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Plant Chat: The Dietitian Humor Duo

Sharon Palmer

It’s fantastic to have the decidedly dorky dietitian duo behind   Dietitian Humor   on my blog today! I first discovered Dietitian Humor on Facebook, where they created hilarious posts about the dietitian life.

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One of Dietitian Humor’s posts on their Facebook page

Some Dietitian Humor posts have gone viral beyond the mainstream dietitian realm. I love this post (below) on how dietitians feel about grocery shopping, which has hit 154,000 views at the time of writing this. Go ahead, join the crowd and follow Dietitian Humor on  Instagram  and  Facebook.

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Check out this viral Dietitian Humor video here.

So, just who are the RDs behind Dietitian Humor? Interestingly, these ladies are going anonymous (think Gorillaz) and not revealing their true identities until they hit their magic milestone target goal on Instagram of 10,000 followers. So what you get is this graphic image of them above—which displays something close to their likeness. The dietitians (their first initials are L and A) will tell us that they met six years ago during their dietetic internship and became fast friends. They are both located in the Northeast United States. L is an outpatient dietitian who counsels both adults and pediatric patients. (Word is you can catch a Pokemon in her office.) A is an Inpatient Dietitian with a background in neonatal and intensive care nutrition. They both like cycling, hiking, geocaching, the taste of hospital nutritional supplements, bingo, Phil Dunphy, dogs, and the book “Eating on the Wildside” by Jo Anderson. For now, they will go by their first initials L and A, but they plan on revealing who they are once they hit 10,000 followers on Instagram, so go ahead and help them out and follow them. Read on to learn more about this hilarious duo!

How did you get started creating the awesome Dietitian Humor social media pages?

Aw thanks–we are glad you think we’re awesome!

Well, we’ve always enjoyed joking around and playing pranks on each other (In our internship class of 17, A was voted “Class Clown” and L was voted “Wittiest”). Since we don’t live close to each other, texting and SnapChat eventually became our medium for this. One evening, L started sending funny Snaps satirizing her RD experiences in the outpatient setting. A screen-shot a few and posted them. It escalated pretty quickly from there.

Are you surprised at how popular you have become among the dietitian community?

A: It’s funny remembering how excited we got when we hit 100 followers. Then, we were totally amazed when we hit our next huge milestone of 1,000. Now we are at almost 9,000–it’s unreal! We are absolutely thrilled that there are so many others out there who share our sense of humor regarding the world of Dietetics.

L: I feel like working as an RD can have its confusing, frustrating, or even heartbreaking moments, and creating memes can be a great outlet for those feelings. I hope it allows other RDs out there to realize they aren’t the only ones who struggle with PES statements sometimes, or want to vom when they have to enter a C. Diff room—we all share these universal experiences, and it can be a relief to just laugh about it sometimes!

What sort of feedback have you gotten from dietitians?

It’s great seeing fellow RDs tag us in posts they think we’ll enjoy, and they send us their ideas for memes. We love how supportive mostly all of our fan base is. There have been minimal “trolls” and I think that reflects the quality of people in the dietetics community. The positive comments we read definitely keep us going.

L: My favorite moment so far has been when my CNM pulled me aside on RD Day to show me some “hilarious RD memes”, and a few of them were ours!

A: Unexpected feedback from my mom is that Dietitian Humor has taught her many medical acronyms and terminology. (Plus, she’s learned what the heck Instagram is… but she has yet to “like” a photo)!

What was your inspiration for becoming a dietitian?

L: In college I was originally on track to become a high school home economics teacher, but the nutrition courses intrigued me so much that I switched majors to follow the dietetic route. The glamorous world of trickle feeds and rubberized food models–it pulled me in!

A:  I took a nutrition & health class in college because someone told me it was an easy science elective (my major was mathematics). The class made me realize how little I understood about how nutrition is linked to our overall health… and I started to get really frustrated. I blamed the American education system – how was it we were not required to learn food science? Sure, physics and chemistry are really interesting but nutrition is a science experiment we perform on ourselves everyday! Not to mention, cooking and home economics classes are almost non-existent (NO THANKS TO L). After that one class, I was encouraged to keep learning as much as I could in the field, which led to a career as a registered dietitian (PEACE OUT MATH! Jk, still love you math, wouldn’t be here without cha!)

What do you like best about this profession?

L: There is a lot that I like about being a Dietitian, but the best is probably the part about changing lives through food; specifically helping people change their relationship with food. I think it’s pretty evident to all of us that the general pop of the U.S. needs some major healthful changes, and it’s exciting to be on the frontline of that–inspiring changes within people, thus inspiring changes on a larger (national) scale.

A: TPN – especially in the neonatal setting. It’s my favorite thing to describe about my job. It’s interesting and uses math! I enjoy the challenge. I enjoy the management. I enjoy the education and interdisciplinary teamwork. TPN is a freaking medical miracle.

L: Listen to this nerd over here!

A: Yet you call me when you need me to double check your TPN recs.

L: ….Word. Go math!

What is your personal nutrition philosophy?

L: Basically an amalgam of: Balance, balance, balance (everything in moderation) plus a little bit of “you are what you eat”, iced with: Don’t compare yourself to others, focus on yourself and being the best version of yourself”, with “Aim for progress, not perfection” to finish it off. I have all of these philosophies playing on repeat in the back of my mind. It helps me to stay inspired, and to make *mostly* good choices in my daily life.

A:  Work on adjusting your Omega 3:Omega 6 ratio, and try to incorporate anti-inflammatory foods as often as possible.

What are you passionate about in the nutrition world?

L:  ::Takes a huge breath:: I’m working on increasing my understanding of utilizing motivational interviewing techniques with my patients to help elicit positive response to lifestyle changes in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. It’s something you kind of have to learn through practice, which has been a challenge, but so rewarding. Haven’t heard of motivational interviewing yet? Check it out! It’s a great skill to have in your RD toolbox–right next to the emergency peanut butter.

A: I feel that nutrition education should be not be left to those who seek out the answers–it should be a mandatory course taught in secondary education. (Imagine the RD jobs if this happened!!!) I also think that schools should have an in-house dietitian on staff–the same way there is a school nurse. This dietitian could council students and parents, host cooking classes, teach food science, and work with the school’s food service system (menu, purchasing, etc.).

What are five plant-based foods that you simply can’t live without?

A: Guacamole, Pesto Sauce, Bean Chips, Vegetarian Chili anddddd….

L:  Can I choose peanut butter as all 5 of my foods? It’s always been my choice for my one item I would choose to be stranded on a desert island with; I would never be alone….

A: Yeah I choose Peanut Butter, too… as my fifth, melty peanut butter that I can dip celery in.

L: Vote PB for POTUS 2016!

Here is one of their favorite plant-based recipes:

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