Experts nourish Aviano with nutrition knowledge

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Austin Harvill
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  In a culture consumed by calorie counting, the 31st Medical Support Squadron nutritional medicine clinic staff stands as a bastion of best practices concerning nutritional health.

"Proper nutrition is a mystery for a lot of people," said Staff Sgt. Negelly Del Orbe-Burgos, 31st MDSS nutritional medicine clinic NCO in charge. "The Aviano community is no exception, and our three technicians are responsible for dispelling that mystery."

The team combats the ever-increasing amount of nutritional misinformation with a two-pronged approach - nutrition classes and outpatient counseling sessions. The clinic also takes care of the nutritional needs of inpatients through food preparation and risk diagnoses.

"A few of our biggest impacts in the community are our various nutrition classes," said Senior Airman Kevin Moynihan, 31st MDSS diet therapy technician. "We have specialized classes for conditions like hypertension and diabetes, but our best outreach classes are BeWell and the nutritional aspect of InForma which are both open to the entire community."

During BeWell, participants can expect to gain a wide breadth of dietary knowledge as well as the opportunity to speak with a diet therapy technician. InForma is taught by a certified exercise physiologist and combines nutritional information with exercise schedules and weight-loss plans.

The nutritional medicine clinic also offers one-on-one outpatient counseling sessions.

"If your schedule doesn't let you go to a class or you have more advanced questions, our clinic offers private counseling sessions with one of our technicians," said Del Orbe-Burgos. "A referral isn't necessary; you just have to call the office and make an appointment."

Counseling sessions are tailored to each patient and usually consist of a specialized diet plan, portion control information, general nutritional guidelines and more. The diet therapy technician might refer a patient to the lab or other clinics for additional information about their health, especially if the patient has a pre-existing condition or allergies.

"When we sit down with a patient, our primary concern is proper nutrition education," said Moynihan. "People get excited about the diet plans or their current health metrics, but without a strong foundation in knowledge, those tools are practically useless."

Whenever diet therapy technicians aren't teaching a class or helping clients, they are most likely preparing food for the 31st Medical Group inpatients.

"We prepare inpatient meals because our inpatients could be hospitalized for a variety of health conditions or after a procedure," said Moynihan. "After all, you don't want to give chicken strips to a patient who had jaw surgery, or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to someone with a peanut allergy."

Whether preparing cuisine, classes or counseling sessions, the nutritional medicine clinic continues to nurture nutritional know-how in the Aviano community so Wyverns can remain forward, ready, now.

To schedule an outpatient counseling session with the nutritional medicine clinic, call 632-5126.