Featuring Dr. Peter House, MD

Duration: 1 minute, 30 seconds

The nutritional assessment done with a CHA, is done by a registered dietitian.

This is a very important part of a CHA assessment - the reason it's important is because it is one of the modifiable factors that we have in our lifestyle.

So it starts with the process of looking at a food diary, which is usually a two-day food inventory, which the patient compiles and then brings to the evaluation. The dietitian then looks at the calorie intake and estimates that and then the makeup of the calorie intake which consists of fat, protein and carbohydrates.

They then look at the overall nutritional content of the diet that the patient is living on, they will then look at vitamins and vitamin supplementation, and look at meal patterns. They will then make a final recommendation after that assessment which can take as long as an hour, as to how to improve their risk of chronic disease or conditions by modifying their diet.

The nutritional assessment should be done at least at least annually with each comprehensive health assessment, but for people who are at risk, such as people with established disease or people who have obesity it would be very important to see a registered dietitian frequently after the initial assessment.

Presenter: Dr. Peter House, Family Doctor, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Family Doctor