Eat, drink and get healthy: Use food for healing with nutritional therapy

Jul 31, 2024

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You might think of food as the fuel that keeps your body running. While that’s true, the right mix of food and nutrients can get your body humming by helping you heal from surgery or an injury, or prevent, manage or even reverse some health conditions.

If you’re dealing with a chronic condition, or your primary care provider has warned you that you need to make some diet and lifestyle changes to maintain your health, ask about whether you would benefit from nutritional therapy with a registered dietitian.

Nutritional therapy is so much more than a diet plan. You’ll meet with a dietitian who will create a personalized plan based on your lifestyle, dietary habits and overall health. Your plan will address specific health concerns and aim to improve your overall well-being. It could involve making dietary changes like swapping one food for another, taking supplements, making lifestyle changes, and learning how to read nutrition labels and shop smarter.

How can nutritional therapy help?

A dietitian can help with a range of concerns or conditions, including:

Blood sugar regulation, critical to those with or at risk of developing diabetes
Digestive issues like irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, or food allergies and intolerances
Weight management, by helping people reach and maintain a healthy weight with a sustainable, nutrient-rich diet instead of a restrictive approach
Heart health, to lower cholesterol or blood pressure, or reduce the risk of heart disease
Mental health, by providing your brain with essential nutrients, possibly addressing mood, cognitive function and overall emotional well-being

Does health insurance cover nutritional therapy?

Community Health Options covers medical nutritional therapy visits with a registered dietitian to address specific medical or behavioral health conditions:

Up to 12 preventive medical nutritional therapy visits at no cost to Members at risk of select conditions, as well as for specified conditions included in the Chronic Illness Support Program (CISP). Additional visits are subject to cost sharing.
Up to 12 preventive medical nutritional therapy visits at no cost for adults and children. These visits can be used by people at greater risk for chronic conditions like obesity, prediabetes, Type 2 diabetes and weight gain in pregnancy. Additional visits are subject to cost sharing.

Community Health Options Members can find information about nutritional therapy coverage in the plan documents through the Member portal. For those with general health goals in mind, some plans—including Healthy Maine plans—offer a digital wellness platform, which may include unlimited sessions with a health coach who can help design an eating plan and offer steps to stick to it. Members with those plans can find specific details in their Member portal.

If you have questions about whether you’ll have to pay for nutritional therapy or want information about CISP, please call Member Services at (855) 624-6463 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Not over it yet? It’s OK if you’re not feeling OK

Let's face it. No one needs to remind us that it can be a little rough out there.

Mainers, of course, are famous for their grit and for having each other’s backs in tough times. And while that’s true, healing takes time and it’s OK to need help, whether following a violent event, a natural disaster, a personal loss, or something else. Most important, when life comes at you hard, remember to be patient with yourself and to stay connected with those around you.

There’s no script for reacting to the things life throws our way, and you shouldn’t expect to “get over it” quickly. You may not want to eat or are having a tough time sleeping. You might feel as if things are out of control, have a tough time concentrating, feel angry or restless, feel like withdrawing, or not even know how you feel. A current event might even remind you of something in the past and could churn up old feelings, too.