Teaching Healthy Nutrition . . .

Through Nutrition Counseling & Food Nutrition Facts

"I believe in treating chronic conditions without the use of pharmaceuticals". Susan Blum, MD

Our approach to nutrition at The Center for Nutritional Medicine is to teach each person the 'medical importance' of the foods they eat.

Healthy Nutrition Begins with The Core Components of Food Nutrition

The core components of what to eat include healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and lean protein, including vegetable sources of protein such as nuts, seeds, legumes and beans. The main issue with how to eat is related to eating regular meals and not allowing your body to fast, because that shifts your hormones into starvation mode and negatively affects your metabolism.

This translates into eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and an afternoon snack. Each meal should include protein, both because your body needs it for maintenance of your structural proteins, and also because it will reduce the body response to the sugar in your meal and you will secrete less insulin. This is important for both metabolism and diabetes prevention. Protein also helps you to feel more satisfied and full when you eat.

Protein includes animal sources, such as chicken, turkey and fish, but also vegetable sources such as soy, beans and nuts.

More specific recommendations can be found in our "Healthy Eating Guidelines" which each patient receives during the initial consultation.

Food Nutrition Facts: All Calories Are Not The Same

At the Center we believe that all calories are not the same and it is important to get positive nutritional value out of all the food we put in our mouths. Therefore, counting calories is not the way to ideal health. Calories with no nutritional value, such as snack food or sweets, are damaging to the metabolism and to your health. And calories with high amounts of saturated or trans-fats are pro-inflammatory, and will increase your risk of many chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure.

When individuals are educated about what to choose, food with positive nutritional value, and they understand about portion control and not overeating, ultimately their body will equalize at their ideal weight. A healthy metabolism is achieved by choosing healthy foods, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with an afternoon snack, and exercising regularly.

Over time, this nutritional approach will result in a healed metabolism, general good health and vitality, and a reduced risk of chronic disease.

Understand How To Make Better Choices Through Nutrition Counseling

For obvious reasons, nutritional counseling is a core component of our practice. Many patients have chronic medical conditions that have inflammation as their core process. Diet is extremely important for inflammation as many foods such as bad fats, simple sugars, dairy and gluten in some people, are pro-inflammatory. Also, many people have symptoms that are triggered by food, and it is medically important to determine how diet is affecting the disease and how to change that.

Nutrition counseling is also key because most people need to learn the basics so they can make better food choices for good health. (see above)

But nutrition counseling is also a core part of the treatment plan we use when treating different medical conditions. It can be as simple as reviewing basic healthy eating for the long term goals of health and vitality. It is often more specific and tailored to each individual, especially when using elimination diets, or special medical foods that are actually treating the medical condition. In this case, the food is the medicine. Dr. Blum spends much of the time during your consultation teaching and explaining this because it is so important.

Are you Ready to Learn More About Healthy Nutrition?

There’s no better time than now to begin your journey toward good health! Contact The Center for Nutritional Medicine about our Foundational Nutrition Program today.