Nutrition Services

What is healthy eating? Aside from what you eat, healthy eating includes how much you eat, when you eat, and even how and why you eat. Good nutrition and healthy eating habits can maximize your energy levels to help you feel good throughout the day. Eating properly can help manage certain medical conditions and can help decrease the risk of developing chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers.

Do you know about our nutrition services? At the PCN, our registered dietitians provide nutrition education through group classes and individual appointments.

Our nutrition services can help you:

Learn how to eat properly for your body
Meet daily nutrient needs from food
Use food to help manage your medical conditions
Eat according to your body’s hunger and fullness levels
Eat to maximize energy levels and manage food cravings

Working individually with a dietitian involves an initial 60 minute nutrition appointment to review your current eating habits. Your dietitian will work with you to determine your personal long term goals such as improving meal timing, managing blood sugar levels, or managing a medical condition. Our dietitians use a non-dieting approach to help you make sustainable and realistic changes.

Our dietitians have three different roles:

Educator: There are many mixed messages around nutrition and food. It may be common to hear opposing information from the media, your friends and family, and even different health care providers. Our dietitians can help answer your food and nutrition questions and provide recommendations that are supported by research and evidence.
Coach: Making changes to your eating habits can be challenging. Our dietitians can help you figure out your short and long term goals; how do you want to see your eating habits change over time? Our dietitians can individualize the information to meet your needs; you’ll learn specific step-by-step ideas that you can try.
Detective: Knowing what and how much to eat does not make healthy eating easy. Our dietitians try to understand your challenges and barriers to making changes. We ask many questions so that we can figure out the best solutions and ideas to offer you.

Working with a dietitian may help you learn new skills to improve eating habits, including how to:

Plan balanced meals to meet nutrient and energy needs
Read nutrition food label information at the grocery store to help you make healthier choices
Renovate your environment to increase nutritious options available
Slow down the pace of eating and increase awareness of your body’s hunger and fullness cues
Set specific and achievable weekly or monthly nutrition goals

Changing eating habits can be challenging! Our dietitians work with you to take the confusion out of food so that you can have more energy for your daily activities. If you are interested in nutrition services at the Edmonton North PCN, ask your doctor today for a referral.

Nutrition Services