Dietitians can help you with so much more than just weight loss. Dietitians can also help with:

• weight gain
• improving your relationships with food
• transitioning to a plant-based diet (vegetarian/vegan) in a healthy way
• sports nutrition
• heart health, including managing cholesterol and blood pressure
• managing your blood sugars
• fatty liver
• women’s health issues including PCOS
• digestive health
• and any other condition that is related to food, nutrition or diet

The “Dietitian” title can only be used by individuals who have completed a 4-year degree in nutrition and additional 1-year internship. The College of Dietitians of Ontario regulates all dietitians in the province to ensure that they’re practicing ethically and responsibly in order to protect the public. By seeing a dietitian, you can be assured that you’re getting the most up-to-date, evidence-based nutrition advice.

Registered Holistic Nutritionists complete a 1-year nutrition certificate and 50-hours of clinical placements. However, unlike Registered Dietitians and other health professionals, they are not regulated by the province and have their own code of ethics and professional standards.

In Ontario, anyone can call themselves a Nutritionist. Because of this, training, education and experience can vary widely.

It’s a common myth that because dietitians are regulated health professionals, they must follow Canada’s Food Guide. Canada’s Food Guide is one of the possible tools used in the sessions, but definitely not the only resource. Dietitians are trained to assess individual and lifestyle factors to create and teach personalized nutrition plans.

My office is located at 125 Commerce Valley Dr W in Markham, ON but all sessions are virtual as my clients have found it more convenient since moving toward remote work during COVID. However, I am gauging interest in office sessions, so if you are interested in being seen in-person, please let me know!

You can get started by booking a discovery call with me. In this call, we’ll chat about my nutrition approach, what you can expect when you work with me, and most importantly, if we’re a good fit for one another. Alternatively, if you know you’re ready to begin, you can jump right to booking the initial assessment.

Every person is different, which is why the initial appointment is so important. We’ll review your eating habits and lifestyle factors including social life, work hours, family responsibilities, exercise, and health history (i.e. health conditions, medications). This is usually followed by a discussion of your goals and reasons for wanting to see a dietitian. This gives me the information necessary to form a ‘nutrition diagnosis’, or the identification of areas of improvement. We finish the appointment with an individualized nutrition plan to get you closer to your objective.

A nutrition plan can be thought of more like a nutrition prescription. In the initial assessment, I’ll form a ‘nutrition diagnosis’ and identify specific diet suggestions, meal adjustments and recommendations to get you closer to reaching your health goals. On the other hand, a meal plan would specify exact portions, types of foods for all your meals and snacks, recipes, and grocery list.

Nutrition counselling works best for people who want to receive nutrition education on various topics and work through their obstacles to healthy eating. Meal plans work best for people who don’t experience a lot of food cravings and have little difficulty changing the type and quantity of food in their diet. Following a meal plan is always tougher than people expect and most of my clients do better with counselling sessions. After we complete the initial assessment, I’ll be able to make a recommendation on what I think will work best for you.

Nutrition counselling works best for people who want to receive nutrition education on various topics and work through their obstacles to healthy eating. Meal plans work best for people who don’t experience a lot of food cravings and have little difficulty changing the type and quantity of food in their diet. Following a meal plan is always tougher than people expect and most of my clients do better with counselling sessions. After we complete the initial assessment, I’ll be able to make a recommendation on what I think will work best for you.

This depends on how much support and accountability you need in making lifestyle changes. Because let’s face it, changing the way you eat can be really hard. For some clients, they only need 3 or 4 sessions before they’re able to continue on their own. Others have ongoing monthly sessions for over a year. And some clients have a single session every 6 to 12 months just to refresh their knowledge and make sure they’re on the right track.

Yes! Since the pandemic, my clients have found that nutrition counselling is more convenient to fit into their everyday schedule when done virtually (traffic in the GTA is no joke!). In fact, office sessions are not offered at this time. Virtual sessions can be done over the phone or PHIPA-compliant video calls (which means it follows the Personal Health Information Privacy Act and our call data will not be stored).

Please note: Because I am registered with the College of Dietitians of Ontario, I am only able to provide virtual counselling services to residents of Ontario, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the territories.

No! Since the pandemic, my clients have found that nutrition counselling is more convenient to fit into their everyday schedule when done virtually (traffic in the GTA is no joke!), and so my practice has been 100% virtual. However, I am always gauging interest in returning back-to-office, so if you are interested in being seeing in-person, please let me know!

My primary language is English, but I also provide nutrition counselling in Cantonese. Growing up in a Chinese household, I am familiar with the traditional Chinese (Cantonese) diet and can help you apply health recommendations to the Chinese meals that you usually eat.

A few times each year, I take on dietetic students in my practice to help them gain placement hours during their internship. If you participate in one of the student-led sessions, you’ll still receive great nutrition services at a slight discount. You can find out more about student-led sessions here.

Services provided by private practice dietitians are not currently covered by OHIP. However, some dietitians in hospitals and community settings are covered. Please speak with your doctor about your eligibility for one of the following services: hospital outpatient programs (e.g. Cardiac Rehab), Diabetes Education Centres, Community Health Centres, Family Health Teams.

For general nutrition questions, you can also contact Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-797-0000. The dietitians at Telehealth Ontario are a great resource if you have quick questions about nutrition and health, but they will not be able to provide you with individualized nutrition advice. Unlock Food is another great resource for general nutrition information.

Dietitian services are partially or fully covered by many extended health insurance plans under “Paramedic Services/Coverage” or a Health Spending Account, but each plan is different. Please check with your insurance provider to see what coverage is available for nutrition counselling services. If your plan does not cover dietitian services, you can ask your employer to add them. The majority of group health insurance companies offer dietitian services as an option, but employers do not always choose to add them to your plan if they think it will not be used.