What will it take to change the way America eats?
It will take an army of registered dietitians. And we’re up to the task, thank you very much.
Well, it’s National Registered Dietitian Day, so we’re feeling pretty good about all that we do. Still, we have our work cut out for us.
We just wrapped up an #RDChat on Twitter and several themes were revealed. To truly help people adopt healthier habits, it’s important to…
- Focus on positive nutrition — adding delicious, nutritious foods instead of taking an “avoidance” approach
- Get people comfortable in the kitchen — a lack of culinary skills is a primary barrier to healthier eating
- Take small steps — people can get overwhelmed by drastic measures
- Keep pleasure part of the picture — if you don’t enjoy what you eat, habits won’t stick
Stephen R. Covey, author of the iconic book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, defines a habit as the intersection between knowledge, skills and desire. I think people know what they need to do to eat healthier – so the knowledge is there. Now we need to focus on the “how” and to inspire them to make those changes. People need new skills and motivation to make it happen.
In honor of National Nutrition Month, several RDs participated in a blog carnival. Hope you’ll check out the great advice from these nutrition professionals.
Regan Jones, The Professional Palate: National Nutrition Month — Time for Show, Not Tell
Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, Raise Healthy Eaters: The Wizard of Oz Guide to Making Healthy Habits Stick
Julie Upton, Katherine Brooking, Appetite for Health: Color Your Diet Healthy
Tracy Owens, Triangle Nutrition Therapy: National Nutrition Month
Karman Meyer, Nutrition Adventures: Color Your Plate
Rebecca Subbiah, Chow & Chatter: Add Color to Your Plate!
Sarah-Jane Bedwell, Nashville’s Nutrition Expert: Color Yourself Healthier
Lyn Turton, Caledonia Nutrition: National Nutrition Month – Eat With Color
Janet Helm, Nutrition Unplugged: It’s National Nutrition Month – Eat Right With Color
Emma Stirling, The Scoop on Nutrition: Hop on the Hemp Wagon for National Nutrition Month
Chere Bork, Taste Life: Five Ways to Eat the New USDA Science Guidelines
Bonnie Tandy LeBlang, Bite of the Best: National Nutrition Month – Registered Dietitian Day
Janel Ovrut, Eat Well With Janel: National Nutrition Month – Top Foods You’re Not Eating
Jessie Claire, Good and Good For You: Nutrition is all About Food
Rima Kleiner: Celebrating Food
Rachel Begun, The Gluten Free RD: National Nutrition Month – Eat Right With Color!
Liz Weiss, Janice Bissex, Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen: Celebrate National Nutrition Month by Eating a Rainbow
Victoria Shanta Retelny, Living Well Communications: Celebrate March by Eating Right
Elana Natker, A Sprinkle of Sage: What’s Your Nutrition Resolution?
Carolyn O’Neil, Dish on Dieting: Baby You Can Drive My Car…To the Healthiest Menus
Elizabeth Rahavi, IFIC’s Food Insight: Eat Right With a Colorful Plate
Jill Castle, Just the Right Byte: What Will It Take to Get America’s Kids to Eat Right?
Sheila Viswanathan, The Lazy Dietitian: Happy Registered Dietitian Day
Brittany Glasset, Nutrition in a Nutshell: National Nutrition Month – Make a Rainbow on Your Plate
Diana Wind, Garden Cuizine: Nutrition Education and Art Activity for National Nutrition Month
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Thanks so much for coordinating this, Janet. Love seeing so many fabulous RD bloggers!
Thanks for your leadership in not only bringing credible nutrition information to the public through your own platform, but also inspiring the rest of us to do the same. Every blog post, tweet and facebook mention is one more step in making nutrition information relevant for today’s audience. Happy RD Day!
Thanks Janet. This feels like a zesty nutrition how to book!
Cheers your fan Chere
Thanks for your wonderful ongoing support and leadership Janet.
Great roadup! Love the times square shout out too! keep up the great work you fabulous dietitians!
Loved the RDchat yesterday!!!! Interacted with so many dietitians that are so influential and inspirational. I”ll be sure to share my National Nutrition Month post soon! Thanks for being such a leader in the field Janet!
Thanks to Janet & my fellow RDs for some great nutrition info, this month & always. Here’s a link to 6 tips to help Eat Right with Color: http://goo.gl/arxeq
Wow! I’m proud to be a soldier in THIS army!
Thanks, Janet, for putting the carnival together. Terrific idea. Here’s my link http://nutritionvision.info/wordpress/?p=53
Great tips! And I really do believe that eating right is just a matter of preparing them in an appetizing way. I have long feared of the existence of brocollis, but when I tried preparing them with the perfect partner, I couldn’t believe that I avoided it for so long.
Ajika
is a line of pantry products that was created for Americans. They are simple foods
from around the world with extraordinary tastes and help America eat right. I used to sell to American supermarkets foods that had a high carbon footprint and a high unhealthy foot print and opted on leaving a lucrative job to create an end to end line of good for you, tasty pantry products with the simplist of ingredients in their pure form
They include lentils,
Freekeh,
beans,
spices,
organic
seasonings and gourmet
meals.
Thanks Janet for making this post wonderful, I see your efforts in this article..
You are right, eating the right foods is really important to maintain the healthy lifestyle. Thanks for sharing, I will keep coming back Janet to read more of your post.. Keep safe!
Thanks!
@notcathy
I agree with this article that it is important to take small steps and that people can get overwhelmed by drastic measurest. People who want to lose weight and say they want to lose 10 pounds may look at that task and think it’s too much or too hard. But if you stick to a daily goal it can be a lot more achievable. And remember, trying to cut calories by leaving out a meal actually works against you because your body’s metabolism will slow down to compensate in order to conserve energy – your body does this when there is a limited intake of fuel. Eating little and often can increase your metabolism.