i saw a nutritionist today...

mzmoonlight

I saw an NHS (UK) registered dietician today and she was really helpful, I thought I'd write about it in case it can help some of you too.

I'd asked to see her because I keep getting ill (at least once a month) and wanted to check whether my nutrition was causing me problems. Last week I got my blood test results back and everything was in the right level so at this point I was not too concerned but good to double check.

She looked at my diet, which consists of oatbran with goji berries or dried apricots for breakfast, sushi or eggs or sardines for lunch, sweet potato or quinoa, lots of veggies and beef/salmon/chicken/turkey for dinner. I snack on nuts and yogurt and fruit. She said it was pretty much perfect, if she would change anything she would increase carbs a bit but nothing too drastic. She was also really impressed with my level of expertise on the subject of nutrition and at one point said she felt she couldnt help me as I am so aware but I said I am not an expert and thats why I wanted to see her to make sure I wasnt missing anything too obvious. She said there is no way that my diet is causing me to get ill and she doesnt think its the exercise either.

I talked to her about my night eating (NES) that some of you kindly talked to me about the other day and helped me to realise it is an actual condition. She said she had heard of it because she saw a programme on it but hasnt come across anyone else with it personally. She said the best thing to do is to make sure I dont have anything too calorific to hand at night and just continue munching on carrots when I go to eat - but she said I should discuss it further with my doctor. I'd read that some sleeping pills can cause NES so I stopped taking them a few days ago to test and they dont seem to be a cause. Incidently, the dietician thinks that my chronic insomnia is what is making me ill.

I had changed to whole milk on my cereal because a personal trainer told me to (he said it has essential fatty acids that I need) but the dietician said skimmed is fine and if you get plenty of eggs, nuts, salmon etc in your diet then you will get your essential fatty acids from them.

She said cholesterol in your arteries is not directly linked to the food you eat, which I found interesting. I will do some more research on that.

I asked her about sweeteners. I use them but I am aware of the controversy around them. She said the reason people are wary is because in some rats its caused bowel cancer but there is no evidence at all that this transfers to humans and I shouldnt be worried. (I actually bought some nectar agave the other day but havent used it yet)

She also said to be wary of very low sodium stock cubes/gravy because they put potassium in instead of sodium but the potassium is sometimes at very high levels, so its better to have a normal stock as long as you dont have them too often.

lvfunandfit

Very interesting (esp the parts about the low sodium soups and cholesterol not being linked to food we eat-I'd like to research those as well)...thanks for sharing.

mzmoonlight

No worries. Yes, no direct link (although there is likely to be an indirect link), its funny I assumed fat in food transfers to cholesterol but apparently not that simple... should have guessed really. I'd love to study nutrition, I find it fascinating!