Your health is your most valuable asset. Without optimal health you can’t enjoy your career, wealth, relationships and the plethora of experiences life has to offer as fully nor as consciously.

Everyone knows nutrition is key to health. But when people want nutritional advice, it’s not always straightforward who to ask. There are nutritionists, naturopaths and dietitians. There’s also that guy at the gym or health food store selling supplements.

Let’s not forget GPs, pharmacists, Traditional chinese medicine practitioners, herbalists, raw food coaches, personal trainers, and other people working in the health industry that, qualified or not, are all privy to handing out nutritional advice.

What to choose… Medical or Holistic?

In the world of nutrition, my experience has been that the approaches used by nutrition professionals tend to fall under one of two labels: mainstream science and naturopathic. Alternative, holistic, complementary and natural are terms used interchangably with the naturopathic approach.

Those who practise in line with mainstream medical science use the objective evidence-base as a foundation for their entire approach. This is the realm of dietitians, who in addition to their qualification in human nutrition, have undertaken training including substantial theory and professional practice in clinical nutrition, medical nutrition therapy and food service management. Dietitians are trained to use both food and artificial supplementation to correct medically diagnosed diseases and carefully calculated deficiencies in patients.

On the other hand, a naturopath‘s approach to nutrition tends to be more “holistic”, and encourages minimal use of surgery and unnecessary drugs. The ideology focuses on naturally-occurring substances, minimally-invasive methods, and encouragement of natural healing. Naturopathic treatments range from standard evidence-based treatments, to homeopathy and other practices sometimes characterised unfavourably by the medical profession as pseudoscience.

Naturopaths who also call themselves nutritionists are generally less conservative in their approach to nutrition than dietitians, in that they may use unconventional diagnostic tools, and prescribe vitamin mega-doses, nutrient supplements and strict diets which are not accepted by mainstream medical and nutritional science.

As the burden of chronic disease expands, it is predicted that consumer demand for both medical nutrition professionals and alternative/naturopathic/holistic therapies will continue to grow. Although the public still largely trusts dietitians and often turns to them for the Medicare reimbursement advantage they provide, more and more consumers are digging into their own pockets and reaching out for alternative nutritional therapists. The body of scientific evidence for many alternative therapies is also growing.

The need for a new paradigm

Integrative medicine is a term used by a growing body of health practitioners and is defined as the best possible combination of conventional medicine and natural therapies to meet each client’s needs. Due to increased consumer demand, more Australian GPs, physiotherapists and other allied health professionals are currently undertaking or have already completed further study in alternative modalities on top of their base of clinical or hospital-based studies.

Integrative Nutrition, the combining of clinical western approaches with alternative (frequently eastern) dietary modalities, is not currently a widely-available option to Australians looking for something beyond a purely clinical or a purely naturopathic approach.

So far in Australia, naturopath/nutritionists and accredited practising dietitians have tended to oppose each other in both their capacity and approach to nutritional therapy. In the United States there is a growing trend towards integrated nutrition professionals, in the same line as doctors, physiotherapists and other allied health practitioners. Such an integrated service specifically for nutrition and offered by an APD is a very young concept in Australia.

My Vision

As an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Accredited Nutritionist, I have a clinical background and apply evidence-based principles which many clients still depend on for safety and peace of mind. I have also undertaken studies and have practical experience in natural nutrition, raw food therapy, Ayurveda, Chinese nutritional medicine, Yoga, and Ka Huna Bodywork.

To my knowledge, I am the only Australian APD to take an active interest in alternative modalities and decide to integrate them into an evidence-based practice. There are a number of prominent nutritionists who apply an integrated or “wholefoods” approach but as a dietitian my goal is to bring a complementary light to clinical dietetics, using natural therapies backed by a growing body of evidence, and applied in safe, practical and revolutionary ways to improve wellbeing and inner peace. 

I want more people in this country to have access to integrated services through Medicare and health fund rebates, rather than having to fork out the entire consultation fee from their own pockets just for the privilege of accessing naturopathic and traditional nutritional wisdom.

Considering the workforce shortage in private dietetics addressing the needs of patients in the early stages of chronic disease, the increasing burden of chronic disease, growing consumer demand for alternative approaches to health, and the positive feedback I’ve received from a prototype service, I feel the need for an integrated approach to nutrition in this country is not only necessary but is pressing.

I would love to hear your comments as I work to make my vision a reality and set up one of the first integrated nutrition private practices in Australia. If you wish to be a part of this nutritional revolution and discover the benefits it may have for you, drop me an email at casey@greensmoothieyoga.com. I’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas and opinions as I develop a new nutritional model for the 21st century.