Kirsten Straughan
Kirsten Straughan received her undergraduate degree in nutrition and completed her internship at Loyola University Chicago. She is a registered dietitian with a background that includes five years of clinical experience at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago and four years of private practice nutritional counseling work, in addition to many nutritional educational experiences.
During her schooling, Kirsten interned at Children’s Memorial Hospital in the clinic for overweight and underweight children and later completed an internship at a Women, Infants and Children government subsidized clinic. These were her first-hand introductory lessons to real-life eating habits of children and their families. These early experiences solidified the importance of nutrition education for all members of the family.
Kirsten works with a variety of clients that are referred to her from physicians, personal trainers, physical therapists, chiropractors and eating disorder specialists. When counseling families, she provides education and coaching on ways to implement nutrition and lifestyle changes for the parents and the children. In addition, she leads nutrition seminars on topics that include prenatal nutrition, children’s nutrition, women’s nutrition, heart healthy nutrition and prevention of insulin resistance. Kirsten regularly contributes to e-mail newsletter and magazine articles and has recently co-authored a book entitled “Lean Mom, Fit Family” with Michael Sena, published by Rodale Press, 2005.
In 2002, Kirsten teamed up with Otis Wilson, former Chicago Bears player, for a combined fitness and nutrition after-school program targeted towards low-income children to prevent and treat childhood obesity. This resulted in an appearance on Fox evening news to discuss the childhood obesity epidemic.
Kirsten has also performed several nutrition segments for NBC morning news on topics such as Family Fitness and Nutrition and Healthy Holiday Eating.
Kirsten speaks from experience on children’s nutrition as she is mom to 6 year old Jack and 20 month old Sophie. She is an avid runner and has enjoyed competing in marathons and triathlons. She is a member of the American Dietetic Association’s Nutrition in Complementary Care and Sports, Cardiovascular, and Wellness Nutritionist dietetic practice groups and has served on Loyola University’s nutrition internship selection committee for several years.
For more information on her book, “Lean Mom, Fit Family”, check out amazon.