Welcome!

Hello everyone!  For those of you who don't know me, my name is PC.  I'm a second year Nutrition undergraduate in the Faculty of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta.   Besides ruminating over upcoming assignments and exams, lately I've had ideas brewing about the role of mass and social media in the field of nutrition (and now, thanks to my ALES 204 course, I'm going to share them on my very 1st blog!).   I have a passion for public education in the field of proper nutrition and weight management and I think it's time to make healthy eating interesting, cool, sexy and fun! 

I've noticed that almost every person I know outside the field of nutrition, is actually very interested in nutrition and diet.   What strikes me as interesting is that although they have this concern for nutrition, very few are noticing and heeding what qualified specialists (i.e. Registered Dieticians) have to say!  How weird is that!  I think people generally have a vision of the RD as someone who talks or writes about broccoli, fiber and dietary moderation, using formal and academic communication to convey their message.  That form of communication may be interesting for their dietician buddies, but it's just not captivating for the average person!  

Megan Fox

In contrast, a simple visit to popular web media reveals that Megan Fox is on the Paleo diet  (www.vancouversun.com/health/skinny+celebrity+diets.../story.html and image by http://www.lukeford.net/Images/photos4/071209/211.htm).

The result?  Thousands of people frantically looking up the Paleo diet and eager to give it a try!  Does it matter whether or not this diet is recommended by an RD?  Not at all!  The reality is that mass media generally captures our attention and defines how most of us think, know and imagine about nutrition.  Saturday morning commercials have every mom buying probiotic yogurt for their kids' school lunches - and many others are coughing big dollars to buy Ruby Reds, the "groundbreaking new dietary superfood supplement" advertised on the web (http://rubyreds.aitrk.com/default.aspx).

I think there is a great (and still largely untapped) opportunity for dieticians to effectively communicate and interact with the public about healthy eating and quackery using mass and social media.   We are starting to see more and more interactive dietician websites, like the site for Canadian RD, Leslie Becks (http://www.lesliebeck.com/).   But I think we still have a long way to go.  I have a vision for lots of fun, captivating nutritional mass media campaigns backed by qualified nutritionists.  I look forward to your ideas and feedback to my posts.