Howdy folks! My name is Jared Navarro and I am a Sodexo Dietetic Intern at the Baltimore/Washington DC Campus. I am also completing the online Master’s program at the University of Rhode Island. Although it has only been two weeks since starting my first rotation in food service management, I have had many opportunities to learn and experience. While the majority of my rotations are to be completed at George Washington University Hospital, I was placed at one of Sodexo’s campus accounts for my management and later for my culinary concentration. My site, the Madeira School, is a non-denominational private college-preparatory boarding school for girls located in Mclean, Virginia. At the school, I work closely with the executive chef/general manager of the campus dining department, observing and participating in food preparation, employee oversight, and department meetings. I have spent the last four years prior to this internship working in every aspect of a kitchen, yet I still learn something new everyday!
Last week the chef and I went to visit the 2017 Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore, Maryland. As people are becoming more aware of their health and what food they eat each year, the purpose of our visit was to see, and more importantly sample, up and coming food trends, as well as find new food products that could be sold at the school store. The chef informed me that as each year passes, more students have restricted diets due to a variety of food allergies. Therefore it is important to find foods that will cater to these restrictions. As a dietetic intern, he wanted me to help evaluate the nutrition and ingredients in the products we found interesting.
Many of the products here were marketed as “Health Foods” using buzzwords such as “all-natural”, “superfood”, “additive-free water” - yes, this was real. Yet some of these foods had high amounts of sugar or sodium, which is important to keep in mind. As future dietitians, we need to inform our future patients and clients of what to really look for when shopping for food (i.e., ingredients and nutrition facts). As a skeptic when it comes to “natural” or “health” foods, I was actually surprised to see that there were a variety of foods for a variety of consumers with different diets (at least at Madeira school). Many products could be suited to Madeira’s students dairy-free, gluten-free, corn-free, vegan, and other restricted diets.
Last week the chef and I went to visit the 2017 Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore, Maryland. As people are becoming more aware of their health and what food they eat each year, the purpose of our visit was to see, and more importantly sample, up and coming food trends, as well as find new food products that could be sold at the school store. The chef informed me that as each year passes, more students have restricted diets due to a variety of food allergies. Therefore it is important to find foods that will cater to these restrictions. As a dietetic intern, he wanted me to help evaluate the nutrition and ingredients in the products we found interesting.
Many of the products here were marketed as “Health Foods” using buzzwords such as “all-natural”, “superfood”, “additive-free water” - yes, this was real. Yet some of these foods had high amounts of sugar or sodium, which is important to keep in mind. As future dietitians, we need to inform our future patients and clients of what to really look for when shopping for food (i.e., ingredients and nutrition facts). As a skeptic when it comes to “natural” or “health” foods, I was actually surprised to see that there were a variety of foods for a variety of consumers with different diets (at least at Madeira school). Many products could be suited to Madeira’s students dairy-free, gluten-free, corn-free, vegan, and other restricted diets.
 Note: No conflicts of interest. Just a snapshot of the samples I received from the expo. I believe that it is good to keep in mind that even though food samples are a nice treat, we as future dietitians should not let them influence our judgement as a nutrition expert. | Overall, I enjoyed this Expo, especially the variety of delicious samples. I also picked up a few things that would help me towards my future career as a dietitian.
|
