Dietitian: Hardcore Health

Last week I was walking to campus and saw an acquaintance of mine on the way. "What class do you have so late?" she asked. "I'm going to a biochemistry review," I replied.  "No way! You mean your major is hardcore? I thought it was just cooking and stuff. I have so much more respect for you now." This scenario happens surprisingly often.

Most people have no idea what a dietitian does. Some people pull out the root "diet" and assume I am a diet coach or food nazi. Other people just pull out the die part and get a little worried. What most people don't catch on to is that dietetics actually has a medical and business background before getting into all the nutrition "stuff."

Before starting the dietetics program students have to take

• Essentials of Human Nutrition (basic nutrition)
• Nutrient Metabolism (the biochemistry behind nutrition)
• Essentials of Food Science (the chemistry and physics of food)
• Introductory Chemistry and Introductory Bio-organic Chemistry (so you can hopefully understand all those other chemistry related classes you take)
• Accounting 200 (because "accounting is the language of business")
• General Microbiology (so we know the importance of washing hands and about all the bacteria that grow on food)
• Human Anatomy and Physiology (a medical field basic and a necessity for future clinical classes)
• General Psychology (to better understand counseling with patients and clients)
• Principles of Statistics (to help us translate all the technical research articles we read)

After we take all the prerequisites and get accepted into the dietetics program we move onto the good "stuff."  

• Clinical Nutrition I (we learn about half of the major diseases with nutrition implications and their medical nutrition therapy) 
• Clinical Nutrition II (we learn, and then teach, the other half of the major nutrition related diseases)
• Pathophysiology (we learn about the broken physiology causes all the diseases we are learning about in clinical)

• Food Production Management (we learn how to manage a commercial kitchen)
• Food Production Management Lab (we do the dirty work in a commercial kitchen, better known as Pen Court)
• Foodservice Systems (we learn more about managing commercial kitchens effectively)
• Community Nutrition (we learn how public policy affects nutrition in the nation and about counseling different cultures) 
• Community Nutrition Fieldwork (we volunteer at community programs such as the food bank, WIC, Food and Care Coalition and Senior Centers)
• Nutrition Assessment Lab (we learn how to take blood pressure, do skin folds, take blood and urine samples, and take other anthropometric measurements) 
• Nutrition Through the Life Cycle (nutrition for specific age groups) 
• Nutritional Biochemistry (the "hardcore" nutritional chemistry class) 
• Teaching Methods (we learn how to effectively teach all we've learned)
• Management in Dietetics (we learn the basics of management) 
• Advanced Dietetics Practice (we "build a freakin' hospital" for our capstone project and learn more clinical nutrition)
• Research in Dietetics (we learn how to write those complicated research articles we've been reading all along)

Plus I took the recommended 

• Sports Nutrition (an attempt to explain why athletes do the crazy food things they do)
• International Nutrition (common nutrition problems in other countries) 

Incase you missed it, we do more than just cooking. After taking all of these classes and graduating with a bachelors of science  we apply for a dietetic internship. This is basically a 6-12 month period of supervised practice while taking even more classes. Its like a combination of going to grad school and doing residency for med school. After that is completed interns take the RD exam and become registered dietitians or RDs. From there the possibilities are almost endless because we are pretty hardcore.

Nutrition

Good food, bad food? WRONG!

When it comes to nutrition people seem to either over simplify or over complicate. The simplifiers divide food into categories; good food and bad food. Good food tastes bad, but is good for you, therefore you should eat it, but don't. The bad food tastes good, but is bad for you, but you eat it anyway, because it taste good, and feel guilty afterwards. The complicators are all about the numbers. They count carbs, calories, protein, fat and any other thing they can think of. Neither way is doable and neither ways is really nutritious.

What most people don't realize is good nutrition is all about patterns and trends in lifestyle over time. Your body does not count calories, or care if you eat pizza on Friday, or a huge piece of cake at a party.  You will not have 10 minutes taken off your life span for eating a piece of candy (as one of my nutrition students once told me), and white sugar will not destroy your blood sugar levels. Its what you do over long periods of time that counts.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake
Get the recipe here

Your body does care about how many calories you average over time. Are you getting more or less than your body needs to function? If it is more you will gain weight slowly, if it is less you will loose weight slowly. If you are using about the same amount of energy as you eat your weight will stay about the same. Contrary to popular belief, eating a large piece CostCo chocolate cake will not make you gain 5 pounds overnight.

Your body does need certain nutrients. Vitamins and minerals are very important in order for your body to function properly. Luckily we are blessed to live in the United States where the FDA fortifies common foods. Grains, cold cereal, milk, and salt are all fortified with important nutrients. Therefore, just by eating bread and cereal your body is getting a lot of what it needs. It also needs other important nutrients, like phytochemicals and fiber found in fruits and vegetables which makes eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day important.

Bountiful Baskets is a great thing
I need to start doing again

Your body does need exercise. But exercise does not have to be strictly running, hardcore aerobics, weight lifting, or sports. It is anything that gets your body up and moving. Yoga, walking, playing, dancing (my husband claims that is his secret to his perfect army PT score), swinging, hiking, Pilates, zumba, anything that gets you moving. One of my favorite quotes is, "What type of exercise burns the most calories? The one you will actually do." Just do it.

Learning and trying the basics doesn't have to be complicated. Start with just eating a balance of all the food groups on ChooseMyPlate.Try paying attention to why you are eating and eat only when you are hungry and stop when you are full. Its harder than it sounds, but it is such a great way to help achieve balance. I'm reading this book on it right now. Such a great way to look at eating! Most importantly don't make nutrition a drudgery. Food is fun! It is beautiful, delicious, wonderful, satisfying, and a part of your life every day so enjoy it!

Chicken, Artichoke Pasta

INGREDIENTS
1/2 pound uncooked pasta
2 tea olive oil
2 tea minced garlic
6 chicken breast, cut into strips or diced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup fresh or frozen broccoli
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup canned artichoke hearts sliced and drained
1 cup fresh mushrooms
1 cup red bell pepper
S&P to taste
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 TBS chopped fresh Parsley

DIRECTIONS
1. Cook and drain pasta
2. Heat olive oil in saute pan. Brown the chicken and garlic in oil.
3. Put chicken broth, broccoli, tomato, pepper, mushroom, and artichoke hearts in the saute pan and cook 10 minutes. Season to taste with S&P.
4. Add to pasta and top with Parmesan cheese and parsley.

This pasta was wonderful! I don't really care for pasta, but the flavor from the artichoke hearts and peppers was excellent! In the recipe above I doubled the amount of vegetables. The actual recipe only called for 1/2 cup of everything, but I love to have more vegetables than pasta when I do have it. The

Quick and Easy Pizza Crust

INGREDIENTS
2 TBS active dry yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 F)
2 1/2 cups flour
2 TBS olive oil
1 tsp salt
3 TBS cornmeal

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 450 F.
2. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand 10 minutes.
3. Stir in flour, salt and oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest 5 minutes.
4. Dust counter with flour and cornmeal. Pat or roll into a round.
5. Transfer to lightly greased pizza pan also dusted wit cornmeal.
6. Top with tomato sauce, artichoke hearts, olives, tomato, red onion, seasoned hamburger, and peppers.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool for 5.