More Than a Diet: National Registered Dietitian Day

For Nation­al Reg­is­tered Dietit­ian Day, we asked QMG Dietit­ian Brit­tany Win­ship to share what inspired her to pur­sue a career in nutri­tion and how she gains inspi­ra­tion from her patients. To learn more about our ser­vices at QMG, click here or call us at (217) 222‑6550, ext. 3481. 

“I became inter­est­ed in nutri­tion in high school. I loved learn­ing about the link between food and health, and how it could be used to improve health. I enjoy work­ing with peo­ple on their rela­tion­ship with food. One of the most ful­fill­ing moments is when some­one has a ​‘light bulb moment’ and real­izes that as a dietit­ian, we want you to enjoy your food and help you fig­ure out ways to include foods you love into your diet, not take every­thing away.

In this field, it’s not just about edu­ca­tion – it’s about pro­vid­ing sup­port, debunk­ing myths, and nour­ish­ing rela­tion­ships. My advice for those con­sid­er­ing a career as a dietit­ian is to remain curi­ous and take any extra coun­sel­ing cours­es you can.

When meet­ing with patients, I spend the begin­ning of most ini­tial ses­sions explor­ing each individual’s goals. See­ing them meet them over time it is the best thing to watch. I have had patients reduce their A1c in order to have a much-need­ed surgery or eat in a way that helped delay the start of dial­y­sis. One of my more mem­o­rable moments this past year was work­ing with a gen­tle­man going through can­cer treat­ment. He held such a pos­i­tive atti­tude and out­look on life, and I real­ly feel that his mind­set helped him get through his treat­ment with lit­tle side effects. This is not to dimin­ish those who expe­ri­ence side effects, as they can be bru­tal, but he remind­ed me that our atti­tudes do impact our health and it is an impor­tant thing to remind us all.” – Brit­tany Win­ship, RD, LDN