Why did I become an RD?

I read an article today from the emails I get from "Smart Briefs for Nutritionists" that made me reminisce about myself.  A 26-year old named Amanda Garant talked about why she became an RD.  She helped her mother overcome obesity.   This brought me back to my days at SLU. 

When I was a student at St. Louis University, one regular topic in our family was heart disease.  Whether we were talking about my grandmother, uncles, father, or someone else, clearly we had some issues with blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight in our family.  Since I was five years old, I wanted to be a doctor.  We didn't have many (if at all) medical people in our family, so I was oblivious to all the other possible professions in the medical field.  I entered college as a pre-med scholar at St. Louis University, and early on in my studies I did an internship to experience a glimpse of the life of doctors and medical professionals.  This opened my eyes to so many possibilities.  At the time, my major was math, so one day my parents and I visited the School of Allied Health at SLU, and nuclear medicine and nutrition and dietetics stood out.  I met with Joy Short from the N&D department, and the curriculum for classes looked so fascinating that I chose this for my major.  Even if I had never practiced dietetics as a career, the information alone that I learned those few years makes me so grateful I chose this as a major.  One of my proudest moments was a few years later, a big group of us were celebrating our graduation from SLU at the restaurant Space (closed now, so sad) on the Hill.  The table cloths were actually paper on which you could color and write.  I forget how we stared talking about it, but somehow my dad mentioned how he wanted to lose weight, or I was talking about ideal body weight, something like that.  He's a big math person, so we started doing some calculations.  If I remember correctly, his weight was 230#, and his height was 6'2", so his ideal body weight was 188#.  We started talking about his goals, and we decided 200# was a realistic, reasonable goal.  He wanted to lose the weight by the time I moved to Connecticut in August, so he had 4 months!  We figured out that was about 2# per week weight loss, which would mean 1000 calories less/burned per day (3500 calories per pound).  We put together a plan and I suggested changes based on his daily intake, exercise, and preferences.  By the time I left for Yale, he had reached his goal of 200#, but he wasn't finished.  It's been 6 years, and he still records his weight daily and has adopted healthy eating habits that he sustains to this day.  I loved that dinner, and I'm so proud of my dad for sticking with his goal.  It's amazing to have a client that is motivated and interested in your help!  I knew I wanted to help people with their health for my career. 

Supermarket Nutrition

For Valentine's Day, we had a "Heart Healthy" table at the Des Peres Schnuck's (aka, "Palace on Ballas") where we promoted heart health.  It went very well!  We gave away information on heart health and dark chocolates.  We had a fish bowl of hearts with a question about heart health on one side and the answer on the back.  We also had a display of various drinks and they amount of sugar in each. We handed out "heart healthy" dark chocolates.  Lots of shoppers stopped at the table.  Several had suggestions on other products they wanted Schnuck's to carry.  The only complaint we had were that donut sales suffered due to our table being across from the bakery :)

We met Ed Croghan, who is  working on a proactive community relations campaign in the Schnucks Des Peres area with the manager, Steve Ryan.  He emailed to ask about supermarket nutrition, and our response was that supermarket dietitians help shoppers select, purchase, and prepare healthy foods, and also help shoppers prevent, detect, and manage health concerns.  We know grocery stores overall goal is to sell more groceries, so we aim to implement health and wellness as part of a company's overall business strategy.