Five things I love about being a dietitian
And here we go :)
1. You are legally allowed to spend more time thinking about food.
The normal, acceptable amount for a person is 10% (according to experts), with exceptions for people if their profession involves dealing with food. If you're thinking more or less than this, your dietary habits may not be considered so normal. But as dietitians, you're allowed to obsess about food, and it's totally okay! ;)
2. You always have something to strike up a conversation.
Have you ever been in an awkward situation where you’re trying to carry out a conversion, but not sure what topic to pick? It can be a struggle when you’re connecting with new people. Talking about food is a good starting point because it's something we all eat; each and every one of us has something to share about food (likes/dislikes).
2. You can treat both healthy and not healthy people.
You have the opportunity to work with people providing medical nutrition therapy or a healthy, balanced diet. You can be seeing a dietitian no matter what age or what your health status is. I appreciate the ability to be able to do both as most health professionals or clinicians don't do this.
4. People model you; you have to be more conscious?
A lot of my people I know have mentioned this to me as a negative thing. But I personally don't see it that way. I think it's great if people are modelling you because they're a) giving you attention b) learning something from you and c) interested in getting healthier. People giving me attention during meal times makes me conscious and keeps me in check. It allows me to demonstrate healthy eating habits (without saying it aloud all the time). If I wanted to go out and be unhealthy for a meal, I could always eat a burger too; demonstrating the 'everything in moderation' principle :P
5. You can be looking at recipes or food pictures and still be 'technically working.'
No matter what setting you're working in (clinical, community, public health, and research), there is always a potential need to be looking up a recipe whether it be for a patient/client, research or recipe development purposes. I remember taking full advantage of this when I did my placement at Heart Foundation (we were supposed to come up with recipes incorporating seasonal produce). It's great having a 'recipe looking up' break when you're working on a 'dry' project.
