Diet and nutrition experts address a wide range of health issues, from weight loss to blood pressure control by helping seniors improve their diets and eating habits.

These experts can help manage health problems and to recover from surgery or illness including:

  • diabetes
  • high blood pressure
  • obesity
  • food allergies
  • cancer
  • heart disease

Services

Some dieticians and nutritionists will go to great lengths to improve eating habits. They will:

  • plan menus
  • write grocery shopping lists
  • teach basic food preparation skills
  • monitor the process
  • report on the findings

A nutritionist does not need any training or experience. This means that while some nutritionists are highly qualified, some lack credentials.

Specialization

A registered dietician (RD) has completed a bachelor’s degree from an accredited school, has at least 900 hours of supervised training, passed a comprehensive nutrition and dietetics exam, is licensed by the state, and takes continuing education classes regularly.

Dietetic Technicians, registered (DTRs) are equivalent to RDs but have an associate’s degree instead of a bachelor’s degree.

If you hire a nutritionist instead of a registered dietician, make sure you confirm his or her education and qualifications. Gerontological dietitians specialize in nutrition for seniors. The American Dietitian Association offers a special gerontological dietitian certification.

Preparation

  • Describe the type of issues you desired to be addressed by the dietitian or nutritionist.
  • Define how much cooking and food preparation your senior will manage.
  • Clarify any illness or surgery from which your senior is recovering.
  • Will your senior’s insurance cover a dietitian? If not, what is your budget?
  • Is your senior able to keep records of his or her diet; or will assistance be needed?
  • Does your senior have:
  • eating habits that may be difficult to change?
  • unique medical conditions or allergies that restrict his or her diet?

Many insurance programs cover the services of a dietitian after a referral from the primary care

Doctor; especially in cases of serious heart disease or diabetes.

Evaluation

  • Describe your qualifications, education, experience, and area of specialty.
  • What experience do you have treating the symptoms my senior is experiencing?
  • What accommodations can you make for seniors who aren’t able to record their food intake or prepare their own meals?
  • How many sessions do you usually have with one client?
  • Do you have references from previous clients?
  • Are home meal delivery services available;  how often and at what charge?

Diet and Nutrition Articles

Diet and Nutrition Radio Show Segments

  • Future of Cuisine at Senior Living

    The food is raved about at Chateau Retirement in Washington, unusual for senior living communities. What makes Chateau different and have such great resident feedback? Chateau Retirement’s Vice President Culinary Services Tom Wichert and Sherrelle Collingridge, Culinary Service Director at Chateau Bothell Landing, join Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders podcast.

    How do Tom and Sherrelle see culinary services evolving in the future? Sherrelle says, “It will continue to focus on individual personalization. Every every ten years or so, we think this is going be the wave of the really healthy people. It hasn’t quite happened yet. They say they want to be healthy, but when fried chicken is on the menu, we sell 90% of those specials. But other things, the gluten-, dairy-free, more of a global cuisine. It’s no longer just about like American Chinese. They’ll do Indian food, Mexican, Thai, and Vietnamese, and different cultures that we get a chance to play with. And our job is somewhat to educate the residents, to expose them to things that they maybe never had before. And they get annoyed sometimes, and ask, ‘why don’t you just call this sauce something simpler?’ I’m like, ‘Because this is what it’s called.’ So if you go to a restaurant now, you know what an airline chicken is now. You know what a beurre blanc is, because you got it and you can order it.”

    Tom adds, “I think eating later is going to be a thing… We will get residents come in that want specifics things and have specific needs, so we will will cater to that as best we can. We really haven’t had the really big push for some of the specialty things, but I think just an open variety of different kinds of things is happening. As far as individualizing goes, can you put something Thai on, or I saw this, or here’s the recipe for this, could you do that for me, could you make that? Could you make this for grandma?”

    All together, well over 100 employees in the culinary. Tom says, “The hiring process is so important, getting the right people, and about the young kids, teenagers, for a lot of them it’s their first job. The main thing with them is getting the right attitude. We can train them, do anything to serve. So getting the right person in there, that wants to be there. Residents love younger staff. They always have, because I think that to them that’s that’s the age of their grandparents.”

    How does the restaurant style work at Chateau? Tom says, “I think the intensity of that, along with the caring that we do for the residents, comes together and all works really well. The staff is fantastic, and they care about the residents. We really care, and we really want to do the best for the residents. Whatever the resident wants, we’re going to do our best to it.”

    Sherrelle says, “I don’t want to overuse the term family, but I spend more time with my dining room managers than I do my own kids, who are now grown up and in their twenties now. But they’re my work kids, they’re my frontline staff as well. So I’m kind of pouring into those guys, so they can pour into the servers and the residents, it all kind of flows together.”

    Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington’s Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton. Visit them online or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau’s specialist page on Answers for Elders.

  • How Great Food Happens at Senior Living

    Discover why residents can’t stop raving about the food at Chateau Retirement Communities in Washington—a rare distinction in senior living! In this episode of the Answers for Elders podcast, host Suzanne Newman sits down with Sherrelle Collingridge, Culinary Service Director at Chateau Bothell Landing. She shares how passion, creativity, and genuine care for residents have transformed dining into an experience that feels more like fine dining than a cafeteria meal.

    Sherrelle attributes their great food to the employees and a wonderful team, whose dedication to the resident culinary experience is a big piece of that. Sherrelle runs three full-service restaurant-style dining rooms at Chateau Bothell Landing, which creates a lot more cross-training opportunities and options for growth, change of scenery, and so forth. The front of house staff in particular form very strong bonds with residents, and those relationships are why staff tend to stick around. The majority of front of house staff in particular are hired-in as high schoolers, often with no prior work experience. It is rewarding and satisfying to watch these kids as they learn and develop, a unique experience for them, and one of the more rewarding aspects of the job for her and her leadership team.

    Sherrelle has always worked in the industry, first having been hired as a server at Cristwood (now Cristwood Park) in junior high, and ended up getting a culinary degree at Edmonds Comm. College. Crista paid a management company to run the culinary program at Cristwood, and Sherrelle was fortunate to get a lot of training and development opportunities as a young manager. She joined Chateau Pacific in 2000, and over the years held several roles in the culinary program, including a three-year run as Executive Director at Chateau Pacific. She has been at Chateau Bothell Landing since 2013, and opened all three of the dining rooms on that campus.

    Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington’s Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton. Visit them online or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau’s specialist page on Answers for Elders.

  • Redefining Senior Living Dining

    Discover why residents can’t stop raving about the food at Chateau Retirement Communities in Washington—a rare distinction in senior living! In this episode of the Answers for Elders podcast, host Suzanne Newman sits down with Tom Wichert, Vice President of Culinary Services. He shares how passion, creativity, and genuine care for residents have transformed dining into an experience that feels more like fine dining than a cafeteria meal.

    Tom previously worked for a family-run restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory, and Ruths Chris Steakhouse before moving to Washington to become the Chef at the Bellevue Restaurant. Wanting a better work/life balance, he joined Chateau in 2012. He attributes their success to his team, having skilled and incredible directors in each building, with tons of experience and longevity with Chateau.

    Tom’s hobby is custom-brewed beer, and he shares that passion with residents through tastings and other events. Tom explains, “When I first started, it was me and another employee… so we started making in a bucket kind of thing. Then it just evolved. And I would say the last few years, I’ve gotten a little bit more involved in it, and thankfully, the Chateau has given me whatever I needed to do that, which is great. I was able to go to a brewing school three or four years ago and learn a lot of stuff that was helpful…

    “And I always get the residents involved. I do beer tastings in wine tastings as well. But the beer tasting, they keep asking me, Hey, do you got any beer in competition? Did you win anything? I’ve gotten a few gold medals, and the National Home Brewers competition…. The residents like it and they get a kick out of it, and opening it up to the residents, that is so special. There’s something so unique for them to experience. It’s fun to get involved with the residents, and to see them happy. Sometimes when I do a beer tasting, when I’m done, they they’ll clap and they’ll say, ‘Thanks, Tom,’ and then they start helping me clean up. I say, ‘I have it. I’ll clean it up. Don’t start moving chairs, please. I got it.’ But they still do it. So it’s a family-type thing, like your family Thanksgiving, and everybody’s pitches in and help clean up. So I kind of look at it that way.”

    Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington’s Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton. Visit them online or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau’s specialist page on Answers for Elders.

  • Getting More Protein As We Age

    Fitness and wellness coach Kelly Fennelly joins Suzanne on the Answers for Elders Radio Show to talk about changes that happen to our bodies as we age, and what to do about it to keep ourselves healthy. What do you eat? How do you move? What kind of exercises do you do?

    The discussion turns to eating more protein. Suzanne had read that a 150-pound woman over the age of 65 should divide their weight by three to compute that she needs to eat 50 grams of protein per day. Keely says, “Some of the the research that I’ve seen, it’s even greater than that. They’re saying, possibly, 30 grams per meal. So then that would be 90 per day. It is a little struggle for some, because if they’re not doing breakfast, or or however your meal schedule is, it can be challenging.”

    Kelly provides some recommendations for various ways to incorporate that much protein into our daily meals.

    Kelly does in-person and Zoom coaching for those looking for sustainable health goals, with personalized coaching for individual body and lifestyle goals. She is an ACE Senior Fitness Specialist and ACE Health Coach. Check out her website.

    Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

  • Stop Eating C-R-A-P For Better Nutrition

    Nutrition and vitality go hand in hand. Dr. Shawn Weiss joins Suzanne to talk about nutrition, part of physical wellness, which is a pillar of the eight foundational principles of wellness, part of the summer Vitality Revolution podcast series.

    Dr. Shawn says, “We get set in our ways as we get older. ‘Nobody’s gonna tell me what to eat.’ But there’s such a connection with nutrition and vitality, and it starts with food choices. I’m an advocate for making small changes that are realistic. Nobody’s going to be perfect. I follow an 80/20 rule, not only with myself, but with my clients and patients of really trying to eat more clean 80% of the time. That’s going to pretty much get you where you’re going, because you know what? Life happens. Maybe you have a nice cheeseburger like I did over the weekend. Guess what? It doesn’t derail your life, and you can’t be so strict because then nobody wants to do it, and you’ve got to find something that works for you. So an 80/20 rule is generally a good way to start.

    “But nutrition in this country is the SAD, the Standard American Diet. I say stop eating C-R-A-P, and when I say stop eating C-R-A-P, you want to avoid Carbonated drinks, Refined sugars, and Artificial and Processed foods. The sugar content in soda is crazy. It causes a lot of health problems, and puts you at a lot of risk for chronic disease.

    “I say shop the perimeter of the store: your produce, your vegetables, your meats. If you get into the health food aisle, and you’re trying to get healthier with protein bars, or things like that, you really need to pay attention to the labels.

    “Many, many people I’ve met who literally have been able to go off of their medications by simply making dietary changes. And I don’t believe in diet. I don’t say, ‘oh, you got to go on a diet.’ I’ve never dieted in my life. It’s a lifestyle change.”

  • Balancing the Gut-Brain Connection for Optimal Health

    Dr. Shawn Weiss joins Suzanne to talk about the gut-brain connection and how to balance your functional wellness to achieve optimal health.

    “Think of it as like a two-way highway. What one does affects the other. The easiest way to illustrate that is, for instance, when you get nervous. You feel those butterflies in your stomach, right? There’s a direct connection in the neurotransmitters, the chemicals that the brain sends for situations like that, fight or flight responses.”

    “Inflammation is one of the number one things that we deal with. and when I’m coaching clients, we are talking about inflammation. There’s 22 different types. You have acute inflammation. Acute is, hey, I just fell, hurt my knee, it got swollen or I have the flu, and the body’s response is to send those infiltrates into your system which causes inflammation. But I’m talking about chronic inflammation, inflammation from the processed foods that we eat, that will cause inflammation and leaky gut, and that causes a whole host of systems. That’s why we can’t eat what we used to eat. Our food greatly affects the inflammatory responses in our body.”

    Learn more:
    Shawn Weiss’ website: https://shawn-michele.com/
    Shawn Weiss: https://answersforelders.com/shawn-weiss/
    Six Pillars of Health: https://www.stress.org/live-better-by-building-on-the-six-pillars-of-health

    Hear more podcasts with Shawn Weiss: https://answersforelders.com/tag/shawn-weiss/

    Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
    Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

  • Adapting to Aging Body Changes for Optimal Health

    Dr. Shawn Weiss joins Suzanne to talk about changes in our bodies that happen once we reach 50 years of age, and what strategies to use to maintain optimal health.

    “One of the first things when you get over 50 that you’re losing is muscle mass. And that is so important. Increase your protein, make sure your strength training. A lot of people feel conflicted about it. Should they be lifting weights? Absolutely. You should be doing resistance training. We’re also losing bone density, and as we age, that could increase your risk for fractures. But you also see other things. Our bladder changes, it gets less elastic. The muscles in your pelvic floor start to weaken. There’s two different types of incontinence, but you might see either urge incontinence or stress incontinence. The list goes on… our large intestines, hormonal changes, hydration can cause things like constipation so things are not metabolized.

    “Stress reduction plays such a vital role. And if you look at even when I was in my 20s and 30s and society in general, our world is different. It is just a nonstop world. There’s just a lot of chaos. People don’t know how to navigate it. They’re having incredibly high stress levels, which will start throwing out cortisol. It’s gonna affect your sleep. It’s going to affect your overall health. It creates anxiety. It’s a vicious cycle, and that’s why it’s such an important pillar of health that we address.

    “Any time you exercise,  you’re going to have an increase in blood flow everywhere. Many studies out there show if you’re starting to have cognitive decline, daily exercise of any kind — just increasing activity levels — not only improves digestion, it improves sleep, it reduces behavioral problems, it reduces falls and balance issues. It’s just so so beneficial.”

    Learn more:
    Shawn Weiss’ website: https://shawn-michele.com/
    Shawn Weiss: https://answersforelders.com/shawn-weiss/
    Six Pillars of Health: https://www.stress.org/live-better-by-building-on-the-six-pillars-of-health

    Hear more podcasts with Shawn Weiss: https://answersforelders.com/tag/shawn-weiss/

    Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
    Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

  • Taking Charge of Your Six Pillars of Health

    Dr. Shawn Weiss joins Suzanne to talk about taking charge of the six pillars of health — nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, substance use, and personal connections — so that we can achieve optimal health in our later years.

    Shawn says, “Health is not a one-size-fits-all for everybody, especially in the age where we’re in now, with social media, where we’re getting bombarded on a daily basis with contradictory advice. I deal with the six main pillars of health. And that for me is so easy to organize, because each one affects the other. I have everything in balance, which is the key. You have to be able to hit all of those pillars of health. One little off-balance system will exponentially affect the rest.

    “I start off with exercise — of course, near and dear to my heart as a physical therapist, but confusion over 50 is OK. What type of exercise? How much do I do? How long do I exercise? Am I allowed to get my heart rate up high enough? So that’s one of the main ones, and then we look at nutrition how to fuel your body properly. Gut health is the third one. Gut health and inflammation, inflammatory conditions, inflammatory foods go hand in hand. Then we look at stress, and stress is huge. You cannot remove all the stresses, and all the daily stressors that we have, but how do we learn to manage our daily stress? Sleep, that’s the fifth one. And the last one is emotional health. And that’s been huge, especially since COVID. So we include all of those when I talk with clients and coach them.”

    Shawn’s proactive approach to physical therapy focuses on wellness and prevention strategies for all of her clients, with an emphasis on fall management programs for the elderly in the assisted living setting. She currently serves on the Ohio Fall Coalition and Ohio Injury Prevention Partnership. She is also is an Instructor for Summit Professional Education where teaches nationwide for Continuing Education courses on Home Health Policy and Rehabilitation and has been a contributing member of Answers for Elders for more than a decade.

    Learn more:
    Shawn Weiss’ website: https://shawn-michele.com/
    Shawn Weiss: https://answersforelders.com/shawn-weiss/
    Six Pillars of Health: https://www.stress.org/live-better-by-building-on-the-six-pillars-of-health

    Hear more podcasts with Shawn Weiss: https://answersforelders.com/tag/shawn-weiss/

    Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
    Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

  • The Body-Mind Connection, with Tracy Cromwell

    Senior fitness specialist Tracy Cromwell is a certified behavioral and nutrition coach and personal trainer. In this segment, Tracy talks about mind-body awareness. What are the things you’re telling your body, unconscious choices you’re making? She demonstrates the difference between how your body and brain will react to things you say. Learn more at www.tracycromwell.com.

  • How To Make Your Body Your Teammate, with Tracy Cromwell

    Senior fitness specialist Tracy Cromwell is a certified behavioral and nutrition coach and personal trainer. In this segment, Tracy explains how your body is your number one teammate. It’s always trying to do its best for you, and does everything it can for you. It’s a miracle creation and it’s very forgiving. Look at it with compassion and empathy – a lot of people have gained weight during COVID – and treat it, care for it, treat it like your favorite car. Learn more at www.tracycromwell.com.

  • How Our Bodies Age, with Tracy Cromwell

    Senior fitness specialist Tracy Cromwell is a certified behavioral and nutrition coach and personal trainer. In this segment, Tracy talks about how our bodies change as we age. There are different states: chronological biological, and functional aging. Chronological aging is how long we’ve lived. Biological aging is the amount of decline evident in our tissues and organ systems. Functional aging is measured by the use of attributes such as our mobility, appearance, our strength and mental capacity, and the declines are independent of illness. There’s also secondary aging, resulting from the effects of environment and illness. Everybody ages differently. The body wants to heal itself, and we are caretakers of our bodies. Learn more at www.tracycromwell.com.

  • Body Image, with Tracy Cromwell

    Senior fitness specialist Tracy Cromwell is a certified behavioral and nutrition coach, and personal trainer. In this segment, Tract talks about our evolving health as we age. She shares what led to discover her calling as a coach and trainer, learning how miraculous our bodies are, and realizing she was not alone, that her experience could help others. She is the author of the book “Your Personal Journey With Food.” Learn more at www.tracycromwell.com.

  • General Health Concerns for Seniors, with Kelley Smith

    Kelley Smith from CarePartners Senior Living talks about the top concerns family members have for their senior loved ones: nutrition, fall risks, medication concerns, and socialization.

  • Daphne Davis’s Wellness Formula: Body, Mind, Spirit

    Daphne Davis at Pinnacle Senior Placements discusses aspects of physical health and wellness. This segment focuses on integrating these aspects of body, mind and spirit: having the courage to have conversations, to talk to someone, about having a life of living, vs. one of just surviving.

  • Daphne Davis’s Wellness Formula: The Spirit

    Daphne Davis at Pinnacle Senior Placements discusses aspects of physical health and wellness: the body, mind and spirit. This segment focuses on our spirit, which covers your happiness level, your spirituality grounding and core that keeps you centered. These are the things that give you a sense of joy, peace, satisfaction, contentment, happiness.

  • Daphne Davis’s Wellness Formula: The Mind

    Daphne Davis at Pinnacle Senior Placements discusses aspects of your physical health and wellness: the body, mind and spirit. This segment focuses on our mind, various aspects of mental health.

  • Daphne Davis’s Wellness Formula: The Body

    Valentine’s Day is about connections, acknowledging those you love and appreciate, as well as taking time for yourself. Daphne Davis at Pinnacle Senior Placements discusses aspects of your physical health and wellness: the body, mind and spirit. As we age, there are definitely changes in our body, our machinery. It is a machine and it does need to have some tweaking, some oil changes and tune-ups. Don’t be afraid to do those things to keep our bodies at optimum efficiency. Keep in mind nutrition, medication and hydration.

  • Holiday Meal Preparation, with Deborah Peterson

    Deborah Peterson is a personal chef at Vineyard Catering and prepares meals for busy families and caregivers. She is also a boutique caterer. One way a family can simplify is to get help from a personal chef: for holiday gatherings, either getting help with groceries, getting a few sides, or providing everything that’s needed. When celebrating the holidays with seniors, be aware of special diets, and remember that on their own, a senior might not be eating balanced meals. You can plan meals that are healthy during the holidays. Monitor medications and alcohol consumption, because it’s easy to get caught up in the celebrations.

  • Nutrition and Meal Planning with Kim Spencer

    Kim Spencer at Serengeti Care discusses Nutrition and Meal Planning.

  • Warning Signs with Daphne Davis

    Daphne Davis at Pinnacle Senior Placements talks about how her company acts as an objective party that is able to look into a family situation and be able to recognize certain warning signs, the ways elders compensate for shortcomings.

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