What’s the Difference Between Nutrition Education and Nutrition Counseling?

Good nutrition can transform your life; it supports pregnancy, postpartum, breastfeeding, hormonal balance, perimenopause, weight maintenance, cardiovascular health, and much more. However, it is challenging (and often impossible) to wade through all the nutrition information (and misinformation) out there. With so much contradiction and nuance, how do you know what nutrition strategies are right for you?

That’s where nutrition counseling comes in. Working with a registered dietitian nutritionist (RD or RDN) helps you take actionable steps to reach your health goals, with a caring, personalized, and non-judgmental approach. Part of the process includes nutrition education, but it’s also so much more.

Keep reading to learn more about how Lizzy Swick Nutrition can help you feel confident in your nutrition choices, knowing what works for your body. In this article, I’ll cover:

• Nutrition counseling and medical nutrition therapy
• Nutrition counseling vs. education
• The benefits of nutrition counseling with a nutritional counselor, like a registered dietitian nutritionist (i.e., what can a dietitian do for me?)
• What to expect during a nutrition consultation at Lizzy Swick Nutrition

What is Nutritional Counseling?

Nutrition counseling, sometimes called dietary counseling or nutritional therapy, involves working one-on-one with a registered dietitian nutritionist or other nutrition expert. You’ll receive personalized nutrition advice and guidance to help you reach your health goals: weight loss, fertility concerns, PCOS, cardio-metabolic health or even perimenopausal symptoms. Nutrition counseling combines the science of nutrition with the art of counseling.

Personalized Guidance Based on Nutritional Risk

Your registered dietitian will consider your goals, medical history, genetics, current diet, lifestyle factors, and other factors to design a nutrition plan tailored to your specific needs. The process is client-centered and called medical nutrition therapy. It can complement other interventions with your healthcare team.

At Lizzy Swick Nutrition, nutrition counseling isn’t a top-down process where I prescribe a meal plan and act as the food police, forcefully mandating that you follow it. It’s actually a very collaborative process, and you’re involved in every step. My tone is supportive, compassionate and curious.

What is Nutritional Education?

Nutrition education is just as it sounds: learning new things about food and nutrition. I offer free nutrition education through my articles and social media posts. This information is more general and geared toward a wider audience. It’s for educational purposes and not nutritional advice or diet counseling. While it may apply to you and reflects my nutrition philosophy and experience over the last 15 years, it’s not personalized.

Opportunities to Gain Knowledge and Skills

Nutrition education can involve reading nutrition books, group classes, nutrition presentations, cooking instruction, and more. There are so many resources to improve your nutrition knowledge, skill set in the kitchen, and for overall healthy living. You can gather a lot of information from a nutrition educator, but nutrition education can’t replace an individual nutrition consult.

Do Nutritional Counseling and Nutrition Education Fit Together?

Nutrition counseling and education are different yet connected. You can have education without counseling, and counseling has an educational component.

Nutrition Education is Part of Nutritional Counseling

Nutrition education is always a part of nutrition counseling, as your dietitian consultation includes education on specific topics relevant to your situation and goals. Along with nutrition education, you’ll also get support with implementing nutrition changes and building new habits into your routine.

Benefits of Nutrition Counseling

It’s common to seek nutrition counseling when you have tried piecing a dietary plan together yourself without effect and find something is missing in your medical care. Sometimes, nutrition is a last resort when nothing else has worked. I’d argue that nutrition should be the first foundational piece to explore with any health challenge or goal. Starting with nutrition (or picking it up at any point in your journey) has many benefits.

Meet with Your Clinician Virtually

Instead of googling “nutrition counseling near me,” know that virtual nutrition counseling is possible from the comfort of your home. At Lizzy Swick Nutrition, we work with clients throughout the country using zoom or old fashion phone calls.

Make Informed Decisions About Your Health

The benefits of a nutritionist relationship include support around making informed decisions about your health (this is where nutrition education can play a big role). Dietitians and nutritionists don’t give medical guidance but can help you determine the supportive nutrition, lifestyle, and holistic approaches to consider.

Empower Yourself for Life with Nutritional Education

Understanding nutrition, especially in the context of your body’s needs, empowers you to navigate the ever-changing nutrition landscape as you go through different life phases. If I do my job right, you won’t need me every time a nutrition concern arises; you’ll have the skills, resources, and inner wisdom to make good choices for your health.

What Happens During Nutrition Counseling?

If you haven’t had a nutritionist consultation before, it’s helpful to know what to expect. At Lizzy Swick Nutrition, you’ll start by completing comprehensive paperwork and a food log that your dietitian will review before your first appointment.

The first appointment is a comprehensive session where we’ll dive into many aspects of your health and nutrition, informing the nutrition plan, personalized educational tools, and resources we put together for you.

After the initial appointment, you’ll have follow-ups designed to help you implement the plan and troubleshoot any barriers that arise. You’ll have weekly support as you build new habits and make changes.

Let’s look at some aspects of the first nutrition counseling appointment.

Review Current Health and Medical History

We’ll talk about your current health, symptoms you’re experiencing, and the health goals you want to achieve. I’ll ask you about your story and how you arrived here today. Your story is significant as it gives clues to root causes and connections to help us personalize your nutrition plan. It’s so healing to tell your story; at Lizzy Swick Nutrition, we take the time to listen.

Demonstrate Good Nutritional Choices

Most clients already have some good habits and choices in place. Instead of changing everything you’re doing, we help you highlight everything already working and use that as a foundation. Then, we can build upon the foundation.

Prioritize Dietary Changes

Habits are strong forces. Replacing undesired habits with new ones is challenging and takes time. Through the process of nutrition counseling, you’ll discover tools and strategies to help you prioritize dietary changes and make them a consistent part of your life.

Set Dietary and Nutritional Goals

Goal setting is another part of nutrition counseling and your first appointment with your dietitian. It’s essential to set specific and achievable goals and have accountability over time as you make changes.

Create a Customized Nutrition Plan

Following your initial appointment with Lizzy Swick Nutrition, you’ll receive a detailed, personalized, comprehensive nutrition plan that contains:

• Nutrition education
• Specific nutrition goals and action steps
• Nutrition analysis and macronutrient targets
• Measures of success for tracking
• Food lists
• Recipes and meal suggestions
• Daily meal timing suggestions
• Supplement recommendations
• Recommendations for helpful lab tests
• Lifestyle recommendations, including sleep, exercise, and stress management

Over time, typically three months, we’ll support you in implementing your nutrition plans and tracking your progress toward your goals.

What is an Example of Nutrition Counseling?

Counseling for nutrition can take many shapes, but Lizzy Swick Nutrition primarily focuses on women’s health concerns, including:

• Weight loss (fat loss)
• Blood sugar management and cardio-metabolic health
• Fertility and preconception nutrition
• Pregnancy and Postpartum
• Perimenopause
• Digestive wellness
• Autoimmune disease
• Hormone balance

Nutrition counseling becomes the compassionate container to work on your health challenges. With a skilled practitioner like our team at Lizzy Swick Nutrition, it’s truly a transformative experience. We’d love to be a part of your healing journey.