Note: This is the third in a series of blogs about Registered Dietitians to coincide with the American Dietetic Association's Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo. Over the next several days we'll feature interviews with some of the best and brightest dietitians in the field. Check back each day during the conference for a different post highlighting the work of dietitians. See our first post about what a dietitian is here and our interview with Chef Kyle Shadix here.
Mary Lee Chin MS., RD, is a registered dietitian specializing in health communications. Committed to providing the public with sound nutrition information, she is regularly consulted by local and national media on nutrition trends and significant health and food issues. Her company, Nutrition Edge Communications consults on public relations health initiatives, working to clarify news about controversial nutrition issues and food products. The goal is to provide science-based information so people can make realistic and wise food decisions.
What does being an RD mean to you?
“Vital and vibrant profession. That’s the practice of nutrition and dietetics and its impact on health now. This is in extreme contrast to when I first started in the field when nutrition and especially dietetics was considered staid and stogy. Hairnets and white support hose, anyone? RD’s have the skills and abilities to positively impact change—and people are interested! Our profession constantly offers new opportunities to exchange ideas, distill insights and share new knowledge that will lead to better health for people and for the planet.”
What types of projects do you work on?
“Media and communications training: ‘Learn one, do one, teach one.’ Media trained as one of the ‘old’ American Dietetic Association spokespeople, I learned how to speak before the camera. This resulted in chances to provide numerous interviews in print, platform, broadcast, and social media, a career as a spokesperson, and participating in public policy dialogues. And further evolved into providing communications and media training to my usual audiences—RD’s and other health professionals. It has also given me a chance to media train others—such as the celebrity chef from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
School nutrition: I am currently working with a variety of private, non-profit and state entities to develop successful and realistically budgeted school nutrition programs and initiatives that result in the betterment of the health of our school children. The players advocate a variety of philosophies, and it is challenging and rewarding to accept the pathways of different groups and try to bring them together to work toward a common purpose.”
What made you choose to go into dietetics?
“Fortuitously as it turned out, I was about to flunk statistics and physics my college freshman first semester. In a panic I fled to my counselor. We reviewed skills, interests and options which resulted in choosing nutrition and dietetics. Never came close to flunking anything the rest of my educational career. I don’t know why I did not think of the major from the onset. We all know the importance of role-modeling. I was smitten with my 8th grade home economics teacher. Emulating her I played teacher with my younger sister and cousins. Many years later, came across old notebooks filled with notes I lectured and dictated they copy about wheat kernel parts and vitamin C & scurvy.”
Do you have any advice to offer to someone who is thinking about becoming a dietitian?
“Move outward from our nutrition and health territory box and become a student of our everyday environment. Seek out, participate and learn about as many features of our society as possible. Cultivate new people with different specialties, then network and cross-pollinate. You become prepared to address the multi-faceted problems and shifting cultural and social environments that impact people’s food & health decisions. And your skills apply across all aspects of your life’s activities and benefit each.”
What is your motto?
“’One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements. One who does not know the enemy but knows himself will sometimes be victorious, sometimes meet with defeat. One who knows neither the enemy nor himself will invariably be defeated in every engagement.’ Sun Tzu
Or very simply: Be Prepared”
What is the best meal you’ve ever had?
“My most memorable meal was a crawfish boil made by my sister-in-law and her Cajun husband who live north of New Orleans. Into the stockpot set cooking outside on a burner in the driveway went 50 pounds of locally caught crawfish, potatoes, artichokes, whole heads of garlic and onions, 2 boxes of salt, seasonings, ears of corn and whole lemons. Finished, Bobby just dumped it out on their wooden picnic table, letting the water drain away through the wooden slats. It was a family reunion, and we spent a long, lazy enjoyment sharing of good food, conversation, beer, swatting the mosquitoes away in the humid air of the darkening evening, and listening to the kids chase each other and the lizards. It was definitely a New Orleans ‘Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez’……Let the Good Times Roll!”