What is Behavioral Health Nutrition?
Behavioral health nutrition includes addiction, mental illness, eating disorders, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. These conditions all require targeted nutrition interventions. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists who specialize in these areas can be critical members of the treatment team. You can learn more about the Dietetic Practice Group HERE.
It is reported that twenty percent of Americans will experience a mental illness, and up to seven percent of American adults will experience a serious mental illness in any given year. Given those statistics, it is extremely likely that the majority of people in the United States are either suffering from or know someone who is suffering from some mental illness.
Providing nutrition services to individuals with behavioral health issues is an important and complicated task. In many cases, the lines are not clear-cut, and an individual may be dealing with more than one diagnosis. It is not uncommon for a person to have a mental illness and an eating disorder or substance abuse problem.
A physician is responsible for initially diagnosing psychiatric conditions, including eating disorders, but a team of professionals typically carries out effective treatment. This includes mental health and medical practitioners, counselors, and registered dietitians. Because many things are involved with a behavioral health diagnosis, it is critical for each individual to get the personalized care they need to recover. There are several things to be considered concerning treatment, including age, learning style, culture, and education.
Regarding eating disorders in particular, there are numerous goals regarding nutrition care and nutritional rehabilitation. Overall, the main focus is to assist the individual in creating and maintaining new lifestyle habits. Additionally, it is important for them to be comfortable with their body and body image. This involves eating a varied diet that includes items from all food groups in appropriate amounts. A reduction and subsequent elimination of compensatory behaviors such as excessive exercise, vomiting, or use of laxatives is also a primary goal of treatment.
Nutrition plays a major role in treating behavioral health conditions and mental illness. To improve the chances of success, it is crucial that the individual considers a dietary approach to healing along with any psychiatric and spiritual steps they are taking. Through a combination of effort and teamwork, recovery is possible!
David Wiss
David became a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) in 2013 and founded Nutrition in Recovery, a group practice of RDNs specializing in treating eating and substance use disorders. In 2017, David received the “Excellence in Practice” award at the National Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo. The California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics awarded him the “Emerging Dietetic Leader Award” in 2020. He earned his Ph.D. from UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health in the Community Health Sciences department (with a minor in Health Psychology) by investigating the links between adverse childhood experiences and various mental health outcomes among socially disadvantaged men. His treatment philosophy is based on a biopsychosocial model which incorporates an understanding of biological mechanisms, psychological underpinnings, and contextual factors that integrate the social determinants of health. Wise Mind Nutrition's website offers a fully online interactive treatment program in Spring 2023.