MCHD nutritional counselors can help you spring into the swing of things

Mar. 11, 2026

By Mary Wade Burnside

March is National Nutrition Month and as springtime approaches, it’s a great time to consider the importance of the foods we choose to fuel our bodies and brains.
Soon, fruits and vegetables will be sprouting up from the warming ground and providing healthier and more colorful options for us to choose from.
At Monongalia County Health Department, National Nutrition Month is especially important to us. After all, many public health issues, including obesity, heart health and diabetes, can be alleviated, or even avoided, with a better diet.
Plus, the federally-funded Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC, is part of the health department.
Six counties — Monongalia, Preston, Marion, Harrison, Doddridge and Taylor — are under the umbrella of the Morgantown-based MCHD WIC.
WIC provides nutrition counseling and assistance, plus breastfeeding support, to women who qualify. This includes pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum women and their children up to the age of 5. Check out www.monchd.org/departments-programs/wic for more information.
But for nearly two years, MCHD WIC’s two dietitian nutritionists, Jason Nguyen and Cami Haught, who is also the MCHD WIC program director, have been seeing private patients as nutritional counselors as one of Monongalia County Health Department’s services. This counseling can be billed to insurance and private pay is also an option.
“Most people feel like they are eating healthy, but when you dive into their diet, they might not be making very good choices,” Haught said. “But they think they are.”
Some people might think that it’s difficult to eat healthy on a budget, but helping clients with that task is among the many services that Haught and Nguyen can offer.
“Being able to utilize the foods that are in season, and educate people about them, it’s going to be more cost-effective,” Haught said. “We can tell them how to utilize leftovers and feed the family on a budget.
“There are so many things a nutritional professional can help you with.”
Haught and Nyugen both have extensive backgrounds in nutrition and can address many conditions that can be navigated with better nutrition or specific diets.
These can range from diabetes to eating disorders to helping picky toddlers or individuals who have issues with food textures.
“We can teach people how to follow a recipe,” Haught said. “Some people don’t know how to cook. And we can help with how to grocery shop too and meet the budget.”
In the United States, many people have unrealistic ideas of what a good portion size is. In recent years, the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has changed portion sizes in the Nutrition Facts Label. This was not to encourage people to eat more, but to help with the math so they will know the calorie count and other information for the portion that is closer to what they will really consume.
Still, Haught noted, “Portion sizes have become horribly skewed. If you look at portion sizes from 20, 30 years ago, they have doubled or tripled.”
She mentioned a Big Gulp, which was introduced 50 years ago as a 32-ounce drink, considered at that time to be too large.
In 1989, that size had doubled to 64 ounces. “That’s eight servings of soda,” Haught said.
And that's just one example.
This is bad news for West Virginians, who, according to the American Diabetes Association, live in the state with the highest rate of diabetes at 15%. This is just ahead of Mississippi and Louisiana and also higher than all of the five bordering states: Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia.
The good news is that Haught and Nguyen can help clients with type 2 diabetes — which is often linked to obesity — look at weight loss and how to control portions and sugar.
“We’ve been really excited to help our clients think about food in a new way and reach attainable goals,” Haught said.
To learn more about MCHD’s nutritional counseling, go to this link: www.monchd.org/services/nutritional-counseling-community.

Mary Wade Burnside is the public information officer at Monongalia County Health Department.