Meet Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist, Christine McIntosh
Get to know Registered Dietitian, Christine McIntosh on our team!
We are excited to introduce you to Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist on our team, Christine McIntosh. Christine’s confidence and kind manner easily guides people along as they establish their new food habits. Experience in mental health, eating disorders, midlife and aged nutrition, as well as chronic disease management, means she knows how food fits into complicated lives. She’s been happily working with complex food lives for nearly 25 years.
We asked Chrisine to share a few things about herself so you could get to know her below in this blog post. Learn even more about Christine, her background and experience in her full bio here: Christine McIntosh Bio
What is your background as a registered dietitian?
After completion of an internship at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, I had a natural fit for self-employment in Long Term Care. It followed from my intern project on malnutrition risk of the elderly, allowed work flexibility for family, and gave life enrichment of meeting aged residents in small towns across Ontario. A heart for vulnerable people is themed in my career that landed next in a community health centre. In that role, I met patients with all kinds of conditions, ages, and backgrounds, and initiated nutrition programs for prenatal teens and a food box distribution network. Positions in community health organizations in Ontario, Australia, and volunteering with World Vision Nutrition program has fed the cycle of joy that turns by helping others and receiving more joy in return.
Born Canadian but a love for hot sun, we moved to Florida where I managed hospital food and clinical nutrition programs for years. A return to Ontario to manage health education programs laid the pathway to PhD study of motivation for health behaviour change, that led to a teaching position at an Australian University Dietetics program. Then back to Ontario, where I blended both passions of teaching and counseling as a coordinator of a regional health education program and in private practice. Now stuck in the cycle of joy, I consistently lead others towards self management of their own nutritional health.
What are your areas of specialty at Health Stand Nutrition?
My areas of specialty at Health Stand Nutrition is broad but I specialize in nutrition counseling for disordered eating, mental health, emotional eating, IBS and intestinal health, anti-inflammatory eating, arthritis, chronic pain, weight concerns, women’s health and menopause.
With the heart of an adventurer, I go deep and wide to understand a person’s food story. I listen well to collaborate on a plan for the healthiest food life possible. There is not a nutrition concern that I would not want to explore given my love of learning, natural curiosity and focus on helping people with complicated health issues with better peace of mind.
What is your favourite part of being a dietitian?
First, I love food; secondly, I am fascinated by how nutrition impacts the body. As a Dietitian, I can put these together in ever-new ways to help others for their best health. The field of nutrition is dynamic, and research is always finding new reasons why nutrition is important to the human body. I am privileged to listen to the health stories of others and assist them to their success of nutrition goal!
What is one myth that you want to clear up about dietitians?
That dietitians all give the same messages that stamp out the fun of eating. In our current food obsessed culture – where media over-stimulates us with images of photoshopped fast food or over-guilts us with how we need to “eat this way or that”, dietitians hold the truth. Dietitians do all give the same message – that food is both fun and an important part of human health.
Favorite nerdy nutritious food chosen for health?
Hey, I stand firmly beside the oat. It is a humble grain that provides versatility and healthful properties. It has personality if steam rolled or steel cut, rocks my world at breakfast in morning muesli, and melts my heart in a fruit crisp dessert. It struts its stuff in a stout beer and homemade cookie. But that is just the start of the list of what my food-friend can do.
Favorite soulful food chosen for taste, enjoyment and social fun?
Pizza, pizza, pizza. I love its origin as a food given to homeless people by bakers on the streets of old time Italy. Served back-in-the-day as a flattened dough covered with a bit of fresh tomato, olive oil and salt and pulled hot from the stone oven, it has both evolved and kept to its origins. Certainly, the pizza experts in the world still look to the crust and tomato sauce to judge its worth. And pizza is universal. It’s the food to find in any place of travel, loved by people of any age, and can be personalized for every special taste.
Something that people may not know about you is?
That I’ve seen the world’s best boiled egg cooker. This was just one of the amazing machines I saw at a Kuwait hospital while working a short contract. Following a lead for an opportunity to manage a dietitian team at a state-of-the-art hospital, I spent a week in Kuwait City living the life of an expat in the Middle East. By day, I toured the fantastic kitchen, job shadowed the local dietitians and kitchen manager, and met the Minister of Food and Agriculture who sought advice regarding the future of dietitians in Kuwait. By night, I shopped at the Souq (market), sat at the pool in the fading desert heat, and dined on the best charcoal grilled meats and hummus I have ever had.
Experiences like this confirm to me that people everywhere share food stories and hope for health. At Health Stand, I work with a team also committed to listen well to food stories to support others to their best nutritional health.
Looking for more information on nutrition counseling or finding a Calgary Registered Dietitian or Global Online Nutritionist?
Learn more about Dietitian Christine McIntosh and check out her full bio here covering all her background and experience!
If you want to book an appointment to begin nutrition counseling with Christine, please contact us.
To learn more about our Calgary Dietitian and Online Nutritionist services, click here.
Don’t forget to check your health insurance! Many insurance plans cover Dietitian services.
Brought to you by our friendly Registered Dietitian team at Health Stand Nutrition Consulting Inc. For more balanced living advice check out our RESOURCE MEGA BANK of nutrition articles, videos, healthy recipes, newsletters and meal planning kits here: www.healthstandnutrition.com/personal-nutrition/resource-mega-bank/
