culinary food eat
I have a special experience with nutritionists. As many are aware, nutritionists work closely with companies and schools to provide individuals with a more balanced and healthy diet. But given the many mouths they have to feed, it is purely impossible to make personal accommodations for each individual. Growing up, I was a vegetarian girl going to a public school in South Korea, which offered one set of menus every day. With the restrictions I had due to my diet, I would pick out the ham from stir-fried potatoes, couldn’t eat the chicken leg everyone drooled over, and even the meat from soups.
Tough time it was. At one point, I remember wanting to confront the school’s nutritionist to stop adding so much meat to our lunch menus. As lunch time neared, I sighed at the amount of meat-picking I would have to do that day and wondered if meat was really necessary in our lives. My train of thought carried on endlessly until I started thinking: “What do nutritionists actually do to create a balanced meal… What even is a balanced meal?” These questions that bugged me all these years ago: the history, the role, and the importance of nutritionists and nutrients pushed me to investigate the evolution of the nutritionist’s career, their everyday responsibilities, and the critical role they play in shaping healthier communities.
You see, there is no historical record of who the ‘first’ Nutritionist was; Hippocartus, the father of medicine, mentioned the importance of food; Plato, the infamous Greek Philosopher, also frequently refers to the human diet, so we know for a fact that humans always valued what they ate with or without a nutritionist. A few thousand years after Hippocartus and Plato, humans progressively took a bigger stance towards scientific discoveries and industrial revolutions, and we started giving much more attention to the science behind maintaining our health.
Instead of eating cow dung, thinking it’ll cure our disease, humans now have scientific data to back up what actually makes them healthier and prevents them from getting sick. In the midst of the scientific discovery for health in the 20th century, there was Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, who won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering that amino acids, specifically essential amino acids, are nutrients that cannot be made in the human body and therefore have to be consumed through food. That is when humans discovered that keeping track of the nutrients in their food was so important! With his discovery, every food on the market informs customers of its nutritional values. Not to mention how these essential amino acids are what nutritionists prioritize in our meal plan.
Continuous heightened interest in nutrition, even after Sir Hopkins’ discovery, led many countries, including South Korea, to require a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) at public schools who can provide a balanced meal for growing kids. These nutritionists consider the children’s nutritional needs, use specific products from the region, and also have a role in broadening the different tastes children get to experience. Though working under schools or companies is the widely known option for nutritionists, career-wise, there are so many different ways to become a certified nutritionist.
Getting a degree in fields like human nutrition, dietetics, or food science, then working under institutions like science labs, or even becoming a private nutritionist for individual customers! As many say, ‘you are what you eat’. And in the modern world, nutritionists are in charge of that. To create a meal, nutritionists first assess the needs of their customers, use guidelines with indications of how much macronutrients the customers should take (Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins).
This way, the nutrients absorbed into one’s body will turn into an energy source to repair muscles, build stamina, and help the body regulate everything it needs to survive. Even more, creating meal plans isn’t the only thing they do. Private Nutritionists may also be in charge of their clients’ gym routine and even their sleep schedule. Their work continues even outside of the kitchen.
It is on the outlook that demand for nutritionists will increase. Like myself, many individuals are choosing to consume food based on their dietary needs, and the role of nutritionists to fulfill the needs of these individuals will be critical. Especially with the rapid increase in people losing their lives from Chronic diseases, a nutritionist will be crucial for the health benefit of the future generation. It seems to me that all the crises the human species is facing connect back to food. With climate change affecting the Earth, especially with crops and even animal farming, a nutritionist’s role to adapt to the environmental vulnerability and find substitutes for food such as meat and NGO foods will be crucial.
To answer the abrupt question I have asked myself as I was picking out all the meat on my plate, I would tell my younger self that meat is a great source of protein and simply getting rid of meat would leave the bigger problem of how the students at my school are willing to consume meat get their daily sufficiency of proteins. Of course, had I asked my school’s nutritionist back then, she would have answered the same and would have recommended I consume more dairy, eggs, and nuts to fulfill my daily intake of protein without eating the meat.
Now, if I were to go back to my old school and become my own nutritionist, here is how I would do it to fit the nutritional values of both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. With steamy white rice, I would have prepared red Kkak-ttu-gi Kimchi and side meals such as dried shredded squid, providing high-quality protein, essential minerals like zinc and selenium, and B vitamins. Then, for soup, I would have provided tofu soup, which gives a flavorful taste along with tofu that can help with bone health and provide protective plant compounds. Adding on, some mushroom fries would provide nutrients such as fiber and vitamin C, along with helping decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease. Then, for dessert, yogurt for gut health!
By: Esther Kim
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