The Nutrition Center
Nutrition Center Comes to Pittsfield
Monday, September 26th, 2011By Amanda Korman, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Monday September 26, 2011
PITTSFIELD — Addressing what it views as a growing need for nutritional counseling in Pittsfield, a South County nonprofit is establishing a permanent office in the city to address and prevent obesity and diet-related illnesses.
The Nutrition Center, based in Great Barrington, has held counseling at Berkshire Healing Arts in Pittsfield since March. It is now opting to open its own location here after seeing high interest — about 50 new patients a month, according to director Peter Stanton, who said that there aren’t currently many options for nutritional counseling in Pittsfield.
“The reality is, it is limited,” Stanton said. “I think that maybe that’s our role, getting the word out, talking to the doctors and helping them to know that there are resources available and it can be helpful for their patients.”
Counseling will continue at the healing arts center at 42 Summer St. until Stanton settles on a new space that includes a kitchen, which he expects to do this month.
Family practice physician Dr. Lisa Nelson is an advocate for The Nutrition Center that is coming to Pittsfield. She said nutritional counseling referrals are a way to address overweight or obese patients whom, if they lost weight, could reverse their diagnoses of high cholesterol or diabetes.
“This is not a conversation I can have in 10 minutes,” she said. “These are lifestyle habits that people have that take years to establish, and it takes months to years to correct them.”
While most people end up at nutritional counseling through doctor referral, Stanton would like to see the practice additionally utilized to prevent those health issues.
The Nutrition Center can be reached at (413) 429-8110 or info@thenutritioncenter.org
