Clinical Holistic Nutritional Counseling differs significantly from traditional dietician (sometimes also called nutritionists) guidelines in several ways.

Clinical holistic nutritional counseling is inclusive of the individual’s many facets of life experience, beyond the limits of physical symptomatology.  This is in contrast to dieticians’ traditional, allopathic medical model.  The allopathic dietician paradigm is a deconstructive one, focused on the separate symptoms and diagnoses identified by their physician colleagues.

For example, if you have received a diagnosis of headache caused by low blood sugar levels, a dietician program might recommend increased frequency of meals. Clinical holistic nutritional counseling will likely also include the recommendation of more frequent meals but also the increase in protein and fiber levels within those meals, a reduction/elimination of processed sugars, an evaluation of bowel and adrenal function as well as stress levels, relaxation and stress management techniques, and much more depending on individual needs.

Second, clinical holistic nutritionists practice nutritional recommendations based on the concepts of biochemical individuality espoused by nobel laureate Roger Williams (Williams 1956). These concepts include the idea that each individual will have unique and varying nutritional needs for specific nutrients based on life circumstances, stress, age, genetics, diet, and much more. And that these needs will change over time.

Dieticians practice nutritional recommendations based on the recommended daily allowances (RDA) established by the United States government. These guidelines are intended to meet the needs of populations at large, and are not specific to individual circumstances. For example, a body that is in ideal health will not have the same nutritional needs as one that is experiencing high stress.

Third, clinical holistic nutrition is based in part on the need to compensate for modern farming and food manufacturing processes. A degradation in American farming practices (see Bernard Jensen and Mark Anderson’s book, Empty Harvest) (Jensen, Anderson 1990) combined with an ever-increasing level of food processing has made the Standard American Diet (SAD) sorely lacking in nutrients. These facts combined with the intensely varying biochemical individuality within and among individuals provide the basis of the clinical holistic nutritionist’s view that it is a rare person indeed who is able to achieve wellbeing without nutritional supplementation at least on an occasional basis.

Dieticians tend to practice nutritional recommendations based on the belief that food alone is adequate to achieve wellbeing. In other words, they do not generally recommend food supplementation such as vitamins, herbs, etc.

In general, holistic nutritional counseling uses nutrition and other natural approaches to wellness to balance the mind, body, and spirit connection. It is based on the belief that in balance lies overall wellbeing. And in wellbeing, aging is an opportunity to grow wiser, to have more fun, to fulfill your destiny