Medical Nutrition Therapy FAQs

Our Registered Dietitians work with patients who have serious health complications. However, practitioners never recommend nutritional therapy as a replacement for medical advice and always refer any patient with "red flag" signs or symptoms to medical professionals. RD’s will also frequently work alongside a medical professional and will communicate with other healthcare professionals involved in your care to explain any nutritional therapy program that has been provided.

Registered Dietitians are the food and nutrition experts who can translate the science of nutrition into practical solutions for healthy living. RDs use their nutrition expertise to help individuals make unique, positive lifestyle changes. Registered Dietitians (RDs) are food and nutrition experts who have met the following criteria to earn the RD credential:

• Completed a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition at a US regionally-accredited university or college.
• Completed 1,200 minimum hours of supervised practice to become well-versed in all areas of dietetics.
• Passed a national examination administered by the Commission on Dietetic Registration.
• Completed continuing professional educational requirements to maintain registration.

Medical Nutritional Therapy is the application of nutrition science in the promotion of health, peak performance and individual care. Registered Dietitians and nutritionists use a wide range of tools to assess and identify potential nutritional imbalances and understand how these may contribute to an individual’s symptoms and health concerns. This approach allows these professionals to work with individuals to address nutritional balance and help support the body towards maintaining health. Medical Nutrition Therapy is recognized as a complementary medicine and is relevant for individuals with chronic conditions, as well as those looking for support to enhance their health and well-being. Practitioners consider each individual to be unique and recommend personalized nutrition and lifestyle programs rather than a "one-size-fits-all" approach.

Nutrients and other food components influence the function of your body, protect against disease, restore health, and determine your response to changes in the environment. Under certain circumstances and in some individuals, diet can be a serious risk factor for a number of diseases. Dietary intervention based on knowledge of nutritional requirements, nutritional status, and genotype (i.e., “personalized nutrition”) can be used to prevent, mitigate or cure chronic disease.

During the initial consultation, your MNT Registered Dietitian (RD) will walk you through a health and nutrition questionnaire to gather information about your lifestyle and goals in coming to work with a dietitian. This takes approximately one hour. After the first session, you and your RD will schedule follow-up appointments based on your needs, check on your progress, and help coach you through goal setting as ongoing changes are needed in your nutrition goals and treatment plan. The practitioner evaluates your individual needs to develop a personalized, safe and effective nutrition and lifestyle program. This may look like a meal plan, education, nutrition resources, setting small goals to work towards bigger ones, or all of the above. Whatever your individualized journey looks like, our team of dietitians is here for knowledge and support, and will walk alongside you on your journey. 

Follow-up sessions are used for accountability, to set goals, monitor progress and make any necessary adjustments to your nutrition plan. Follow-ups are encouraged until your goals of working with a dietitian have been met. Our practice is built on the concept of taking a lifestyle approach in working together with our patients as a team so that you can use individualized nutrition advice to help improve your health and overall well-being. 

Co-payments vary among insurance companies and individual policies. We will be more than happy to gather your insurance information and call to verify all the specifics of what (if any) you may be responsible for to be seen at Jim White Fitness Medical Nutrition Therapy for nutritional counseling.

The number of visits will vary between insurance companies and individual policies.  We will be more than happy to gather your insurance information and call to verify all the specifics of what (if any) you may be responsible for to be seen at Jim White Fitness Medical Nutrition Therapy for nutritional counseling.   

For most cases, no. Nutrition services are listed as preventive services and most likely will not need a physician’s referral. However, this will also be determined by your insurance company and individual policies.

Yes, we provide discounted services from our current nutrition packages for the following insurance plans:

• Humana
• American Specialty Health
• Medicaid
• Tricare

Please be sure to bring your insurance card, government-issued photo ID, completed new-patient forms, current medications list and any lab work you may have had recently. If you have not filled out the appropriate forms online prior to coming in, please arrive 15 minutes early to your scheduled appointment.

If you need to reschedule or cancel your appointment, please do so 24-hours in advance in order to avoid a $40 late-cancellation fee.

We are currently accepting new patients with the following  insurance companies: Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of VA, Optima, Aetna, United and Cigna.  Please have your friend or family member contact us directly for further verification.