With over two decades of experience, Heather Fitzgerald, RD, is redefining holistic wellness and personalized nutrition therapy. Specializing in metabolic disorders, micronutrient and hormone deficiencies, and functional medicine, Heather has built a remarkable career grounded in the belief that true health starts from within. A graduate of Michigan State University with intensive training in Medical Nutrition Therapy, Heather’s journey has led her from specialized eating disorder treatments in Beverly Hills to consulting for top celebrities and the entertainment industry. Heather’s unique approach integrates progressive diagnostic tools, including intracellular vitamin and mineral testing, adrenal saliva assessments, and advanced cardiovascular blood testing, to get to the root of health imbalances. From treating Autism to Menopause and Heavy Metal Toxicity, she has developed comprehensive dietary therapies that promote disease prevention and long-term health. In this Mystic Mag‘s interview, Heather shares insights into her holistic approach, the power of nutrition for metabolic health, and her mission to help people achieve balance in both body and mind.
Reflecting on your over 20 years of experience as a Dietitian, what pivotal moment or patient encounter significantly shaped your approach to dietetics and patient care?
I think that one of the pivotal moments in my career history was my first experiences working as a volunteer in hospitals helping the Dietitians that were on staff. I had an idealistic view of everyone in the hospital working together, doctors, nurses and dietitians, to help support patients in recovery of diseases and conditions, as a wellness team. Much to my surprise, I found that the opposite was the case. In my earliest experiences I can recall the Doctors not really caring about the nutrition of their patients and the nurses being somewhat annoyed by the dietitians, as the nurses often were treated poorly by the doctors. So this sort of shattered this idealistic view of how working as a dietitian in a large clinic or hospital, was far from reality. As I progressed in my career and have seen how hospitals are run much more like businesses than like healthcare hubs where patients can truly heal and recover, I found a way to create my own niche in the field of nutrition and dietetics. I found that counseling patients about nutrition was one of the most valuable assets that I have, as nutrition is not part of the medical school curriculum and/or training. And, as the years have gone by, I’ve also witnessed the constraints of conventional medicine tighten, while the awareness of how vital nutrition is to our health and the prevention of chronic disease and the diseases of aging, has grown in the general public. So, even though I was dismayed by the reality of the healthcare system when I began my career, I’ve found my place in it, and now know how valuable educating and empowering patients on how food is medicine and how it can literally reverse disease states and help one recover more quickly.
Given your background in working as an eating disorder specialist, how do you balance the delicate aspects of mental health and nutrition in your practice? Share a case where this balance played a crucial role in a patient’s journey to recovery.
Having been initially trained as a Nutrition Therapist, I was given specific tools and methods to bridge the gaps between straight up nutrition education and counseling and how to help patients understand the root causes of their disorders. Having said that, it is essential that if I’m treating a patient with a clinical eating disorder, that they also have a therapist that they are working with simultaneously, and that I have the patient’s permission to communicate with the therapist, so we are working in tandem with the patient’s specific needs and challenges, towards a common goal. One patient, we’ll call her Jane, had come to me for weight loss, but through my initial intake and history of the patient, and by asking the difficult but direct questions about her behaviors, I discovered that she had been bulimic for over a decade but had never confided in anyone about her disorder. It was then, that I asked her if she had ever been in therapy and when she replied that she had not, but was open to it, I immediately gave her several referrals for colleagues that had a lot of clinical experience in treating patients with eating disorders. Then, once Jane got a couple of appointments booked and determined which therapist she felt most comfortable with, I was able to obtain permission from Jane to work in tandem with her therapist, to help create our strategies for helping Jane overcome this difficult disorder. In my clinical experience it is imperative that all of the patient’s team of providers have regular communication about the patient’s treatment challenges, obstacles, objectives and goals, which secures a successful path of recovery.
What type of services do you offer?
I offer a variety of services in my practice. First and foremost, I offer nutrition consulting for any chronic disease or other conditions, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, auto-immune conditions, and mood disorders. I also utilize a variety of laboratory testing and progressive diagnostics to definitively identify the patient’s deficiencies, imbalances and/or risks. These tests include, comprehensive hormone, cardiovascular testing, MRT Food Allergy Testing, Adrenal and Neurotransmitter testing, Genetic mutation testing, micronutrient deficiency testing, comprehensive gastrointestinal tests for bacterial pathogens and parasites, cancer detection testing and many more. I have designed specific nutrition and hormone programs for patients depending on their specific needs. My focus is prevention and intervention using food and nutrient supplementation. It’s vital that patients IDENTIFY their specific deficiencies and take only what they need, versus what they hear is good for them. Every patient’s body is unique, as are their needs, and that is dependent on their lifestyle, habits, medical and family history as well as their genetics. My services are focused on patient education and advocacy, helping diffuse fear and nutrition and health myths, so that the patient feels confident to make the changes they need to to attain their personal health goals.
Considering your expertise, what role do you believe that technology plays in enhancing or potentially complicating the patient-dietitian relationship and how do you navigate this in your practice?
I think that technology and the advances in technology are both a blessing and a curse. Focusing on the positive aspects of technology, more people have access to information via the internet, but this also puts the patient at risk of being exposed to misinformation and marketing and sales tactics via social media, so that the information they may be accessing may not be from a credible and/or scientific source. So, I ask patients to bring questions to me about their body, nutrition, supplements and general health, vs. searching online for answers as I cannot monitor what rabbit hole that a patient may go down while searching on the internet and there tends to be a lot more misinformation online vs. credible and solid factual information. It’s also important to teach patients how to navigate all of this information, so they can use the internet to gather new knowledge and find information from credible sources. Especially with the popularity of social media, there are so many posts that are targeted at marketing products to consumers rather than providing them accurate information. I think that technology has brought so many positive things to consumers as well, such as the food tracking apps. This helps patients track their intake of the foods they consume, giving them a breakdown of how many calories they are consuming and where their calories are coming from (Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats). This is a functional tool that provides the patient with real time information, helping them see the stats on how much fat and calories that the donut that they just ate had in it. From the clinician side of things, I added on a new software that helps me create meal plans in a fraction of the time it used to take me. This software platform also allows the client a platform to track their food, swap out recipes or add in foods to their weekly menus. In summary, technology has provided us a great deal of opportunity to educate, empower and save all of us time, but as with anything, you have to learn how to navigate the mass amount of information and tools that are available.
As a registered dietitian, you encounter various dietary preferences and restrictions. How do you tailor you advice to meet the unique needs and cultural backgrounds of your patients?
Because I do a comprehensive intake and history with every new patient, I gather information on their lifestyle, habits, preferences, medical history, allergies and current health conditions or concerns, in order to create a personalized treatment plan and dietary plan. I take into consideration the patient’s cultural background and also the essentials such as ‘do they cook regularly or eat out most of their meals’ as well as what foods they avoid or do not like to eat. Whether one has an auto-immune disease, has just been diagnosed with Cancer or Cardiovascular disease, I tailor their specific dietary plan to meet all of their needs and lifestyle in order for them to be successful. If I create a meal plan that requires a lot of cooking and the client is someone who works 10 hours/day, they are not going to be able to follow that plan. There are so many food options available now that do not require hours of preparation, so it becomes about educating the client on what are the better or healthier options for their particular needs and how to incorporate those choices into their daily routine for long lasting habit changes.
Considering your dedication to advancing nutrition education, especially in the context of medical nutrition therapy, how do you envision the role of dietitians evolving in the next decade and what skills do you believe to be crucial for future dietitians to possess?
Well, I think that as dietitians, skill building never ends as new research and methods arise every year, allowing us to better understand how to help and counsel our patients on the prevention and treatment of chronic illnesses and conditions by utilizing nutrition as a foundation for that. But, I do believe that in the next decade dietitians will need to have a working understanding and knowledge of Functional Medicine. Functional medicine is the use of nutraceuticals, botanicals or other natural therapies to treat and prevent disease, vs. using prescription pharmaceutical therapies. Patients are showing an increasing demand for this knowledge as I’ve been witnessing this in my own practice over the last 10-15 years, as the distrust of ‘Big Pharma’ continues to expand. I believe that all dietitians should actually be trained in this in their didactic programs, but this is simply not the case and it’s unlikely that the curriculum will alter anytime soon. Therefore, it’s up to the individual dietitian to be their own advocate for ongoing education and training, to keep honing and adding more tools and information to share with their patients. I also think that it’s imperative that dietitians also continue to work on their interpersonal communication skills. We take this for granted perhaps, but with the explosion of technology in the last 25 years, including social media, texting and the use of the internet, people have lost the art of how to listen and communicate with each other. I fear that the younger generations will be somewhat inadequately prepared and may have had little training or life experience in the ‘art of having conversation’ and the skills that are required to successfully communicate and relate with patients effectively.
I think that there needs to be more time devoted to this type of training and it’s also up to the individual dietitian to be the captain of their ship, identifying and participating in the on-going educational workshops and seminars that help them keep up with the advances in the field of nutrition and dietetics. We have to be the ‘nutrition professionals’ that can demystify and decode all of the nutrition and health information that is available to patients. If we don’t have the ability to help patients sift through the misinformation and myths, who will?! I am hopeful that the younger generations of dietitians continue to grow as we need all of the educators and counselors as possible to help inform the general public about how to best be and live their healthiest. This is one of the most important roles in the healthcare system, in my opinion. Doctors and other medical professionals simply do not have the training, knowledge or time to be the educators for their patients. A perfect example is when a patient goes in for their annual physical with their primary care doctor. The doctor tells the patient, you are now ‘pre-diabetic’ and I want you to start this medication and you need to lose 20#. Okay, see you in 6 months—The patient is sent on their way, with a new medication to treat the ‘pre-diabetes diagnosis’ but has literally no tools or any understanding of HOW to lose the weight or change their nutrition to reverse the condition. So, what happens 95% of the time is that the patient starts the medication and goes back to the same eating habits that they’ve been doing. So, what they are doing is really delaying the onset of type 2 Diabetes and furthermore, may have additional declines in their health due to the vitamin and mineral deficiencies that the prescription medications often cause. And, if the patient does attempt to lose weight, they often try the most recent ‘fad’ or diet that is popular to try and get their weight down. Some people are successful at dropping some weight on these diets, but most people are not successful simply because the diet is not sustainable long-term or they gain the lost weight back, because they haven’t learned how to eat properly or how to slowly change and/or replace their bad habits for healthier habits.
Heather Fitzgerald RD
Specializing in Functional Medicine, Metabolic Disorders,
Disordered Eating, Micronutrient & Hormone Deficiencies.
Web: www.strategic-nutrition.com Ph: 213-277-4055
