Spotlight on:
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Andrea Paul, RD
Dietitian at Change Creates Change Eating Disorder Care
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Andrea Paul grew up in Dartmouth and attended Acadia University, graduating in 2011 and completing her dietetic internship through NSHA in 2012. Soon after, she relocated to Portland, Maine where she worked as a dietitian in various roles including retail, corporate wellness, oncology, and private practice. She has also dabbled in nutrition communications through blogging, recipe development, and her podcast Food Confidence. Andrea's nutrition philosophy sits firmly with weight-inclusive care, and she aims to help her clients find joy with food and peace in their bodies.
She relocated back to Nova Scotia with her family in early 2021 and recently joined the team at Change Creates Change Eating Disorder Care in Wolfville as the Team Dietitian and Internship Coordinator.
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What is your favourite place to find new recipes?
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I would love to say that I go to my cookbooks for new recipes -- I really like my cookbooks and have quite a decent collection -- but alas the ease of finding recipes online wins out most of the time. Unless it's a baking recipe, I tend to look for recipe *ideas* more so than following the recipe exactly, as I try to follow mine and my family's preferences and what we have on hand. I have enough cooking knowledge that things -- usually -- work out pretty well!
What do you love most about your job?
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Working in private practice and providing nutrition counselling, I have had the opportunity to build some wonderful provider-client relationships and see individuals progress in their recovery from chronic dieting, eating disorders, and poor body image. I find it incredibly rewarding and a privilege to gain the trust of clients and their loved ones and to be part of their journey in healing from food and body struggles.
If you weren't a dietitian, what would you do?
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From my time doing eating disorders work, it's become clear that if I wasn't a dietitian, I would also enjoy being a therapist. There is a lot of overlap in the work that ED dietitians and therapists do and I'm grateful to have learned so much from therapist colleagues. If I didn't work in healthcare, I think I would still want to work around food; I've dreamed/joked in the past about opening up a restaurant (brunch only!) or opening a bakery with one of my best friends.