March is National Nutrition Month in the U.S! And, actually tomorrow is National RDN (Registered Dietitian Nutritionist) Day! So, you may be reading my articles to learn more about healthy eating, finding some recipes, or learning more about your body, but I wanted to take this week's post and talk about what a Dietitian is, a little history of nutrition and dietetics, and why you should visit a dietitian!
Let's start with a little history first
National Nutrition Month first started as a week long celebration of nutrition and encouraging people to eat healthy in 1973. Due to the great amount of interest that came with the week celebration and increasing public interest in nutrition, in 1980 it became a month long celebration.
Careers in dietetics started around 100 years ago, with a focus in family and consumer sciences. From that point, dietetics has grown into it's own degree and now is becoming a master's level position in the near future. There are around 100,000 credentialed dietitians and Diet Techs worldwide, with the academy being the largest organization dedicated to food and nutrition professionals. Dietitians are now in hospitals, long term care facilities, out-patients clinics, pharmaseutical companies, wellness facilities, gyms, colleges, sports teams, etc. Dietitians can work in almost any field!
What is a dietitian?
one concerned with the promotion of good health through proper diet and with the therapeutic use of diet in the treatment of disease. The dietitian may work in a variety of settings, including hospitals and other health care agencies, schools, hotels,and other commercial institutions where duties include both food service administration and therapeutic nutrition services, ormay choose to enter the fields of education and research. Some dietitians practice independently either as consultants orprivate practitioners in the area of therapeutic dietetics.
Why should you see a dietitian/what can they do for you?
Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, but only those with degrees from an accredited institution and completed the mandatory 1200 hour internship can be called a dietitian. A dietitian has credentials, a nutritionist does not! Dietitians have formal training and need to pass a very hard exam to be called a dietitian, a nutritionist does not.
A dietitian can give you the highest level of nutrition counseling, they can give personally tailored advice to help you and your lifestyle, they can help you manage chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol, they can give guidance for those with food allergies, intolerances, and sensitivities, and they can give you a real weight-loss program that will actually work! We work with athletes and pregnant women too! Skip the silly programs and yo-yo diets, and get a program that will actually work! Dietitians work for you and want to help you!
Want to find a dietitian near you? Heres a link to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics website to find a Dietitian http://www.eatright.org/find-an-expert
Want to learn more about Marywood's nutrition and dietetics program?
https://www.facebook.com/Marywood-Student-Academy-of-Nutrition-and-Dietetics-SAND-705079016259746/
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