Nutrition & Weight Loss

What is a Nutrition Consultation?
The purpose of nutrition consultations with Veronica Verhoff, MPH, RD, LDN is to instruct you in the use of specific dietary changes and nutritional aides for the promotion of optimal health and resistance to disease. During the session(s) you will learn how nutrition can bolster your vitality and quality of life, complement your exercise program or fitness regimen, and in many cases help you resolve specific health problems and reduce your need for costly medical treatments. A comprehensive overview and discussion generally takes 1-2 hours, depending on the complexity of one’s situation. This can be broken up into short sessions. Many people find that one consultation, together with the comprehensive report, provides all the information they need for their present purposes. Others find that they need an additional session to focus on an individual feature of their own current situation, or to focus on the results pending the outcome of medical treatments they are scheduled to receive.

Nutrition is an Integral Part of Health
Nutrition is the foundation of health and vitality, the source from which life and wellness flourish. Health and disease resistance depend on proper nutrition. The term integrate means to bring together or make complete, and thus nutrition is among the self-care domains that ultimately can enhance medicine, making treatments more effective, for example, and helping people rapidly reclaim their health and maintain it over the long term. Integrative medical and health experts regard nutrition as an essential facet of each patient’s self-care–no less important than exercise and stress management, and entirely complementary to established medical care.

In addition to its strong grounding in preventive medicine, the nutrition consultation can be of tremendous value to people facing a wide variety of health-related challenges: Cancer, Heart Disease, Cardiovascular problems, Diabetes, Obesity, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Musculoskeletal problems, allergies, skin problems, Constipation, Diarrhea, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers, headaches (including migraine), candida, Lyme disease, insomnia (or other sleep problems), anxiety, depression, mood disorders, memory and attention problems, hyperactivity, and age-related cognitive decline.

What follows are some basic examples of how an integrative approach to nutrition can improve your health and well-being.

Getting the most out of your diet. Most Americans lack a firsthand, experiential understanding of the health-promoting power of whole-foods nutrition. In addition, digestive function is very often poor as a result of imbalanced eating habits; it tends to decline with age and is often compromised in people with cancer. This is where chewing well, healthful cooking, and eating in a relaxed manner all come into play. Digestive enzymes and use of specific superfoods (e.g. green foods) can also make a difference.

Getting the most out of antioxidants and anti-inflammation strategies. Excessive oxidative stress–too many free radicals, not enough antioxidants–is now considered to be among the driving forces behind premature aging and many forms of chronic, degenerative disease. Free radical molecules diminish your physiological resources. The solution is not just to consider specific antioxidants and superfood concentrates, but also to avoid the various dietary and lifestyle sources of free radicals. Similarly, our tailored nutrition approach can greatly reduce and even obviate your need for costly anti-inflammatory drugs that have adverse health consequences if used on a regular basis for long periods of time.

Getting the most out of exercise. There is no doubt that exercise reduces stress and improves your digestion, metabolism, immunity, and overall health. But erratic activity or too much exercise can be harmful. Whenever you repeatedly over-tax your body, you cause it to age, and your risk of injury increases. Many of the same natural agents that are recommended for preventing such activity-related wear and tear also appear to be effective in curbing the aging process. Moreover, you can further improve your performance and body composition by timing protein and carbohydrate consumption appropriately around the time of exercise, while also using specific supplements.

Getting the most out of sleep. We sleep for a major portion of our lives. Specific foods, supplements, and lifestyle adjustments can enhance your sleep quality, and many of these methods work by supporting the pineal and pituitary glands. When you deepen your sleep, your healing potential increases and you experience much better energy, focus, and resilience in daily life.