Hello world!
This semester I'm taking a class called Community Nutrition. It's exactly as it sounds learning about nutrition from a community perspective and how dieticians are a part of this. Community dieticians would be those who work with WIC, your local food bank, or anyone working on a local level as a dietician. One of the things community dieticians do is help pass policies and acts for the nation or state to promote health. Last week we were given an assignment to do just that. We wrote a letter to a government official about getting a policy or act passed. The act that I chose is the Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) Act which seeks to add MNT to Medicaid. That way those with Medicare part B and a disease that causes unintentional weight gain can get nutrition-based treatment. If you've ever been to a dietician that wasn't in a hospital you know that it is not often cheap. With this act going to a dietician would be covered. Below is the letter that I composed:
Dear Governor Abbott,
My name is Autumn Littles and I am currently a Food Science and Nutrition major at Sam Houston State University. I would like to bring the Medical Nutrition Therapy Act to your attention and hopefully convince you of it’s importance by the end of this letter. This act was bought to Congress in 2020 and was again introduced in May of 2021 with a goal to have Medicare part B cover medical nutrition therapy for disease that cause unintentional weight gain. These include, but are not limited to prediabetes, obesity, hypertension, cancer, eating disorders, and more. According to the CDC in 2020 top five leading causes of death were:
Heart Disease (696,962)
Cancer (602,350)
COVID-19 (350,831)
Accidents (200,955)
Stroke (160,264)
What do numbers one, two, and five have in common? They are all nutritionally related. Now I would also like to show the CDC stats for Texas from 2017:
Heart Disease (45,346; 18th out of the 50 states)
Cancer (40,668; 37th out of the 50 states)
Stroke (10,790; 13th out of the 50 states)
Accidents (10,763; 45th out of the 50 states)
Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease (10,650; 31st out of the 50 states)
Again, I ask what do numbers one, two, three, and five have in common? They are all nutritionally related. This is not just another act for Congress to pass. For me it would mean that the nation is focusing more on the everyday issues of all Americans. My family is prone to hypertension and diabetes so, growing up as a “bigger” kid was not a walk in the park. Going to visit the doctor was never fun, my mom and dad would bounce between subtly and bluntly worrying, and all of this on top of the judgement I felt go anywhere. This lead me down a dark path of restricting my food intake, cutting out sugar, and almost never eating anything unless I knew the calories. Needless to say, I was not in a good spot in my life. I didn’t realize it until college, but I was suffering from the eating disorder orthorexia. Looking back, I wish I would have been guided by someone who knew what they were talking about and that’s what dieticians do. If we enact this policy the stats for these diseases and deaths will surely go down. Health professionals can begin to recommend dieticians to patients and many health issues will be lessened or resolved. Not only that, but it will make the job of a dietician more well-known and there will be plenty more people going to school for this career. Texas can eventually be known as one of the healthiest states in the nation with a policy such as this. I pray you consider this letter as you meet with other advocates and members of capitol hill.
Sincerely,
Autumn Littles
I have no clinical experience and I'm not quite sure if that's the route I want to go on. This class has helped me to see that I do not have to use my degree in only a hospital. I really enjoy working with people and so, community nutrition is looking more and more like an option as the days go by. It might not be the highest paying position, but I imagine it's one of the more difficult, yet rewarding career paths. So, I guess we'll see when the time comes.
If you would like to learn more about this act or even help to get this act passed follow these links:
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