Renal (Kidney) Nutrition

Nutrition plays an important role in managing kidney disease and, for many individuals, can help slow disease progression, maintain kidney function and mitigate nutrition-related complications. A registered dietitian provides medical nutrition therapy that is tailored to your kidney disease stage, lab values, co-occurring health conditions and lifestyle factors. Depending on your needs, your dietitian might help you manage key nutrients, fluid intake and ensure your overall nutrition needs are met. Because kidney disease often occurs alongside other medical conditions like diabetes or hypertension, your dietitian will consider your holistic health needs when developing nutrition recommendations.

Not necessarily. It can be overwhelming to figure out what foods you can have and what foods you might need to limit, while still meeting nutrition needs, honoring preferences and aligning with lifestyle. Nutrition recommendations for kidney disease are highly individualized and may change over time based on kidney function and lab values. A registered dietitian will help you understand which foods fit your needs and how they can be incorporated into an enjoyable and sustainable pattern of eating.

Lab values provide important information about how the kidneys are functioning and how the body is maintaining balance of key nutrients. Lab values often guide nutrition recommendations; your dietitian can help you understand your lab results and the purpose behind nutrition interventions based on labs and trends.

Unlike some health care practices, which offer both nutrition-related services and a range of other health care services, our exclusive focus is helping our clients achieve their nutrition-related health and wellness goals, with compassion and affirmation for each client’s individualized journey. Because of our singular focus on providing nutrition-related care to our clients, we have been able to develop an expertise in nutrition-related issues and client care. Our leadership also has years of experience providing nutrition counseling for an extensive range of nutrition-related concerns, and this allows us to provide our clients with the most comprehensive and appropriate care based on the latest treatment developments related to health, nutrition and recovery.

When you work with our team, you get the benefit of our clinical leadership team’s more than 30 years of combined experience as registered dietitians providing front-line support to our clients through thousands of hours working one-on-one with our clients on nearly every type of nutrition-related concern, ranging from the most complex eating disorders and disordered eating behavior, to child feeding challenges and ARFID, to medical nutrition therapy to sports nutrition (and everything in between). In addition, several members of our team hold the CEDS and CEDS-C advanced credential in eating disorder treatment, which is awarded to those dietitians who have extensive supervised experience and have completed additional training in all facets of eating disorder treatment and recovery.

Thanks to our years of experience, we have also collaborated and developed relationships working with a broad range of other providers around the country (including therapists, psychiatrists, primary care physicians and residential eating disorder treatment centers who align with our philosophy). When our clients need additional support or treatment-related resources, we are well positioned to support them in choosing the additional provider who is the best fit for them and their situation. Lastly, our dietitians participate in our extensive training program, participate in regular case consultation, and attend regular trainings to ensure that our clients benefit from the collective wisdom and experience of our team and other leaders in health, nutrition and recovery.

We are proud of our reputation as experts in our field, providing support and solutions to our clients on a wide range of nutrition-related issues, and for having the highest standards of care and collaboration for all our clients, regardless of whether a client sees us in-person in our Chicago office or enjoys virtual sessions from another location. The entire team at Healthier Tomorrows is committed to providing each client that comes to us with the highest quality, individualized care.

We are offering in-person services in our 5 Illinois offices to clients who would like to come in person. We are also pleased to be offering virtual services to any clients who prefer to meet via telehealth or who don’t live near one of our offices!

Healthier Tomorrows is in network with Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Choice, United Healthcare, Aetna, Cigna and the Northwestern University Aetna Student Health (NU-SHIP).

We do not have a set program that we offer or provide to all clients. Instead, we provide customized, individual nutrition counseling to our clients to help them heal their relationship with food and their bodies. Accepting our clients where they are serves as the foundation of our relationships with our clients. We strongly believe in providing a safe, non-shaming, affirming and welcoming space where individuals can share their thoughts and feelings about food and their bodies, and discuss their personal stories and goals. Each client has their own journey and their own timeline—there is no single path to wellness and recovery that works for each individual. We pride ourselves in walking beside our clients to provide information, ideas and support along the way. We use Measurement-Based Care to tailor support in real time, and we work closely with other members of our clients’ treatment teams to help ensure that our clients receive the most collaborative care possible. In addition, if a client needs additional clinicians on their treatment team, we have an extensive network of providers with whom we regularly work closely, including therapists, therapeutic group facilitators, psychiatrists and primary care physicians. We are always happy to provide names of other experienced clinicians for our clients to consider using when they desire adjunct resources.

The frequency and length of appointments can be tailored to meet each client’s needs. We find that many clients beginning nutrition counseling benefit from weekly appointments in order to receive regular support, assistance and motivation as they make changes. For those clients receiving support in their recovery from an eating disorder or disordered eating, we recommend weekly sessions.

We continue to receive feedback from our clients that engaging in nutrition counseling via telehealth is enjoyable, effective and convenient! Clients and families often find it easier to schedule and attend their appointments, and we can be accessible even if there are scheduling changes, transportation challenges, or someone is located outside of the Chicagoland area. As part of our commitment to delivering the highest quality care, we also use Measurement-Based Care to personalize treatment and track progress, with assessments being sent periodically in between sessions.

Your initial visit is a time for us to learn more about you, your history and how we can assist and support you. We take a holistic approach to wellness, so the information you share with us will help us to put together a comprehensive professional assessment and individualized recommendations. We may or may not set specific goals or intentions during the first visit. Our hope is that our time together allows us to get to know you, and also for you to see if we are a good fit for you. If it makes sense to set goals or intentions at the end of the first session, we can certainly do so. Click here to learn more.