9781422279861

Dietitian Nutritionists

Careers in Healthcare

Athletic Trainers Clinical & Medical Laboratory Scientists Dental Hygienists Dietitian Nutritionists EMTs & Paramedics Nurses Physical Therapists Physician Assistants Respiratory Therapists Speech Pathologists & Audiologists Ultrasound Technicians Occupational Therapists Orthotists & Prosthetists

Dietitian Nutritionists

Jennifer Hunsaker

Mason Crest Philadelphia

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com ©2018 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America. CPSIA Compliance Information: Batch #CHC2017. For further information, contact Mason Crest at 1-866-MCP-Book. First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

on file at the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-1-4222-3798-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4222-7986-1 (ebook) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4222-3337-5 (hc) ISBN 978-1-4222-8622-7 (ebook)

1. Southwestern States—Juvenile literature. 2. Arizona—Juvenile literature. 3. California—Juvenile literature. 4. Nevada—Juvenile literature. I. Title. F785.7.L37 2015 979—dc23 2014050200

Careers in Healthcare series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3794-6

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Table of Contents 1: What Do Dietitian Nutritionists Do? ......................7 2: A Look at the Opportunities ................................17 3: Education and Training ........................................25 4: The Evolution of the Dietitian Nutritionist Profession ..............37 5: Overview and Interview ......................................47 Series Glossary of Key Terms....................................58 Further Reading ........................................................60 Internet Resources ....................................................61 Index ..........................................................................62 Photo Credits/About the Author..............................64

Words to understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text while building vocabulary skills.

Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowl- edge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational Videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic sports moments and much more!

Text-dependent questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there.

Research projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Series glossary of key terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

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At its core, nutrition is the science of food.

Words to Understand in This Chapter

allied health profession— a field comprising health care professionals, including physical therapists, dental hygienists, athletic trainers, and audiologists, that uses scientific principles to evaluate, diagnose, and treat a variety of diseases, as well as promoting overall wellness and disease prevention. biology— the behavior of a group of organisms in a human body. compliant— willing to obey the rules. Dietitian Nutritionist— a professional who is an expert in nutrition and the reg- ulation of a person’s diet. licensure— the regulation of licenses to practice, especially in a medical field. metabolism— the chemical process of breaking down food in order to sustain life. nutrition— the branch of science that deals with the way humans eat and digest food.

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What Do Dietitian Nutritionists Do? A ll of us eat at some point in our day, making food the most universal form of sustenance in the world. The process is relatively simple—eat, digest, have energy, repeat. However, the science behind food—what makes it nutritious, and how the body absorbs it—is known as nutrition and is hardly simple. The people who study this science and then use that information to help others get the most out of the food they eat are called Dietitian Nutritionists . Dietitians or Nutritionists? A lot of people use the terms dietitian and nutritionist inter- changeably. While the two professions are related, they are very different in how they are regulated by the government.

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Unlike dietitians, nutritionists are not subject to any government regulation, do not need to meet state requirements for licensure , and do not even have any educational requirements. While some states

require nutritionists to qualify for a license from a board of nutrition, others allow people to practice as “nutritionists” without any educa- tion, training, or experience. Dietitians, by contrast, make up a regulated allied health profession that has specific requirements for education, training, and licensure. Only nutritionists who have com- pleted these requirements and reg- istered with the Commission on

Educational Video

Scan here for a video on the differ- ence between

dietitians and nutri- tionists:

Dietetic Registration (CDR) can legally call themselves registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs). For the purpose of this book, we will focus primarily on becoming a registered Dietitian Nutritionist and what it is like to work as one. The Science of Food RDNs are experts in using food to manage disease and improve health. Not only do they help people make good food choices, they also teach people how their diet and exercise can create a healthy lifestyle or achieve a goal, such as losing weight or controlling diabetes. While many people assume that nutrition is a simple process, it is actually a very complex science, involving biology , chemistry, human anatomy, and physiology. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, RDNs have the training to assess people’s individ-

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Dietitian Nutritionist

ual food needs, create a healthy meal plan for them, assess how effective that meal plan is in managing their disease or weight, and educate them in how their food choices affect their health. Assessing a Person’s Food Needs Food has the power to heal our bodies or hurt our health. It is hard to believe that something that everyone needs has such tremendous power over us. RDNs are trained to examine patients’ activity level, medications, disease diagnosis, and nutritional needs and create a food plan that helps patients become healthier. This requires a knowledge of how people’s

Teaching patients how to read standard nutritional labels is an important part of the patient education process.

What Do Dietitian Nutritionists Do?

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“A Memorable Experience” A registered Dietitian Nutritionist talked about her most memo- rable experience. “One experience that will stay with me forever is when I was working at a hospital. One man came in very upset. He was dia- betic and, although he was taking insulin and testing his blood sugar, he was still having very high blood sugar levels. He was so frustrated because he had done everything his doctors and nurs- es had told him to do without any success. Then, when he went to the doctor, or saw the nurse, they automatically assumed he was not following orders and would lecture him about the dam- age that having high blood sugar will do to your body. No won- der he was frustrated! “I will always remember how it felt to help him. I listened to him that day and let him know I cared. I took a look at his insulin regimen and compared it to his blood sugar log. I did some calculations that gave me an idea of how much insulin he should be getting. I knew exactly what the problem was. Over the course of several visits, I was able to help him get his blood sugar down to a very good range. I taught him the effects diet, exercise, sleep, and stress have on blood sugar levels and how his insulin needs changed, depending on these and other factors. He went from feeling angry, scared, frustrated, and hopeless, to being confident in his ability to manage his care. Ultimately, he led a healthier life because of something I taught him.”

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Dietitian Nutritionist

cells react to each type of food, and how to create food combi- nations that make the most of their biology. Assessment may include reading a doctor’s chart, talking to patients about their eating habits, reading a food journal they have kept, and talk- ing to them about their medical history. Creating a Meal Plan Creating a meal plan is not as simple as it seems. A meal plan has to fulfill all of a person’s vitamin and calorie needs, and it has to be constructed to get the most out of the patient’s med- ication, exercise, and daily routine. RDNs must be familiar with basic metabolism as well as how metabolism is affected by an individual’s habits, age, and activity level. For instance, the metabolism of marathon runners consulting an RDN to get help creating a meal plan for their training runs will be very different from that of an obese person seeing an RDN for help in losing weight. The RDN must be able to create meal plans that will meet each individual’s needs, rather than taking a one-plan-fits-all approach.

Did You Know?

One of the biggest differences between nutritionists and Dietitian Nutritionists is that a Dietitian Nutritionist can help diagnose eating disor- ders and help create meal plans that manage symptoms of diseases and address health issues. Nutritionists can offer support in these areas, but are not qualified in the same way as Dietitian Nutritionists.

What Do Dietitian Nutritionists Do?

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Only 10 percent of Americans ingest their recommended daily allowance of fruits and vegetables.

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Dietitian Nutritionist

How Is the Plan Working? While nutrition is a science, it is far from an exact science. Once an RDN creates a meal plan for a patient, the patient then has to go home and put it into practice. After a week, patients may find that they are tired in the morning, they are unable to sprint the last mile, or their meal plan is not in sync with their medications. An RDN must then reevaluate the patient to see how well the plan is working. If the patient is compliant , and everything is going well, the RDN may be able to release him from her care. If the patient is struggling with some aspect of his meal plan, the RDN has the knowledge and flexibility to help him make adjustments.

A registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) listens to a patient describe her current eating habits.

What Do Dietitian Nutritionists Do? 13

Creating meal plans that meet not only the nutritional needs of the patient but also their medical needs is one of the biggest challenges for RDNs.

Patient Education At every step, the RDN should be focused on teaching patients the “why” of nutrition. This aspect is known as “patient edu- cation.” While eating food is a universal experience, a lot of people rely on inaccurate or misleading information to make food choices. TV, the Internet, or fad diets found in magazines are sometimes focused on selling a product, rather than pro- moting proper nutrition. RDNs have an opportunity to dispel

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Dietitian Nutritionist

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