What is nutritional counseling?
Research suggests that up to 70% of cancers are lifestyle induced and ultimately preventable. This means that what we eat has a tremendous influence on the health of our bodies, our immune systems, and our abilities to manage cancerous processes. Talking with someone who has professional dietary training can greatly influence your journey with cancer.

 How can it help?
Diet can play several different roles in your healing journey and it helps to have guidance along the way. An educated practitioner can help you make the healthiest choices to boost your natural defenses and support your immune system. By reducing foods in your diet that are processed and refined, you naturally increase foods that provide you the most nourishment in order to heal. You also reduce the effort it takes to process and eliminate junk foods and release that energy to address other areas in your body that need attention.

 It can also be incredibly helpful to work with someone who can provide the best diet plan for chemo or radiation. What nutrients will your body need more of? What types of foods might make you more nauseated and will you want to avoid? These are important questions that, with the right guidance, can change your treatment experience.

 What happens in an appointment?
This depends on who you see, of course. Naturopaths are extensively trained in nutrition and will often include dietary guidance as part of a larger treatment plan. Nutritional counselors or dieticians may meet with you a few times to discuss what your typical diet has been, what your challenges to making changes are, and how to implement their recommendations. Some practitioners may join you at a grocery store to help you discover new foods and teach you how to read labels, and some will even provide cooking classes to help you make dietary changes.