What does a Culinary Nutritionist Do?
By Kristen Rohrer, Culinary Insitute of Virginia Nutrition/Arts & Sciences Faculty
Imagine having the power to transform people's lives through nutrition combined with the skillset to prepare delicious food using techniques that promote health and wellness. As a culinary nutritionist, you will be merging two expanding fields into one in order to meet the growing and changing needs of a health-conscious population.
Increased Need in Today's Changing World
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, poor nutrition is a major cause of unnecessary illness, diminished quality of life, and premature death in the U.S. today. Roughly 90% of Americans report exceeding daily sodium limits and only about 1% meet the fruit and vegetable requirements recommended for healthy living.
The best way to treat a disease is to prevent it from occurring in the first place and diet has been identified as a major risk factor for virtually every preventable chronic disease that plagues Americans today. These statistics have created an urgent need for a new field of nutritional culinarians with the skills to not only develop meal plans that foster health, but create meals that deliver nutrient-dense ingredients packed with indulgent tastes and colors that only a culinary professional can provide.
Stand out as a Culinary Nutritionist
A culinary nutritionist is a highly marketable title which can help you stick out in a crowd, especially in the competitive culinary industry. Formal education in culinary arts and applied nutrition can provide a leg up on the competition by displaying your skills in menu planning for growing populations of specialized and high-risk diets, dietary management and nutrition principles for individualized options.
These credentials can help you cater to growing crowds of people with alternative and distinct dietary concerns, all while you prepare decadent and indulgent, yet healthy foods. As we know, it's not what we eat but what we absorb, and as a culinary nutritionist, you will learn how to maximize absorption by utilizing scientifically-proven cooking techniques that not only enhance taste, flavor and color, but most importantly, health and wellness.
Through these interventions, a culinary nutritionist can break preconceived notions that all healthy food is bland and essentially uninspiring by presenting food that is just the opposite: explosive with color, appealing to every sense and at the same time, extremely health promoting.
Your Dream Career is Waiting
Since both the culinary industry as well as nutritional science have become highly specialized, a program in culinary nutrition sets aspiring culinarians up for success. This is accomplished with professional qualifications and real-world experience reflected in a portfolio of applicable recipes targeting industry-specific requirements. Many job fields are hungry for a culinary nutritionist, including healthcare services, schools and colleges, assisted living facilities, resorts/spas, and even catering and event planning.
This field also lends itself to the personal chef world because of the experience you will receive with specialized nutritional knowledge geared toward disease prevention and management. A huge benefit to this program is that upon completion, you become eligible to sit for the Certified Dietary Manager exam, which can open up even more doors for you as a dietary manager in virtually any facility. This exploding field allows collaboration with other nutrition professionals in order to provide topnotch culinary creations that are both appealing and nourishing.
Are you passionate about food and nutrition? If so, you might be interested in earning an Associate of Applied Science in Culinary Arts and Applied Nutrition. With accelerated classes and a year-round schedule, ECPI University’s Culinary Institute of Virginia helps you to step out of the classroom and into a professional kitchen. For more information on this degree program, contact a helpful admissions advisor today.
It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
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Gainful Employment Information – Culinary Nutrition - Associate’s
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