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Registered dietetic intern reflects
on life's interest
by
Corrine E. Rossi
Dietetic
intern
I became a nutritionist when I was 7-years-old. I liked to eat food,
talk about it, and help my mom make dinner now and again.
This coming May, I will finally became a registered dietitian (RD). It
has taken me 20 years, an undergraduate and graduate degree, and nearly
1,200 hours of supervised experience in a dietetic internship program,
but I am almost there. At this point you are probably wondering why I
would put myself through all of this schooling if I already was a
self-proclaimed nutritionist from age 7. Well, the only way to spread
my passion for food and optimal nutrition to others in a well-respected
establishment was to first seek higher education.
The truth is that the term “nutritionist” can apply to anyone—your
hairdresser, my Uncle Anthony, the mail carrier, me at age 7. There are
no requirements, credentials, or long and stressful internship or
degree programs that are prerequisites for becoming a nutritionist. All
you need is a warm body and the desire to spread information on
nutrition-related topics (i.e. food, exercise and diets).
Unfortunately, these days you can find nutritionists on just about
every street corner readily armed with loads of interesting but often
unreliable and misleading information.
RDs are animals of an entirely different species. This is not to
suggest that all RDs spread information that is 100 percent infallible.
However, RDs are required to complete a minimum of a four-year
undergraduate program in nutrition or food science, which emphasizes
the biochemical pathways of vitamin and mineral composition and
metabolism, energy requirements and expenditure in both adults and
children, exercise physiology, foodservice management, and community
dietetics, followed by 900-plus hours of a supervised dietetic
internship program. Only then is a candidate eligible to take the
registration exam to gain the RD credential. You might think that it
ends there, but in addition to the rigorous education program and
practice experience required, RDs are also required to continually
update their credentials by participating in continuing education
conferences, courses and research studies.
In the United States, RDs are leaders in health promotion and disease
prevention and, as a result, you can find them working in variety of
healthcare and wellness settings. Examples of inpatient jobs that RDs
perform include assessing the nutrition needs of and prescribing
therapeutic diets for neurosurgery, transplant, burn trauma, wound
care, gastric bypass, pre-natal, cardiac, and gastrointestinal surgery
patients. Some examples of jobs that dietitians perform in outpatient
settings include counseling people with type I and II diabetes;
patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly known as Lou
Gehrig’s Disease); pediatric obesity, cystic fibrosis, patients with
food allergies, osteoporosis, and children with special nutrition
needs. RDs also work as foodservice coordinators, managers, and as
community educators, teaching the basics of good nutrition, recipe
modification, weight loss and maintenance, and the importance of
physical activity.
As you can see, while a 7-year-old could be a nutritionist, it takes a
mature, well-trained, critically-thinking professional to be a
registered dietitian.
Unlike a nutritionist, an RD has traveled a long and winding road to
earn those two little letters after his or her name, so you can be
assured he or she is fully prepared to provide you with the most
accurate, current, and reliable information research has to offer.
So, the next time someone encourages you to trade in your bread, pasta,
rice, and other carbohydrate containing foods to join the “low-carb”
bandwagon, I would advise you to do the following:
- Question the educational background and credentials of this
individual. Is this person a registered dietitian or just a
nutritionist?
Friday, Jan. 26, 2007
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