Selected Podcast
Benefits of Working With a Dietician and What to Expect
Brooke Jacob discusses the benefits of working with a dietician and what to expect during the process.
Featuring:
Brooke Jacob MS, RD, CDE
Brooke Jacob is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator for ChristianaCare. She is currently the Program Manager for the Nutrition Services Department. She holds a bachelor’s degree in applied nutrition from the University of Delaware, completed her dietetic internship from The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and obtained a master’s degree in health promotion from the University of Delaware. She has been practicing as a dietitian for approximately 18 years and has a varied background in acute and long-term care and has also been a diabetes educator for eight years. She enjoys guiding patients through their journey of making behavior changes to improve their overall health. Her goal is to spread the word about the weight loss and nutrition services programs that ChristianaCare has to offer. Transcription:
Melanie Cole (Host): This is ChristianaCare’s Moving Freely podcast series. I’m Melanie Cole and today we’re talking about the benefits of working with a dietician and what you can expect. Our speaker represents ChristianaCare Weight Management, a program that uses healthcare experts such as dieticians, exercise and behavioral specialists to help people lose weight and keep it off. Joining me, is Brooke Jacob. She’s a Registered Dietician, Certified Diabetes Educator and the Program Manager of Nutrition services at ChristianaCare. Brooke, I’m so glad to have you with us today. I’d like to start by clearing up for the listeners, what’s the difference between a dietician and a nutritionist?
Brooke Jacob, MS, RD, CDE (Guest): Well a dietician has a four year degree from accredited university and they also do an internship which is about a year long and then they sit for an exam. So, they are also licensed in most states. Where a nutritionist they may or may not have gone to school and their credentials may kind of vary. So, if you have a registered dietician and you go to a registered dietician; you know that you are going to the expert on nutrition.
Host: Well that’s certainly well-said. So, what are some common misconceptions you’ve heard before Brooke about what happens at a visit with a registered dietician. Sometimes people might think oh you’re just going to give them a strict diet to follow or that everybody gets a cookie cutter diet. What really happens at that visit?
Brooke: Well I think a lot of people initially are scared or nervous about coming to a dietician. I think they feel that maybe they can’t tell us exactly what they are eating because we might yell at them or tell them no, they are doing a bad job. But it’s actually quite the opposite. When you come in to see a dietician, and you tell them everything you are currently doing and everything you are currently eating and are open and honest; we can really help to work with you to make small simple changes that can really last a lifetime and help you on your goal to weightloss.
Host: Well that’s very true. So, can you help manage diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic conditions that people might be suffering from along with whatever dietary needs they have?
Brooke: Definitely. Dieticians are trained not only to help you lose weight but to help with those chronic conditions like you just said; high blood pressure, diabetes, even getting information for prediabetes so that your prediabetes doesn’t turn into diabetes. We work with kidney disease. If you have any food allergies, let’s say you are intolerant to gluten and have celiac disease; we can really work through any of those issues. Or if you just need help for sports nutrition or you just want to be healthier overall. The dietician is the perfect person to come to, to help you with that.
Host: And what about pregnancy and I’m glad you mentioned sports medicine, sports nutrition. That’s a huge field right now and of course diabetes and celiac and gluten; there are so many digestive issues these days. But pregnancy is it’s own thing and women are not sure what to eat, they are not sure what to eat when they are breastfeeding. Do you help with that as well?
Brooke: So, it’s optimal. We can help you be healthy pretty much at any point in your life and with anything that you might be going through as far as a disease process or something like pregnancy or something like food allergies. So, we’re there to pretty much help you and I think what you really need to know when you come in is to be able to describe what you need and then the dietician can really help prepare a personalized plan for that.
Host: Well so I’m glad you brought up what you need to do when you are planning to come there. Do you recommend Brooke, that for that first appointment, they bring in a food diary, a food journal, like a week’s worth of what they’ve been eating, any symptoms that they might have experienced after eating. Any of those kinds of things, because will that help you to determine how they should move forward with their dietary needs?
Brooke: Yes. We usually like at least a three-day food diary and that’s from everything that you are eating and drinking. That even includes the little condiments that you might put on your food like mayonnaise, ketchup, anything that you are eating and drinking. That really helps us map out what you are doing for the day. It’s also great to include a weekend day because sometimes what you eat on the weekend isn’t quite what you would eat on a weekday. That really helps us start from a fresh starting point to see where we need to make improvements and to help you learn and see what you’re doing. Sometimes the patient can look at what they’ve been doing and say oh yeah, look, I’ve been doing this, and you didn’t even realize it.
Host: Well that’s really a good point. So, on your end, how do you come up with goals and a diet for the patient? What kinds of things are you looking at because it really has evolved, your profession over the years as we’ve learned more about plant-based and whole foods and non-processed foods and how do you come up with those goals and a diet for the patient?
Brooke: Well it’s very individualized. I’m going to look at your food diary and we’ll look at it together and we’ll also take it into account whatever disease processes you might have going on and what your goals are. If your goals are to lose weight, we might just start by looking at are we drinking beverages with calories. What are you willing to change? Maybe we do a water for some of the sodas that you might be drinking. Or maybe we find a flavored water that has no calories. So, there are so many options and it really depends on the person that the dietician is working with.
It's important to set small doable goals. It’s really nice to say oh I’m going to never eat this again, but we try to make it realistic and small goals that are doable for the patient or the client and then we follow up and see how they did with the next visit which could be in a week or a few weeks depending on the schedule.
Host: So, how do people make an appointment with you Brooke?
Brooke: So, they could call our office to make an appointment with Weight Management. They can reach us at 302-623-3475. And then we can start from there.
Host: Well thank you for that information. As we conclude, your best advice as a Registered Dietician, for people that are looking to visit with a dietician, maybe for the first time, whether it’s for weight loss or to help with their diabetes or other digestive issues; what do you want them to know as your best advice about eating healthy and how food can impact so much of our health.
Brooke: My best advice would be take it one step at a time. Don’t beat yourself up if it was a bad day and set small goals that are doable and make you feel good and fit into your life and your schedule.
Host: Thank you Brooke so much for coming on and telling us what we can expect with a visit from a dietician. We could all use that. Thank you again for joining us. And that concludes this episode of ChristianaCare’s Moving Freely podcast series. For more information regarding weightloss programs or to schedule an appointment with Weight Management team, please call 302-623-2475 or you can visit www.christiancare.org for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other ChristianaCare podcasts. For more health tips and updates please follow us on your social channels. I’m Melanie Cole.
Melanie Cole (Host): This is ChristianaCare’s Moving Freely podcast series. I’m Melanie Cole and today we’re talking about the benefits of working with a dietician and what you can expect. Our speaker represents ChristianaCare Weight Management, a program that uses healthcare experts such as dieticians, exercise and behavioral specialists to help people lose weight and keep it off. Joining me, is Brooke Jacob. She’s a Registered Dietician, Certified Diabetes Educator and the Program Manager of Nutrition services at ChristianaCare. Brooke, I’m so glad to have you with us today. I’d like to start by clearing up for the listeners, what’s the difference between a dietician and a nutritionist?
Brooke Jacob, MS, RD, CDE (Guest): Well a dietician has a four year degree from accredited university and they also do an internship which is about a year long and then they sit for an exam. So, they are also licensed in most states. Where a nutritionist they may or may not have gone to school and their credentials may kind of vary. So, if you have a registered dietician and you go to a registered dietician; you know that you are going to the expert on nutrition.
Host: Well that’s certainly well-said. So, what are some common misconceptions you’ve heard before Brooke about what happens at a visit with a registered dietician. Sometimes people might think oh you’re just going to give them a strict diet to follow or that everybody gets a cookie cutter diet. What really happens at that visit?
Brooke: Well I think a lot of people initially are scared or nervous about coming to a dietician. I think they feel that maybe they can’t tell us exactly what they are eating because we might yell at them or tell them no, they are doing a bad job. But it’s actually quite the opposite. When you come in to see a dietician, and you tell them everything you are currently doing and everything you are currently eating and are open and honest; we can really help to work with you to make small simple changes that can really last a lifetime and help you on your goal to weightloss.
Host: Well that’s very true. So, can you help manage diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic conditions that people might be suffering from along with whatever dietary needs they have?
Brooke: Definitely. Dieticians are trained not only to help you lose weight but to help with those chronic conditions like you just said; high blood pressure, diabetes, even getting information for prediabetes so that your prediabetes doesn’t turn into diabetes. We work with kidney disease. If you have any food allergies, let’s say you are intolerant to gluten and have celiac disease; we can really work through any of those issues. Or if you just need help for sports nutrition or you just want to be healthier overall. The dietician is the perfect person to come to, to help you with that.
Host: And what about pregnancy and I’m glad you mentioned sports medicine, sports nutrition. That’s a huge field right now and of course diabetes and celiac and gluten; there are so many digestive issues these days. But pregnancy is it’s own thing and women are not sure what to eat, they are not sure what to eat when they are breastfeeding. Do you help with that as well?
Brooke: So, it’s optimal. We can help you be healthy pretty much at any point in your life and with anything that you might be going through as far as a disease process or something like pregnancy or something like food allergies. So, we’re there to pretty much help you and I think what you really need to know when you come in is to be able to describe what you need and then the dietician can really help prepare a personalized plan for that.
Host: Well so I’m glad you brought up what you need to do when you are planning to come there. Do you recommend Brooke, that for that first appointment, they bring in a food diary, a food journal, like a week’s worth of what they’ve been eating, any symptoms that they might have experienced after eating. Any of those kinds of things, because will that help you to determine how they should move forward with their dietary needs?
Brooke: Yes. We usually like at least a three-day food diary and that’s from everything that you are eating and drinking. That even includes the little condiments that you might put on your food like mayonnaise, ketchup, anything that you are eating and drinking. That really helps us map out what you are doing for the day. It’s also great to include a weekend day because sometimes what you eat on the weekend isn’t quite what you would eat on a weekday. That really helps us start from a fresh starting point to see where we need to make improvements and to help you learn and see what you’re doing. Sometimes the patient can look at what they’ve been doing and say oh yeah, look, I’ve been doing this, and you didn’t even realize it.
Host: Well that’s really a good point. So, on your end, how do you come up with goals and a diet for the patient? What kinds of things are you looking at because it really has evolved, your profession over the years as we’ve learned more about plant-based and whole foods and non-processed foods and how do you come up with those goals and a diet for the patient?
Brooke: Well it’s very individualized. I’m going to look at your food diary and we’ll look at it together and we’ll also take it into account whatever disease processes you might have going on and what your goals are. If your goals are to lose weight, we might just start by looking at are we drinking beverages with calories. What are you willing to change? Maybe we do a water for some of the sodas that you might be drinking. Or maybe we find a flavored water that has no calories. So, there are so many options and it really depends on the person that the dietician is working with.
It's important to set small doable goals. It’s really nice to say oh I’m going to never eat this again, but we try to make it realistic and small goals that are doable for the patient or the client and then we follow up and see how they did with the next visit which could be in a week or a few weeks depending on the schedule.
Host: So, how do people make an appointment with you Brooke?
Brooke: So, they could call our office to make an appointment with Weight Management. They can reach us at 302-623-3475. And then we can start from there.
Host: Well thank you for that information. As we conclude, your best advice as a Registered Dietician, for people that are looking to visit with a dietician, maybe for the first time, whether it’s for weight loss or to help with their diabetes or other digestive issues; what do you want them to know as your best advice about eating healthy and how food can impact so much of our health.
Brooke: My best advice would be take it one step at a time. Don’t beat yourself up if it was a bad day and set small goals that are doable and make you feel good and fit into your life and your schedule.
Host: Thank you Brooke so much for coming on and telling us what we can expect with a visit from a dietician. We could all use that. Thank you again for joining us. And that concludes this episode of ChristianaCare’s Moving Freely podcast series. For more information regarding weightloss programs or to schedule an appointment with Weight Management team, please call 302-623-2475 or you can visit www.christiancare.org for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other ChristianaCare podcasts. For more health tips and updates please follow us on your social channels. I’m Melanie Cole.