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Nutritionist Carolyn Lammersfeld
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VIDEO: Nutritionist Carolyn Lammersfeld- Individualized Nutrition Plans, How Are These Created?

Nutritionist Carolyn Lammersfeld introduces herself and explains how she composes individualized nutrition plans from the information patients provide her.

Nutritionist Carolyn Lammersfeld:
I am Carolyn Lammersfeld. I am a Masters prepared registered dietician. I also have a certification in nutrition support and a certification in oncology nutrition and I am the Director of Nutrition for Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

Every patient that comes to Cancer Treatment Centers of America is scheduled for an initial evaluation and consultation with the dietician. The patients actually fill out some information for us before we meet with them, that gives us some idea of whether they’ve been able to maintain their weight or if they’ve had a significant weight loss over the last six months, how their appetite is, any symptoms they may be having that’s affecting their ability to take in nutrients properly, what, if any, supplements they may be taking before arriving to our center.

We also have blood work available to us before we meet with patients so we have some idea of, some of their vitamin and mineral status, their protein status, vitamin D, iron, so we have all that information available to us before we meet with the patient and then we actually sit down with the patient and get a little bit more of a history from them. We actually ask them to walk us through a typical day, what are they able to eat and then from there we develop a plan.

So, we generally categorize patients in the three categories when we’re meeting with them, either their well nourished, they’re moderately malnourished or they’re severely malnourished. For well-nourished patients we will work more on the quality of what they’re eating. So we’ll meet them where they are as far as their lifestyle and we’re really trying to move them more towards a plan based diet so, trying to help them make steps to eat less animal fats, more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, plant proteins, fish, and that looks different for every patient depending upon what their lifestyle is. So we’ll get that them information and set goals with them and then we evaluate where they are with those goals the next time they come in.

For patients that are moderately or severely malnourished, first we’re working on quantity, making sure we’re getting calories, protein, vitamins and minerals in them no matter how that looks really at the time. So, it may be as simple as making some adjustments in their diet, for example, somebody with nausea – a lower fat diet may help minimize incidents of nausea. Certainly other side effects there are diet modifications that can help them manage those side effects so they can eat better.

It may be as simple as helping them either prepare a high protein, high-calorie high-protein shake at home or recommending a supplement that they can take to help them meet their needs. Sometimes it’s working with the patient’s physician as far as if there is a medication that may help them with their appetite or managing their symptoms, and then of course patients that are severely malnourished, were we can’t help them with any of those steps, those are the patients that get referred to our nutrition metabolic support team.

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