Chronic Illness Coach

How do dietitians and nutritional consultants differ?

One question that I get asked a lot is, "How do dietitians and holistic or natural nutritional consultants differ?"

This is a really great question and, since I am not a dietitian, I felt that in the interest of accuracy, I would turn to a trusted colleague to answer it - Rebecca Bilodeau. Rebecca is a registered dietitian as well as a holistic nutritional consultant. She is a true professional with a very balanced perspective. I am lucky to have Rebecca as a friend and colleague, and I am fortunate to have her to refer clients to when necessary. I asked her the following questions:

Tell me about your training to become a dietitian

I completed a four-year Bachelor of Science degree in nutrition, followed by a one-year dietetic internship at an accredited hospital. Then to become a registered dietitian, I had to successfully write the national Canadian Dietetic Registration Exam. And to practice, I have to be registered with the provincial regulatory body, which requires a fair amount of continuing education every year to be maintained.

Why did you decide to train as a holistic nutritional consultant in addition to your B.Sc. in nutrition, and what training did that involve?

While growing up, I was exposed to 'complementary' health-care practices as a 'normal' approach to health. My dad is a conventionally trained oral and maxillofacial surgeon who, also being a certified acupuncturist, utilized this 'alternative' modality as a complementary treatment for temporomandibular joint (TMJ) issues, migraines, pain and more. Because of the type of work that he does, he would also often find abnormal tissue in the mouths of patients and he would guide them to improve their diet and subsequent nutritional status in an effort to reduce further abnormal tissue development. My parents also owned a health food store which offered whole foods and nutrition supplements.

Throughout my nutrition degree there was a large emphasis on utilizing nutrition as a way to prevent negative health effects and, of course, in preparation to become a clinical dietitian working in acute or chronic health care, we do spend a lot of time being trained in therapeutic nutrition - medical nutrition therapy for the prevention and treatment of disease.

As I began working though, I felt like there was so much more that we could be doing to promote optimal health and not just prevent deficiency and disease, so I started to seek other knowledge that I felt I needed to be truly effective in helping people live truly vital lives. Also, people are becoming more engaged in their health and are taking greater responsibility for it so it is important to me to have a wide knowledge base and keep up with people's interests and desires so that I can continue to be a trusted resource to them. In that effort, I have also completed a diploma in natural nutrition, trained at a culinary arts institute and became a holistic lifestyle coach.

Living Your Best Possible Life When You Have a Chronic Illness

My New Golden Rule will help you have a better life when you have a chronic illness. But before I tell you what it is, I want to say that if you aren’t following my frequent suggestion of giving compassion to any parts of your body that are hurting, I strongly encourage you to do that, because it works! Here are just two of many examples I know about:

1) A colleague of mine has a neighbor of who had been in a lot of pain for several weeks after her recent knee surgery. My colleague told her about my suggestion, and she began using it and experienced a remarkable and complete healing.

2) Over three recent days, my knee became more and more painful and swollen. I will never know for sure why, but the gradual onset of the pain matches what happens when the meniscus is torn. So I think I probably tore it on one of my occasional runs. It got so bad that I couldn’t sleep, and bending and straightening it was excruciating (which made walking very difficult and climbing stairs all but impossible). I went to the doctor, who prescribed a month’s worth of Advil and said I might need surgery.

I got home from the doctor’s office, took the first pill, and my knee started to heal. It continued to heal until, three days later, it had recovered completely (and I didn’t need any more pills after that first one). As I said, I don’t know what happened to my knee. But I have no doubt that all the love and compassion I gave it since the pain and swelling began were what enabled it to heal so quickly.

As I wrote at the beginning of this post, I strongly encourage you to give any parts of your body that are hurting lots and lots of compassion. And I hope you will share your results in a comment.

Now here is My New Golden Rule. It’s a modification of the Golden Rule, which as you probably know is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The Golden Rule comes from the New Testament of the Bible, but all major religions have similar maxims because the principle they are based on is so basic and important.

The New Golden Rule, which if you follow it will help you have a better life when you have a chronic illness, is this: “Do unto  yourself as you would have others do unto you.”