BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Telehealth visits have expanded rapidly in the medical field since the pandemic, and even in 2024, telemedicine is still pretty popular.
One LSU graduate seized the opportunity and turned her passion for nutrition into what is essentially a private business, which she called Harvesting Nutrition LLC.
“My passion journey started in an unhealthy way,” Elizabeth Courville-Rayford said.
Courville Rayford is a registered dietitian in South Louisiana who first became interested in nutrition when she was 16 years old.
“I became fixated on what we would now call nutritional misinformation and developed some very poor eating patterns,” Courville-Rayford said.
Courville-Rayford said her eating habits in high school made life extremely difficult, and it made it hard to function on a day-to-day basis.
“I was actually quite underweight, but they were always telling me I needed to gain weight, and it was so strict that even going out to eat with my family made me stressed,” she said.
But her interest in nutrition never wavered, and she soon found herself wanting to learn more about the field, and ultimately, to educate herself more.
“As I learned more about the field, I realized I had a problem and that I had a disturbed relationship with food,” Courville-Rayford said.
But through the turmoil, she emerged victorious: She graduated from Louisiana State University and opened a virtual private practice that didn’t accept insurance when she first opened, but now accepts multiple insurance plans.
“We started out with just a few clients, but now we see 12 to 16 clients every week,” Courville-Rayford said.
She says her goal is to help people repair their relationship with food. Her sessions include meal prep, check-ins and goal lists. Sessions last about an hour.
“It’s hard being a woman in today’s world – there’s so much shame around food, there’s so much shame around your body – and Elizabeth is so good at taking away that shame,” client Elizabeth McDougall said.
McDougall has been a client of Harvesting Nutrition LLC for over a year. She suffers from an autoimmune disease.
“All my test results have improved tremendously. My blood sugar has improved, my cholesterol has improved,” McDougall says.
Additionally, she was able to overcome the guilt, shame and embarrassment she felt about her body.
“Throughout the sessions, I’ve seen incredible growth in that area,” McDougall said.
Courville-Rayford said Harvesting Nutrition LLC was formed to help others.
“Hearing those victories and stories from my clients is what I live for,” Courville-Rayford said.
For bookings and more information, please visit their website. You can also find more information on their Instagram page.
