Bermudians love to eat but if they can be educated to eat healthier they can continue to eat well and also have longer and more enjoyable lives, according to Lynne DaPonte.

Ms DaPonte, a clinical dietician, opened Appletite Nutrition Services in October after working at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in the Diabetes Centre.

Her practice is in the TB Cancer & Health Association on Point Finger Road in Paget.

?There are ways to have rich foods and still enjoy them and be healthier but you have to remember you are what you eat,? she said.

?I want to promote corporate wellness because if I can push better nutrition and wellness it can cut health costs and increase employee productivity and decrease sick days.?

Ms DaPonte offers shopping tours for companies where employees are taken to a grocery store and instructed about choosing good dairy and meat products and how to read nutrition labels.

?I became involved in a nutrition career because I had type one diabetes (insulin dependent),? she said.

?When I was diagnosed with diabetes, I wasn?t taking the advice of my healthcare team.

?If I had followed their advice, I could have avoided some of the complications I experienced. So my goal was to educate people about diabetes to help them avoid the complications and the problems.

?I opened the business because I wanted to be able to utilise the new things I was learning and put into practice innovative ideas and inspiring methods of educating people. Sometimes you have to go out on your own to do that.?

Ms DaPonte also said it was time for change because she had been concentrating exclusively on diabetes but wanted to put in practice some of her ideas on treating cancer and dealing with adult weight management and obesity.

?My grandfather is a cancer survivor and he had a reoccurrence of it and now he is suffering from the after-effects and he is unable to eat normally right now,? she said.

?So my interest in cancer was sparked again because he has to eat through a tube in his stomach and I was trying to make sure he was getting proper nutrition through that tube.?

She obtained an Associates Degree in nutrition at Southern College in Chattanooga, Tennessee and a Master?s Degree in clinical dietetics from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Ms DaPonte said her adult weight management programme is designed to help people with morbid obesity and she also treats bariatric patients (patients going in for surgery to reduce the stomach capacity to in order to lose weight).

?We have been finding links between obesity and diabetes and obesity and heart disease,? she said. ?If we can correct that obesity, it does help with these other problems.?

She said owning her own business has allowed her to be involved in community events and spend more time with schools and churches educating them on nutrition and blood testing and blood pressure testing.