Importance of 'Nutrition and Dietetics' for a Healthy Living
With a rising concern about health and eating habits, the field of Nutrition and Dietetics is gaining a lot of popularity. Due to a growing concern about obesity, anorexia, ulcers, hypertension and other major diseases arising due to unhealthy eating habits, the role of dietitians is growing important. The role of nutritionists and dietitians is to improve the health of patients by instilling healthy eating habits.
Dietetics is also said to be the “science and art of human nutritional care.” It is the science and art of feeding individuals based on the principles of nutrition. Diet therapy and its application in patient-related settings is a major focus of dietetics.
Dietetics can be related to:
- Nutrition care and intervention focused on the individual &
- Nutrition care and intervention focused on the group.
A poor diet may lead to morbidity and diseases while a good and balanced diet habit improves the quality of life. Diet plays an important role in the promotion of health and well being of an individual. Nutritionists and dietetics are concerned with this aspect. While nutrition is related to promotion of health, dietetics is related to food management. The role of nutritionists and dietitians is becoming more important because of the changes in food habits of most of the people. Considering various aspects of an individual such as age, work routine, and sickness etc., nutritionists suggest corrective food habits and thereby improving their quality of life. A growing and aging population will increase the demand for meals and nutritional counseling in nursing homes, schools, prisons, community health programs, and home health care agencies. Nutritionists educate their clients about the preparation of food according to the principles of nutrition. They know about food production and processing, psychological factors influencing food choice, digestion and its effects on nutritional aspects.
Various Specialized Areas in Dietetics
Community Dietitians counsel people on food choices and direct programs in nutrition awareness and disease prevention. They work in health and fitness clubs, public health agencies and daycare centers.
Clinical Dietitians assess patient nutrition, develop dietary plans, provide patient counseling, and monitor patient's progress. They are specialists in food nutrition services in private practices, hospitals and outpatient clinics.
Consultant Dietitians develop and evaluate food service systems and serve as independent advisors to industry. They are independent business people who work as nursing home consultants, book authors, and patient counselors in medical centers and fitness programs.
Management Dietitians manage personnel, plan and conduct employee training programs, design food systems, and plan budgets. They are specialized in food service systems or clinical management. They work in hospitals, nursing homes, school food service, cafeterias, and restaurants.
ROLE OF DIETITIAN IN HEALTH CARE
Role of Dietitian is still unknown to a lot of people. Many people think that dietitians, as the name implies, give out diets to make individuals lose their weight, whereas this is a small part of their role. A dilemma happens when the disease state of the patient confound the adequacy of nutritional support, that has resulted in the patient’s malnourishment. Dietitians are the link between the patient and medical team or physician in assisting difficult decisions making about nutrition care. Asian Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition state that the dietitian role in nutrition care has been recommended an adequate source and amount of balanced nutrients according to pre-established standards of care.
The dietitian should be:
- Planning nutrition and food programs
- Informing on the severity of illness and complications of treatments, inclusive of the benefits and burdens of feeding on all conceivable routes.
- Recommending dietary modifications
- Educating patients on diets that may help their condition
- To provide a multidisciplinary health care approach, work with other healthcare professionals
- Supervising meal preparations in schools and hospitals, and
- Active in the patients care as the dietitian by reporting the nutritional status of the patient and as an adviser to the physician and medicinal team
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