Food Counselling. How To Motivate People To Change Eating Habits. Roberta Graziano

of foods, their functions, utilization and association. Supported actions should go beyond the simple information, education, promotion and prescriptive approach. But the person must be at the center of the action, with its needs and its demands, must consciously choose their own way of life must be motivated to change in both the initial choice is in the later stages of the route. An approach that includes intervention on motivation for change seems to be most appropriate to achieve changes in individual lifestyles and to maintain health behaviors over time.

      Nutritional counseling

       Counseling is derived from the Latin “Consulo-ere, "console", "comfort", "come in handy", cum, "with", "together", solere, "raise", "lift," and both as an act and as "aid to rise up "and can be translated into" Report in which the person is assisted in its difficulties without giving up the freedom of choice and their responsibility. " Counseling is an intervention in the support of individuals or groups who need help to solve a problem or a disadvantaged situation. Goal of counseling is to lead to the discovery of potential and personal resources in order to facilitate a self-determined and responsible change. Nutrition counseling is an innovative approach in nutrition, which exploits the counseling skills to educate people about a healthy diet. Also born as an alternative to prescriptive diet therapy, the main limitation is the difficulty of preserving in time the results obtained from the diet

       The difference between the prescriptive diet therapy and nutritional counseling is that while in the prescriptive diet therapy the person / patient is called upon to apply the recommendations of dietary expert to whom he delegates his health,in nutritional counseling in the person / patient is involved in an active learning path of good dietary rules.

       Nutrition counseling can be seen as a primary prevention tool and food education, which caters both to individuals, who have not developed disease,but are at risk (for example, overweight people or those who are more likely to develop a condition of obesity), and to healthy subjects, namely to people who despite having no particular problem, need to change their eating habits for the better. The application of counseling to nutritional issues is aimed at acquiring and maintaining proper dietary habits in the long term. The major point of the nutritional counseling is patient’s education rather than prescribing treatment.