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Holistic: So What’s In a Word?!?

in The Too Busy to Diet Blog on September 12, 2013

Written by Jennifer Martin, Dietetic Student at University of Illinois at Chicago

We have all heard the world “holistic” before, but do we actually understand its significance or how it relates to nutrition? These days, particularly with social media, there is a lot of confusion regarding its meaning. If you type it into the Merriam-Webster dictionary online, you get this definition: “relating to or concerned with wholes”. Instead of looking at a system’s separate parts, we are observing how everything works together as one.

So, how do we relate this definition to nutrition? Go to holisticnutrition.com, and it will tell you that “holistic nutrition is the modern natural approach to developing a healthy balanced diet while taking into account the person as whole.” Registered dietitians are trained to do just that. Not only do RD’s advocate consuming whole, fresh, unprocessed foods, but they also talk to clients about lifestyle choices such as smoking, adequate sleep, physical activity, hydration, sun exposure, attitudes towards weight changes and certain foods, and more. The emphasis is on variety and balancing healthy eating with personal preferences and lifestyle considerations. It is also on creating a sustainable way of eating; not one meant to last for a certain amount of time as so many popular diets do.

While healthy, nutritious eating is essential for wellbeing, so many other variables factor into the overall health of a person. Treating a client holistically means looking at the whole person. One of the reasons register dietitians never recommend one diet and avoid many of the popular fad diets is that a good diet recommendation is individualized and takes into account the variables mentioned. The RD’s approach is the best of both worlds: science and fact-based combined with a holistic approach.

In August, 2013, the Journal of the American Academy of Foods and Nutrition reported that a CNN Money article indicated that dietetics ranks third “among professions most likely to change the world for the better”. Maybe that’s why RD’s are as popular as they are today!