Medical Nutrition Therapy: A Key to Diabetes Management and Prevention

The link between diabetes and diet has been well documented, as has the importance of diet in conjunction with medical interven-tions for diabetes. Patients often look to their primary care physicians for advice about general diabetes care, including diet, but survey studies have revealed that doctors feel uncomfort-able advising patients on the sensitive issues of weight loss and diet.1 Research is increasingly demonstrat-ing that medical nutrition therapy (MNT), administered by a registered dietitian (RD) or nutrition profes-sional, is a key component of diabetes management and a complement to treatment of diabetes by physicians. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) 2009 clinical practice recommendations state that “individuals who have pre-diabetes or diabetes should receive individu-alized MNT as needed to achieve treatment goals, preferably provided by a registered dietitian familiar with the components of diabetes MNT.”2 Furthermore, the ADA’s position statement titled “Nutrition Recommendations and Interventions for Diabetes ” emphasizes the importance of MNT in preventing diabetes, managing existing diabe-tes, and preventing and slowing the onset of diabetes-related complica-tions.3 The integration of MNT into diabetes care has the potential to improve patients ’ diabetes man-agement and to lessen the burden on physicians to provide nutrition information. Defining MNT MNT is defined as “nutritional diagnostic, therapy, and counseling services for the purpose of disease management, which are furnished by a registered dietitian or nutrition professional.”4 The American Dietetic Association, the professional organi-zation of RDs, defines the nutrition counseling component of MNT as “a supportive process to set priorities, establish goals, and create individual-ized action plans which acknowledge and foster responsibility for self-care.”5 In general, MNT consists of mul-tiple, one-on-one sessions between an RD and a patient, in which the RD performs the nutrition assess-ment, diagnosis, counseling, and other therapy services according t