3.6 Career Connection – Dietitians and Nutritionists

Dietitians and Nutritionists

Figure 1. Shana Minei Spence, also known as thenutritiontea, posed with her newly published book.

Spence is a registered dietitian nutritionist based in New York. Spence’s newest work is Live Nourish, a novel exposing the patriarchal, capitalist, and classist underpinnings of diet culture. She explores diet culture with a sociological lens, while redirecting attention to what truly is important to health. Spence’s focus is to deprogram the lies of diet culture in our modern brains, hopefully in doing so also highlighting the importance of listening to one’s body and making healthy choices for the mind, soul, and stomach.

Dietitians are practitioners of health who closely monitor and adjust diet, exercise, and wellness of their clients. Medical history and physical assessments are employed to determine dietary needs. Dietitians regularly do research into new foods, vitamins, and exercises that can improve wellbeing for a multitude of individuals with diverse needs. Certain aspects of a dietitian’s career, such as client education and collaboration with other members of a healthcare team are often less well recognized.

Practicing dietitians have a degree in nutrition, dietetics, or a similarly related field. Most training programs also require the completion of an internship closely associated with the practice. Several states also require a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) certification inorder to begin work. Dietitians may choose to focus on sports, clinical, or community nutrition. Some also oversee the food production, planning, and distribution at large institutions such as hospitals or government agencies.

Dietitian jobs require practitioners skilled in communication and cultural competence. It is integral especially when working with culturally diverse populations to understand food, preferences, and beliefs that influence dietary choices. Some dietitians have adopted the philosophy of decolonizing nutrition. To those who embody this, decolonization means prioritizing local food knowledge over western guidelines, emphasizing culturally relevant foods, and fostering sustainable food environments is integral.

Here are some interesting links to continue learning about culturally considerate care:

Womanly Mag

Kate Lyman Nutrition 

Foodwise

Or follow@thenutritiontea on instagram