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| Tuesday, March 03, 2009 |
| RD Day |
“The American Dietetic Association proudly announces the second annual Registered Dietitian Day. As the nation's food and nutrition experts, registered dietitians are committed to improving the health of their patients and community. Registered Dietitian Day commemorates the dedication of RDs as advocates for advancing the nutritional status of Americans and people around the world.”
Registered Dietitians now have a national day on March 11th, but who knows about it? Incidentally, March is also the National Nutrition Month®.
Every March, dietitians across the country make a special effort to promote healthy nutrition to all populations, across all age groups. It all started in 1973 with a presidential proclamation for the first National Nutrition Week campaign. From that point on American Dietetic Association (ADA) members took the opportunity to promote the profession by delivering nutrition education messages to the public. As Nutrition Week gained popularity and the public’s interest in nutrition and health grew, the House of Delegates called for an expansions to Nutrition Month in 1980.
This all sounds very nice, but there is a ‘but’. I don’t think people know what dietitians really do. I believe many people think that dietitians cook and serve food in hospitals and long term care facilities. I’ve found in the past that whenever a dietitian is part of a meeting, people expect him or her to bring warm cookies or muffins. That’s a fact, and we have fought a lot to change that. Our first intention was to get people to show up for the meeting by using food as bait. But dietitians are not cooks (although we know how). We are educated health professionals who know about food and nutrition. We need to know about food because we advise people about what to eat depending on specific medical conditions. We have a minimum of a 4 year degree with a year long internship in the medical field following graduation. We study biology, microbiology, physiology, statistics, endocrinology, food science, sociology, biochemistry and medical nutrition therapy. We are scientists and our ultimate goal is to prevent disease or treat disease with proper nutrition. This is an honorable goal. If we could, we would offer our services for free, because we want to help make every body better. That’s why you will rarely see a dietitian selling magic potions or diet pills. We just can’t do that. We have a code of ethics and it’s not in our nature. So if you know a dietitian, do a little something for him or her, but please don’t plan a pot luck and ask her to bring something.
- Josée
Some educational and fun dates to remember:
National days
National food and drink days
Commemorative days
Commemorative months
Labels: Healthy Planet, Josee, Mindful Eating
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posted by My Sensei @ Tuesday, March 03, 2009   |
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