Hannah Chumley, RD

I am fully aware that the world of nutrition education and recommendations is a crazy and confusing place. My goal for each of our sessions is that you leave with more credible, data driven information that you started with, and hopefully less confusion and anxiety on what to eat. Humans are complex beings and I believe that oversimplifying nutrition education does more harm than good. I will always look at you as a whole person instead of as a single specialty or disease.  More often than not, we have multiple conditions with conflicting recommendations to consider.  I want you to leave our session feeling confident and empowered, not afraid to eat.   

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I have a wide variety of experiences and focus areas within the field of Dietetics.  I am most passionate about focusing on whole foods and lifestyle changes to treat and prevent diseases.  I truly believe that food is medicine and that many prescription medications treat the symptoms of disease, rather than the disease itself.  My goal is to help people get to the root cause of the problem and fix that with sustainable diet and lifestyle changes.  My specialties include Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hypertension, all stages of Chronic Kidney Disease, End Stage Renal Disease, Gastroparesis, PCOS, Endometriosis, and a variety of other conditions as well.   

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I received my Undergraduate Degree in Hospitality Management and Dietetics from Western Kentucky University, where I also went on to complete my supervised Dietetic Internship.  After working for a while and moving from Kentucky to Michigan, I decided that I wanted to further my education so that I would be better able to serve my patients/clients.  At that time, I decided to enroll and complete my Master’s Degree in Nutrition from Central Michigan University.  I have also received various specialist certifications in my career, including being a Board Certified Specialist in Renal Nutrition, and a Certificate of Training in Functional Integrative Nutrition.  Finally, I am also a published author, as my paper “The Effects of Elevated Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide on Nutrient Density, Specifically Iron and Zinc, in Rice; a systematic review” was accepted and published in the Journal of Plant Nutrition.   

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One of my biggest hobbies is tending to my micro-homestead!  I’d love to grow it in a slightly larger homestead some day and expand, but that’s on hold until we find ourselves a much larger plot of land than the 0.9 acres that we currently own.  I spend most of the summer and fall gardening and canning, freezing, or otherwise preserving any abundance from what we grow.  Self sustainability is one of my biggest passions and I would love to someday produce all of the food that we eat.  I also love hanging out with my dogs and chickens in the afternoons and evenings.  My favorite chicken, Goldie Hen, frequently hops into my lap to visit if I sit outside long enough.  My husband really got into selling our eggs and drastically increased our flock this year.  We went from 11 chickens to a whopping 33, with plans for more next year.  One of the most distinctive features of my yard is my giant, purple chicken coop!  Before you ask, I don’t know if chickens can see color.  The purple isn't for them, it’s for me!    

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I decided to become a Dietitian when I was a Junior in High School.  At that time, my father, who was morbidly obese, was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.  Growing up in a small, rural town in Eastern Kentucky, we did not have access to Dietitians or really any professionals to help guide us in making nutrition changes.  My family had to figure everything out on our own.  Luckily, my mom was very driven to help my dad make lifestyle changes to get healthier.  Our whole family made nutrition changes that I still follow to this day, and did our part in encouraging my dad.  One of the things I took upon myself was to get him more active, which started with just an after dinner walk up the hill by my house.  One day, my dad was, understandably, frustrated and angry with how life was going, and walked with more intensity than normal.  He found that this made a noticeable difference in his blood sugar levels.  After that, we started running a few steps, then walking, and building up his endurance.  Eventually, we decided to sign up for a 3k race, and then a few 5k races.  I think that I beat him the first three races that we did, and then I never beat him again.  Distance running is definitely not my forte!  After we did many 5k races, my dad decided to start running 10k races.  At that point, I decided to support him from the sidelines. Then, he started running trail races and half marathons, all in his early-mid 50s.  Through diet and lifestyle changes, my dad lost 180 pounds and got completely off all of his medications.  What we experienced as a family is what drives me to continue empowering people today, by hopefully guiding them and making their journey easier than ours was.