Ever Wonder What a Nutritionist Can Do For You?

According to Cheryl Kestenbaum, a certified health coach and nutritionist at ColumbiaDoctors Medical Group in Hawthorne, a lot!

For starters, says Kestenbaum, she will do a comprehensive overview of your life style, including what you eat, where you eat, and what your typical day is like.

Kestenbaum also likes patients to keep a journal of their food intake for at least five days before they come to see her.  The journal helps her to analyze not only what people are eating, but also their habits, budgets, work schedules, and cultural choices, as well as what is available to them.

“This way, we can tailor things that are realistic to meet their needs,” she says.

Some other things you will learn from a nutritionist include:

• How to shop
• Reading food labels
• How to distinguish healthy from unhealthy foods
• Learning to make smarter choices
• Snacking tricks
• The importance of how meals are timed

Kestenbaum says she focuses on finding things that people can eat, not on what they can’t eat.

“I find that when you focus on all the foods that are off limits, it just doesn’t work.”  So instead, she shows people all the choices they have.

“I also give them tricks so that they say, ‘ok, I can do this.’”

Kestenbaum says she encourages people, especially cardiac patients, to look for low-sodium foods, to choose more lean protein, and to limit the amount of healthy fats they consume.

To make changes to overall health, Kestenbaum says, it is necessary to maintain a healthy, balanced diet for life.

Kestenbaum says her job is also to help people determine how many calories they should consume and then give them ongoing support. For those who are overweight, maintaining weight is as important as losing it.