Over the past several decades, America’s population has gone from being one of the fittest in the world to easily ranking as the most obese on the planet. That process was a long one, driven largely by the proliferation of sugary beverages, products enriched with high fructose corn syrup, and the offering of extra-large portions by chain restaurants across the country. With all of these factors combined, along with a distinct lack of nutrition-related education, many Americans simply don’t have the food or knowledge they need to defy an obesity epidemic.
The public health nutritionist is currently the country’s most important official when it comes to tackling obesity and overcoming the problem with information, new habits, and a greater understanding of how the body processes food, uses sugar, and metabolizes nutrients. This position is growing at a rapid clip for precisely these reasons. Americans, and people throughout the world, need to learn more about nutrition and the public health nutritionist is their go-to resource.
The Job: Developing Sound Public Policy Concerning Nutrition
The public health nutritionist typically works for government agencies or health-related outreach groups that are chiefly concerned with how great nutrition can stave off disease, prevent obesity, and lead to lower health insurance costs for the broader population. As has been widely publicized in recent years, people who continually engage in poor habits with their daily food intake are more likely to suffer from infectious diseases, chronic illness, and much more. They’re more likely to break a bone than their fit counterparts, and more likely to suffer from a major disability.
All of these things affect society as a whole, requiring greater investment in healthcare and health technology, affording accommodations for a larger number of terminally ill or permanently disabled individuals, and burdening the larger healthcare system from family clinics to emergency rooms.
Public health nutritionists try to fight these things by developing easy, helpful programs. They’re the people who developed the legendary Food Pyramid, and they’re the ones who created the “My Five” marketing campaign encouraging people to eat more fruits and vegetables. They extoll the benefits of a daily multivitamin and work with nonprofit groups to engage in nutrition-related outreach.
One-On-One and Issue-Related Work for the Public
When nutritionists aren’t setting the public health agenda and creating trendy marketing campaigns to encourage better dietary habits, they’re often working to help individuals and select groups of people eat better for a purpose. For example, entire groups of public health nutritionists work on diabetes-related policies that can make it easier for sufferers to find nutritious, tasty foods that don’t spike their blood sugar. Others work with pregnant women, helping them find the right foods to create a nutritional balance that will serve both their needs and the needs of the baby.
Many public health nutritionists eventually seek jobs with issues-related agencies or campaigns, focusing on things like childhood obesity programs, hospital outreach programs for those with terminal disease, and similar, related interests.
Public Health Starts with Great Nutrition
The health of the public starts with a great diet that reduces the chance of obesity, diabetes, and chronic suffering. Public health nutritionists are the ones developing the right diets, outreach campaigns, and marketing approaches, to ensure the public has the tools it needs to create a healthy, effective diet that they can grow with over time.