Vanessa Beltran

About Vanessa

If you've ever been told what to eat without being asked about your life, your culture, or what actually feels possible for you, I want to offer something different. Food has always been how I experience culture, family, and belonging. Born in Mexico City and raised in Houston, I bring that lived relationship with food into every visit. I trained as a registered dietitian at UT Austin, then pursued an MPH at Harvard T.H. Chan to better understand what shapes people's health, and an MDiv at Harvard Divinity School to deepen how I listen and hold complexity. I'm a doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins. Over more than 10 years as a registered dietitian, I've worked in clinical settings, community health and nutrition education, and those experiences together have made me a more curious, more grounded, and more compassionate dietitian. When I'm not counseling patients you'll find me cooking, reading, playing with my smol dogs, keeping up with the Oscar race, or on a long walk with a podcast.

Approach to care

I believe food is deeply personal, shaped by culture, memory, access, and emotion. My job isn't to hand you a generic meal plan; it's to listen, understand your context, and work with you to build habits that are actually realistic and meaningful for you. I practice weight-neutral care, which means we focus on how you feel, how you're nourished, and what's sustainable for your life, not on a number on a scale. I draw on current research and practical tools, but I hold them alongside what I know about you: your culture, your schedule, your history with food, and what actually feels possible. Sessions are judgment-free. You'll leave with concrete next steps that fit your real life, and the knowledge to understand why they matter. I also offer sessions in both English and Spanish, and I have particular experience working with Latin American, Mexican, and Mediterranean food traditions, so you won't have to leave your cultural food practices at the door. We can work with the foods you love.

Your first session with Vanessa

The first session is a conversation, not an evaluation. We'll go over your health history and spend real time exploring your relationship with food: your routines, what's worked, what hasn't, and what you're hoping to feel differently about. You don't need to arrive with answers or a plan. Just bring your honest experience. Whether you're newly diagnosed, managing a long-standing condition, or trying to make sense of your relationship with eating, I'd love to be a thought partner on that journey. By the end, we'll have a shared sense of where you're starting and a few practical, manageable next steps that respect your life as it actually is. Progress in nutrition rarely looks like perfection. It looks like feeling more confident, more nourished, and more at home in your own body.

Education

BS in Nutrition: Coordinated Program in Dietetics, the University of Texas at Austin; MPH in Health and Social Behavior, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; MDiv in Religion, Ethics, and Politics of Health Equity at Harvard Divinity School; DrPH candidate in in Health Equity and Social Justice at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Hobbies

Cooking, reading, playing with my smol dogs, keeping up with the Oscar race, going on long walks while listening to podcasts

Licenses and Certifications