Welcome to my blog

Welcome!

Let me start my first blog post by saying that there is absolutely no right way or wrong way to eat. Everyone has the right to define health in whatever way they choose and to either pursue health or not to. And these things are always changing for us day to day and throughout our lives. The frustrating truth is, much of what affects our health is ultimately out of our personal control. So how much can making personal decisions about what we eat each day actually impact our overall health? 

Well, that’s a pretty tough question and there is no one straightforward answer. What we know is that there are components of food that we need to survive (nutrients) and what we feel pretty certain about (from a scientific research perspective) is that the types of foods and food patterns that people eat do have an impact on the overall health of populations. However, it is difficult to say to what degree our personal choices about food impact our health given that there are many other factors that come into play. Food is just one piece of a complex puzzle. 

But here’s the thing, we eat every day, multiple times per day so even though food is a small piece of a bigger health puzzle, it’s a huge part of our lives. It has the potential to stress us out, make us feel happy, make us feel sick, make us feel strong. My goal as a dietitian is to try to reduce the stress around eating and optimize the ways that it makes us feel good.

In my next post, I’m going to share some ideas that are foundational to getting what we need from food for our bodies and to feel good while doing it.  

Here’s what we’ll discuss:

• Balance in what we eat and how we eat

• Variety in foods and flavors

• Enjoyment of eating

In my “day job” I’m a pediatric dietitian, and all of these concepts I’ll be sharing are what I teach to kids of all ages. These pillars are the same starting from the first time a child tries solids and are still true for adults. Most of what I write here will be written for grown ups, but we’ll also go over how to talk about it or model it for kiddos, too.