7. Nutrition & hydration¶
Scope check
Only include this section if nutrition is within your scope of practice and your registration allows it. Where it isn't, cut the section down to 7.1, 7.3 and 7.7 — enough to train the client safely and to know when to refer to a dietitian. The food frequency grid in 7.2 in particular is a dietitian's tool.
7.1 Typical intake¶
7.2 Food frequency¶
A frequency grid, adapted from the food table on the practitioner sheet. It catches what a 24-hour recall misses — the client who reports a clean Tuesday and eats very differently the rest of the week.
Rows for nut_ffq:
| Group | Examples to show the client |
|---|---|
| Bread & baked goods | Bread, rolls, pita, bagels |
| Crackers & crispbreads | Crackers, rice cakes, breadsticks |
| Breakfast cereals | Cereal, granola, oats |
| Rice, pasta & grains | Rice, pasta, couscous, buckwheat, ptitim |
| Starchy vegetables | Potato, sweet potato, corn, chips |
| Legumes | Lentils, chickpeas, beans, peas |
| Salad vegetables | Tomato, cucumber, pepper, carrot, radish, beetroot |
| Leafy greens & herbs | Lettuce, spinach, rocket, parsley, coriander, dill |
| Cruciferous & other cooked vegetables | Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, courgette, aubergine, mushrooms, pumpkin |
| Fresh fruit | Apple, banana, berries, melon, grapes, stone fruit |
| Dried fruit | Dates, raisins, figs, dried mango |
| White cheeses & yoghurt | Cottage, labneh, Bulgarian, plain yoghurt |
| Hard & yellow cheeses | Yellow cheese, goat's cheese, cream cheese |
| Milk & milk alternatives | Cow's milk, oat, soy, chocolate milk |
| Sweetened dairy desserts | Fruit yoghurt, dairy desserts |
| Eggs | Boiled, omelette, fried, shakshuka |
| Fish | Salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, sea bass, tilapia |
| Poultry | Chicken breast, thighs, turkey, schnitzel |
| Red meat & offal | Beef, goulash, liver, hearts |
| Processed meat | Salami, pastrami, sausages, burgers |
| Plant proteins | Tofu, seitan, soy |
| Nuts & seeds | Almonds, walnuts, cashews, sunflower, pumpkin, chia, flax, sesame |
| Oils & fats | Olive, canola, sesame, coconut oil |
| Spreads & dips | Tahini, hummus, avocado, mayonnaise |
| Savoury snacks | Crisps, Bamba, Bisli, pretzels, nachos |
| Fried & street food | Falafel, shawarma, bourekas, jachnun, malawach, pizza |
| Cakes, biscuits & pastries | Cakes, biscuits, wafers |
| Chocolate, sweets & ice cream | Chocolate, sweets, ice cream |
| Sweetened drinks | Cola, squash, iced coffee, milkshakes, energy drinks |
| Hot drinks | Coffee, instant coffee, tea |
| Water | — |
| Alcohol | Wine, beer, spirits |
Localise the examples, keep the groups
The examples above follow the source sheet and are Israeli by default — ptitim, jachnun, Bamba, bourekas. That specificity is the point: clients recognise their own food and answer accurately, where "refined grains" gets a shrug. Swap the examples for whatever your clients actually eat, but keep the group structure so answers stay comparable between clients.
A frequency grid is not a diet analysis
nut_ffq shows patterns — no vegetables, daily sweetened drinks, protein
only at dinner. It does not produce an intake estimate, and it should not
be scored or converted into calories. If you need that, refer to a
dietitian.
7.3 Dietary pattern & restrictions¶
Why a physical question sits in the nutrition section
nut_eating_limitation used to live in
section 4 under an inj_* ID, where it
displaced that section's pain-location question and never reached anyone
reading the nutrition record. It belongs here: a shoulder that cannot
reach a cupboard changes what the client eats, and it is the nutrition
plan, not the exercise exclusion list, that has to absorb that.
7.4 Cooking & environment¶
7.5 Hydration & stimulants¶
Tea counts
nut_caffeine is routinely under-reported because clients count coffee and
energy drinks but not tea. Black, green and white tea all contain caffeine,
as do matcha and most iced teas. Say so next to the question — herbal and
rooibos infusions are the exceptions.
No specific time in nut_caffeine_latest is an exclusive escape option:
selecting it clears every other option, and selecting any other option clears
it. Not currently enforced in survey/sections/07-nutrition.json — same known
gap as goal_primary in section 6: the phrase
doesn't match the old parser's escape-option pattern, so it was never
showNoneItem even before this migration. Fix it directly in the JSON.
Alcohol is captured once, in section 2
as health_alcohol_units. Don't duplicate it here.
7.6 Tracking & training nutrition¶
Supplements are not asked here. They are captured once in
section 2 as
health_supplements. If the client raises them, record against that ID and
carry it forward — do not open a second supplement conversation.
7.7 Relationship with food¶
Handle with care
These questions can surface an eating disorder. Ask them plainly, without
follow-up interrogation in the form itself, and make every one skippable. A
positive answer to nut_disordered_history is a referral to a registered
dietitian or clinician — not a prompt to design a stricter plan, and not
a reason to run section 9.
This is a referral, not a stop — do not end the call
nut_disordered_history = Yes is not a
stop condition. Do not deliver the
stop wording, do not hand to stop & refer, and do not end the
questionnaire. Follow
sensitive questions: thank
them, say it will shape how the coach works with them, and carry on with
the next question. The referral is made by the coach from the handover
record, after the call.
Stopping here punishes the disclosure. A client who is told the interview
is over the moment they mention a history of anorexia learns that honesty
ends the call — and the section's remaining questions, including
nut_support_wanted, are exactly the ones the coach needs answered in
that case.
7.8 Red flags¶
| Flag | Source field | Typical modification |
|---|---|---|
| Eating disorder history | nut_disordered_history |
No weighing, no measurements, no photos, no calorie targets; refer to a dietitian |
This section has no Stop and refer immediately entry — the one flag it carries is a caution flag, acted on by the coach after the call, not during it. See the warning in 7.7. Full outcome definitions: Screening red flags.
Previous: 6. Goals & motivation · Next: 8. Sleep, stress & recovery