Nutrition Therapy
Our Approach to Treatment

The Nutrition Department offers nutrition therapy for those suffering from eating disorders and/or disordered eating.

As a team of highly qualified and experienced registered dietitians (R.D.s), we offer nutrition therapy to help patients overcome many types of disordered eating, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating, overeating and emotional eating. We work with children, adolescents and adults in a supportive, encouraging and non-judgmental way. The goal of treatment is to help you stabilize your medical condition, normalize your food intake, create healthier eating behaviors and develop a healthy relationship with food.

• Appointments

Appointments

The initial individual nutrition therapy assessment session lasts 75 minutes. This session includes a comprehensive assessment of eating patterns and typical food intake, weight history, disordered eating history, exercise patterns, body image concerns, supplement use and identification of any gastrointestinal symptoms.

Follow-up visits may be weekly or less frequent and last between 20 to 45 minutes depending on a patient's individual needs.

We work together with patients and their families, if appropriate, to tailor the focus of the treatment program, as well as frequency of follow-up visits. The goals and strategies of treatment are unique to each patient and are developed with the assistance of an R.D.

What is covered during a typical nutrition therapy session?

• Nutrition education, including how much and what kinds of carbohydrates, proteins and fats your body needs
• Education on metabolic rate and the effect that restricting, bingeing, purging and yo-yo dieting have on metabolism
• Identification of beliefs about food, weight and body issues that might be contributing to the disordered behaviors
• Understanding of internal and external cues related to food and body
• Structured meal plans using an exchange system when appropriate
• Overcoming challenges with fear foods and social-eating environments, as well as learning how to feel comfortable eating in all types of social settings
• Portion size education and how to eat in a balanced, moderate way with an increasing variety of foods
• Intuitive eating or non-diet approach in which you create a healthy relationship with food, mind and body; learn how to distinguish between physical and emotional hungers; and make peace with all foods and decrease your time spent thinking about food
• Healthy exercise goals including how much exercise you need to be healthy
• Nutritional supplement assessment and requirements and/or recommendations

Eating disorders are complex conditions with multiple causes, all of which require a team of health professionals to support and help the patient through recovery. PAMF's nutrition therapy team consists of a nutrition therapist/registered dietitian (R.D.), primary care physician (M.D.), psychiatrist (M.D.) and psychotherapist (Ph.D., MFT or LCSW).

To schedule an appointment with an R.D., call 650-853 2961 for Palo Alto and 510- 498-2184 for Fremont.

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