Nutrition and Dietetics Department

The science of nutrition has advanced dramatically in recent decades and is now a fundamental pillar of treatment for both health and illness. Proper nutrition is essential for healthy development, overall well-being, and disease prevention.

The Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh) provides personalized nutritional counseling and supportive dietary treatment for hospitalized patients. Counseling is delivered by clinical dietitians in their areas of expertise. Their work is characterized by professionalism, excellent service, and a personalized approach tailored to each patient. The department is responsible for nutritional care for specific diseases and conditions, including supportive nutrition for hospitalized patients, day-hospitalization patients, and those treated in outpatient clinics. The goal is to maintain optimal nutritional status and to ensure adequate dietary support that contributes to the patient’s improvement.

The department maintains close connections with academic institutions in Israel and abroad, conducts a variety of research projects in nutrition, and initiates programs to promote healthy eating habits and improve health among hospital staff, the community, and various organizations.

Department Vision

The Nutrition Department leads and defines the nutritional care policy at the Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh). It aims to become a national center of excellence for innovative, high-quality nutritional treatment, to conduct diverse research in the field, and to maintain strong relationships with academic institutions in Israel and worldwide.

The department will create a unified cultural language for health promotion in nutrition for hospital staff, patients, and the community.

It will establish connections and collaborations with community organizations to promote disease prevention and nutritional health.

Nutritional Treatment

Nutritional care is an essential component of a patient’s healing and recovery process.

Its objectives are:

  • To provide nutritional treatment according to the patient’s medical condition while maintaining proper function of all body systems.
  • To preserve and improve the nutritional status of hospitalized patients.
  • To ensure proper growth in infants, children, and adolescents.
  • To provide menus and specialized food formulas tailored to the patient's nutritional needs, in accordance with Ministry of Health guidelines.

Nutritional treatment is a central element in managing chronic diseases, metabolic disorders, traumatic conditions, and malnutrition, which often accompanies these conditions. Hospitalized patients are frequently at increased risk of nutritional deterioration due to complex injuries and burns that significantly elevate nutritional needs. Additional risk factors include age, repeated hospitalizations, and others.

Ketogenic Diet – Clinic

The Ketogenic Diet Clinic treats children suffering from uncontrolled epilepsy when medication fails. The alternative treatment offered is a unique, personalized ketogenic diet. The treatment is provided to children under the care of the Neurology Department/Clinic. It begins with approximately 5 days of hospitalization, followed by ongoing follow-up in the clinic.


Nutrition in the Cardiac Rehabilitation Institute – Clinic

The clinic provides nutritional counseling to cardiac patients treated at the institute, including those with overweight, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes. The goal is to increase patients’ awareness of the importance of proper nutrition and a recommended lifestyle, while closely monitoring their health.


Pediatric Nutrition – Clinic

The Pediatric Nutrition Clinic treats infants, premature babies, and children with inadequate weight gain or feeding difficulties; children after gastrointestinal surgeries; those with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases; and children requiring parenteral alimentation. The clinic provides nutritional counseling, parental guidance, and ongoing nutritional follow-up to support healthy growth and development.


Nutrition for Patients in the Nephrology Clinic

The clinic treats patients at various stages of kidney disease. The goals of nutritional treatment are to preserve kidney function while maintaining proper nutritional status. To achieve these goals, individualized dietary guidelines are provided based on blood tests and the patient’s medical and nutritional condition.