May 1, 2012

Today in class we had a dietitian from Meijer come in to talk with us. Her name was Janine Faber and she is the dietitian in charge of the Central and Southern Ohio regions as well as the Louisville and Lexington regions in Kentucky. Her job gets paid by the funding of companies that want them to promote their products.
Her job entails everything from doing cooking demos, making nutritional information packets, being on the radio and tv segments, to promoting healthy living through media sites like facebook and pinterest. I thought it was actually really interesting how involved the Meijer dietitians were with the community. They all did a lot of media work and really tried to expand to get the greatest number of people involved. Janine's job does entail travel and working weekends but it definitely seemed like she really enjoyed her job.
I knew that there were dietitians that worked at grocery stores but I did not know exactly what they really did until today. I figured most of them were just in the back and did not really entail being in front of the public but obviously I was wrong. Being a dietitian at a grocery store seemed a lot like what a community dietitian does. They are there to promote healthy living and encourage eating healthy but not necessarily dealing with people who already have a nutrition problem. I actually think that being a dietitian at a grocery store would be a lot of fun now especially if they are all kind of set up like Meijer.
Also, I loved learning about their NuVal system! I had never heard of this system since I have not been to a Meijer in years. I think this is a great system that really can make people aware of what are healthier options compared to just thinking something is a healthier option just by what the marketing looks like on the package. I think this is a great step also to help push manufacturers to taking out some of the unneeded products in there foods and put back some of the healthier things. I think this is a great step in trying to make America more healthy!