If you want to make sure you're eating right, that question is soon
to be answered online and via phone by Ontario dietitians.
It's a part of the government of Ontario's Action Plan for Healthy
Eating and Active Living, an initiative being taken to combat
obesity.
The new service will be available to answer questions on topics
including nutrition, healthy eating, and food allergies, said Julie
Rosenberg, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health
Promotion.
The service will be available to the public, as well as to
physicians and health professionals, said Rosenberg.
"It's (the website) going to be an interactive reference source
for guiding nutrition related information as well as providing
answers to frequently asked questions," she added.
She said the ministry is unsure of how interactive the website
will be as it could be difficult for staff to answer some questions
immediately.
"If someone has a specific question related to diabetes or heart
health we would obviously have to be very thoughtful in the
response."
She said the project is to be implemented within the next six
months.
The British Columbia Ministry of Health already has a dietitian
call centre, Dial-A-Dietitian, which the Ontario Ministry of Health
Promotion is using as a model for this project, according to
Rosenberg.
B.C.'s phone-based dietitian program has been available since
1972 and receives about 20,000 calls per year according to Kathleen
Quinn, a registered dietitian and program director of
Dial-A-Dietitian.
The program has a website at www.dialadietitian.org.,
yet the site does not have the function of answering diet related
questions online, as they want to ensure they are only serving B.C.
residents.
Quinn added the program is looking into expanding the website to
include an online answer function.
Residents of B.C. can access registered dietitians through the
service from Monday to Friday during regular business hours, and
Dial-A-Dietitian also has translation services available in 130
different languages.
"The registered dietitians provide brief consultations for
self-care providing info that one can trust...and it's free."
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