The Long Haul: How To Make Lasting Changes To Your Diet

Check out my latest piece about building sustainable habits in the kitchen on The Chalkboard:

Most of my patients come to me for medical nutrition therapy. Maybe their doctor told them that their blood pressure was a bit too high and they should start to think about medication, or that their cholesterol needed to be lowered. Maybe they reached a crossroad with their health and the common denominator is that they don’t want to take a prescription medication for the remainder of their lives.

Oftentimes the conversation starts with a patent saying exactly that and me saying, Ok, so we are looking at making lasting modifications and meaningful changes where food becomes therapeutic? And then I usually go on to remind them that they have already developed a long relationship with food throughout their lives, one that started somewhere between their first six and twelve months of life. This means we are looking at years of learned food-related behaviors. Years of habits that are engraved into their way of life.