Registered Dietitian & Nutrition Counselling

Seatbelt and abdominal trauma can leave lasting internal injury, and the resulting nausea, bloating, reflux, pain after eating or altered bowel habit is often attributed to stress and left untreated.

A Registered Dietitian identifies which foods and patterns are aggravating your symptoms and builds an eating plan you can tolerate, adjusting it as your gut recovers. Where further investigation is warranted, we will say so.

Facial and jaw injury, TMJ dysfunction and dental damage make chewing painful, and people quietly narrow their diet to whatever does not hurt. That usually means soft, processed food and a rapid loss of protein and nutrients.

We build a plan around what you can physically manage, ensuring adequate protein, calories and micronutrients while chewing remains difficult, and we widen it again as your jaw improves.

Anxiety, low mood, pain and many common medications reduce appetite or change how food tastes. Eating becomes a chore, meals get skipped, and energy and mood fall further.

Treatment works with your actual appetite rather than against it, using smaller and more frequent eating, easier options and fortification where needed. We coordinate with your prescriber where a medication appears to be the cause.

Weight loss and malnutrition risk from reduced eating, or weight gain from immobility, medication and comfort eating. Both affect pain, energy, confidence and long-term health, and both are common after an injury.

We address the underlying cause rather than prescribing restriction, and we do it without shame. Weight change after a serious injury is a consequence of circumstances, not a personal failing.

Trauma, depression and anxiety change eating in ways that are rarely talked about. Some people lose their appetite entirely and forget meals for days. Others eat for comfort, or graze constantly, or find that food is one of the few things still within their control. Any of those is a recognised response, not a failure of willpower.

What it looks at: how your mood, sleep, anxiety and pain are affecting appetite and eating patterns; whether meals have lost their structure; the effect of medication on hunger, taste and weight; caffeine, alcohol and energy drinks; and how eating has changed since the accident.

Why it helps: nutrition and mental health pull on each other. Blood sugar swings, dehydration and missed meals worsen anxiety, low mood, fatigue and concentration, so improving how you eat makes your therapy work better. Where you are also seeing one of our therapists, your dietitian can work in step with them if you would like that.

Restricting food, bingeing, purging, or a relationship with eating and body image that has become distressing. Injury and weight change after a collision can trigger this for the first time, or bring back something you had previously managed.

What it looks at: eating patterns and any restriction or bingeing; the thoughts and feelings around food, weight and appearance; medical risk; and where treatment beyond nutrition counselling would be the safer route.

Why it helps: our dietitians work from a non-diet, weight-inclusive approach. Nobody will be put on a meal plan they have not agreed to, and there are no weigh-ins you have not consented to. Where therapy would help alongside the nutrition work, we can provide that too.

Tissue repair, bone healing and immune function all have specific nutritional requirements, and inadequate intake measurably slows recovery. Poor nutrition also worsens fatigue, mood and pain sensitivity.

We ensure your intake supports the healing your body is trying to do, and coordinate with your physiotherapist so nutrition supports your rehabilitation rather than limiting it.

Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney conditions and food allergies all become harder to manage when you are injured, less active, in pain and eating differently.

We adapt your management to your current circumstances rather than expecting you to maintain a routine that is no longer possible.

We see clients from age six. Children who have been in a collision may refuse food, regress in their eating, or lose weight at a stage when growth matters.

We work with the family rather than issuing instructions, and we keep mealtimes from becoming another source of conflict in a household that is already under strain.

Where an insurer or lawyer is involved, a Registered Dietitian’s assessment documents something no other report captures: how the collision has affected your ability to eat, and the nutritional consequences that follow.

That includes digestive injury, jaw and dental limitations, appetite change, weight loss and malnourishment risk, recorded as objective evidence of how profoundly your daily life has been affected.

No. This is not weight-loss advice, and you will not be handed a meal plan and sent away.

We work out what is making eating difficult and build something practical around your circumstances: your budget, your energy, your cooking ability, and who does the shopping in your household.

We may record weight where it is clinically relevant, such as unintended loss or malnourishment risk, and we will explain why.

Weight change after a serious injury is a consequence of circumstances, not a personal failing. Many people arrive having had unhelpful experiences around food and weight, and we are aware of that.

Not in advance. Come as you are and we will talk it through.

If a few days of tracking would be genuinely useful, your dietitian will ask and explain why. We use apps and digital tracking tools rather than paper diaries, so it takes seconds on your phone and your dietitian can see it directly.

Yes. Halal, kosher, vegetarian, vegan and culturally specific diets are all straightforward to work with, and a plan that ignores how your household actually eats is no plan at all.

On-demand interpretation in over 300 languages is available at no cost if that would help.

From age six. Children who have been in a collision may refuse food, regress in their eating, or lose weight at a stage when growth matters.

We work with the family rather than issuing instructions, and we take care not to turn mealtimes into another source of conflict.

That depends entirely on what you are dealing with. Some people need only a couple of appointments to get going, while others prefer ongoing review as things change. We will discuss it with you and agree a plan that suits your circumstances.

There is no set number, and you are never committed to a course of appointments.

Yes, anywhere in Ontario. Nutrition work translates particularly well to video, because we can see your kitchen and what is actually in your cupboards.

In-clinic appointments are available at Grimsby and St. Catharines, and home visits across the Hamilton and Niagara regions.