Food's Role in Dietetics Practice: My Personal Statement

Food is the bonding agent that connects dietician to patient and patient to best health practices. Diet choices offer a space to honor tradition, cultivate memories, and represent one’s identity. Recognizing the individual’s personal connection to food is integral to dietetics practice, and the role of the dietitian is to empower clients to make healthy food choices through education, support, accountability, continuity, and interpersonal connection.

Food’s role in dietetics practice, especially primary care nutrition, reaches far beyond nutrient consumption. Cultivating a positive relationship between patient and food can also promote best overall health and disease prevention. I have personal experience fostering this relationship while working in clinical food service as a dietary services specialist at Camp Korey, a summer camp for kids with serious medical conditions. A camper ran up to me one day after dinner to tell me how much she had loved her meal. This was a camper who, on a low Fermentable Oligosaccharide, Disaccharide, Monosaccharide and Polyol

(FODMAP) diet to manage fructose malabsorption following a heart transplant, was very concerned about feeling singled out for being served different foods from the other campers. Similarly, her mother was concerned that her daughter wouldn’t eat enough while away. Because I worked to keep this camper’s meals as similar to the others as possible and to connect with her during mealtime to encourage adequate intake, her experience exceeded expectation. After her session ended, her mother sent an email detailing how much her daughter enjoyed the food and of all her years at camp, that week’s food had been her daughter’s favorite. This experience solidified the value I place on using engaging food choices to connect to and facilitate healthy eating behaviors.

Food preferences are often a reflection of community, and dietitians must recognize this connection to food to encourage effective behavior changes that are realistic and accessible for the specific audience in question. Over the four years that I volunteered at a food pantry, I connected with pantry participants and discussed making healthier adjustments to their favorite recipes. One regular pantry participant often stopped to chat with me about what she liked to cook at home and how she would incorporate my recipe modifications into her cooking. By recognizing her interest in cooking and eating healthier on a limited budget, I was able to tailor my conversation to fit the food options she had available to her at the pantry. Engaging with this participant on a personal level, which is at the core of how I want to practice as a future professional, led to education on nutritious eating behaviors to inspire behavior change for disease prevention.

Not only is a dietitian a mediator, a dietitian is a motivator, an orchestrator, and a guide. They must listen to the patients or clients to connect on a personal basis and create a plan that’s reflective of the individual. The dietitian serves as the link between the healthcare world and day-to-day life, where a dietitian works to motivate and lead a patient or client to adopt daily practices that promote best health.

As such, dietitians need to artfully communicate evidence-based research to their audience. Correspondingly, to affect appropriate behavior change, dietitians have to be well versed in current nutrition research and must possess the skills to understand it. While working as a student research assistant in the Skeletal Biology Laboratory at OSU, I experienced how crucial it is to dissect peer-reviewed research and think critically about the findings. My experience working in a research lab developed my skills in absorbing and communicating scientific literature in a way that is accessible to the layperson. Now I can confidently dispel common misconceptions or misinformation based on current articles. This ability to understand and convey scientific principles will be indispensable in working as a mediator between the scientific and patient communities.

My understanding of how personal connections to food relate to dietetics and the important role of the dietitian to educate, motivate, and encourage individuals on their journey to better health is what inspires me to pursue a career in dietetics.

Dietetics is the intersection of my personal values and professional goals. By fostering the relationship between food, personal lifestyle practices, and disease prevention in coordinated care, this fields challenges and inspires me as a future professional to hone my unique gifts as a listener, a motivator, and a supportive leader within the sphere of healthcare and dietetics.