Dietetic education — Auckland (North and West)

The Health NZ Waitematā adult dietetics team provides education sessions and online programmes for patients. Group education class and online programme information is available on this page.
If you have been sent an invite to a group education class or an online programme, see below for the relevant information.

On this page

Eating for your health

Our Eating for Your Health programme helps you to be more aware of your eating habits and to take control of them.

It is more about how we eat, rather than what we eat. You will learn skills to make positive changes to your lifestyle. We do not prescribe diets and we do not focus on weight.

The group sessions run once a week for 4 weeks. We cover the following:

  • making changes, eating with awareness, non-hungry eating
  • why diets do not work, mindful eating, managing when things do not go to plan
  • embracing body size diversity, looking after all areas of our health, psychological health, movement
  • healthy eating, every day and sometimes foods, goal setting.

You can attend in person or by video call (Telehealth). Hard copies of the resources are provided when you attend in person.

We have more information on attending Telehealth calls.

Online hospital appointments (Telehealth) (internal link)

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Session 1 outline

  • Making changes
  • Increasing your eating awareness
  • Non-hungry eating

Session 1 resources

Session 1 presentation [PDF, 1.7 MB]

Session 1 summary [PDF, 376 KB]

Making changes worksheet [PDF, 173 KB]

Is it hunger worksheet [PDF, 618 KB]

Session 2 outline

  • Why diets do not work
  • Mindful eating
  • Buzz foods
  • When things do not go to plan

Session 2 resources

Session 2 presentation [PDF, 1.2 MB]

Session 2 summary [PDF, 317 KB]

Mindful eating and satisfaction worksheet [PDF, 454 KB]

Behaviour chain worksheet [PDF, 249 KB]

Functional gastrointestinal disorder programme

Functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGID) is the most common diagnosis in gastroenterology. It may also be called:

  • disorder of gut-brain interaction (DGBI)
  • constipation
  • reflux
  • diarrhoea
  • irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

There is a lot of information out there, which can be useful, but also confusing.

To assist with your symptoms and improve your quality of life, our dietitians have developed an online programme. It has been developed to help you control your symptoms using the best evidence available.

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  1. Complete the Bowel and symptom questionnaire to find out what your specific symptoms are and how your bowels have been working over the last week. You will complete this before and after the programme to see if your symptoms and bowel habits have improved.
  2. Email the questionnaire to outpatientdietitians@waitematadhb.govt.nz
  3. Read the Functional gastrointestinal disorder self-help guide for information and advice on how to improve your symptoms. Includes information on diet, exercise, breathing and relaxation. Email us if you would like a hard copy.
  4. Watch Webinar 1 (the password is in the invitation letter we sent you). This explains what may cause a FGID and what symptoms are commonly seen.  Advice on diet and non-diet approaches is provided.

You will need to follow the Stage 1 advice and strategies for 6 to 8 weeks. Many people find these strategies are all they need. If your gut issues are better after these strategies, go straight to Stage 4 to complete the evaluation form. If you still find it difficult to manage your symptoms after completing Stage 1, we suggest moving on to Stages 2 and 3.

Stage 1 resources

Bowel and symptom questionnaire [DOCX, 1.2 MB]

Functional gastrointestinal disorder self-help guide [PDF, 715 KB]

Webinar 1 — Vimeo (external link)

Food and symptom diary [PDF, 357 KB]

Nerva | Mindset health (external link)

  1. Read the Low FODMAP diet step 1 information sheet
  2. Watch Webinar 2 (the password is in the invitation letter we sent you). This webinar will help you decide whether a low FODMAP diet is right for you. It provides in-depth information about what the low FODMAP diet is and how you can try it. If you decide to go ahead with it, you will need to follow the Low FODMAP diet step 1 for 2 to 4 weeks before moving on to Stage 3.

Stage 2 resources

Low FODMAP diet step 1 [PDF, 954 KB]

Webinar 2 — Vimeo (external link)

Low FODMAP diet — Monash University (external link)

  1. Read the Low FODMAP diet step 2 and step 3 information sheets
  2. Watch Webinar 3 (the password is in the invitation letter we sent you). This webinar discusses steps 2 and 3 of the Low FODMAP diet. Step 2 looks at reintroducing individual FODMAP groups, and step 3 looks at moving towards an adapted low FODMAP diet based on what you can tolerate. These steps will take you several months to complete. Remember, you need to have followed step 1 for 2 to 4 weeks before you move on to these steps.  

Stage 3 resources

Low FODMAP diet step 2 [PDF, 340 KB]

Low FODMAP diet step 3 [PDF, 468 KB]

Webinar 3 — Vimeo (external link)

Low FODMAP diet — Monash University (external link)

A Little Bit Yummy (external link)

  1. Complete the Bowel and symptom questionnaire from Stage 1 again.
  2. Email the questionnaire to outpatientdietitians@waitemata.govt.nz
  3. Complete the Functional gastrointestinal disorder programme evaluation form

Evaluation form link and QR code

Functional gastrointestinal disorder programme evaluation form (external link)

Functional gastrointestinal disorder programme evaluation form

Bariatric dietetics

This information only applies to patients having bariatric surgery at North Shore or Waitākere Hospitals (Health NZ Waitematā).

If you are accepted into the bariatric pathway, you will be invited to attend a bariatric information seminar. This will give you the information to decide if bariatric surgery is right for you.

To help you make healthy dietary changes, the dietitian will invite you to attend a group nutrition session. You will learn more about healthy eating and the necessary dietary and lifestyle changes required to maximise your results from surgery. All group sessions are mandatory as the information is vital for success. Your surgery date may be impacted if you do not go to the group sessions.

An appointment with the surgeon will be set to discuss surgical options and when appropriate you will be waitlisted for surgery. You will then be invited to a pre-operation education session to provide details about dietary requirements prior to having your surgery.

After your surgery you will be invited to a post-operation session to provide information about dietary recommendations after surgery.

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