You want to change something about the way you eat.
Maybe you want to lose weight. Gain weight. Learn to eat healthier. Solve digestive complaints. Or just understand why, every day at 4pm, you feel like you could eat the entire contents of the kitchen cupboard. So you go looking for help.
And then you land in a small jungle of nutrition coaches, lifestyle coaches, weight consultants, nutrition experts and dietitians.
Lovely.
But who should you actually go to?
At first glance, the guidance can look pretty similar. Both a nutrition coach and a dietitian can talk to you about what you eat, your habits and your goals. Still, there's an important difference in training, expertise, and the kind of nutrition questions someone is allowed and equipped to handle.
What is a dietitian?
In the Netherlands, 'dietitian' is a legally protected professional title.¹ To call yourself a dietitian, you need to have completed the four-year Nutrition & Dietetics degree. During that programme, you learn quite a bit more than the fact that broccoli is healthy and drinking water is a good idea.
You dive into the human body.
Physiology. Anatomy. Disease patterns. Nutrients. Energy and nutritional needs. Clinical reasoning. Behaviour change. Communication skills. Scientific research. And above all: how all those separate puzzle pieces come together in the actual person sitting across from you.
Because knowing that protein is important is one thing. Being able to determine — and understand why — what someone needs in the case of illness, malnutrition, diabetes, digestive problems or a changed nutritional need is something else entirely. That's why a dietitian isn't limited to guiding healthy eating or weight loss, but can also provide dietary treatment for medical conditions.
So what is a nutrition coach, then?
The title 'nutrition coach' isn't legally protected. That means there's no uniform training requirement before someone can call themselves a nutrition coach.
A nutrition coach may well have completed extensive training and be highly skilled. But someone could also have done a short course. Or collected a few certificates. Or have no relevant training at all and decide, on a random Tuesday morning: you know what? From today, I'm a nutrition coach.
Perfectly legal. Which is exactly why the title 'nutrition coach' on its own doesn't actually say much about how much someone knows.
Looking for guidance? Look beyond the word under someone's Instagram handle. What training have they done? What experience do they have? Where does their expertise actually lie?
So is a dietitian always better than a nutrition coach?
I don't want to make it that black and white. For general lifestyle change, a well-trained nutrition coach can, for example, offer really valuable guidance.
But when nutrition advice is connected to illness, medical complaints, medication, malnutrition or complex nutritional issues, you need someone trained for that.
What kind of dietitian do I want to be?
I belong to a new generation of dietitians. And no, that doesn't mean we throw every guideline out the window and get our nutrition advice from TikTok from now on.
I mean a generation that uses science and guidelines as a foundation, but stays curious enough to look further when a standard piece of advice doesn't fit the person sitting in front of us. Because you're not a protocol. Not a Harris-Benedict calculation. And definitely not a two-page meal plan that's somehow supposed to survive every birthday, holiday, period, stressful work week and spontaneous sushi night.
You're a person.
And people are complicated.
Thankfully.
For my clients, I go through fire
That might sound a bit dramatic.
I promise there's usually no actual fire present during a session. What I mean is that I don't easily settle for: 'Well, I guess it just doesn't work then.'
Are you stuck on something we don't have an immediate answer for? Then I want to understand why. I read. I search. I dive into the literature. I look at guidelines and research the possibilities available. And then, together, we translate that into something that actually helps you in daily life.
Doesn't an approach work? Then my first conclusion isn't automatically that you didn't have enough discipline. Maybe we need to look at the plan. Think outside the box.
After all, when a plant isn't growing, you don't start by giving it a motivational speech about perseverance.
You look at the soil. The light. The water. What's missing. Why would we be any less curious with people?
I don't believe good guidance means you have to squeeze yourself into my method. Otherwise we've just given a diet a trendier name. My way of coaching needs to be able to move with you. With your work. Your social life. Your parenthood. Your culture and preferences. Your difficult weeks.
Dietitian with no waiting list
You've finally decided you want help, and then you're told you can get an appointment in a few weeks. Not exactly the moment your motivation is cheering.
That's why I work without a waiting list at Bloom Health. Is there space in my schedule? Then we can start right away. There is one important difference from standard dietetics, though: my guidance at Bloom Health is a programme, and it isn't reimbursed by health insurance. So you pay for the programme yourself.
In return, we're not bound by the number of hours insurance would cover. We can take the time for nutrition, behaviour, habits, lifestyle, and everything needed to make sure you don't just get advice, but eventually understand how to apply it on your own.
- Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) — Protected titles (Article 34 of the Wet BIG) — https://www.igj.nl/onderwerpen/themas-in-het-toezicht/controleren-arbeidsverleden/beschermde-titels