The Nutrition Clinic, St John’s Medical College Hospital, which was started in 1998, provides evidence based nutrition counselling to adult/pediatric outpatients and inpatients of the hospital. Individuals with different diagnosis such as overweight/obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, liver diseases, renal disorders, short bowel, pediatric conditions of underweight, overweight, in-born errors of metabolism are provided with guidelines on dietary management of the condition. The Nutrition clinic has a team of 7 trained nutritionists and 2 support staff. Specialised tube feeds and parenteral nutrition are also prescribed for the inpatients of the hospital, with special dietary needs. A complete nutritional assessment is conducted on the patients, following which individualised dietary and lifestyle advice is provided. The nutrition clinic also receives referrals from other hospitals for patients with specialised conditions of short gut syndrome, in-born errors of metabolism, epilepsy and other conditions.

The team at the nutrition clinic are also actively involved in generating evidence through research studies in areas of childhood obesity, body composition, diabetes and other conditions. The nutrition clinic has the Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) machine. This machine is a gold standard for measuring bone mineral density (BMD) and body composition. Patients from different departments are referred for the measurement of BMD and to assess the risk of osteoporosis. The DEXA is also used for different research studies involving accurate measurement of body composition.

Regular educational programs on healthy eating, lifestyle and special diets for different disorders are conducted in schools, communities and for patients.