Kindred Nutrition & Kinetics 2024: Sports Nutrition and Eating Order Expertise
DeliveryRank chats with Amy Goldsmith, RDN, LDN, the founder of Kindred Nutrition & Kinetics, specializing in Sports Nutrition and Eating Disorders with over 25 years of expertise. Combining her deep knowledge of biochemistry with a collaborative approach, Amy tailors nutrition plans to optimize athletic performance and support clients in their journey to recovery from eating disorders. She works closely with performance teams and clinical care providers to ensure comprehensive, personalized care.
Amy's approach to sports nutrition includes precise recommendations for nutrition, hydration, and recovery across all phases of an athlete's cycle. In eating disorder treatment, she fosters a safe, nonjudgmental environment, focusing on clinical safety and guiding patients toward sustainable recovery through teamwork with physicians, therapists, and other specialists.
A Cum Laude graduate of Virginia Tech in Human Nutrition, Food, and Exercise, Amy is a licensed dietitian in multiple states and an active board member of the International Association for Eating Disorder Professionals. Her work has been featured in outlets like SHAPE, SELF, and Parents, and she collaborates with local and national sports clubs and collegiate athletes.
Kindred Nutrition & Kinetics is a national private practice offering evidence-based Medical Nutrition Therapy, Behavioral Therapy, and Nutrition Coaching for Sports Nutrition and Eating Disorders. By fostering collaboration with healthcare and performance professionals, Kindred delivers integrative, personalized care plans that address clients' physical and behavioral health, supporting their journey to optimal wellness and recovery.
How does Kindred Nutrition's personalized nutrition prescription integrate evidence-based science with an athlete's training plan and lifestyle to optimize performance and recovery?
Kindred Nutrition & Kinetics providers are all dietitians. We have a specific Bachelor of Science that focus on an intense science load such as Anatomy and Physiology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry Biochemistry and more. After we graduate with our Bachelor’s degree one must obtain their masters AND an internship where they have hands on experience in a clinical, community, and food service environment so they can apply their knowledge to their patients. In addition to our education we have to have 75 continuing education credits every five years to maintain our licensure and registration. At Kindred we focus a lot of our continuing education credits on sports nutrition so we can learn and evaluate new techniques, research and ideology in regards to performance and recovery. When we meet with a client we go into great depth about their current health, their current training plan, their food and water intake, as well as sleep. We compare this to what we assess as their needs and create an individualized plan from there.
What unique tools and techniques, such as Resting Metabolic Rate Testing and Designed Sweat Tests, does Kindred Nutrition use to create tailored nutrition plans for athletes?
In addition to our knowledge we can utilize other testing that is helpful to tailor a plan. Sometimes we will conduct a Resting Metabolic Rate Test (RMR) through our machine by Korr Medical Technologies. This test can give us more specific insight into how many calories a client burns at rest. We can also complete a Body Fat Test. We utilize the Body Stat test and this is helpful as it can breakdown lean muscle mass, water, and fat mass. When we work with a client who has lots of cramping and sweats excessively combined with a quick bonk in performance we will recommend a Sweat Test. We usually recommend the GX Sweat Patch, through Gatorade. We can evaluate the results and recommend appropriately electrolytes per hour. Last but not least we may identify through symptoms that we need to check additional labs. We can do this through our own service through Evexia for a small fee or we can ask their physician to order it so it’s covered by insurance.
How does Kindred Nutrition's team approach address both the medical and psychological aspects of eating disorder recovery for teens and adults?
Every one of our providers is trained to assess depression and anxiety through a basic scale through motivational interviewing and through initial paperwork. Our dietitians can work to assess and recommend a lot of clinical recommendations on the medical side and we will collaborate with their physician and specialist as needed. If a client screens out for depression or anxiety or mental health concerns, such as an Eating Disorder we will refer to a therapist. We are lucky to have a great therapist who works with us at Kindred Nutrition & Kinetics. We also work with therapists outside of our office. Collaboration between the dietitian and therapist is very important.
What role does family and collaborative care play in Kindred Nutrition’s eating disorder treatment programs?
Collaboration is a necessity, and we find we need to drive it. It is frustrating that it is not a consistent practice for a lot of physician and therapy offices to reach out to us to collaborate care and understanding if someone has enough fuel for their cognition and basic organ work is vital. At Kindred Nutrition & Kinetics I provide additional, paid time for all of our providers to reach out to providers so that we can ensure the team approach is strong and consistent. From a family perspective our dietitians bring the family in at the end of meetings to discuss goals and expectations. If there is a need for more in-depth coaching we can refer to our parenting coach who can supplement our work with their child. We also have a parent support group which is supportive and can help bridge communication gaps and understanding. Family support is the most important part of Eating Disorder Recovery.
How has your experience as a media nutritionist and brand consultant influenced Kindred Nutrition's ability to provide reliable, evidence-based information to the public?
I have been a dietitian for 25 years and I’ve witnessed the cycle of nutrition information. I believe the science hasn’t changed but the messaging has. It has been proved that messaging through media, specific social media, has been very damaging and even caused or worsened disordered eating. I am passionate about providing evidence based information in a simplified manner. I believe this allows for people to make sustainable changes that can play a role in increasing overall health. The media has lots of opinions on products and brands and I enjoy collaborating brands to focus on messaging, strengths of a product, and helping to tie the science to the product benefit for the community. I work with brands that are in line with my overall ideology about nutrition and that I believe will help my community.
How does Kindred Nutrition ensure that its services for sports nutrition and eating disorder treatment remain accessible and effective for clients across a wide geographical area, given the practice spans multiple states?
I have biweekly meetings with my staff where we go over every client and their progress and monthly we have an all team on deck call. If we are working with someone virtually in a different state we introduce ourselves to their physician and start to collaborate care immediately. We have access to lots of unique products, such as blind weight scales, where our clients can step on a scale and it will come straight to our computer. Since we work with Evexia to order labs we can order labs all across the country and results come directly to our Electronic Medical Records. We worked virtually with clients before the pandemic so we feel very confident with our abilities to communicate and build rapport. Lastly we have relationships with many different providers within each state to ensure we can still collaborate effectively. All of our paperwork and billing is done online and is seamless and protected through our Electronic Medical Records.
If you would like to find out more about Kindred Nutrition, please visit https://kindrednutrition.com/