Registered Dietitian Barrhaven, Nepean & Ottawa

It’s one way you can be assured the advice and information you’re receiving is sound. We wouldn’t seek a celebrity’s advice on how to build a bridge, you’d ask a professional engineer. We wouldn’t just ask a neighbour who has an interest in medicine to provide us with medical advice. The same should apply for nutrition advice.

Dietitians, just like engineers and medical doctors, are accountable to provincial regulatory bodies for the highest standards of education and ethics. These provincial regulatory bodies protect the public and serve as a point of contact for consumer complaints and malpractice. For more information or to verify if your nutrition provider is registered, you can contact the regulatory body in your province.

Titles like registered holistic nutritionist and certified nutritional practitioner aren’t the same as registered dietitian and do not indicate the person is a provincially regulated health professional. They’re often used by those who’ve completed privately owned training programs, that vary widely in length and rigour.

Be sure to check the qualifications of any professional that provides advice on health and nutrition. Getting the wrong advice can be harmful.

We start with a 1-hour initial consultation, during which Sara will collect relevant nutrition, lifestyle and medical information from you. Together, you’ll determine your nutrition and health goals for treatment. Sara will provide nutritional education and ideas on how to start implementing simple, realistic, but meaningful changes into your dietary pattern, while she creates a meal plan that will be ready for your next appointment.

**If you are under 18, a parent or legal guardian is asked to attend the initial consultation. Their presence is not required at future sessions unless clinically indicated.

The follow-up appointments will be half-hour sessions. You’ll review your eating and activity patterns since your last visit, discuss what went well and where you may have struggled, and you’ll be able to ask questions and hear Sara’s advice. With each visit, Sara will go deeper into nutrition strategies, techniques and education to help move you closer to your goals.

In your first visit, you’ll meet your dietitian and the two of you will spend most of the hour discussing your medical history, health concerns, allergies, food preferences, lifestyle and goals. All this information is needed to create a customised meal plan — developed specifically for you, based on your goals, concerns and preferences — that you’ll be receiving.

After your first appointment, we’ll book you in for a follow-up appointment. It takes some time for your dietitian to create a customised meal plan based on your goals and preferences. You’ll receive your meal plan at your first follow-up appointment and your dietitian will go through it with you, giving you lots of time to ask and get answers to any questions you have. Once this follow-up is completed, we’ll discuss the frequency of your follow-up visits so we can keep an eye on your progress, be available to answer questions and share advice, make any adjustments (if necessary), and help you stay on track with your goals.

This depends on the reason for your visit. If we’re addressing a medical health concern, usually follow-ups are required more frequently than if your goal is strictly related to weight-loss. Medical health concerns usually require diligent monitoring, so follow-up appointments could be weekly or bi-weekly. Weight-loss visits are typically bi-weekly follow-ups. Regarding how long, this is again something to be determined with your dietitian. The more you follow their recommendations, the more likely you’ll achieve your goals.

This answer depends from person to person due to genetics, chronic or acute conditions, your goals and how closely you follow the meal plan and recommendations from your dietitian. Some people can achieve their goals in a relatively short period of time while others may take a little longer. Our dietitian will work on you to help keep you on track at a pace that works for you.

Your meal plan can definitely be altered! Your dietitian wants your meal plan to be both healthy and fulfilling for you. If you have any questions, concerns or reactions, we encourage you to be open and communicative so we can alter your meal plan to suit your needs and goals. It’s also why we recommend you regularly attend follow-ups — to stay on track and have your meal plan altered should it be necessary.

The initial consultation and meal plan are $230. We also offer packages — including Nutrigenomix Genetic Testing and personal training programs — to help you reach your health and wellness goals. A 30-minute follow-up is $80, and a 45-minute follow-up is $105. Any extra services, such as body fat testing or updating a meal plan, are also available for an additional fee.

Food allergy testing can be inaccurate and quite expensive. This is why we shy away from typical allergy tests. Instead, we use Nutrigenomix Genetic Testing to determine the foods that work the best with your body according to your genetics. We take a gentle cheek swab and send it to the lab, where dozens of your genetic markers are tested to provide a detailed and accurate report on which food sources work best for your genetic makeup.