerns if the supplements are taken more regularly than the producer suggests. There's really no good definition of what a pre-workout supplement is—and a lot of corporations are just slapping it on merchandise as a result of it's ‘in' right now—however normally, it's a product that's intended to boost power ranges, usually although a mix of B nutritional vitamins, carbs, and antioxidants ," registered dietitian Jessica Crandall , R.D.N., C.D.E., a spokesperson for the Academy of Vitamin and Dietetics, tells SELF. Different analysis findings exist that relate peripherally to this threat description that should remain related to it. The physical inactivity and muscle unloading occurring in affiliation with spaceflight may end up in a lower in muscle mass, which in turn may be associated with an elevated susceptibility to insulin resistance (glucose intolerance). The more muscle mass you already have, the much less protein you'll want to eat. Lots of the diets folks swear by right this moment have been round in various incarnations for decades. Since 1987, Optimum Diet, or ON for short, has been a leader in creating highly modern, inexpensive, and efficient merchandise. A lot of people work out on weight lifting, nevertheless, many people have hassle gaining weight and construct muscle. Nevertheless, recognize that their muscle mass is accentuated by tans, vascularity, low body fat, and having finished push-ups proper before strolling onto the stage. Some folks prefer to use them to assist gas their workouts by consuming it pre-exercise, some wait till after their workout so their working muscles can soak up the nutrients and aid in recovery, and some folks really use a mass gainer shake in between meals (in essence like a snack) to increase their caloric intake for the day. True Mass makes a simple, tasty shake that helps you reach your fitness objectives by offering all the mandatory nutrients for lean muscle mass gains. It facilitates a speedy increase in muscle mass. If you wish to gain weight slowly and steadily, intention for 300-500 energy more than you burn each day in response to the calculator. Making protein a priority while participating in consistent resistance coaching has a optimistic impact on muscle growth and repair. It's worth noting, however, that as this food regimen plan is designed to help you shed fat and drop some weight, gaining muscle mass might be tough. These meals help to repair and build muscle tissues and work as an ideal pre and submit workout meal. You don't need to go greater than 4-5 hours with out eating, this can inevitably lead to you pigging out on a large meal which your body may have difficulty processing and it will slow down your metabolism. If you happen to overeat, your intestine shall be pissed at you and you're at-threat for gaining physique fats. I've to confess that I've spent a few dollars on the local GNC shopping for weight achieve supplements. Your weight-reduction plan plan will enable you speed up your muscle constructing process by providing your body with mandatory materials that will assist your body building acts or efforts. Even though it is principally marketed in the direction of athletes and bodybuilders, protein supplements generally is a helpful addition to your food regimen. The aim of this systematic overview and meta-analyses was to find out whether or not, in postmenopausal girls, HT (estrogen only or a combination of estrogen and progesterone) was related to a lowered loss of muscle mass (measured by lean physique mass LBM or fats-free mass), in contrast with not receiving HT, in relation to sort and dose of HT, observe-up period of examine, menopausal age of contributors, and sort of LBM measurement. For this reason many weightlifters take both beta-alanine and creatine , which notably improves efficiency within the sub-60-second realm and barely improves performance in the 60-to-240-second realm. Moreover, certain dietary supplements that help in fats loss like caffeine , yohimbine , and synephrine are maximally efficient when taken earlier than fasted exercise. We have now put collectively a comprehensive guide to be able to select one of the best mass gainer product to your needs. Once you're sleeping, your physique is basically fasting since you aren't taking in any energy for an extended time. Many individuals aren't conscious that there could be harmful unwanted side effects with numerous forms of nutritional vitamins and supplements. But for the typical energetic lady trying to shed extra pounds, the easiest way to tackle carb cycling is on a day-to-day foundation, Murray notes. WW, previously Weight Watchers , is one of the most popular weight loss programs worldwide. The muse of the LA Weight Loss plan to eat a calorie- and portion-controlled diet with more fruits, greens, lean protein, as well as much less fats, sugar, and salt is a healthful one general and per the recommendations of other health care organizations. Whey protein is by far the perfect out of all protein sort supplements due to larger absorption rates. Optimum diet weight gainer will ship your calories which you'll be able to depend during restoration. The reasons for these counter-intuitive outcomes are unclear and can in all probability stay so until assets grow to be obtainable for long-term, on-orbit examine of the skeletal muscle atrophic response to spaceflight. Although it ought to be implied, it is still a quite common false impression, so I would like to see it clarified that the one pound of weight achieve as a consequence of an additional 3,500 energy would only be realized if the consumer was already hitting their caloric requirement previous to integrating the do-it-yourself or premade gainer into their eating regimen. Anyone ought to converse to their personal physician earlier than including supplements to their regime, starting a new train program or dietary habits. ABSTRACT The Atkins weight loss plan is a low-carb weight reduction weight loss program. Such folks ought to select a mass gainer that comprises creatine, betaine, glutamine and MCT oil, as their objective is to take their coaching to the next stage," advises Sangram. A previous systematic assessment and meta-evaluation of 23 human studies has proven small, important advantages of HT in preserving skeletal muscle power, translating to approximately 5% higher energy in HT users compared with management members. Earlier than we transfer onto different products on mass gainers, allow us to contemplate the 5 most necessary questions on it. In this examine , cops got either whey protein or casein protein, put onto a excessive-calorie weight-reduction plan, and did resistance training. Filled with every thing it's good to improve your lean muscle mass, http://penisvergroter-pillen-nl.eu/el-macho.html MASS GAINER offers fifty three grams of protein (derived from one hundred% Grass-Fed Whey Concentrate), 750 energy, and 109 grams of fresh, natural, and efficient carbohydrate sources per serving. Weight gainers are designed that will help you achieve loads of weight so you'll be able to have the muscle mass you need. For most individuals, these dietary supplements are merely a manner so as to add extra energy and nutrients to your every day food regimen. That is true simply because a physique with no protein will not ever build muscle in any respect. If you happen to don't see changes within the first two or three weeks, think about upping your dose or switching up your mass gainer complement. A: There are no guarantees that a selected complement will assist you acquire muscle. You may additionally work with an area registered dietitian nutritionist to restrict potential nutrient deficiencies and talk about vitamin supplementation, as you won't be eating complete grains, dairy, or fruit, and http://baraita.net/weight-reduction-with-suppport-or-without-it/ will get rid of many veggies. You want your energy to come back from clear whey or casein proteins, advanced carbs, and healthy fat. Sometimes, an awesome macronutrient ratio to gain weight and muscle groups is 30% protein, forty% carbs, and 30% fats. The users can even depend on the obtainable 27 essential nutritional vitamins and minerals for strengthening their muscle mass and gaining the specified muscle weight. It is also essential to remember that utilizing the best muscle constructing supplements is only one a part of the muscle building equation. Then - and only then - can you tell individuals that you just gained 5 pounds of muscle with confidence. A third option is Creatine Phosphate with Glycerol which may also help your tissues retain more fluid and give you the bulk for bodybuilding. Intake of creatine supplements helps in enhancing muscle mass which in turn increase your physique weight. Most individuals are uncertain when they are confronted with the advantages that kre alkalyn creatine can provide for weight or power training. Findings from subgroup analyses by comply with-up period, time since menopause, research quality, estrogen dosage, and http://machinalansu.pl/ktory-krem-do-twarzy-gwarantuje-wysoka-skutecznosc/ LBM measurement type weren't statistically significant. Eat more fiber and less unhealthy fats than the standard American diet. Place the muscle groups underneath heavy stress and also you positive aspects will skyrocket. This critical mass gainer offers you with the instruments that you must pack on the kilos and help you to develop the physique you've got all the time wished. When you do not put together a weight reduction meal plan issues like stress, time limitations, cost and http://muskelaufbau-tabletten.eu/tabletten-fur-masse.html the overall hustle and bustle of everyday family life can lead you to choose a meal that takes no time or thought to arrange which might usually be an unhealthy option. To realize any significant amount of muscle progress, your body needs to realize protein stability by ensuring enough protein synthesis. We current to you Prime 4 information which you have to take into account before you buy a mass gainer therefore enable you to make the accurate selection. You will have heard the widely quoted statistic that ninety five% of people that shed pounds on a eating regimen will regain it within a couple of years—and even months. Many professionals and average health club go-ers look to build muscle with out the fats gain that a bulking cycle brings. Muscle fiber progress occurs as a result of a brief improve in the fee of muscle protein synthesis inside the fiber. Protein is not just for the carnivores among us. There are nonetheless choices for those who choose not to eat animal products, like this supp from Vega Sport. This implies an analogous macro profile to Severe Mass with a few additional calories (due largely to the added fats content). Bodybuilding Warehouse efficiency mass is an outstanding weight gainer that we highly advocate. MHP's new UYM XXXL 1350 is a nutrient dense weight gainer loaded with 1350 muscle constructing calories to create the perfect metabolic and hormonal surroundings for optimum outcomes. Universal Nutrition's Real Positive factors weight gainer is a whey-primarily based mass gainer that is specifically formulated with complex carbohydrates to stimulate lean mass features. Protein promotes the production of amino acids and different essential nutritional vitamins and minerals in your physique to help the growth of your muscle tissue. Running helps you preserve a calorie deficit by rising the variety of energy you burn. Different physique builders and pals are one other nice resource to find out about completely different exercises to gain muscle. In case you have a senior horse that's dropping pounds, it is best to consider using this weight gain complement from Manna Pro as it is very efficient. Nitric Oxide - another greatest complement for muscle achieve that can enhance energy as well as focus.Utilizing nitric oxide means more tightly targeted and in addition intense exercises as a result of this supplies efficient motivation and far more energy on its own. These products should also not be taken by kids, as their impact on physique and mind growth has not as of but been determined. A tropical aphrodisiac originating in Malaysia, tongkat ali (E. longfolia jack) is steadily gaining reputation as a complement for aspiring body-builders. Taking a mass gainer after your exercise might help with muscle restore. To check whether or not protein at the first meal of the day could assist folks to feel fuller for longer, a US-primarily based study in 2014 divided volunteers into three groups. For good outcomes, readers are really helpful to make use of the mass gainer as instructed on the label. A stomach fats weight loss program is just like a weight loss weight-reduction plan as a result of the final word objective is to accelerate metabolic course of, curb starvation and burn fat.
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oovitus · 6 years ago
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Weekend Reading, 3.17.19
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I probably should have thought to post something festive before today, but instead it’s coming to you in a day or two. It’s a very tasty cabbage and pasta recipe, which I hope you’ll like.
I wrapped up another community rotation of my internship this past week. This rotation included a lot of group education and a little bit of counseling. In both contexts, I was touched, as I always am, to be reminded of how deeply people care about nutrition and what they eat.
It’s funny: in my nutrition grad program, we received so much guidance on motivating people and helping them to overcome their ambivalence. Motivational interviewing is virtually the only counseling technique we were taught, which I thought was a disservice. I understand why this was the way it was: our program was geared toward group education, rather than individual counseling, and one of the assumptions made was that we’d be working with groups of people who weren’t entirely sold on getting nutrition guidance in the first place–for example, those who have been referred to a dietitian by a primary care provider.
The relentless focus on motivation and “rolling with resistance” always struck me as limited, because my overwhelming experience has been that people are interested in food and strongly motivated to eat better. For a while I wondered if my experience was skewed by the population of folks I’ve crossed paths with as a nutritionist, but now that I’m more than halfway into my internship, I’ve only seen more proof of how much people care and how motivated they are.
From what I can tell, what stands in the way of meaningful change isn’t resistance or ambivalence so much as circumstance. It’s hard—really hard—to change one’s eating habits even when circumstances are working in one’s favor. It’s even harder in the face of life’s many difficulties, including financial hardship, stress, mental illness, family obligations, time constraints, and so on. Even with strong motivation in place, life can and does get in the way.
This isn’t to say that incredible dietary transformations aren’t possible even when circumstance is stacked up against it, nor to suggest that all nutrition patients and clients are strongly motivated. I guess I’m just struck by often people’s desire for change shines through to me.
I’ve seen so many examples in the last week alone, from the patient who broke into tears as she told me about a recent osteoporosis diagnosis (and her confusion about what to eat for bone health) to the patient in her early 90s who explained to me with pride his efforts to cook more vegetarian meals. None of my patients this year have lacked barriers to healthful eating. In spite of that, they care, and they’re doing their best.
This all makes me think about an article I read a few weeks ago, which makes important points about the way we construct and label laziness. I’m linking to it in my reads today. It also reminds me to be compassionate to myself when things stand in the way of what I’d like to do. My mind’s refrain is always “I could have done more,” but it’s often the case that I actually couldn’t have, because circumstances (fatigue, scarcity of time, being distracted by something more urgent) stood in the way. I wanted to do more, which is fine to acknowledge, but it’s different.
Wishing you a peaceful Sunday, with full recognition that you’re doing your best. We all are. Here are some recipes and reads.
Recipes
Lauren’s split pea soup with cheesy sage dumplings is the definition of comfort food!
I can’t get over how authentic Anastasia’s vegan tofu benedict looks.
I love the texture and color contrast of Stephanie’s smashed chimichurri potatoes.
A perfect weeknight supper recipe for creamy, peanutty noodles and mushrooms.
Finally, how adorable are these bunny-shaped vegan Easter rolls?!
Reads
1. Recent research has called into question the idea that eggs raise blood cholesterol, but a new study affirms the case for dietary moderation.
2. I love variety, but I also know the pleasures of a tried-and-true meal. I smiled to read this article on people who eat the same thing every day.
3. Edith Zimmerman grapples with the awareness that happiness is fleeting.
4. This article about California’s wild flower superbloom brought a smile to my face.
5. Finally, Devon Price on why laziness doesn’t exist.
Much love to you this evening, friends. A veggie-packed pasta recipe is coming your way in a day or two.
xo
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jesseneufeld · 6 years ago
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Should Health Coaches and Nutritionists Interpret Lab Tests?
There are now a few companies that are offering this type of training to health coaches, and I suspect that we’re going to see more of them in the future. So, I wanted to take the opportunity in this article to share my position and explain the reasoning behind it.
But before I do that, I want to start by saying that everyone reading this article has a crucial role to play in reversing the chronic disease epidemic, whether you are a medical doctor, a chiropractor, a nutritionist or dietitian, a health coach, a personal trainer, or even what I’ve called a “citizen activist.”
The scale of the challenge we face is enormous, and we need to work together as a community of professionals and advocates to solve it. I spent at least a third of my recent book, Unconventional Medicine, making this argument, and I haven’t stopped believing it. In fact, I feel more strongly about it than ever.
Let’s begin by clarifying some of the roles that are relevant to this discussion because I think there is still a lot of confusion about them. Frankly, I didn’t fully understand the distinctions between these roles myself until just a few years ago.
Should health coaches interpret lab tests for their clients? What about nutritionists? Check out this article for my take on a contentious issue. #changeagent #functionalmedicine #chriskresser
We Need Both Health Coaches and Nutritionists/Dietitians—But They Are Not the Same
The terms “health coach,” “nutritionist,” and “dietitian” are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same.
What Is a Health Coach?
Health coaches are behavior change specialists. They support people in discovering their own strategies and motivation for change, overcoming obstacles, and implementing protocols that have either been prescribed by a clinician or nutritionist/dietitian or that the client has chosen to implement on their own.
This is a critical role since we know that over 85 percent of chronic disease is driven by our behavior and environment—not our genes—and that only 6 percent of Americans consistently engage in the top five health behaviors identified by the Centers for Disease Control: maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, not drinking excessively, getting enough exercise, and getting enough sleep. (1, 2) (I would also add eating a healthy diet to this list.)
We desperately need properly trained health coaches because information is not enough to change behavior. If it were, 100 percent of Americans would engage in the top health behaviors all the time. Most people know that getting enough exercise and sleep, eating well, and avoiding smoking and drinking excessively are healthy behaviors. But as the statistics show, they still don’t do these things.
And this isn’t just true in the general population. Even in my own Functional Medicine practice with highly motivated patients, some people struggle to implement the changes I suggest. And I know from training thousands of healthcare professionals of all types that lack of compliance is an extremely common problem.
Health coaches fill a critical void in both conventional and Functional Medicine by offering more intensive, patient-centered care. When properly trained, they are skilled in evidence-based methods of supporting change, including:
Motivational interviewing, which helps people to discover their own motivation and strategies for change
Positive psychology, which teaches people to build on what’s working, rather than fixing what’s broken
Understanding the stages of change, which allows health coaches to offer the appropriate type of support at each stage of change
Habit formation and reversal, which supports people to create new, healthy habits and reverse unhealthy ones
Accountability and goal setting, which helps people to stay on track and achieve their goals
All of the knowledge and expertise in the world doesn’t matter unless someone can apply it in their own life. The support of a health coach can make the difference between success and failure in implementing long-term diet, lifestyle, and behavior changes. So, there’s no question in my mind that health coaches will play a crucial role in reversing the chronic disease epidemic. (For more on the importance of health coaches in combating chronic disease, see this article.)
All of that said, health coaches do not typically have training in health and medical sciences (unless they also have another healthcare license or credential). They don’t need this expertise to be successful in supporting behavior change, which is their primary purpose and role.
What Are Dietitians and Nutritionists?
Dietitians and nutritionists are different than health coaches. Whereas a health coach focuses on behavior change, dietitians and nutritionists are experts that assess, diagnose, and treat dietary and nutritional problems at both an individual and a wider public health level.
Generally speaking, the term “registered dietitian” (RD) is more tightly regulated than the term “nutritionist,” but this doesn’t necessarily mean that a dietitian has more training than a nutritionist.
For example, a certified nutrition specialist (CNS) is a highly qualified nutrition professional with both a bachelor’s and a graduate degree (master’s or doctorate) in nutrition, plus 1,000 hours of a supervised internship and a passing score on a rigorous exam.
Registered dietitians are also highly qualified. They have typically attended an accredited bachelor’s program as well as a 1,200-hour supervised internship, and they may have additional licenses or credentials in specific areas of study.
Both dietitians and certified nutrition professionals have had extensive training in health and medical sciences, such as:
Organic chemistry
Biochemistry
Anatomy
Physiology
Genetics
Microbiology
Pharmacology
Statistics
Nutrient metabolism
There are many different degrees, credentials, and qualifications within the nutrition field. Some are regulated and protected, and others are not. For this reason, the range of training that someone using the term “nutritionist” has had can vary wildly, from being self-taught, to a 40-hour course, to hundreds or even thousands of hours of academic and clinical education and experience.
It is beyond the scope of this article to explain all the different career paths that a nutrition professional might pursue, but if you’d like to learn more I’d suggest the following two resources:
Description of Nutrition Professional Degrees/Credentials on the American Nutrition Association website
What Is The Difference Between A Nutritionist And A Dietitian?
Should Health Coaches Interpret Blood Tests?
Let’s begin by discussing blood testing since it is the most common type of testing offered in medicine today.
I believe that health coaches should not interpret blood tests. By “interpret,” I mean “explain the meaning of” the results to the client, which gets very close to (and in some cases may be indistinguishable from) diagnosing a condition or disease.
There are two reasons for this:
Safety and ethics. Many health coaches have not had in-depth training in health and medical sciences that would prepare them to interpret blood work, unless they also hold another license or credential that included that training  (e.g., a nurse, dietitian, occupational therapist, etc.). If a health coach reads a blood panel and misses something important on the results and/or makes an unsuitable recommendation, the client could be harmed.
Legal and regulatory concerns. In many states, a health coach would be infringing on the scope of practice of other practitioners (including dietitians and medical doctors) by interpreting blood tests, and they might be subject to legal action.
It’s important to understand these two reasons separately because even when one does not apply, the other still does.
For example, in some states, the law does not explicitly prohibit a health coach from reviewing blood test results—which is different than interpreting them and making a diagnosis and treatment suggestions. (I’ll explain this distinction further below.) But that does not mean that it is safe or ethical for a health coach without adequate training to do it.
On the other hand, a health coach may have a background in health or medical sciences that would provide a foundation for understanding blood work, but without a credential or license that permits this, she would still be at legal risk.
What about Recognizing “Red Flags” on Blood Tests?
There is one caveat here. Although I don’t think that a health coach should interpret blood tests, I do think that they should be able to recognize “red flags” and risk factors for chronic disease and then make a referral to an appropriate healthcare professional.
The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) recently teamed up with the International Consortium of Health & Wellness Coaches (ICHWC) to create an internationally recognized credential for health coaches called the National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC). Section 3 of the Health & Wellness Coach Certifying Exam Content Outline states: (3)
By definition, health and wellness coaches are not content experts in health or disease; they do not diagnose or prescribe, unless a coach has credentials in another profession that allow expert advice to be given. However, it is important for coaches to have a solid working familiarity of current evidence-based recommendations provided by public health groups such as the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health.
Relevant guidelines and recommendations fall in the areas of health promotion, disease prevention, and lifestyle medicine. The coach should be able to identify risk factors for chronic disease, commonly used biometric measures, and current lifestyle recommendations for optimizing health. An important focus for the coach is to recognize potential imminent danger and medical red flags and to know when and how to refer to another health care professional. [Emphasis added]
There is a crucial difference between interpreting a blood test result and making a diagnosis and treatment recommendations (including nutrition and diet suggestions) based on the result, and recognizing a potential red flag and referring to medical professional for further investigation.
Reviewing lab test results that relate to nutrition or nutrient levels could be considered nutrition education, which health coaches are permitted to do in some states. However, interpreting blood tests and making diagnoses and treatment recommendations would be considered the practice of medicine or medical nutrition therapy in all states, which health coaches are not legally allowed to do.
This distinction is well recognized in other healthcare professions. For example, a nurse working in a hospital might notice and report signs and symptoms of redness, pain, and swelling at an incisional site but would not diagnose an infection or prescribe treatment for it. Instead, she would bring the issue to the attention of a physician, who could then diagnose and treat the problem.
While “reviewing” lab tests to recognize red flags and risk factors and “interpreting” them to diagnose and treat disease are not the same thing, they are often confused and and there’s a fine line between them that health coaches could easily cross.
This is why we train our ADAPT health coaches to avoid interpretation of lab tests entirely, and take a conservative approach to reviewing them if they live in a state that might permit it. If they live in a state that doesn’t, they must avoid even reviewing lab test results.
A Caveat: Health Coaches with Other Licenses or Credentials
Some certified health coaches also have licenses or credentials in other healthcare fields. For example, we have several licensed professionals in our ADAPT Health Coach Training Program, including medical doctors, physical and occupational therapists, and registered dietitians.
In these cases, the health coach does have the training and credentials that would allow them to interpret blood tests. However, most attorneys that I’ve consulted have advised that health coaches that have a license should only interpret labs if they are clearly operating under the scope of practice of their license.
Let’s say you’re a nurse practitioner (NP) and a health coach. If you advertise yourself as a nurse practitioner (that may also incorporate health coaching) and you onboard your patient using the same methods that you would use for any of your patients, you may interpret labs and do all of the other things that your scope of practice as an NP allows you to do.
However, if you advertise yourself as a health coach and onboard the client with only that understanding, then you should operate within the scope of practice of a health coach—not a nurse practitioner.
For this reason, in our ADAPT program we recommend that “dual professionals”—health coaches that are also licensed healthcare providers—advertise and operate within the scope of practice of their licensed profession if they want to be able to incorporate lab testing into their practice.
They can still use health coaching skills and competencies with their patients or clients because, in most cases, the scope of practice of licensed providers (like MDs, NPs, PTs, RDs, etc.) doesn’t preclude them from using these skills along with whatever other activities their licensure enables them to perform.
Should Dietitians and Nutritionists Interpret Blood Tests?
As I mentioned above, registered dietitians (RDs) and certified nutrition professionals often have hundreds or thousands of hours of academic and clinical training in health and medical sciences. This qualifies them to interpret blood test results related to nutrition status.
According to the CDC: (4)
RDNs in clinical practice: Recommend, perform, and/or interpret test results related to nutrition status: blood pressure, anthropometrics (e.g., height and weight, skinfold thickness, waist circumference, calculation of body mass index with classification for malnutrition and obesity), indirect calorimetry, laboratory tests, and waived point-of-care laboratory testing (e.g., blood glucose and cholesterol).
This is also true in a Functional Medicine context. According to the American Dietetic Association: (5)
IFMNT practitioners use a range of assessment tools in practice. These include a nutrition-focused physical exam and conventional laboratory data along with functional tests to assess the integrity of the metabolic networks and core imbalances that may be present.
Certified nutrition professionals with adequate training, such as certified nutrition specialists (CNSs), are also able to interpret blood tests. Section 3cii of the Examination Content Outline for Certified Nutrition Specialists states that a CNS should be able to “[i]nterpret laboratory data as it applies to nutrition-related conditions and systemic imbalances.” (6)
So, it’s clear to me that both RDs and certified nutrition professionals with adequate training should be able to interpret blood test results. This is why we have accepted both RDs and certified nutritional professionals in our ADAPT Practitioner Training Program since its inception in 2016.
What If You’re a Nutritionist without a Nationally or Conventionally Recognized Credential or License?
There are many different career paths and training options for nutritionists, and they can vary significantly in terms of the prerequisites, curriculum, practical supervision (e.g., internship, practicum, etc.), length of study, and other factors.
Moreover, the term “nutritionist” is not regulated or protected. This means that someone could take be self-taught, or take a short course in nutrition (say, 30 to 40 hours) and then refer to themselves as a nutritionist. In these cases, I believe that the individual wouldn’t have the necessary training in health and medical sciences to prepare them to interpret blood testing.
This leads to both ethical and safety concerns and legal and regulatory risk—just as it does with health coaches. A nutritionist without adequate academic and clinical education in health and medical sciences could harm a client if she does not interpret a blood test correctly, and if the client pursued legal action, it’s likely that the nutritionist would not be protected.
It is beyond the scope of this article to address the scope of practice of nutritionists that do not have a nationally or conventionally recognized license or credential. If you fall into this category, please refer to your educational institution or an organization like the National Association of Nutrition Professionals for more information.
Recognizing “Red Flags” and Risk Factors for Chronic Disease
As I mentioned above, although interpreting blood tests is not within the scope of practice of a health coach, the NBME suggests that a health coach should be able to recognize red flags and risk factors of chronic disease, including commonly used biometric tests (i.e., blood tests, blood pressure, etc.).
While I’m not aware of a general scope of practice that covers nutritionists without nationally recognized credentials or licenses, I think it’s also important that these providers are able to recognize red flags and risk factors and make referrals to appropriate healthcare professionals, at least in states that permit review of blood test results by unlicensed providers.
Again, there is significant risk here of the line between review and interpretation blurring, so caution is warranted.
What about Other Types of Lab Testing?
So far in this article, I have focused on the interpretation of blood testing. But what about the interpretation of other types of testing like the stool, saliva, and urine labs that are often used in a Functional or Integrative Medicine context?
This is more of a gray area from both a safety/ethics and legal/regulatory perspective. In general, I believe that registered dietitians and certified nutrition professionals should be able to interpret the results of these types of tests, provided they have been specifically trained in these Functional Medicine diagnostics.
The answer is much less clear in the case of health coaches and nutritionists that do not possess a nationally recognized credential or license, and/or have not had adequate training in health and medical sciences.
Using the results of a stool test from uBiome or a functional lab to make recommendations like eating more fiber or consuming probiotics is very different than interpreting the results of a comprehensive blood panel. The stakes are much higher with blood work, since the results can indicate serious and potentially life-threatening conditions like cancer, hemochromatosis, or Wilson disease.
At the same time, although saliva, stool, and urine testing don’t typically reveal serious conditions, some of the treatments that providers recommend based on these results can be dangerous when prescribed incorrectly.
For example, I know of one case from a few years back when an unlicensed health coach recommended a high dose of DHEA, a hormone, to a client based on the results of that client’s saliva hormone test. What the coach failed to recognize is that a high dose of DHEA could exacerbate the client’s preexisting Graves’ disease, a hyperthyroid condition. After taking the DHEA, the patient experienced tachycardia, palpitations, high blood pressure, and elevated body temperature and had to be taken to the emergency room.
The client hired an attorney and sued the health coach—and also the program that trained the coach to interpret the lab results and prescribe treatment based on them.
So, as you can see, the question of whether a health coach or non-credentialed or non-certified nutritionist should be able to order and interpret saliva, stool, and urine tests is nuanced and complex. In some cases, it may be fine provided that they have adequate training to interpret the specific test in question. In others, I see potential issues from both a safety/ethics and legal/regulatory perspective.
The legal and regulatory landscape is not well defined in the case of Functional Medicine diagnostics because it’s relatively new and until recently has not been on the radar of the organizations that are responsible for creating the laws and regulations that govern who can order and interpret laboratory testing.
I suspect we’ll see more developments in this area over the coming years. Until then, the safest approach is likely to apply the same principles that determine which healthcare providers can interpret blood tests to other Functional Medicine diagnostic tools like saliva, stool, and urine tests.
It Takes a Village to Reverse Chronic Disease
The fact that I don’t believe that health coaches and nutritionists without nationally-recognized credentials or training in health and medical sciences should interpret most lab test results does not in any way mean that I don’t value these vital health professionals.
I know of many skilled and competent nutritionists that are neither RDs nor certified nutritional professionals yet have helped hundreds of people transform their diet and lifestyle, reverse chronic disease, and dramatically improve their quality of life.
Likewise, I’m such a believer in the power of health coaching that I launched a 12-month health coach certification called the ADAPT Health Coach Training Program in 2018. Health coaches have a critical role to play in healthcare because they are working on the front lines to help people change their behavior—and that is arguably the single most important thing we can do to prevent and reverse chronic disease.
So, this article is not about creating a hierarchy in which the providers that can order and interpret lab testing and prescribe treatment are higher up and the providers that focus on behavior change and providing guidance on diet and nutrition are lower down.
That mentality is an artifact of the conventional medical paradigm that values information more than transformation, expertise more than support, and managing and suppressing symptoms more than changing diet, lifestyle, and behavior. It’s exactly the model that got us into this mess in the first place.
Instead, I am a passionate advocate for what I call a “collaborative practice model.” This model links many different providers—clinicians, nurses, dietitians and nutritionists, health coaches, physical therapists, counselors, psychologists, etc.—into an integrated care team that can provide the highest possible level of support to patients.
It recognizes the inherent and equal value of each type of provider and seeks to maximize his or her skill, training, and scope of practice in service of the patient. For example:
Medical doctors and other clinicians focus on the diagnosis and treatment of disease
Nutritionists and dietitians focus on creating individualized nutrition protocols
Health coaches focus on supporting people in implementing the protocols prescribed by nutritionists/dietitians and clinicians and in making successful and lasting behavior change
While each of these providers can have a major impact working independently, I believe that they are even more effective when working together in a collaborative fashion:
A doctor can prescribe a brilliant treatment protocol, but without a nutritionist or dietitian to customize the diet prescription and a health coach to help the patient to implement it, the chances of success are much lower.
A health coach can have a powerful impact on supporting people to make diet, lifestyle, and behavior changes, but if his client is struggling with a significant chronic health problem, working in collaboration with a clinician that can perform the full scope of lab testing and prescribe treatments will lead to better results.
A nutritionist or dietitian can create a perfectly tailored nutrition prescription for her client, with meal plans and recipes, but if the client doesn’t follow it, all of this work will be for naught. This is where a health coach can be so helpful.
It truly does take a village to address this growing problem of chronic disease. If you’re reading this, it means that you’re already playing a role—however big or small—in this healthcare revolution, and I am so grateful for your efforts!
As this article indicates, there are still many gray areas and quite a lot of confusion, even amongst legal and medical professionals that have closely studied these issues. What’s more, the landscape is changing quickly, as professions like health coaching and nutritionists become more common and better recognized.
I will continue to study this topic, consult with healthcare attorneys, and gather feedback from the professional community. I’ll update this article with any new, relevant information.
I’d love to hear your feedback, questions, or concerns in the comments.
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edsenger · 6 years ago
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Should Health Coaches and Nutritionists Interpret Lab Tests?
There are now a few companies that are offering this type of training to health coaches, and I suspect that we’re going to see more of them in the future. So, I wanted to take the opportunity in this article to share my position and explain the reasoning behind it.
But before I do that, I want to start by saying that everyone reading this article has a crucial role to play in reversing the chronic disease epidemic, whether you are a medical doctor, a chiropractor, a nutritionist or dietitian, a health coach, a personal trainer, or even what I’ve called a “citizen activist.”
The scale of the challenge we face is enormous, and we need to work together as a community of professionals and advocates to solve it. I spent at least a third of my recent book, Unconventional Medicine, making this argument, and I haven’t stopped believing it. In fact, I feel more strongly about it than ever.
Let’s begin by clarifying some of the roles that are relevant to this discussion because I think there is still a lot of confusion about them. Frankly, I didn’t fully understand the distinctions between these roles myself until just a few years ago.
Should health coaches interpret lab tests for their clients? What about nutritionists? Check out this article for my take on a contentious issue. #changeagent #functionalmedicine #chriskresser
We Need Both Health Coaches and Nutritionists/Dietitians—But They Are Not the Same
The terms “health coach,” “nutritionist,” and “dietitian” are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same.
What Is a Health Coach?
Health coaches are behavior change specialists. They support people in discovering their own strategies and motivation for change, overcoming obstacles, and implementing protocols that have either been prescribed by a clinician or nutritionist/dietitian or that the client has chosen to implement on their own.
This is a critical role since we know that over 85 percent of chronic disease is driven by our behavior and environment—not our genes—and that only 6 percent of Americans consistently engage in the top five health behaviors identified by the Centers for Disease Control: maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, not drinking excessively, getting enough exercise, and getting enough sleep. (1, 2) (I would also add eating a healthy diet to this list.)
We desperately need properly trained health coaches because information is not enough to change behavior. If it were, 100 percent of Americans would engage in the top health behaviors all the time. Most people know that getting enough exercise and sleep, eating well, and avoiding smoking and drinking excessively are healthy behaviors. But as the statistics show, they still don’t do these things.
And this isn’t just true in the general population. Even in my own Functional Medicine practice with highly motivated patients, some people struggle to implement the changes I suggest. And I know from training thousands of healthcare professionals of all types that lack of compliance is an extremely common problem.
Health coaches fill a critical void in both conventional and Functional Medicine by offering more intensive, patient-centered care. When properly trained, they are skilled in evidence-based methods of supporting change, including:
Motivational interviewing, which helps people to discover their own motivation and strategies for change
Positive psychology, which teaches people to build on what’s working, rather than fixing what’s broken
Understanding the stages of change, which allows health coaches to offer the appropriate type of support at each stage of change
Habit formation and reversal, which supports people to create new, healthy habits and reverse unhealthy ones
Accountability and goal setting, which helps people to stay on track and achieve their goals
All of the knowledge and expertise in the world doesn’t matter unless someone can apply it in their own life. The support of a health coach can make the difference between success and failure in implementing long-term diet, lifestyle, and behavior changes. So, there’s no question in my mind that health coaches will play a crucial role in reversing the chronic disease epidemic. (For more on the importance of health coaches in combating chronic disease, see this article.)
All of that said, health coaches do not typically have training in health and medical sciences (unless they also have another healthcare license or credential). They don’t need this expertise to be successful in supporting behavior change, which is their primary purpose and role.
What Are Dietitians and Nutritionists?
Dietitians and nutritionists are different than health coaches. Whereas a health coach focuses on behavior change, dietitians and nutritionists are experts that assess, diagnose, and treat dietary and nutritional problems at both an individual and a wider public health level.
Generally speaking, the term “registered dietitian” (RD) is more tightly regulated than the term “nutritionist,” but this doesn’t necessarily mean that a dietitian has more training than a nutritionist.
For example, a certified nutrition specialist (CNS) is a highly qualified nutrition professional with both a bachelor’s and a graduate degree (master’s or doctorate) in nutrition, plus 1,000 hours of a supervised internship and a passing score on a rigorous exam.
Registered dietitians are also highly qualified. They have typically attended an accredited bachelor’s program as well as a 1,200-hour supervised internship, and they may have additional licenses or credentials in specific areas of study.
Both dietitians and certified nutrition professionals have had extensive training in health and medical sciences, such as:
Organic chemistry
Biochemistry
Anatomy
Physiology
Genetics
Microbiology
Pharmacology
Statistics
Nutrient metabolism
There are many different degrees, credentials, and qualifications within the nutrition field. Some are regulated and protected, and others are not. For this reason, the range of training that someone using the term “nutritionist” has had can vary wildly, from being self-taught, to a 40-hour course, to hundreds or even thousands of hours of academic and clinical education and experience.
It is beyond the scope of this article to explain all the different career paths that a nutrition professional might pursue, but if you’d like to learn more I’d suggest the following two resources:
Description of Nutrition Professional Degrees/Credentials on the American Nutrition Association website
What Is The Difference Between A Nutritionist And A Dietitian?
Should Health Coaches Interpret Blood Tests?
Let’s begin by discussing blood testing since it is the most common type of testing offered in medicine today.
I believe that health coaches should not interpret blood tests. By “interpret,” I mean “explain the meaning of” the results to the client, which gets very close to (and in some cases may be indistinguishable from) diagnosing a condition or disease.
There are two reasons for this:
Safety and ethics. Many health coaches have not had in-depth training in health and medical sciences that would prepare them to interpret blood work, unless they also hold another license or credential that included that training  (e.g., a nurse, dietitian, occupational therapist, etc.). If a health coach reads a blood panel and misses something important on the results and/or makes an unsuitable recommendation, the client could be harmed.
Legal and regulatory concerns. In many states, a health coach would be infringing on the scope of practice of other practitioners (including dietitians and medical doctors) by interpreting blood tests, and they might be subject to legal action.
It’s important to understand these two reasons separately because even when one does not apply, the other still does.
For example, in some states, the law does not explicitly prohibit a health coach from reviewing blood test results—which is different than interpreting them and making a diagnosis and treatment suggestions. (I’ll explain this distinction further below.) But that does not mean that it is safe or ethical for a health coach without adequate training to do it.
On the other hand, a health coach may have a background in health or medical sciences that would provide a foundation for understanding blood work, but without a credential or license that permits this, she would still be at legal risk.
What about Recognizing “Red Flags” on Blood Tests?
There is one caveat here. Although I don’t think that a health coach should interpret blood tests, I do think that they should be able to recognize “red flags” and risk factors for chronic disease and then make a referral to an appropriate healthcare professional.
The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) recently teamed up with the International Consortium of Health & Wellness Coaches (ICHWC) to create an internationally recognized credential for health coaches called the National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC). Section 3 of the Health & Wellness Coach Certifying Exam Content Outline states: (3)
By definition, health and wellness coaches are not content experts in health or disease; they do not diagnose or prescribe, unless a coach has credentials in another profession that allow expert advice to be given. However, it is important for coaches to have a solid working familiarity of current evidence-based recommendations provided by public health groups such as the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health.
Relevant guidelines and recommendations fall in the areas of health promotion, disease prevention, and lifestyle medicine. The coach should be able to identify risk factors for chronic disease, commonly used biometric measures, and current lifestyle recommendations for optimizing health. An important focus for the coach is to recognize potential imminent danger and medical red flags and to know when and how to refer to another health care professional. [Emphasis added]
There is a crucial difference between interpreting a blood test result and making a diagnosis and treatment recommendations (including nutrition and diet suggestions) based on the result, and recognizing a potential red flag and referring to medical professional for further investigation.
Reviewing lab test results that relate to nutrition or nutrient levels could be considered nutrition education, which health coaches are permitted to do in some states. However, interpreting blood tests and making diagnoses and treatment recommendations would be considered the practice of medicine or medical nutrition therapy in all states, which health coaches are not legally allowed to do.
This distinction is well recognized in other healthcare professions. For example, a nurse working in a hospital might notice and report signs and symptoms of redness, pain, and swelling at an incisional site but would not diagnose an infection or prescribe treatment for it. Instead, she would bring the issue to the attention of a physician, who could then diagnose and treat the problem.
While “reviewing” lab tests to recognize red flags and risk factors and “interpreting” them to diagnose and treat disease are not the same thing, they are often confused and and there’s a fine line between them that health coaches could easily cross.
This is why we train our ADAPT health coaches to avoid interpretation of lab tests entirely, and take a conservative approach to reviewing them if they live in a state that might permit it. If they live in a state that doesn’t, they must avoid even reviewing lab test results.
A Caveat: Health Coaches with Other Licenses or Credentials
Some certified health coaches also have licenses or credentials in other healthcare fields. For example, we have several licensed professionals in our ADAPT Health Coach Training Program, including medical doctors, physical and occupational therapists, and registered dietitians.
In these cases, the health coach does have the training and credentials that would allow them to interpret blood tests. However, most attorneys that I’ve consulted have advised that health coaches that have a license should only interpret labs if they are clearly operating under the scope of practice of their license.
Let’s say you’re a nurse practitioner (NP) and a health coach. If you advertise yourself as a nurse practitioner (that may also incorporate health coaching) and you onboard your patient using the same methods that you would use for any of your patients, you may interpret labs and do all of the other things that your scope of practice as an NP allows you to do.
However, if you advertise yourself as a health coach and onboard the client with only that understanding, then you should operate within the scope of practice of a health coach—not a nurse practitioner.
For this reason, in our ADAPT program we recommend that “dual professionals”—health coaches that are also licensed healthcare providers—advertise and operate within the scope of practice of their licensed profession if they want to be able to incorporate lab testing into their practice.
They can still use health coaching skills and competencies with their patients or clients because, in most cases, the scope of practice of licensed providers (like MDs, NPs, PTs, RDs, etc.) doesn’t preclude them from using these skills along with whatever other activities their licensure enables them to perform.
Should Dietitians and Nutritionists Interpret Blood Tests?
As I mentioned above, registered dietitians (RDs) and certified nutrition professionals often have hundreds or thousands of hours of academic and clinical training in health and medical sciences. This qualifies them to interpret blood test results related to nutrition status.
According to the CDC: (4)
RDNs in clinical practice: Recommend, perform, and/or interpret test results related to nutrition status: blood pressure, anthropometrics (e.g., height and weight, skinfold thickness, waist circumference, calculation of body mass index with classification for malnutrition and obesity), indirect calorimetry, laboratory tests, and waived point-of-care laboratory testing (e.g., blood glucose and cholesterol).
This is also true in a Functional Medicine context. According to the American Dietetic Association: (5)
IFMNT practitioners use a range of assessment tools in practice. These include a nutrition-focused physical exam and conventional laboratory data along with functional tests to assess the integrity of the metabolic networks and core imbalances that may be present.
Certified nutrition professionals with adequate training, such as certified nutrition specialists (CNSs), are also able to interpret blood tests. Section 3cii of the Examination Content Outline for Certified Nutrition Specialists states that a CNS should be able to “[i]nterpret laboratory data as it applies to nutrition-related conditions and systemic imbalances.” (6)
So, it’s clear to me that both RDs and certified nutrition professionals with adequate training should be able to interpret blood test results. This is why we have accepted both RDs and certified nutritional professionals in our ADAPT Practitioner Training Program since its inception in 2016.
What If You’re a Nutritionist without a Nationally or Conventionally Recognized Credential or License?
There are many different career paths and training options for nutritionists, and they can vary significantly in terms of the prerequisites, curriculum, practical supervision (e.g., internship, practicum, etc.), length of study, and other factors.
Moreover, the term “nutritionist” is not regulated or protected. This means that someone could take be self-taught, or take a short course in nutrition (say, 30 to 40 hours) and then refer to themselves as a nutritionist. In these cases, I believe that the individual wouldn’t have the necessary training in health and medical sciences to prepare them to interpret blood testing.
This leads to both ethical and safety concerns and legal and regulatory risk—just as it does with health coaches. A nutritionist without adequate academic and clinical education in health and medical sciences could harm a client if she does not interpret a blood test correctly, and if the client pursued legal action, it’s likely that the nutritionist would not be protected.
It is beyond the scope of this article to address the scope of practice of nutritionists that do not have a nationally or conventionally recognized license or credential. If you fall into this category, please refer to your educational institution or an organization like the National Association of Nutrition Professionals for more information.
Recognizing “Red Flags” and Risk Factors for Chronic Disease
As I mentioned above, although interpreting blood tests is not within the scope of practice of a health coach, the NBME suggests that a health coach should be able to recognize red flags and risk factors of chronic disease, including commonly used biometric tests (i.e., blood tests, blood pressure, etc.).
While I’m not aware of a general scope of practice that covers nutritionists without nationally recognized credentials or licenses, I think it’s also important that these providers are able to recognize red flags and risk factors and make referrals to appropriate healthcare professionals, at least in states that permit review of blood test results by unlicensed providers.
Again, there is significant risk here of the line between review and interpretation blurring, so caution is warranted.
What about Other Types of Lab Testing?
So far in this article, I have focused on the interpretation of blood testing. But what about the interpretation of other types of testing like the stool, saliva, and urine labs that are often used in a Functional or Integrative Medicine context?
This is more of a gray area from both a safety/ethics and legal/regulatory perspective. In general, I believe that registered dietitians and certified nutrition professionals should be able to interpret the results of these types of tests, provided they have been specifically trained in these Functional Medicine diagnostics.
The answer is much less clear in the case of health coaches and nutritionists that do not possess a nationally recognized credential or license, and/or have not had adequate training in health and medical sciences.
Using the results of a stool test from uBiome or a functional lab to make recommendations like eating more fiber or consuming probiotics is very different than interpreting the results of a comprehensive blood panel. The stakes are much higher with blood work, since the results can indicate serious and potentially life-threatening conditions like cancer, hemochromatosis, or Wilson disease.
At the same time, although saliva, stool, and urine testing don’t typically reveal serious conditions, some of the treatments that providers recommend based on these results can be dangerous when prescribed incorrectly.
For example, I know of one case from a few years back when an unlicensed health coach recommended a high dose of DHEA, a hormone, to a client based on the results of that client’s saliva hormone test. What the coach failed to recognize is that a high dose of DHEA could exacerbate the client’s preexisting Graves’ disease, a hyperthyroid condition. After taking the DHEA, the patient experienced tachycardia, palpitations, high blood pressure, and elevated body temperature and had to be taken to the emergency room.
The client hired an attorney and sued the health coach—and also the program that trained the coach to interpret the lab results and prescribe treatment based on them.
So, as you can see, the question of whether a health coach or non-credentialed or non-certified nutritionist should be able to order and interpret saliva, stool, and urine tests is nuanced and complex. In some cases, it may be fine provided that they have adequate training to interpret the specific test in question. In others, I see potential issues from both a safety/ethics and legal/regulatory perspective.
The legal and regulatory landscape is not well defined in the case of Functional Medicine diagnostics because it’s relatively new and until recently has not been on the radar of the organizations that are responsible for creating the laws and regulations that govern who can order and interpret laboratory testing.
I suspect we’ll see more developments in this area over the coming years. Until then, the safest approach is likely to apply the same principles that determine which healthcare providers can interpret blood tests to other Functional Medicine diagnostic tools like saliva, stool, and urine tests.
It Takes a Village to Reverse Chronic Disease
The fact that I don’t believe that health coaches and nutritionists without nationally-recognized credentials or training in health and medical sciences should interpret most lab test results does not in any way mean that I don’t value these vital health professionals.
I know of many skilled and competent nutritionists that are neither RDs nor certified nutritional professionals yet have helped hundreds of people transform their diet and lifestyle, reverse chronic disease, and dramatically improve their quality of life.
Likewise, I’m such a believer in the power of health coaching that I launched a 12-month health coach certification called the ADAPT Health Coach Training Program in 2018. Health coaches have a critical role to play in healthcare because they are working on the front lines to help people change their behavior—and that is arguably the single most important thing we can do to prevent and reverse chronic disease.
So, this article is not about creating a hierarchy in which the providers that can order and interpret lab testing and prescribe treatment are higher up and the providers that focus on behavior change and providing guidance on diet and nutrition are lower down.
That mentality is an artifact of the conventional medical paradigm that values information more than transformation, expertise more than support, and managing and suppressing symptoms more than changing diet, lifestyle, and behavior. It’s exactly the model that got us into this mess in the first place.
Instead, I am a passionate advocate for what I call a “collaborative practice model.” This model links many different providers—clinicians, nurses, dietitians and nutritionists, health coaches, physical therapists, counselors, psychologists, etc.—into an integrated care team that can provide the highest possible level of support to patients.
It recognizes the inherent and equal value of each type of provider and seeks to maximize his or her skill, training, and scope of practice in service of the patient. For example:
Medical doctors and other clinicians focus on the diagnosis and treatment of disease
Nutritionists and dietitians focus on creating individualized nutrition protocols
Health coaches focus on supporting people in implementing the protocols prescribed by nutritionists/dietitians and clinicians and in making successful and lasting behavior change
While each of these providers can have a major impact working independently, I believe that they are even more effective when working together in a collaborative fashion:
A doctor can prescribe a brilliant treatment protocol, but without a nutritionist or dietitian to customize the diet prescription and a health coach to help the patient to implement it, the chances of success are much lower.
A health coach can have a powerful impact on supporting people to make diet, lifestyle, and behavior changes, but if his client is struggling with a significant chronic health problem, working in collaboration with a clinician that can perform the full scope of lab testing and prescribe treatments will lead to better results.
A nutritionist or dietitian can create a perfectly tailored nutrition prescription for her client, with meal plans and recipes, but if the client doesn’t follow it, all of this work will be for naught. This is where a health coach can be so helpful.
It truly does take a village to address this growing problem of chronic disease. If you’re reading this, it means that you’re already playing a role—however big or small—in this healthcare revolution, and I am so grateful for your efforts!
As this article indicates, there are still many gray areas and quite a lot of confusion, even amongst legal and medical professionals that have closely studied these issues. What’s more, the landscape is changing quickly, as professions like health coaching and nutritionists become more common and better recognized.
I will continue to study this topic, consult with healthcare attorneys, and gather feedback from the professional community. I’ll update this article with any new, relevant information.
I’d love to hear your feedback, questions, or concerns in the comments.
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denisalvney · 6 years ago
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Should Health Coaches and Nutritionists Interpret Lab Tests?
There are now a few companies that are offering this type of training to health coaches, and I suspect that we’re going to see more of them in the future. So, I wanted to take the opportunity in this article to share my position and explain the reasoning behind it.
But before I do that, I want to start by saying that everyone reading this article has a crucial role to play in reversing the chronic disease epidemic, whether you are a medical doctor, a chiropractor, a nutritionist or dietitian, a health coach, a personal trainer, or even what I’ve called a “citizen activist.”
The scale of the challenge we face is enormous, and we need to work together as a community of professionals and advocates to solve it. I spent at least a third of my recent book, Unconventional Medicine, making this argument, and I haven’t stopped believing it. In fact, I feel more strongly about it than ever.
Let’s begin by clarifying some of the roles that are relevant to this discussion because I think there is still a lot of confusion about them. Frankly, I didn’t fully understand the distinctions between these roles myself until just a few years ago.
Should health coaches interpret lab tests for their clients? What about nutritionists? Check out this article for my take on a contentious issue. #changeagent #functionalmedicine #chriskresser
We Need Both Health Coaches and Nutritionists/Dietitians—But They Are Not the Same
The terms “health coach,” “nutritionist,” and “dietitian” are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same.
What Is a Health Coach?
Health coaches are behavior change specialists. They support people in discovering their own strategies and motivation for change, overcoming obstacles, and implementing protocols that have either been prescribed by a clinician or nutritionist/dietitian or that the client has chosen to implement on their own.
This is a critical role since we know that over 85 percent of chronic disease is driven by our behavior and environment—not our genes—and that only 6 percent of Americans consistently engage in the top five health behaviors identified by the Centers for Disease Control: maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, not drinking excessively, getting enough exercise, and getting enough sleep. (1, 2) (I would also add eating a healthy diet to this list.)
We desperately need properly trained health coaches because information is not enough to change behavior. If it were, 100 percent of Americans would engage in the top health behaviors all the time. Most people know that getting enough exercise and sleep, eating well, and avoiding smoking and drinking excessively are healthy behaviors. But as the statistics show, they still don’t do these things.
And this isn’t just true in the general population. Even in my own Functional Medicine practice with highly motivated patients, some people struggle to implement the changes I suggest. And I know from training thousands of healthcare professionals of all types that lack of compliance is an extremely common problem.
Health coaches fill a critical void in both conventional and Functional Medicine by offering more intensive, patient-centered care. When properly trained, they are skilled in evidence-based methods of supporting change, including:
Motivational interviewing, which helps people to discover their own motivation and strategies for change
Positive psychology, which teaches people to build on what’s working, rather than fixing what’s broken
Understanding the stages of change, which allows health coaches to offer the appropriate type of support at each stage of change
Habit formation and reversal, which supports people to create new, healthy habits and reverse unhealthy ones
Accountability and goal setting, which helps people to stay on track and achieve their goals
All of the knowledge and expertise in the world doesn’t matter unless someone can apply it in their own life. The support of a health coach can make the difference between success and failure in implementing long-term diet, lifestyle, and behavior changes. So, there’s no question in my mind that health coaches will play a crucial role in reversing the chronic disease epidemic. (For more on the importance of health coaches in combating chronic disease, see this article.)
All of that said, health coaches do not typically have training in health and medical sciences (unless they also have another healthcare license or credential). They don’t need this expertise to be successful in supporting behavior change, which is their primary purpose and role.
What Are Dietitians and Nutritionists?
Dietitians and nutritionists are different than health coaches. Whereas a health coach focuses on behavior change, dietitians and nutritionists are experts that assess, diagnose, and treat dietary and nutritional problems at both an individual and a wider public health level.
Generally speaking, the term “registered dietitian” (RD) is more tightly regulated than the term “nutritionist,” but this doesn’t necessarily mean that a dietitian has more training than a nutritionist.
For example, a certified nutrition specialist (CNS) is a highly qualified nutrition professional with both a bachelor’s and a graduate degree (master’s or doctorate) in nutrition, plus 1,000 hours of a supervised internship and a passing score on a rigorous exam.
Registered dietitians are also highly qualified. They have typically attended an accredited bachelor’s program as well as a 1,200-hour supervised internship, and they may have additional licenses or credentials in specific areas of study.
Both dietitians and certified nutrition professionals have had extensive training in health and medical sciences, such as:
Organic chemistry
Biochemistry
Anatomy
Physiology
Genetics
Microbiology
Pharmacology
Statistics
Nutrient metabolism
There are many different degrees, credentials, and qualifications within the nutrition field. Some are regulated and protected, and others are not. For this reason, the range of training that someone using the term “nutritionist” has had can vary wildly, from being self-taught, to a 40-hour course, to hundreds or even thousands of hours of academic and clinical education and experience.
It is beyond the scope of this article to explain all the different career paths that a nutrition professional might pursue, but if you’d like to learn more I’d suggest the following two resources:
Description of Nutrition Professional Degrees/Credentials on the American Nutrition Association website
What Is The Difference Between A Nutritionist And A Dietitian?
Should Health Coaches Interpret Blood Tests?
Let’s begin by discussing blood testing since it is the most common type of testing offered in medicine today.
I believe that health coaches should not interpret blood tests. By “interpret,” I mean “explain the meaning of” the results to the client, which gets very close to (and in some cases may be indistinguishable from) diagnosing a condition or disease.
There are two reasons for this:
Safety and ethics. Many health coaches have not had in-depth training in health and medical sciences that would prepare them to interpret blood work, unless they also hold another license or credential that included that training  (e.g., a nurse, dietitian, occupational therapist, etc.). If a health coach reads a blood panel and misses something important on the results and/or makes an unsuitable recommendation, the client could be harmed.
Legal and regulatory concerns. In many states, a health coach would be infringing on the scope of practice of other practitioners (including dietitians and medical doctors) by interpreting blood tests, and they might be subject to legal action.
It’s important to understand these two reasons separately because even when one does not apply, the other still does.
For example, in some states, the law does not explicitly prohibit a health coach from reviewing blood test results—which is different than interpreting them and making a diagnosis and treatment suggestions. (I’ll explain this distinction further below.) But that does not mean that it is safe or ethical for a health coach without adequate training to do it.
On the other hand, a health coach may have a background in health or medical sciences that would provide a foundation for understanding blood work, but without a credential or license that permits this, she would still be at legal risk.
What about Recognizing “Red Flags” on Blood Tests?
There is one caveat here. Although I don’t think that a health coach should interpret blood tests, I do think that they should be able to recognize “red flags” and risk factors for chronic disease and then make a referral to an appropriate healthcare professional.
The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) recently teamed up with the International Consortium of Health & Wellness Coaches (ICHWC) to create an internationally recognized credential for health coaches called the National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC). Section 3 of the Health & Wellness Coach Certifying Exam Content Outline states: (3)
By definition, health and wellness coaches are not content experts in health or disease; they do not diagnose or prescribe, unless a coach has credentials in another profession that allow expert advice to be given. However, it is important for coaches to have a solid working familiarity of current evidence-based recommendations provided by public health groups such as the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health.
Relevant guidelines and recommendations fall in the areas of health promotion, disease prevention, and lifestyle medicine. The coach should be able to identify risk factors for chronic disease, commonly used biometric measures, and current lifestyle recommendations for optimizing health. An important focus for the coach is to recognize potential imminent danger and medical red flags and to know when and how to refer to another health care professional. [Emphasis added]
There is a crucial difference between interpreting a blood test result and making a diagnosis and treatment recommendations (including nutrition and diet suggestions) based on the result, and recognizing a potential red flag and referring to medical professional for further investigation.
Reviewing lab test results that relate to nutrition or nutrient levels could be considered nutrition education, which health coaches are permitted to do in some states. However, interpreting blood tests and making diagnoses and treatment recommendations would be considered the practice of medicine in all states and is explicitly prohibited.
This distinction is well recognized in other healthcare professions. For example, a nurse working in a hospital might notice and report signs and symptoms of redness, pain, and swelling at an incisional site but would not diagnose an infection or prescribe treatment for it. Instead, she would bring the issue to the attention of a physician, who could then diagnose and treat the problem.
While “reviewing” lab tests to recognize red flags and risk factors and “interpreting” them to diagnose and treat disease are not the same thing, they are often confused and and there’s a fine line between them that health coaches could easily cross.
This is why we train our ADAPT health coaches to avoid interpretation of lab tests entirely, and take a conservative approach to reviewing them if they live in a state that might permit it. If they live in a state that doesn’t, they must avoid even reviewing lab test results.
A Caveat: Health Coaches with Other Licenses or Credentials
Some certified health coaches also have licenses or credentials in other healthcare fields. For example, we have several licensed professionals in our ADAPT Health Coach Training Program, including medical doctors, physical and occupational therapists, and registered dietitians.
In these cases, the health coach does have the training and credentials that would allow them to interpret blood tests. However, most attorneys that I’ve consulted have advised that health coaches that have a license should only interpret labs if they are clearly operating under the scope of practice of their license.
Let’s say you’re a nurse practitioner (NP) and a health coach. If you advertise yourself as a nurse practitioner (that may also incorporate health coaching) and you onboard your patient using the same methods that you would use for any of your patients, you may interpret labs and do all of the other things that your scope of practice as an NP allows you to do.
However, if you advertise yourself as a health coach and onboard the client with only that understanding, then you should operate within the scope of practice of a health coach—not a nurse practitioner.
For this reason, in our ADAPT program we recommend that “dual professionals”—health coaches that are also licensed healthcare providers—advertise and operate within the scope of practice of their licensed profession if they want to be able to incorporate lab testing into their practice.
They can still use health coaching skills and competencies with their patients or clients because, in most cases, the scope of practice of licensed providers (like MDs, NPs, PTs, RDs, etc.) doesn’t preclude them from using these skills along with whatever other activities their licensure enables them to perform.
Should Dietitians and Nutritionists Interpret Blood Tests?
As I mentioned above, registered dietitians (RDs) and certified nutrition professionals often have hundreds or thousands of hours of academic and clinical training in health and medical sciences. This qualifies them to interpret blood test results related to nutrition status.
According to the CDC: (4)
RDNs in clinical practice: Recommend, perform, and/or interpret test results related to nutrition status: blood pressure, anthropometrics (e.g., height and weight, skinfold thickness, waist circumference, calculation of body mass index with classification for malnutrition and obesity), indirect calorimetry, laboratory tests, and waived point-of-care laboratory testing (e.g., blood glucose and cholesterol).
This is also true in a Functional Medicine context. According to the American Dietetic Association: (5)
IFMNT practitioners use a range of assessment tools in practice. These include a nutrition-focused physical exam and conventional laboratory data along with functional tests to assess the integrity of the metabolic networks and core imbalances that may be present.
Certified nutrition professionals with adequate training, such as certified nutrition specialists (CNSs), are also able to interpret blood tests. Section 3cii of the Examination Content Outline for Certified Nutrition Specialists states that a CNS should be able to “[i]nterpret laboratory data as it applies to nutrition-related conditions and systemic imbalances.” (6)
So, it’s clear to me that both RDs and certified nutrition professionals with adequate training should be able to interpret blood test results. This is why we have accepted both RDs and certified nutritional professionals in our ADAPT Practitioner Training Program since its inception in 2016.
What If You’re a Nutritionist without a Nationally or Conventionally Recognized Credential or License?
There are many different career paths and training options for nutritionists, and they can vary significantly in terms of the prerequisites, curriculum, practical supervision (e.g., internship, practicum, etc.), length of study, and other factors.
Moreover, the term “nutritionist” is not regulated or protected. This means that someone could take be self-taught, or take a short course in nutrition (say, 30 to 40 hours) and then refer to themselves as a nutritionist. In these cases, I believe that the individual wouldn’t have the necessary training in health and medical sciences to prepare them to interpret blood testing.
This leads to both ethical and safety concerns and legal and regulatory risk—just as it does with health coaches. A nutritionist without adequate academic and clinical education in health and medical sciences could harm a client if she does not interpret a blood test correctly, and if the client pursued legal action, it’s likely that the nutritionist would not be protected.
It is beyond the scope of this article to address the scope of practice of nutritionists that do not have a nationally or conventionally recognized license or credential. If you fall into this category, please refer to your educational institution or an organization like the National Association of Nutrition Professionals for more information.
Recognizing “Red Flags” and Risk Factors for Chronic Disease
As I mentioned above, although interpreting blood tests is not within the scope of practice of a health coach, the NBME suggests that a health coach should be able to recognize red flags and risk factors of chronic disease, including commonly used biometric tests (i.e., blood tests, blood pressure, etc.).
While I’m not aware of a general scope of practice that covers nutritionists without nationally recognized credentials or licenses, I think it’s also important that these providers are able to recognize red flags and risk factors and make referrals to appropriate healthcare professionals, at least in states that permit review of blood test results by unlicensed providers.
Again, there is significant risk here of the line between review and interpretation blurring, so caution is warranted.
What about Other Types of Lab Testing?
So far in this article, I have focused on the interpretation of blood testing. But what about the interpretation of other types of testing like the stool, saliva, and urine labs that are often used in a Functional or Integrative Medicine context?
This is more of a gray area from both a safety/ethics and legal/regulatory perspective. In general, I believe that registered dietitians and certified nutrition professionals should be able to interpret the results of these types of tests, provided they have been specifically trained in these Functional Medicine diagnostics.
The answer is much less clear in the case of health coaches and nutritionists that do not possess a nationally recognized credential or license, and/or have not had adequate training in health and medical sciences.
Using the results of a stool test from uBiome or a functional lab to make recommendations like eating more fiber or consuming probiotics is very different than interpreting the results of a comprehensive blood panel. The stakes are much higher with blood work, since the results can indicate serious and potentially life-threatening conditions like cancer, hemochromatosis, or Wilson disease.
At the same time, although saliva, stool, and urine testing don’t typically reveal serious conditions, some of the treatments that providers recommend based on these results can be dangerous when prescribed incorrectly.
For example, I know of one case from a few years back when an unlicensed health coach recommended a high dose of DHEA, a hormone, to a client based on the results of that client’s saliva hormone test. What the coach failed to recognize is that a high dose of DHEA could exacerbate the client’s preexisting Graves’ disease, a hyperthyroid condition. After taking the DHEA, the patient experienced tachycardia, palpitations, high blood pressure, and elevated body temperature and had to be taken to the emergency room.
The client hired an attorney and sued the health coach—and also the program that trained the coach to interpret the lab results and prescribe treatment based on them.
So, as you can see, the question of whether a health coach or non-credentialed or non-certified nutritionist should be able to order and interpret saliva, stool, and urine tests is nuanced and complex. In some cases, it may be fine provided that they have adequate training to interpret the specific test in question. In others, I see potential issues from both a safety/ethics and legal/regulatory perspective.
The legal and regulatory landscape is not well defined in the case of Functional Medicine diagnostics because it’s relatively new and until recently has not been on the radar of the organizations that are responsible for creating the laws and regulations that govern who can order and interpret laboratory testing.
I suspect we’ll see more developments in this area over the coming years. Until then, the safest approach is likely to apply the same principles that determine which healthcare providers can interpret blood tests to other Functional Medicine diagnostic tools like saliva, stool, and urine tests.
It Takes a Village to Reverse Chronic Disease
The fact that I don’t believe that health coaches and nutritionists without nationally-recognized credentials or training in health and medical sciences should interpret most lab test results does not in any way mean that I don’t value these vital health professionals.
I know of many skilled and competent nutritionists that are neither RDs nor certified nutritional professionals yet have helped hundreds of people transform their diet and lifestyle, reverse chronic disease, and dramatically improve their quality of life.
Likewise, I’m such a believer in the power of health coaching that I launched a 12-month health coach certification called the ADAPT Health Coach Training Program in 2018. Health coaches have a critical role to play in healthcare because they are working on the front lines to help people change their behavior—and that is arguably the single most important thing we can do to prevent and reverse chronic disease.
So, this article is not about creating a hierarchy in which the providers that can order and interpret lab testing and prescribe treatment are higher up and the providers that focus on behavior change and providing guidance on diet and nutrition are lower down.
That mentality is an artifact of the conventional medical paradigm that values information more than transformation, expertise more than support, and managing and suppressing symptoms more than changing diet, lifestyle, and behavior. It’s exactly the model that got us into this mess in the first place.
Instead, I am a passionate advocate for what I call a “collaborative practice model.” This model links many different providers—clinicians, nurses, dietitians and nutritionists, health coaches, physical therapists, counselors, psychologists, etc.—into an integrated care team that can provide the highest possible level of support to patients.
It recognizes the inherent and equal value of each type of provider and seeks to maximize his or her skill, training, and scope of practice in service of the patient. For example:
Medical doctors and other clinicians focus on the diagnosis and treatment of disease
Nutritionists and dietitians focus on creating individualized nutrition protocols
Health coaches focus on supporting people in implementing the protocols prescribed by nutritionists/dietitians and clinicians and in making successful and lasting behavior change
While each of these providers can have a major impact working independently, I believe that they are even more effective when working together in a collaborative fashion:
A doctor can prescribe a brilliant treatment protocol, but without a nutritionist or dietitian to customize the diet prescription and a health coach to help the patient to implement it, the chances of success are much lower.
A health coach can have a powerful impact on supporting people to make diet, lifestyle, and behavior changes, but if his client is struggling with a significant chronic health problem, working in collaboration with a clinician that can perform the full scope of lab testing and prescribe treatments will lead to better results.
A nutritionist or dietitian can create a perfectly tailored nutrition prescription for her client, with meal plans and recipes, but if the client doesn’t follow it, all of this work will be for naught. This is where a health coach can be so helpful.
It truly does take a village to address this growing problem of chronic disease. If you’re reading this, it means that you’re already playing a role—however big or small—in this healthcare revolution, and I am so grateful for your efforts!
As this article indicates, there are still many gray areas and quite a lot of confusion, even amongst legal and medical professionals that have closely studied these issues. What’s more, the landscape is changing quickly, as professions like health coaching and nutritionists become more common and better recognized.
I will continue to study this topic, consult with healthcare attorneys, and gather feedback from the professional community. I’ll update this article with any new, relevant information.
I’d love to hear your feedback, questions, or concerns in the comments.
The post Should Health Coaches and Nutritionists Interpret Lab Tests? appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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shapesnnsizes · 6 years ago
Text
Should Health Coaches and Nutritionists Interpret Lab Tests?
There are now a few companies that are offering this type of training to health coaches, and I suspect that we’re going to see more of them in the future. So, I wanted to take the opportunity in this article to share my position and explain the reasoning behind it.
But before I do that, I want to start by saying that everyone reading this article has a crucial role to play in reversing the chronic disease epidemic, whether you are a medical doctor, a chiropractor, a nutritionist or dietitian, a health coach, a personal trainer, or even what I’ve called a “citizen activist.”
The scale of the challenge we face is enormous, and we need to work together as a community of professionals and advocates to solve it. I spent at least a third of my recent book, Unconventional Medicine, making this argument, and I haven’t stopped believing it. In fact, I feel more strongly about it than ever.
Let’s begin by clarifying some of the roles that are relevant to this discussion because I think there is still a lot of confusion about them. Frankly, I didn’t fully understand the distinctions between these roles myself until just a few years ago.
Should health coaches interpret lab tests for their clients? What about nutritionists? Check out this article for my take on a contentious issue. #changeagent #functionalmedicine #chriskresser
We Need Both Health Coaches and Nutritionists/Dietitians—But They Are Not the Same
The terms “health coach,” “nutritionist,” and “dietitian” are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same.
What Is a Health Coach?
Health coaches are behavior change specialists. They support people in discovering their own strategies and motivation for change, overcoming obstacles, and implementing protocols that have either been prescribed by a clinician or nutritionist/dietitian or that the client has chosen to implement on their own.
This is a critical role since we know that over 85 percent of chronic disease is driven by our behavior and environment—not our genes—and that only 6 percent of Americans consistently engage in the top five health behaviors identified by the Centers for Disease Control: maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, not drinking excessively, getting enough exercise, and getting enough sleep. (1, 2) (I would also add eating a healthy diet to this list.)
We desperately need properly trained health coaches because information is not enough to change behavior. If it were, 100 percent of Americans would engage in the top health behaviors all the time. Most people know that getting enough exercise and sleep, eating well, and avoiding smoking and drinking excessively are healthy behaviors. But as the statistics show, they still don’t do these things.
And this isn’t just true in the general population. Even in my own Functional Medicine practice with highly motivated patients, some people struggle to implement the changes I suggest. And I know from training thousands of healthcare professionals of all types that lack of compliance is an extremely common problem.
Health coaches fill a critical void in both conventional and Functional Medicine by offering more intensive, patient-centered care. When properly trained, they are skilled in evidence-based methods of supporting change, including:
Motivational interviewing, which helps people to discover their own motivation and strategies for change
Positive psychology, which teaches people to build on what’s working, rather than fixing what’s broken
Understanding the stages of change, which allows health coaches to offer the appropriate type of support at each stage of change
Habit formation and reversal, which supports people to create new, healthy habits and reverse unhealthy ones
Accountability and goal setting, which helps people to stay on track and achieve their goals
All of the knowledge and expertise in the world doesn’t matter unless someone can apply it in their own life. The support of a health coach can make the difference between success and failure in implementing long-term diet, lifestyle, and behavior changes. So, there’s no question in my mind that health coaches will play a crucial role in reversing the chronic disease epidemic. (For more on the importance of health coaches in combating chronic disease, see this article.)
All of that said, health coaches do not typically have training in health and medical sciences (unless they also have another healthcare license or credential). They don’t need this expertise to be successful in supporting behavior change, which is their primary purpose and role.
What Are Dietitians and Nutritionists?
Dietitians and nutritionists are different than health coaches. Whereas a health coach focuses on behavior change, dietitians and nutritionists are experts that assess, diagnose, and treat dietary and nutritional problems at both an individual and a wider public health level.
Generally speaking, the term “registered dietitian” (RD) is more tightly regulated than the term “nutritionist,” but this doesn’t necessarily mean that a dietitian has more training than a nutritionist.
For example, a certified nutrition specialist (CNS) is a highly qualified nutrition professional with both a bachelor’s and a graduate degree (master’s or doctorate) in nutrition, plus 1,000 hours of a supervised internship and a passing score on a rigorous exam.
Registered dietitians are also highly qualified. They have typically attended an accredited bachelor’s program as well as a 1,200-hour supervised internship, and they may have additional licenses or credentials in specific areas of study.
Both dietitians and certified nutrition professionals have had extensive training in health and medical sciences, such as:
Organic chemistry
Biochemistry
Anatomy
Physiology
Genetics
Microbiology
Pharmacology
Statistics
Nutrient metabolism
There are many different degrees, credentials, and qualifications within the nutrition field. Some are regulated and protected, and others are not. For this reason, the range of training that someone using the term “nutritionist” has had can vary wildly, from being self-taught, to a 40-hour course, to hundreds or even thousands of hours of academic and clinical education and experience.
It is beyond the scope of this article to explain all the different career paths that a nutrition professional might pursue, but if you’d like to learn more I’d suggest the following two resources:
Description of Nutrition Professional Degrees/Credentials on the American Nutrition Association website
What Is The Difference Between A Nutritionist And A Dietitian?
Should Health Coaches Interpret Blood Tests?
Let’s begin by discussing blood testing since it is the most common type of testing offered in medicine today.
I believe that health coaches should not interpret blood tests. By “interpret,” I mean “explain the meaning of” the results to the client, which gets very close to (and in some cases may be indistinguishable from) diagnosing a condition or disease.
There are two reasons for this:
Safety and ethics. Many health coaches have not had in-depth training in health and medical sciences that would prepare them to interpret blood work, unless they also hold another license or credential that included that training  (e.g., a nurse, dietitian, occupational therapist, etc.). If a health coach reads a blood panel and misses something important on the results and/or makes an unsuitable recommendation, the client could be harmed.
Legal and regulatory concerns. In many states, a health coach would be infringing on the scope of practice of other practitioners (including dietitians and medical doctors) by interpreting blood tests, and they might be subject to legal action.
It’s important to understand these two reasons separately because even when one does not apply, the other still does.
For example, in some states, the law does not explicitly prohibit a health coach from reviewing blood test results—which is different than interpreting them and making a diagnosis and treatment suggestions. (I’ll explain this distinction further below.) But that does not mean that it is safe or ethical for a health coach without adequate training to do it.
On the other hand, a health coach may have a background in health or medical sciences that would provide a foundation for understanding blood work, but without a credential or license that permits this, she would still be at legal risk.
What about Recognizing “Red Flags” on Blood Tests?
There is one caveat here. Although I don’t think that a health coach should interpret blood tests, I do think that they should be able to recognize “red flags” and risk factors for chronic disease and then make a referral to an appropriate healthcare professional.
The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) recently teamed up with the International Consortium of Health & Wellness Coaches (ICHWC) to create an internationally recognized credential for health coaches called the National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC). Section 3 of the Health & Wellness Coach Certifying Exam Content Outline states: (3)
By definition, health and wellness coaches are not content experts in health or disease; they do not diagnose or prescribe, unless a coach has credentials in another profession that allow expert advice to be given. However, it is important for coaches to have a solid working familiarity of current evidence-based recommendations provided by public health groups such as the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health.
Relevant guidelines and recommendations fall in the areas of health promotion, disease prevention, and lifestyle medicine. The coach should be able to identify risk factors for chronic disease, commonly used biometric measures, and current lifestyle recommendations for optimizing health. An important focus for the coach is to recognize potential imminent danger and medical red flags and to know when and how to refer to another health care professional. [Emphasis added]
There is a crucial difference between interpreting a blood test result and making a diagnosis and treatment recommendations (including nutrition and diet suggestions) based on the result, and recognizing a potential red flag and referring to medical professional for further investigation.
Reviewing lab test results that relate to nutrition or nutrient levels could be considered nutrition education, which health coaches are permitted to do in some states. However, interpreting blood tests and making diagnoses and treatment recommendations would be considered the practice of medicine in all states and is explicitly prohibited.
This distinction is well recognized in other healthcare professions. For example, a nurse working in a hospital might notice and report signs and symptoms of redness, pain, and swelling at an incisional site but would not diagnose an infection or prescribe treatment for it. Instead, she would bring the issue to the attention of a physician, who could then diagnose and treat the problem.
While “reviewing” lab tests to recognize red flags and risk factors and “interpreting” them to diagnose and treat disease are not the same thing, they are often confused and and there’s a fine line between them that health coaches could easily cross.
This is why we train our ADAPT health coaches to avoid interpretation of lab tests entirely, and take a conservative approach to reviewing them if they live in a state that might permit it. If they live in a state that doesn’t, they must avoid even reviewing lab test results.
A Caveat: Health Coaches with Other Licenses or Credentials
Some certified health coaches also have licenses or credentials in other healthcare fields. For example, we have several licensed professionals in our ADAPT Health Coach Training Program, including medical doctors, physical and occupational therapists, and registered dietitians.
In these cases, the health coach does have the training and credentials that would allow them to interpret blood tests. However, most attorneys that I’ve consulted have advised that health coaches that have a license should only interpret labs if they are clearly operating under the scope of practice of their license.
Let’s say you’re a nurse practitioner (NP) and a health coach. If you advertise yourself as a nurse practitioner (that may also incorporate health coaching) and you onboard your patient using the same methods that you would use for any of your patients, you may interpret labs and do all of the other things that your scope of practice as an NP allows you to do.
However, if you advertise yourself as a health coach and onboard the client with only that understanding, then you should operate within the scope of practice of a health coach—not a nurse practitioner.
For this reason, in our ADAPT program we recommend that “dual professionals”—health coaches that are also licensed healthcare providers—advertise and operate within the scope of practice of their licensed profession if they want to be able to incorporate lab testing into their practice.
They can still use health coaching skills and competencies with their patients or clients because, in most cases, the scope of practice of licensed providers (like MDs, NPs, PTs, RDs, etc.) doesn’t preclude them from using these skills along with whatever other activities their licensure enables them to perform.
Should Dietitians and Nutritionists Interpret Blood Tests?
As I mentioned above, registered dietitians (RDs) and certified nutrition professionals often have hundreds or thousands of hours of academic and clinical training in health and medical sciences. This qualifies them to interpret blood test results related to nutrition status.
According to the CDC: (4)
RDNs in clinical practice: Recommend, perform, and/or interpret test results related to nutrition status: blood pressure, anthropometrics (e.g., height and weight, skinfold thickness, waist circumference, calculation of body mass index with classification for malnutrition and obesity), indirect calorimetry, laboratory tests, and waived point-of-care laboratory testing (e.g., blood glucose and cholesterol).
This is also true in a Functional Medicine context. According to the American Dietetic Association: (5)
IFMNT practitioners use a range of assessment tools in practice. These include a nutrition-focused physical exam and conventional laboratory data along with functional tests to assess the integrity of the metabolic networks and core imbalances that may be present.
Certified nutrition professionals with adequate training, such as certified nutrition specialists (CNSs), are also able to interpret blood tests. Section 3cii of the Examination Content Outline for Certified Nutrition Specialists states that a CNS should be able to “[i]nterpret laboratory data as it applies to nutrition-related conditions and systemic imbalances.” (6)
So, it’s clear to me that both RDs and certified nutrition professionals with adequate training should be able to interpret blood test results. This is why we have accepted both RDs and certified nutritional professionals in our ADAPT Practitioner Training Program since its inception in 2016.
What If You’re a Nutritionist without a Nationally or Conventionally Recognized Credential or License?
There are many different career paths and training options for nutritionists, and they can vary significantly in terms of the prerequisites, curriculum, practical supervision (e.g., internship, practicum, etc.), length of study, and other factors.
Moreover, the term “nutritionist” is not regulated or protected. This means that someone could take be self-taught, or take a short course in nutrition (say, 30 to 40 hours) and then refer to themselves as a nutritionist. In these cases, I believe that the individual wouldn’t have the necessary training in health and medical sciences to prepare them to interpret blood testing.
This leads to both ethical and safety concerns and legal and regulatory risk—just as it does with health coaches. A nutritionist without adequate academic and clinical education in health and medical sciences could harm a client if she does not interpret a blood test correctly, and if the client pursued legal action, it’s likely that the nutritionist would not be protected.
It is beyond the scope of this article to address the scope of practice of nutritionists that do not have a nationally or conventionally recognized license or credential. If you fall into this category, please refer to your educational institution or an organization like the National Association of Nutrition Professionals for more information.
Recognizing “Red Flags” and Risk Factors for Chronic Disease
As I mentioned above, although interpreting blood tests is not within the scope of practice of a health coach, the NBME suggests that a health coach should be able to recognize red flags and risk factors of chronic disease, including commonly used biometric tests (i.e., blood tests, blood pressure, etc.).
While I’m not aware of a general scope of practice that covers nutritionists without nationally recognized credentials or licenses, I think it’s also important that these providers are able to recognize red flags and risk factors and make referrals to appropriate healthcare professionals, at least in states that permit review of blood test results by unlicensed providers.
Again, there is significant risk here of the line between review and interpretation blurring, so caution is warranted.
What about Other Types of Lab Testing?
So far in this article, I have focused on the interpretation of blood testing. But what about the interpretation of other types of testing like the stool, saliva, and urine labs that are often used in a Functional or Integrative Medicine context?
This is more of a gray area from both a safety/ethics and legal/regulatory perspective. In general, I believe that registered dietitians and certified nutrition professionals should be able to interpret the results of these types of tests, provided they have been specifically trained in these Functional Medicine diagnostics.
The answer is much less clear in the case of health coaches and nutritionists that do not possess a nationally recognized credential or license, and/or have not had adequate training in health and medical sciences.
Using the results of a stool test from uBiome or a functional lab to make recommendations like eating more fiber or consuming probiotics is very different than interpreting the results of a comprehensive blood panel. The stakes are much higher with blood work, since the results can indicate serious and potentially life-threatening conditions like cancer, hemochromatosis, or Wilson disease.
At the same time, although saliva, stool, and urine testing don’t typically reveal serious conditions, some of the treatments that providers recommend based on these results can be dangerous when prescribed incorrectly.
For example, I know of one case from a few years back when an unlicensed health coach recommended a high dose of DHEA, a hormone, to a client based on the results of that client’s saliva hormone test. What the coach failed to recognize is that a high dose of DHEA could exacerbate the client’s preexisting Graves’ disease, a hyperthyroid condition. After taking the DHEA, the patient experienced tachycardia, palpitations, high blood pressure, and elevated body temperature and had to be taken to the emergency room.
The client hired an attorney and sued the health coach—and also the program that trained the coach to interpret the lab results and prescribe treatment based on them.
So, as you can see, the question of whether a health coach or non-credentialed or non-certified nutritionist should be able to order and interpret saliva, stool, and urine tests is nuanced and complex. In some cases, it may be fine provided that they have adequate training to interpret the specific test in question. In others, I see potential issues from both a safety/ethics and legal/regulatory perspective.
The legal and regulatory landscape is not well defined in the case of Functional Medicine diagnostics because it’s relatively new and until recently has not been on the radar of the organizations that are responsible for creating the laws and regulations that govern who can order and interpret laboratory testing.
I suspect we’ll see more developments in this area over the coming years. Until then, the safest approach is likely to apply the same principles that determine which healthcare providers can interpret blood tests to other Functional Medicine diagnostic tools like saliva, stool, and urine tests.
It Takes a Village to Reverse Chronic Disease
The fact that I don’t believe that health coaches and nutritionists without nationally-recognized credentials or training in health and medical sciences should interpret most lab test results does not in any way mean that I don’t value these vital health professionals.
I know of many skilled and competent nutritionists that are neither RDs nor certified nutritional professionals yet have helped hundreds of people transform their diet and lifestyle, reverse chronic disease, and dramatically improve their quality of life.
Likewise, I’m such a believer in the power of health coaching that I launched a 12-month health coach certification called the ADAPT Health Coach Training Program in 2018. Health coaches have a critical role to play in healthcare because they are working on the front lines to help people change their behavior—and that is arguably the single most important thing we can do to prevent and reverse chronic disease.
So, this article is not about creating a hierarchy in which the providers that can order and interpret lab testing and prescribe treatment are higher up and the providers that focus on behavior change and providing guidance on diet and nutrition are lower down.
That mentality is an artifact of the conventional medical paradigm that values information more than transformation, expertise more than support, and managing and suppressing symptoms more than changing diet, lifestyle, and behavior. It’s exactly the model that got us into this mess in the first place.
Instead, I am a passionate advocate for what I call a “collaborative practice model.” This model links many different providers—clinicians, nurses, dietitians and nutritionists, health coaches, physical therapists, counselors, psychologists, etc.—into an integrated care team that can provide the highest possible level of support to patients.
It recognizes the inherent and equal value of each type of provider and seeks to maximize his or her skill, training, and scope of practice in service of the patient. For example:
Medical doctors and other clinicians focus on the diagnosis and treatment of disease
Nutritionists and dietitians focus on creating individualized nutrition protocols
Health coaches focus on supporting people in implementing the protocols prescribed by nutritionists/dietitians and clinicians and in making successful and lasting behavior change
While each of these providers can have a major impact working independently, I believe that they are even more effective when working together in a collaborative fashion:
A doctor can prescribe a brilliant treatment protocol, but without a nutritionist or dietitian to customize the diet prescription and a health coach to help the patient to implement it, the chances of success are much lower.
A health coach can have a powerful impact on supporting people to make diet, lifestyle, and behavior changes, but if his client is struggling with a significant chronic health problem, working in collaboration with a clinician that can perform the full scope of lab testing and prescribe treatments will lead to better results.
A nutritionist or dietitian can create a perfectly tailored nutrition prescription for her client, with meal plans and recipes, but if the client doesn’t follow it, all of this work will be for naught. This is where a health coach can be so helpful.
It truly does take a village to address this growing problem of chronic disease. If you’re reading this, it means that you’re already playing a role—however big or small—in this healthcare revolution, and I am so grateful for your efforts!
As this article indicates, there are still many gray areas and quite a lot of confusion, even amongst legal and medical professionals that have closely studied these issues. What’s more, the landscape is changing quickly, as professions like health coaching and nutritionists become more common and better recognized.
I will continue to study this topic, consult with healthcare attorneys, and gather feedback from the professional community. I’ll update this article with any new, relevant information.
I’d love to hear your feedback, questions, or concerns in the comments.
The post Should Health Coaches and Nutritionists Interpret Lab Tests? appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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paylolorens-blog · 6 years ago
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lovemiraclehunter-blog · 8 years ago
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New Methods Of Fight Against Excess Weight
New Methods Of Fight Against Excess Weight. Few situations can frisk up someone who is watching their authority like an all-you-can-eat buffet. But a new scrutinize letter published in the April 2013 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggests two strategies that may assistance dieters survive a smorgasbord: Picking up a smaller plate and circling the buffet before choosing what to eat. Buffets have two things that run up nutritionists' eyebrows - extensive portions and tons of choices serial aunties saree view exbii. Both can crank up the calorie count of a meal. So "Research shows that when faced with a mixture of food at one sitting, people tend to eat more male enhancement. It is the attraction of wanting to try a variety of foods that makes it particularly hard not to overeat at a buffet," says Rachel Begun, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She was not complicated with the altered study. Still, some people don't overeat at buffets, and that made study founder Brian Wansink, director of the food and brand lab at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, curiosity how they restrain themselves m. "People often say that the only way not to overeat at a buffet is not to go to a buffet a psychologist who studies the environmental cues linked to overeating. But there are a ton of nation at buffets who are really skinny. We wondered: What is it that lank people do at buffets that heavy people don't?" Wansink deployed a group of 30 trained observers who painstakingly collected information about the eating habits of more than 300 public who visited 22 all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet restaurants in six states. Tucked away in corners where they could take care of unobtrusively, the observers checked 103 different things about the way persons behaved around the buffet. They logged information about whom diners were with and where they sat - close or far from the buffet, in a present or booth, facing toward or away from the buffet. Observers also noted what kind of utensils diners second-hand - forks or chopsticks - whether they placed a napkin in their laps, and even how many times they chewed a one mouthful of food. They also were taught to estimate a person's body-mass index, or BMI, on sight. Body-mass token is the ratio of a person's weight to their height, and doctors use it to gauge whether a person is overweight. The results of the analyse revealed key differences in how thinner and heavier people approached a buffet. And "Skinny hoi polloi are more likely to scout out the food. They're more likely to look at the different alternatives before they leap on something. Heavy people just tend to pick up a plate and look at each item and say, 'Do I want it? Yes or no.'" In other words, meagre people have to ask themselves which dishes they most want out of all the choices offered, while heavier people ask themselves whether they want each food, one at a time. Thin masses also were about seven times more likely to pick smaller plates if they were available than those who were heavy. Those behaviors also appeared to advise people eat less. People who scouted the buffet first and hand-me-down a smaller plate also made fewer trips to the buffet, whatever their weight. There were other key differences in how thinner and heavier multitude acted. Thin people sat about 16 feet farther away from the buffet, on average, than bigger people. They also chewed their eatables a little longer - about 15 chews per spoonful for those who were normal weight compared with 12 chews for those who were overweight. Those behaviors weren't associated with taking fewer trips to the buffet, but researchers meditate they may be habits that hand thinner people regulate their weight. The interesting thing was that almost all of these changes were unconscious to the being making them. They essentially become habits over time. A nutrition expert who was not involved in the examination praised the research, but questioned whether these strategies might really be powerful enough help. "As with all of Wansink's observations, these are insightful and useful," said Dr David Katz, overseer of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, in New Haven, Conn "But in some ways, they are as though looking for the reasons why some relations got wet sooner than others when the Titanic went down. The bigger issue was: The dispatch was sinking, and everyone was in the same boat". Katz said the best advice for dieters might be to avoid a buffet's temptations in the ahead place. "By all means, survey the scene and choose a small plate shop for vimax in birmingham. But, better yet, keep off the all-you-can-eat buffet altogether".
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garyhudsonposts · 8 years ago
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Hospitalized patients who are being fed nothing but glucose (sugar) intravenously for a long tim.
Babies who are being fed some bizarre substitute for breast milk Alcoholics who are getting too many of their calories from liquor.
In contrast, we never see protein deficiency among people who are eating enough food from any practical plant-based diet to get enough calories.
Theoretically, you could get a protein deficiency from eating nothing but apples, but nobody would eat a diet like that for any length of time.
No wonder vegetarians and vegans get annoyed when someone asks, “But where do you get your protein?”
After all, where do gorillas get their protein?
From the nutrition textbooks I edited, I learned something even more disturbing about calcium.
As a woman in the United States, I have been bombarded with advice to eat huge amounts of calcium. The only practical way to get that much calcium is to eat dairy products or take calcium supplements.
Yet according to the books I edited, the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis is most common where people consume the most dairy products.
A high-protein, high-calcium diet increases your risk of getting osteoporosis. In contrast, low calcium intakes, per se, did not seem to be a problem.
Female gorillas manage to get enough calcium from their plant-based diet to grow a big, strong skeleton. Also, female rhesus monkeys go through menopause, but they do not get osteoporosis after menopause.
The lessons that I learned from nutrition textbooks were wildly different from the lessons that I was taught in school and from the messages that were being spread by the commercial media.
Naïvely, I figured that the scientific truth would eventually trickle down to consumers or at least to medical doctors.
But over the following 25 years, the state of nutritional knowledge among the general public and even the medical profession seemed to be getting worse, not better.
People seemed to be learning a larger number of “facts” that were actually false. The Internet seemed to be a mixed blessing. It gave me access to an enormous amount of scientific information, often for free. Unfortunately, it was also being used to spread total nonsense.
Many Americans have been led to believe that the common forms of heart disease and diabetes are genetic. But if that were true, heart disease would be just as uncommon among Japanese immigrants in the United States as it is among Japanese in Japan. I
n reality, people of Japanese ancestry start getting heart disease like Americans when they start eating like Americans.
If type 2 diabetes were really genetic, then type 2 diabetes would be no more common today than it was 50 years ago.
The fact that the incidence of type 2 diabetes has been rising sharply tells you that type 2 diabetes should not be considered a genetic disease. (As I explain in my book Thin Diabetes, Fat Diabetes, there are some truly genetic forms of diabetes, but they are rare.)
If you look at old family photograph albums or at crowd scenes from historical documentaries, you will probably be stunned by how thin most people were 50 years ago.
Since then, Americans have become fatter and fatter. This epidemic of obesity is even spreading to Asia and Africa, as Asians and Africans start to eat more like Americans.
Because of the low-carb diet craze, most Americans believe that obesity is due to diets that are high in carbohydrates (starches and sugars). However, the Asians and Africans who are continuing to eat a traditional high-carbohydrate diet remain slim.
The promoters of low-carbohydrate diets have been spreading the idea that heart disease and type 2 diabetes result from eating starchy foods.
In reality, heart disease and type 2 diabetes are rare in societies that eat a heavily starch-based diet. They can even be reversed by eating a heavily starch-based diet.
Nowadays, many of the people I meet are convinced that they need to avoid carbohydrates (starches and sugars).
They are convinced that they would be less likely to get heart disease if they ate more fish or added some sort of magical fat supplement to their diet. Most of the middle-aged and elderly women I know take calcium supplements, and some of the vegetarians still worry about protein deficiency.
In other words, most of the people I talk to are not just uninformed about nutrition—they have been wildly misinformed. My goal in writing this book is to help people find the truth amid all that nonsense.
It is hardly surprising that so many people are misinformed about diet. The problem is serious even in the medical profession.
Every few years, some expert panel delivers a disturbing report, warning us that medical students are not learning enough about nutrition and dietetics in medical school.1-5 Unfortunately, the problem never seems to get solved. Years go by, and eventually another alarming report gets issued.
Over the years, I have met a few people who studied nutrition or epidemiology in college or graduate school. Nearly everyone else gets their information about diet and nutrition from magazines, radio programs, books, and Web sites.
Unfortunately, the dietary advice that you get from the commercial media is usually just an attempt to get you to buy something, not an attempt to help you improve your health.
The people who get airtime on the radio and the people who write books and produce videos and Web sites for a consumer audience seldom have any formal training in nutrition and dietetics.
As a result, they tend to spread dangerous nonsense, rather than helping people learn the truth.
A shockingly high percentage of the bestselling books on nutrition are full of total nonsense. The companies that publish these bestsellers are not scientific or educational institutions. Nor are they public health agencies.
Instead, they are businesses that make money by publishing books that are likely to sell, even if those books are not good for public health.
The books that show up on the bestseller lists have not gone through the kind of scientific review (“peer review”) that is routine in scientific publishing. In contrast, I send everything I write to scientific experts for review.
All of the populations of slim, healthy people throughout history have obtained the bulk of their calories from starchy staples, such as rice, wheat, corn, or potatoes.
The populations that eat a starchy diet have low rates of obesity and other chronic degenerative diseases. Unrefined starchy foods, along with vegetables and fruit, truly are health foods.
Many people are shocked to hear that they would be better off eating conventionally grown grains and produce, including plenty of “carbs,” than eating organic grassfed beef and dairy products. Of course, the ideal would be to eat organic grains and produce.
Like most people in the United States, I was taught that children need to eat foods from the meat group (meat, eggs, and fish) and the dairy group (milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter) in order to grow up big and strong.
I was encouraged to believe that human adults need to continue eating meat and dairy foods to maintain good health and athletic performance.
So when I started reading nutrition textbooks, I was relieved to discover that vegetarians (people who don’t eat meat) and even vegans (people who refuse to consume any animal-source products) are not at risk for a deficiency of protein, calcium, or iron.
Rather, the scientific studies showed that eating even small amounts of foods that come from animals poses an unnecessary risk to human health.
Many people decide to become vegetarian or vegan because of how they feel about animals. For them, the question about whether to eat meat or wear fur or leather is a moral question.
However, I did not write this book to talk about moral questions. In this book, I deal with the scientific questions about how your food choices are likely to affect your health. If a plant-based diet posed health risks to human beings, I would explain those risks in detail and would describe how to minimize that risk.
Fortunately, the plantbased diet that many people have been promoting because of concerns about animal welfare or the environment also happens to be the diet that is best for human health.
My point is that you do not need to sacrifice your health in order to protect animals and save the environment.
On the other hand, if you switch to a plant-based diet to improve your own health, you will also spare the lives of animals and cause less damage to the environment.
Although the health-optimizing diet for a human being consists of plant-based foods, I try to avoid calling it a vegetarian or vegan diet. Many people who call themselves vegetarian eat a lot of dairy foods and eggs, or even a lot of fish. (A fish is an animal, not a vegetable!)
Also, many vegetarians and even many vegans are eating far too much fat (especially too much omega-6 fat in the form of seeds and vegetable oils) and drinking too much alcohol. Bourbon and potato chips are vegan, but they aren’t health food!
The rules of thumb that I listed above (e.g., eat plants, not animals) are general rules that apply to the average person.
However, there are a few people who need custom-tailored advice from a trained professional. For example, people with some hereditary metabolic diseases, such as phenylketonuria, need special diets.
People with fructose malabsorption may get diarrhea if they eat too many apples or pears. People with celiac disease need to avoid wheat, rye, and barley. If you need a special diet for health reasons, you should talk to a registered dietitian.
Note that even a sudden change to a healthy diet can cause problems. If you have any serious health problem or are taking prescription medications, you need to talk to your doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant before you make a major change in diet.
A sudden switch to a healthy diet can cause rapid improvements in circulation and insulin sensitivity. As a result, people may need to stop taking some of their blood pressure medication. Diabetics may also need adjustments in their diabetes medications.
If you correct your diet without allowing your doctor to adjust your prescription medications, you could pass out from low blood pressure. You could even end up in the hospital or dead from low blood sugar!
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oovitus · 6 years ago
Text
Weekend Reading, 3.17.19
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I probably should have thought to post something festive before today, but instead it’s coming to you in a day or two. It’s a very tasty cabbage and pasta recipe, which I hope you’ll like.
I wrapped up another community rotation of my internship this past week. This rotation included a lot of group education and a little bit of counseling. In both contexts, I was touched, as I always am, to be reminded of how deeply people care about nutrition and what they eat.
It’s funny: in my nutrition grad program, we received so much guidance on motivating people and helping them to overcome their ambivalence. Motivational interviewing is virtually the only counseling technique we were taught, which I thought was a disservice. I understand why this was the way it was: our program was geared toward group education, rather than individual counseling, and one of the assumptions made was that we’d be working with groups of people who weren’t entirely sold on getting nutrition guidance in the first place–for example, those who have been referred to a dietitian by a primary care provider.
The relentless focus on motivation and “rolling with resistance” always struck me as limited, because my overwhelming experience has been that people are interested in food and strongly motivated to eat better. For a while I wondered if my experience was skewed by the population of folks I’ve crossed paths with as a nutritionist, but now that I’m more than halfway into my internship, I’ve only seen more proof of how much people care and how motivated they are.
From what I can tell, what stands in the way of meaningful change isn’t resistance or ambivalence so much as circumstance. It’s hard—really hard—to change one’s eating habits even when circumstances are working in one’s favor. It’s even harder in the face of life’s many difficulties, including financial hardship, stress, mental illness, family obligations, time constraints, and so on. Even with strong motivation in place, life can and does get in the way.
This isn’t to say that incredible dietary transformations aren’t possible even when circumstance is stacked up against it, nor to suggest that all nutrition patients and clients are strongly motivated. I guess I’m just struck by often people’s desire for change shines through to me.
I’ve seen so many examples in the last week alone, from the patient who broke into tears as she told me about a recent osteoporosis diagnosis (and her confusion about what to eat for bone health) to the patient in her early 90s who explained to me with pride his efforts to cook more vegetarian meals. None of my patients this year have lacked barriers to healthful eating. In spite of that, they care, and they’re doing their best.
This all makes me think about an article I read a few weeks ago, which makes important points about the way we construct and label laziness. I’m linking to it in my reads today. It also reminds me to be compassionate to myself when things stand in the way of what I’d like to do. My mind’s refrain is always “I could have done more,” but it’s often the case that I actually couldn’t have, because circumstances (fatigue, scarcity of time, being distracted by something more urgent) stood in the way. I wanted to do more, which is fine to acknowledge, but it’s different.
Wishing you a peaceful Sunday, with full recognition that you’re doing your best. We all are. Here are some recipes and reads.
Recipes
Lauren’s split pea soup with cheesy sage dumplings is the definition of comfort food!
I can’t get over how authentic Anastasia’s vegan tofu benedict looks.
I love the texture and color contrast of Stephanie’s smashed chimichurri potatoes.
A perfect weeknight supper recipe for creamy, peanutty noodles and mushrooms.
Finally, how adorable are these bunny-shaped vegan Easter rolls?!
Reads
1. Recent research has called into question the idea that eggs raise blood cholesterol, but a new study affirms the case for dietary moderation.
2. I love variety, but I also know the pleasures of a tried-and-true meal. I smiled to read this article on people who eat the same thing every day.
3. Edith Zimmerman grapples with the awareness that happiness is fleeting.
4. This article about California’s wild flower superbloom brought a smile to my face.
5. Finally, Devon Price on why laziness doesn’t exist.
Much love to you this evening, friends. A veggie-packed pasta recipe is coming your way in a day or two.
xo
The post Weekend Reading, 3.17.19 appeared first on The Full Helping.
Weekend Reading, 3.17.19 published first on https://storeseapharmacy.tumblr.com
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oovitus · 6 years ago
Text
Weekend Reading, 3.17.19
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I probably should have thought to post something festive before today, but instead it’s coming to you in a day or two. It’s a very tasty cabbage and pasta recipe, which I hope you’ll like.
I wrapped up another community rotation of my internship this past week. This rotation included a lot of group education and a little bit of counseling. In both contexts, I was touched, as I always am, to be reminded of how deeply people care about nutrition and what they eat.
It’s funny: in my nutrition grad program, we received so much guidance on motivating people and helping them to overcome their ambivalence. Motivational interviewing is virtually the only counseling technique we were taught, which I thought was a disservice. I understand why this was the way it was: our program was geared toward group education, rather than individual counseling, and one of the assumptions made was that we���d be working with groups of people who weren’t entirely sold on getting nutrition guidance in the first place–for example, those who have been referred to a dietitian by a primary care provider.
The relentless focus on motivation and “rolling with resistance” always struck me as limited, because my overwhelming experience has been that people are interested in food and strongly motivated to eat better. For a while I wondered if my experience was intrinsically limited by the population of folks I’ve crossed paths with as a nutritionist, but now that I’m more than halfway into my internship, I’ve only seen more proof of how much people care and how motivated they are.
From what I can tell, what stands in the way of meaningful change isn’t resistance or ambivalence so much as circumstance. It’s hard—really hard—to change one’s eating habits even when circumstances are working in one’s favor. It’s even harder in the face of life’s many difficulties, including financial hardship, stress, mental illness, family obligations, time constraints, and so on. Even with strong motivation in place, life can and does get in the way.
This isn’t to say that incredible dietary transformations aren’t possible even when circumstance is stacked up against it, nor to suggest that all nutrition patients and clients are strongly motivated. I guess I’m just struck by often people’s desire for change shines through to me.
I’ve seen so many examples in the last week alone, from the patient who broke into tears as she told me about a recent osteoporosis diagnosis (and her confusion about what to eat for bone health) to the patient in her early 90s who explained to me with pride his efforts to cook more vegetarian meals. None of my patients this year have lacked barriers to healthful eating. In spite of that, they care, and they’re doing their best.
This all makes me think about an article I read a few weeks ago, which makes important points about the way we construct and label laziness. I’m linking to it in my reads today. It also reminds me to be compassionate to myself when things stand in the way of what I’d like to do. My mind’s refrain is always “I could have done more,” but it’s often the case that I actually couldn’t have, because circumstances (fatigue, scarcity of time, being distracted by something more urgent) stood in the way. I wanted to do more, which is fine to acknowledge, but it’s different.
Wishing you a peaceful Sunday, with full recognition that you’re doing your best. We all are. Here are some recipes and reads.
Recipes
Lauren’s split pea soup with cheesy sage dumplings is the definition of comfort food!
I can’t get over how authentic Anastasia’s vegan tofu benedict looks.
I love the texture and color contrast of Stephanie’s smashed chimichurri potatoes.
A perfect weeknight supper recipe for creamy, peanutty noodles and mushrooms.
Finally, how adorable are these bunny-shaped vegan Easter rolls?!
Reads
1. Recent research has called into question the idea that eggs raise blood cholesterol, but a new study affirms the case for dietary moderation.
2. I love variety, but I also know the pleasures of a tried-and-true meal. I smiled to read this article on people who eat the same thing every day.
3. Edith Zimmerman grapples with the awareness that happiness is fleeting.
4. This article about California’s wild flower superbloom brought a smile to my face.
5. Finally, Devon Price on why laziness doesn’t exist.
Much love to you this evening, friends. A veggie-packed pasta recipe is coming your way in a day or two.
xo
The post Weekend Reading, 3.17.19 appeared first on The Full Helping.
Weekend Reading, 3.17.19 published first on
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oovitus · 6 years ago
Text
Weekend Reading, 3.17.19
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I probably should have thought to post something festive before today, but instead it’s coming to you in a day or two. It’s a very tasty cabbage and pasta recipe, which I hope you’ll like.
I wrapped up another community rotation of my internship this past week. This rotation included a lot of group education and a little bit of counseling. In both contexts, I was touched, as I always am, to be reminded of how deeply people care about nutrition and what they eat.
It’s funny: in my nutrition grad program, we received so much guidance on motivating people and helping them to overcome their ambivalence. Motivational interviewing is virtually the only counseling technique we were taught, which I thought was a disservice. I understand why this was the way it was: our program was geared toward group education, rather than individual counseling, and one of the assumptions made was that we’d be working with groups of people who weren’t entirely sold on getting nutrition guidance in the first place–for example, those who have been referred to a dietitian by a primary care provider.
The relentless focus on motivation and “rolling with resistance” always struck me as limited, because my overwhelming experience has been that people are interested in food and strongly motivated to eat better. For a while I wondered if my experience was intrinsically limited by the population of folks I’ve crossed paths with as a nutritionist, but now that I’m more than halfway into my internship, I’ve only seen more proof of how much people care and how motivated they are.
From what I can tell, what stands in the way of meaningful change isn’t resistance or ambivalence so much as circumstance. It’s hard—really hard—to change one’s eating habits even when circumstances are working in one’s favor. It’s even harder in the face of life’s many difficulties, including financial hardship, stress, mental illness, family obligations, time constraints, and so on. Even with strong motivation in place, life can and does get in the way.
This isn’t to say that incredible dietary transformations aren’t possible even when circumstance is stacked up against it, nor to suggest that all nutrition patients and clients are strongly motivated. I guess I’m just struck by often people’s desire for change shines through to me.
I’ve seen so many examples in the last week alone, from the patient who broke into tears as she told me about a recent osteoporosis diagnosis (and her confusion about what to eat for bone health) to the patient in her early 90s who explained to me with pride his efforts to cook more vegetarian meals. None of my patients this year have lacked barriers to healthful eating. In spite of that, they care, and they’re doing their best.
This all makes me think about an article I read a few weeks ago, which makes important points about the way we construct and label laziness. I’m linking to it in my reads today. It also reminds me to be compassionate to myself when things stand in the way of what I’d like to do. My mind’s refrain is always “I could have done more,” but it’s often the case that I actually couldn’t have, because circumstances (fatigue, scarcity of time, being distracted by something more urgent) stood in the way. I wanted to do more, which is fine to acknowledge, but it’s different.
Wishing you a peaceful Sunday, with full recognition that you’re doing your best. We all are. Here are some recipes and reads.
Recipes
Lauren’s split pea soup with cheesy sage dumplings is the definition of comfort food!
I can’t get over how authentic Anastasia’s vegan tofu benedict looks.
I love the texture and color contrast of Stephanie’s smashed chimichurri potatoes.
A perfect weeknight supper recipe for creamy, peanutty noodles and mushrooms.
Finally, how adorable are these bunny-shaped vegan Easter rolls?!
Reads
1. Recent research has called into question the idea that eggs raise blood cholesterol, but a new study affirms the case for dietary moderation.
2. I love variety, but I also know the pleasures of a tried-and-true meal. I smiled to read this article on people who eat the same thing every day.
3. Edith Zimmerman grapples with the awareness that happiness is fleeting.
4. This article about California’s wild flower superbloom brought a smile to my face.
5. Finally, Devon Price on why laziness doesn’t exist.
Much love to you this evening, friends. A veggie-packed pasta recipe is coming your way in a day or two.
xo
The post Weekend Reading, 3.17.19 appeared first on The Full Helping.
Weekend Reading, 3.17.19 published first on https://storeseapharmacy.tumblr.com
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oovitus · 7 years ago
Text
Weekend Reading, 11.11.18
For dietitians, the DI year is supposed to be a pre-professional experience, supervised work that prepares us for the realities of practice. One of these realities, I’m starting to realize, is the exercise of judgment.
When I started the DI, I assumed that I’d be trained in guidelines and standards that would neatly inform all of my interventions and decisions. I’ve gotten plenty of exposure to evidence-based guidelines and best practices, but what I didn’t understand before the DI—and what I’m coming to understand now—is that the rules only go so far.
In a clinical or practice setting, a lot of the cases we see end up falling into gray areas. A patient presents with multiple complaints or diagnoses, all of which are significant, but some of which are more high priority than others. It’s the dietitian’s job to decide which nutrition problems are the most urgent and in need of addressing; in some cases, interventions for various problems might actually conflict.
Weighing treatments against each other, learning to prioritize nutrition problems, understanding the difference between medical nutrition therapy as it was taught to me in a classroom vs. real-world application: this isn’t something that I learned in school. It’s something I’m learning now, from my preceptors and my patients. The most daunting part of it all is the fact that preceptors can only guide me so far.
The other day, my preceptor pointed out to me that the calorie need estimate that I’d made for a patient was in keeping with clinical recommendations, but the actual energy intake looked, on paper, a little too low. I agreed, but I hadn’t been able to reconcile the discrepancy because I was so hung up on following calorie per kilogram guidelines for the disease state in question. “Use your clinical judgment,” my preceptor told me. “If the estimate looks low to you, then it probably is.”
It’s hard for me to do this when I show up to work each day. It feels less risky to memorize a set of rules and apply them diligently than to take a step back and ask myself whether what I’m seeing or recommending looks right, feels right, sounds right. Part of what I’m getting hung up on, I realize, is the idea that judgment and guesswork and intuition have no place in a clinical setting. I want to believe that everything in a hospital can work according to evidence and procedure.
I’m off—way off, really—in this kind of thinking. Everything I’ve ever learned working in healthcare environments has suggested to me that the most able practitioners are the ones who have developed clinical instincts. The physician I worked for in DC was exceptional precisely because she’d take risks and leaps of faith with her intuition as a diagnostician: even when a diagnosis wasn’t obvious, she’d have have a sneaking suspicion that it was right, and she’d investigate accordingly. Her instincts were usually confirmed, and even when they weren’t, she gained valuable information in pursuing them.
Intuition and judgment intimidate me right now because I can’t memorize them or develop them by sitting at home with a stack of flash cards. I have to build toward them through practice and exposure, which will involve some errors, and that’s what last week’s post was all about.
In the last few days, though, I’ve had some heartening reminders that I have better judgment than I give myself credit for. A few of them have happened on the job: I allowed myself to trust an instinct and then had it affirmed by evidence or validation from my preceptor.
But what’s helped me the most is actually thinking back to the nutrition counseling work I’ve done in the past, with far less clinical training than I have now, and realizing it has already given me much of the intuition that I need. If nothing else, it’s taught me to listen carefully to people, to pay attention, and paying attention is where clinical judgment springs from.
I’ve also been thinking about judgment, discernment, and decision making as they pertain to my broader responsibilities and identity as a practitioner. In the past few days I’ve been struck by how often I feel as though I don’t fit nearly into many of the communities or schools of thought that I work alongside in the nutrition space. I celebrate vegan nutrition, but I don’t always communicate or message the lifestyle the way other plant-based practitioners do. I’m evidence-based, but I’m also interested in the spiritual dimensions of well-being, the ways in which human beings give meaning to their own healing narratives. I’m inspired by the ideals of intuitive eating, but I stop short of thinking that it’s the only approach for all people; I always let my clients guide me in determining a philosophical framework for eating. I move through lots of different nutrition/food spaces, but rarely with a sense of full belonging.
Case in point: on Thursday night, in our DI class, we had our eating disorder lecture. I felt the same thing I felt when I spoke at the Balance panel last spring, which was that I’m deeply admiring of the work being done in the ED treatment space, and I’m also not at home there. The way I’ve come to understand, define, and experience recovery is at odds with a lot of the prevailing thinking about what “full recovery” means. The importance I’ve allowed food to have in my life would defy many practitioners’ conception of what a healthy relationship with food looks like. And my veganism is certainly at odds with the common assumption in treatment circles that food selectivity is always “smoke and mirrors.”
I’m at peace with this. When I left that lecture, I actually felt more solid in recovery than I have in a while, given how challenging my body dysmorphia has been (still is, honestly) this fall. And I felt reminded of what I’ve always believed, which is that all of us who have had tangled relationships with food will ultimately come to understand recovery in our own way. I understand not acting on destructive impulses, engaging in healthful behaviors, and cultivating self-compassionate thoughts as a firm, ED recovery bottom line. I’d stop short of telling any person what the meaning of recovery is, or what it looks like. I know what mine looks like, and that’s all I know.
These musings look scattered when I glance over them, but for me, it all feels connected. This has been a week of learning to trust in my instincts, of having the courage to acknowledge that I have my own perspective on things. Nothing makes me feel safer or better or more accomplished than doing a stellar job of being what other people (or institutions, or programs) want me to be: meeting and exceeding expectations, hitting goals, scoring well. Even now, at thirty-six years of age, I’m a hopeless teacher’s pet. But the whole point of this education is to head out into the world and do my own work, even and especially when it means sticking to my guns.
I wish you a week of feeling tuned into your own intuition. Thanks for reading, as always, and here are the recipes and reads that caught my eye this week.
Recipes
This and next week’s recipe picks will be all about things I’d love to have on my theoretical Thanksgiving table! First up: Kristen’s autumn roasted pumpkin curry.
A great looking (and easy!) quinoa stuffing from my friend Sophia.
Loving Sarah’s perfectly seasonal, garlicky roasted green beans.
Dessert #1: Kristina’s awesome, cozy cinnamon baked apples.
Dessert #2: Will someone please give me a big slice of Emilie’s scrumptious vegan pumpkin cheesecake with chocolate crust?!
Reads
1. If you’re as excited as I am about holiday baking, this quick flour primer from the folks at The Kitchn may come in handy.
2. I love the idea of toy libraries, which have the potential to build upon “the social foundation that people already understand from traditional book-lending libraries . . . a kind of infrastructure for sharing and disseminating knowledge.” Not to mention an important place for kids to play, to explore, to savor unstructured time.
3. So much I agree with in Shayla Love’s frank, gutsy take on food intolerance testing. There is a growing body of tests being marketed as valid, reliable means of diagnosing food intolerances. The problem is that food intolerances are more incompletely understood than food allergies, for which there is a long-established, known mechanism. And the presence of IgG antibodies, contrary to what intolerance test marketers claim, isn’t necessarily indicative of an intolerance. It can simply mean that you’re eating a certain food pretty often, which has the particularly insidious result of forcing unsuspecting consumers to eliminate foods they love and rely upon.
More importantly, at least from a mental health perspective, these tests tend to capitalize upon the idea that, if you have GI distress, you’re being quietly sickened or poisoned by food. Love writes,
The problem with these tests isn’t that the truth is being hidden from consumers, it’s that: if you are struggling with any kind of disordered eating or thinking patterns, you will latch onto them despite what the evidence says . . . Because of my OCD, I also love rules, and once I implement a rule, it’s extremely difficult for me to break it, as it becomes a ritual. As last year went on, and I got my anxiety under control again, I still couldn’t manage to eat those foods.
Love also interviews gastroenterologist Emeran Mayer, who notes that the anxiety associated with identify certain foods as potential triggers or intolerances can actually create—via the nocebo effect, which I spent a lot of time studying as a master’s student—the very cascade of symptoms that folks are hoping to get relief from:
He thinks everyone is vulnerable to the underlying mental booby traps these tests put out there: The idea that there are foods, healthy foods, that are secretly making you sick. The anxiety such a thing creates is not benign, he says . . .
. . .  [w]hen people have extreme anxiety, the brain generates stress signals that travel to the gastrointestinal tract through the autonomic nervous system and the vagus nerve. This stress can change a lot of aspects of the gut and digestion. It can alter transit time of food through the digestive system, it can change blood flow or immune responses, it can change secretion of mucus, and all of those changes can then affect the bacteria that live in your gut, or your microbiome.
‘If you’re walking around being stressed around your food and being constantly worried, that is becoming kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy from the nocebo effect,’ he says . . . ‘But also it changes your gut-environment context in a way that can compromise the proper digestion of food. There’s a really close link between anxieties, food-related stress, and gut dysfunction.’
Of course certain food can serve as very real triggers for digestive distress: this can be true of high FODMAP foods for those who are sensitive to them, and more broadly, some of us just have a hard time digesting certain things (onions, crucifers, raw veggies, spicy food—you name it).
But it has been my overwhelming experience that the dialog about intolerances in the wellness space is often scientifically misleading, and that the anxiety it creates can actually compound and worsen GI distress. I think it’s so important for practitioners who work with digestive health to remain vigilant of food-related anxiety and disordered eating, addressing intolerances only in a way that’s evidence-based and sensitive to the health and well-being of patients.
4. I’m grateful to Carrian for introducing me to the phrase, “if you’re on the right path it will always be uphill.” Not sure I agree with the “always” bit, but I need a lot of reminders that struggle and pain are a natural, important part of life experience. Or, to quote from one of my wise readers, “it’s not easy and it isn’t supposed to be.”
5. Finally, and while we’re on my favorite topic of the placebo/nocebo effect, the New York Times shares new insights into how the placebo effect really works.
Happy Sunday, everyone. I’m back this week with a new, tasty, low-maintenance Thanksgiving recipe!
xo
The post Weekend Reading, 11.11.18 appeared first on The Full Helping.
Weekend Reading, 11.11.18 published first on https://storeseapharmacy.tumblr.com
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oovitus · 7 years ago
Text
Weekend Reading, 11.11.18
For dietitians, the DI year is supposed to be a pre-professional experience, supervised work that prepares us for the realities of practice. One of these realities, I’m starting to realize, is the exercise of judgment.
When I started the DI, I assumed that I’d be trained in guidelines and standards that would neatly inform all of my interventions and decisions. I’ve gotten plenty of exposure to evidence-based guidelines and best practices, but what I didn’t understand before the DI—and what I’m coming to understand now—is that the rules only go so far.
In a clinical or practice setting, a lot of the cases we see end up falling into gray areas. A patient presents with multiple complaints or diagnoses, all of which are significant, but some of which are more high priority than others. It’s the dietitian’s job to decide which nutrition problems are the most urgent and in need of addressing; in some cases, interventions for various problems might actually conflict.
Weighing treatments against each other, learning to prioritize nutrition problems, understanding the difference between medical nutrition therapy as it was taught to me in a classroom vs. real-world application: this isn’t something that I learned in school. It’s something I’m learning now, from my preceptors and my patients. The most daunting part of it all is the fact that preceptors can only guide me so far.
The other day, my preceptor pointed out to me that the calorie need estimate that I’d made for a patient was in keeping with clinical recommendations, but the actual energy intake looked, on paper, a little too low. I agreed, but I hadn’t been able to reconcile the discrepancy because I was so hung up on following calorie per kilogram guidelines for the disease state in question. “Use your clinical judgment,” my preceptor told me. “If the estimate looks low to you, then it probably is.”
It’s hard for me to do this when I show up to work each day. It feels less risky to memorize a set of rules and apply them diligently than to take a step back and ask myself whether what I’m seeing or recommending looks right, feels right, sounds right. Part of what I’m getting hung up on, I realize, is the idea that judgment and guesswork and intuition have no place in a clinical setting. I want to believe that everything in a hospital can work according to evidence and procedure.
I’m off—way off, really—in this kind of thinking. Everything I’ve ever learned working in healthcare environments has suggested to me that the most able practitioners are the ones who have developed clinical instincts. The physician I worked for in DC was exceptional precisely because she’d take risks and leaps of faith with her intuition as a diagnostician: even when a diagnosis wasn’t obvious, she’d have have a sneaking suspicion that it was right, and she’d investigate accordingly. Her instincts were usually confirmed, and even when they weren’t, she gained valuable information in pursuing them.
Intuition and judgment intimidate me right now because I can’t memorize them or develop them by sitting at home with a stack of flash cards. I have to build toward them through practice and exposure, which will involve some errors, and that’s what last week’s post was all about.
In the last few days, though, I’ve had some heartening reminders that I have better judgment than I give myself credit for. A few of them have happened on the job: I allowed myself to trust an instinct and then had it affirmed by evidence or validation from my preceptor.
But what’s helped me the most is actually thinking back to the nutrition counseling work I’ve done in the past, with far less clinical training than I have now, and realizing it has already given me much of the intuition that I need. If nothing else, it’s taught me to listen carefully to people, to pay attention, and paying attention is where clinical judgment springs from.
I’ve also been thinking about judgment, discernment, and decision making as they pertain to my broader responsibilities and identity as a practitioner. In the past few days I’ve been struck by how often I feel as though I don’t fit nearly into many of the communities or schools of thought that I work alongside in the nutrition space. I celebrate vegan nutrition, but I don’t always communicate or message the lifestyle the way other plant-based practitioners do. I’m evidence-based, but I’m also interested in the spiritual dimensions of well-being, the ways in which human beings give meaning to their own healing narratives. I’m inspired by the ideals of intuitive eating, but I stop short of thinking that it’s the only approach for all people; I always let my clients guide me in determining a philosophical framework for eating. I move through lots of different nutrition/food spaces, but rarely with a sense of full belonging.
Case in point: on Thursday night, in our DI class, we had our eating disorder lecture. I felt the same thing I felt when I spoke at the Balance panel last spring, which was that I’m deeply admiring of the work being done in the ED treatment space, and I’m also not at home there. The way I’ve come to understand, define, and experience recovery is at odds with a lot of the prevailing thinking about what “full recovery” means. The importance I’ve allowed food to have in my life would defy many practitioners’ conception of what a healthy relationship with food looks like. And my veganism is certainly at odds with the common assumption in treatment circles that food selectivity is always “smoke and mirrors.”
I’m at peace with this. When I left that lecture, I actually felt more solid in recovery than I have in a while, given how challenging my body dysmorphia has been (still is, honestly) this fall. And I felt reminded of what I’ve always believed, which is that all of us who have had tangled relationships with food will ultimately come to understand recovery in our own way. I understand not acting on destructive impulses and engaging in healthful, self-caring behaviors and thoughts as a firm, ED recovery bottom line. I’d stop short of telling any person what the meaning of recovery is, or what it looks like. I know what mine looks like, and that’s all I know.
These musings look scattered when I glance over them, but for me, it all feels connected. This has been a week of learning to trust in my instincts, of having the courage to acknowledge that I have my own perspective on things. Nothing makes me feel safer or better or more accomplished than doing a stellar job of being what other people (or institutions, or programs) want me to be: meeting and exceeding expectations, hitting goals, scoring well. Even now, at thirty-six years of age, I’m a hopeless teacher’s pet. But the whole point of this education is to head out into the world and do my own work, even and especially when it means sticking to my guns.
I wish you a week of feeling tuned into your own intuition. Thanks for reading, as always, and here are the recipes and reads that caught my eye this week.
Recipes
This and next week’s recipe picks will be all about things I’d love to have on my theoretical Thanksgiving table! First up: Kristen’s autumn roasted pumpkin curry.
A great looking (and easy!) quinoa stuffing from my friend Sophia.
Loving Sarah’s perfectly seasonal, garlicky roasted green beans.
Dessert #1: Kristina’s awesome, cozy cinnamon baked apples.
Dessert #2: Will someone please give me a big slice of Emilie’s scrumptious vegan pumpkin cheesecake with chocolate crust?!
Reads
1. If you’re as excited as I am about holiday baking, this quick flour primer from the folks at The Kitchn may come in handy.
2. I love the idea of toy libraries, which have the potential to build upon “the social foundation that people already understand from traditional book-lending libraries . . . a kind of infrastructure for sharing and disseminating knowledge.” Not to mention an important place for kids to play, to explore, to savor unstructured time.
3. So much I agree with in Shayla Love’s frank, gutsy take on food intolerance testing. There is a growing body of tests being marketed as valid, reliable means of diagnosing food intolerances. The problem is that food intolerances are more incompletely understood than food allergies, for which there is a long-established, known mechanism. And the presence of IgG antibodies, contrary to what intolerance test marketers claim, isn’t necessarily indicative of an intolerance. It can simply mean that you’re eating a certain food pretty often, which has the particularly insidious result of forcing unsuspecting consumers to eliminate foods they love and rely upon.
More importantly, at least from a mental health perspective, these tests tend to capitalize upon the idea that, if you have GI distress, you’re being quietly sickened or poisoned by food. Love writes,
The problem with these tests isn’t that the truth is being hidden from consumers, it’s that: if you are struggling with any kind of disordered eating or thinking patterns, you will latch onto them despite what the evidence says . . . Because of my OCD, I also love rules, and once I implement a rule, it’s extremely difficult for me to break it, as it becomes a ritual. As last year went on, and I got my anxiety under control again, I still couldn’t manage to eat those foods.
Love also interviews gastroenterologist Emeran Mayer, who notes that the anxiety associated with identify certain foods as potential triggers or intolerances can actually create—via the nocebo effect, which I spent a lot of time studying as a master’s student—the very cascade of symptoms that folks are hoping to get relief from:
He thinks everyone is vulnerable to the underlying mental booby traps these tests put out there: The idea that there are foods, healthy foods, that are secretly making you sick. The anxiety such a thing creates is not benign, he says . . .
. . .  [w]hen people have extreme anxiety, the brain generates stress signals that travel to the gastrointestinal tract through the autonomic nervous system and the vagus nerve. This stress can change a lot of aspects of the gut and digestion. It can alter transit time of food through the digestive system, it can change blood flow or immune responses, it can change secretion of mucus, and all of those changes can then affect the bacteria that live in your gut, or your microbiome.
‘If you’re walking around being stressed around your food and being constantly worried, that is becoming kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy from the nocebo effect,’ he says . . . ‘But also it changes your gut-environment context in a way that can compromise the proper digestion of food. There’s a really close link between anxieties, food-related stress, and gut dysfunction.’
Of course certain food can serve as very real triggers for digestive distress: this can be true of high FODMAP foods for those who are sensitive to them, and more broadly, some of us just have a hard time digesting certain things (onions, crucifers, raw veggies, spicy food—you name it).
But it has been my overwhelming experience that the dialog about intolerances in the wellness space is often scientifically misleading, and that the anxiety it creates can actually compound and worsen GI distress. I think it’s so important for practitioners who work with digestive health to remain vigilant of food-related anxiety and disordered eating, addressing intolerances only in a way that’s evidence-based and sensitive to the health and well-being of patients.
4. I’m grateful to Carrian for introducing me to the phrase, “if you’re on the right path it will always be uphill.” Not sure I agree with the “always” bit, but I need a lot of reminders that struggle and pain are a natural, important part of life experience. Or, to quote from one of my wise readers, “it’s not easy and it isn’t supposed to be.”
5. Finally, and while we’re on my favorite topic of the placebo/nocebo effect, the New York Times shares new insights into how the placebo effect really works.
Happy Sunday, everyone. I’m back this week with a new, tasty, low-maintenance Thanksgiving recipe!
xo
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