April 7, 2024 • 39 mins
Welcome to an enriching episode of The Integrative Ideas in Nutrition podcast where we delve into the fascinating journey of Amber Alexis; a public health nutritionist and registered dietitian based in Trinidad and Tobago.
Our guest shares personal experiences and memories around traditional Caribbean foodways, shedding light on how regional dishes, ingredients, and cooking styles significantly impact her nutritional counseling.
The episode further highlights our guest's innovative work where she integrates traditional cultural diets and modern nutrition science. Alexis elaborates on her mission to breakdown and highlight the nutritional properties of local foods and discusses her process for adapting evidence-based studies informed by integrated functional nutrition principles.
We also delve into the importance of open dialogue with clients in understanding their food traditions and dietary habits, fostering a stronger client-dietitian relationship that promotes comprehensive and personalized nutritional advice.
Website: https://www.theculturaldietitian.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Integrative Ideas in Nutrition podcast.
This podcast is produced by the Committee of Inclusion, Diversity.
Music.
Equity, and Access through the Dietitians in Integrative and Functional Medicine
Practice Group with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Join us to explore a range of whole food therapies and mind-body modalities
(00:25):
within different settings and cultures and to celebrate the ways that our diversity
in practice and perspective makes us stronger.
Please keep in mind that the information, opinions, and recommendations presented
in this podcast are for general information only.
I am Sarah Thompson-Fajera, Registered Dietitian, Integrative and Functional
(00:49):
Nutrition Certified Practitioner, and your host for this podcast.
Amber Alexis is a public health nutritionist and U.S.-trained registered dietitian
with certifications in integrative and functional nutrition and diabetes management.
She holds two Bachelor of Science degrees and graduated with her Master of Science
(01:15):
in Public Health in 2020 from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Amber has spent the past nine years in various capacities, three plus as an RD,
in the study and practice of nutrition for the management of non-communicable
diseases, and as the owner of the Cultural Dietitian Limited,
(01:36):
has offered virtual client services,
consultancies to organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization,
and freelance writing and recipe development for companies such as Healthline
Nutrition and Medical News Today.
When she's not writing, creating content, presenting, or consulting with clients,
(01:57):
she enjoys travel, quality family time,
and adventurous outdoor activities throughout her twin-aisle home of Trinidad
and Tobago with her husband and two children.
Trend. So yay, Amber.
We are so excited to dive into this conversation together, aren't we?
(02:20):
This will be a lot of fun. Thank you.
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm excited.
Yeah. Okay. So we just want to start right from the beginning.
I know we've covered some of the
highlights in your bio, but what has this journey of yours looked like?
We want to really get the insider's view, developing into the dietitian who
(02:41):
you are today. Thank you.
Well, I am from Trinidad and Tobago, and I still reside in Trinidad and Tobago.
Hence, in my bio, it said U.S.
Trained, right? I'm not from the U.S. I don't live there.
But I would have begun my nutrition career with my first Bachelor of Science degree.
(03:01):
I was admitted to the university. I was going to study biology and agribusiness,
agriculture, agricultural business.
And then I always had this interest, but I didn't have that exposure to nutrition before.
So I was like, okay, I like food. I was an athlete.
I love to eat. But I just didn't know, you know, at one point I wanted to get into medicine.
(03:23):
And I'm like, if I get into medicine, I want to do something with food.
I don't really like the medical, you know, pharmaceutical aspects of it.
And then at career counseling at the university, when I told the advisor my
interest, she was like, you know, I think you're going to really like this course
or this major. And it was nutritional sciences.
(03:44):
So I'm like, yes, this is what I've been looking for all of my life. Like, this is it.
So I immediately dropped my agriculture major, agriculture business major and
took up nutritional sciences.
So I pursued two majors, a double major, biology and nutritional sciences.
Still learning so much more about the field. So I'm like, oh,
(04:05):
well, I don't know what's the difference between a nutritionist and a dietitian.
I'm just like going to become a nutritionist and I'll be able to do what I need to do then.
Completed my degree, I started working on a research project for food security
or food insecurity within the Caribbean.
And then later on, I went into the clinical setting as a dietetic technician.
(04:26):
And in doing so, working along with the dietitians, you know,
seeing and screening patients, inpatients, outpatients.
And like, you know, I really like speaking with patients. Like,
I love education. education.
Although the hospital is not the best for education, but I really love the little
snippets that you have with the patients and being able to interact with them.
So I'm like, you know what, maybe I need to go back to school and become a dietitian.
(04:51):
So I went to a different university, pursued nutrition and dietetics.
I got some exemptions. I didn't have to do the full degree over because there
would have been some commonalities between the two.
And that degree, that university gave me the exposure to be able to go to different Caribbean islands.
So while I'm in Trinidad, I would have been able to go to both public and private institutions here.
(05:14):
I went to Grenada for a few weeks. I would have spent some time in Barbados,
all in the experience of clinical food service and community nutrition. So that was fantastic.
It also afforded me the opportunity to to apply to U.S.
Schools because the university itself does not conduct the internship but they
(05:35):
do connect us with a university in the U.S.
That does but I'm like if I'm going to the U.S. to study I need to get my master's
one time because there's no way I'm going to spend this amount of money to go
do my internship and then still have to get my master's right so yeah so I looked
at at those MSPH or MPHRD combined programs.
(05:57):
So I would have looked at Loma Linda University, University of Southern California,
Berkeley, and then Johns Hopkins.
Johns Hopkins had been my dream university. I'm like, I'm going here, I'm going to apply.
And I applied and I was like, oh my gosh. So I got through and then I came to the US in 2018, right?
Did my program. It was fantastic. But also I was in Baltimore.
(06:21):
Baltimore has a very diverse population that myself
being from the Caribbean that I was able to really resonate with
you know other immigrants who might have been Caribbean or you know of different
cultures because in Trinidad we have we call it a multinational state so we
have basis of African influence Indian influence we have a very mixed fusion
(06:43):
style of food food and food culture.
So I'm able to connect on various sides when you think about cultural food ways.
It really spans a wide range.
So going through my internship, seeing some of the challenges that some of the
patients were having, understanding the cultural competency,
the ways that the dietitians would have approached it.
(07:04):
But it also became clear to me that.
Our culture our food cultures really weren't very
well understood and I you
know felt a little rebellious I was like why is it that when we
think about healthy eating it's always from the perspective we
have to stop eating these foods that we are familiar with
(07:24):
and we have to eat these other foods and I'm like but then
this couldn't be the only healthy food so what's
happening with you know my foods back home like where's the
nutrition and you know where's the the information for there
and it's really lacking it's it's limited compared to some of
the more popular foods that we would see North American
based and European based right so I
(07:45):
felt very passionate about that the pandemic happened and
I ended up staying in the US longer than I
planned to fortunately I had a really good uh student
visa sponsor so they kept extending my visa
so that everything was okay um but in
doing so i'm like i you know i would have sat my board exam during the pandemic
(08:07):
it was stressful but i got through with a baby and then i was like how can i
pass the time so i'm like looking at social media getting familiar with oh my gosh i didn't know.
Right i didn't use social media for that purpose and then i'm like what if i
did a blog what if i I started a blog just to pass the time while I'm waiting
(08:30):
to get repatriated to go home.
Because at the time, the borders were closed in Trinidad and Tobago.
So I couldn't simply take a plane home.
I had to go through a repatriation process.
And in waiting, I'm like, let me start just like putting some nutrition information
there, make it really simple and, you know, use my degree that I just got, right?
(08:50):
Yeah. And I started a blog. At first, I started it with my name.
So Amber Charles was my name then. I had since changed it due to marriage.
But it's not resonating. Like, I want when someone sees the name of my page
or my blog that they kind of have an idea of what it's about.
And I'm like oh balanced nutrition and then I was
(09:12):
like oh my gosh there's so many balanced nutrition things out here like I don't know
let me keep looking and then I was
like what about culture like cultural nutrition this and
I'm like oh the cultural dietitian like oh my gosh the cultural
dietitian it's like yes this is it I switch I'm
like there's nothing there it's like yes this is it because I
felt so really passionate about highlighting our
(09:34):
Caribbean cultural food in a way
that lets us know it's healthy and this is the way that we can use it you know
to support our health goals in various ways and that's how the cultural dietitian
was born out of the pandemic by the time i was repatriated and i returned to trinidad in 2021,
(09:56):
healthline reached out to me one of the editors reached out to me she saw my
blog and liked my writing and invited me to write for healthline and i did that
for for a little over two years.
Nice. So that's from beginning to where I am now. Where you are now.
What that enabled me to do, because during the pandemic, schools were closed, daycares were closed.
(10:17):
So when I returned home, although I initially imagined getting into that hospital or clinical setting,
I needed to be home with my son. So my husband wakes, he leaves for weeks and
he's going to come back like a month or two months later.
So we were like, we need some stability in our family.
And writing from home, writing remotely afforded me that opportunity to stay
(10:39):
at home, be present for my son and still earn an income.
And then it led into referrals for, you know, persons who want to,
you know, they have different goals, whatever the goals may have been.
I'm like, okay, I started off small, like you know little general health eating
clients and then I eventually worked my way up and we are on to three years
now going into my fourth year of private practice remotely.
(11:06):
Thank you and it's
scary but fantastic yeah and what a beautiful
example of seeing a need being
open to the possibilities and it seems like once you
thought of that name it just settled with
with you you just knew you just knew this
is it this is how I feel this feels really yeah this
(11:26):
is it yeah and how are you yourself introduced to
food and cooking when did that become a really meaningful part of of your your
lived experience yeah I would say from pretty young because my mom was always
cooking and she would take me to the market like what we call or what you would
(11:49):
call for the farmers market.
We just used to call it the market and the supermarket was like the grocery store, right?
So she would take me to the market and she would teach me how to shop,
like the lingo, what you're looking for.
So I had that early exposure, I would say like, you know, somewhere around nine or 10 years old.
I should have started taking me to the market with her to learn.
(12:12):
So I had that experience and then cooking at home, like we always had to help.
My mom, when I was five, she suffered a stroke.
So she became disabled as a result she never
had a full recovery from it and so we became like her right hand so anytime
she needed to cook we needed to be there to we would have been like the sous
chefs prepping everything for her so we would have been in the kitchen you know
(12:36):
prepping and cutting things up and then she'll be like come and see what i'm
doing and come and see how i'm cooking.
Right so i had that really early exposure in terms of
cooking or seeing certain foods prepared
understanding where the foods are coming from we had
experiences like my uncle used to live countryside so
we would go visit him and like pick fruits from on
(12:57):
the trees i loved going to says going to visit him because
he had so many fruit trees and you will just
be able to pick it off the tree and eat it fresh and that was fantastic so
i had that early exposure i just didn't have the knowledge that
you know i i felt like there must
be something more to food but i i didn't know until much later
in life right the actual impact that food
(13:19):
can have but cooking like every sunday
was a you know a massive meal so
we always had all these different foods and it was a very
full heavy meal we call it sunday lunch traditional sunday
lunch so at least once a week i would
have been in the kitchen with my mom experiencing that what
kind of fruit was it on those trees
(13:41):
oh my gosh so covers yeah then
it would have like what we call pomerak or i think it's like
star apple in some places we call it star apple
star or rose apple and then mangoes and cherries and he had this we call it
five finger but it's going to a starfruit as well or carambola yeah so those
(14:06):
yeah love and guava is like my favorite.
And did you ever have a good guava the whole time you were in the U.S.? I have to know.
You know, I did. You did? I was like, yeah.
So there are Caribbean stores there that you can shop and get food items. But Walmart.
(14:27):
Was it Walmart? I think they have a grocery section. They do.
They do. And they had guavas. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. And we bought. Yeah, so they do.
And I was like, this is pretty good. So yeah, I didn't have a good one. You got lucky.
All right. All right. All right. So when you reflect on Caribbean foodways as
(14:51):
a whole, you know, like your own experience.
Growing up, learning about these foods at the market and experiencing these
ways of eating, what would you define as the characteristics of traditional Caribbean foodways?
And you know i want to talk to you about some of the dishes and flavors and
things that that really stand out to you one of
(15:13):
the characteristics will definitely be peas and beans we
do a lot of those like what we call ground provisions
or tubers so we call it dashing but
you may know it as taro castava or
yucca we have eddles or i believe it
may be called malanga in some places so those
are like staples to our
(15:36):
diet rice and peas are staples to
our you know to our diets a lot of flour based products so rotis or flatbreads
fried or roasted or baked are really staples so what you had traditionally we
used to have a lot of family meals and that particular traditional Sunday lunch.
(15:57):
It has since changed, you know, with the growth of eating out and certain restaurants
or franchises that are in our communities now,
but we would have that Sunday lunch and sit and eat together and have conversations
over food more than we would, you know, sit and eat in front of a television.
That used to be a really traditional way of connecting as a family.
(16:20):
At least in my family, we would sit for lunch,
sit and, you know, someone will say a prayer and we'd open and then we would
sit and eat and have conversation at least once per week we sit and have that
type of community isn't quite like that right now and things have changed but
that was a traditional part of it but you would find that.
(16:43):
Cooking at home is very important
right we've only really transitioned to
eating out more because of how busy our lifestyles
have become and how hectic things are and you're tired and
you're working from morning to night but cooking at
home is very you know knowing how to cook
and infuse different flavors is really important because it's
(17:06):
one of the ways that we are also we express our hospitality as
well so when someone comes to your home you
want to be able to offer them food as a
way of being accommodating and expressing love and
care and concern through food so it has always been
very important i can imagine there's a a role
of culinary nutrition too and probably how you
(17:27):
how you work with people right yes even when
you think of spices you asked about flavors earlier we love spices
not necessarily spicy food but things
and spices so we love what we
call fresh green seasoning so like cilantro cilantro
those are slightly different thyme or
(17:47):
different types of thyme and green onions we call
them syve like having those at like the like habanero I know it's very hot but
we have a version of that that we call pimento but it's not as spicy as a habanero
yeah but then we also have scotch bonnet peppers so different flavors that we like to incorporate.
(18:08):
Ginger and garlic and onion and cinnamon
turmeric like we use a lot of those in our meals to add flavor yeah so it's
an important part of when i'm speaking to my clients as well and saying well
especially if you know maybe we need to be mindful of the amount of sodium intake
for any particular reasons like okay this is how we're gonna.
(18:29):
Flavor our foods without you know losing the
palatability because you're eating healthier so these are
the strategies these are the foods that we want to you know make sure we
have at the base of our meals yeah yeah yeah
are there a couple of specific dishes or
recipes that you find yourself kind of going back to
over and over that are just really nutrient dense or
(18:50):
really significant to you or delicious delicious.
I would say we have
a meal called pillow and pillow is
a one-part dish so it's a mix of rice and
peas and it can be vegetarian so.
It can just be rice and peas with pumpkin and carrots or sweet
(19:12):
peppers if you want to add them and different seasonings or.
Hoops and spices uh you can add different meats you.
Can do chicken you can add beef i think there's.
Like two main ones that you may really add if you're adding meat
but it's such a fantastic tip you
know it could be easy an easy one-part meal
to have that really adds so much nutrition
(19:33):
so much flavor and then we tend
to eat like have it with slices of avocado or
we may do like a cabbage and carrot coleslaw to
go along with it or just sliced cucumbers and sliced
tomatoes on the side to pair with the aloe so
i feel like it's one of those dishes that it's very
familiar but also allows business
(19:55):
the opportunity to add more nutrition when you think of
adding more fruits vegetables to go along with
it because it's culturally paired with a
fruit or vegetable accordingly right so
it's a really good opportunity to have those types of discussions
with clients yeah so anything peas based
so we have like um roti and with
(20:18):
the roti we'd use like chickpeas we call it chana
and that's typically typically going to
be curried so that's one another pea based
one that we have would be split peas and we
make dal from it but the way that we make dal is
different to the traditional indian dal you know
so different different peas that we use different preparation but we
(20:38):
have dhal um that's usually you know
paired with rice and probably be fish and then
stew lentils will be another one as well so you find out a lot of pea based.
And there are a lot of vegetarian options if you need it right or you can add
the meat and you need it as well so i find that the pea based options and then
(20:59):
like the one One-pot options are really good for highlighting nutrition.
And because we tend to add so many vegetables, so like when we're cooking the
stew peas, when we're cooking the pillow, you're adding pumpkin,
you're adding carrots, you're adding maybe sweet peppers or bell peppers,
you know, different things that you add.
So you may not always see that it's paired with like perfect side up.
(21:23):
Side dish of like a salad but we do incorporate that
nutrition throughout the dish itself right right
right right and so if you if you were to make a
dal dish is it is it heavily turmeric based
what kind of spices do you use right some people use turmeric some do not my
dog is barking but it will be so we have different types of curries we may have
(21:47):
like a general masala curry and then there's a curry that you may call goat
or duck curry and then there's a general.
Curry powder so we particularly my husband is
very adamant about having all of these different curries in the
past jira or ground cumin that adds
you know a lot of flavor that we use a
technique called chunke where you would put
(22:10):
the garlic with the ground cumin in a
spoon or container of oil and then
you like basically essentially fry that and then
you add that to your peas dish like the
dal and it adds a whole element
a new layer of flavor as well right so
yes okay so sometimes turmeric is added yeah
(22:31):
yeah so turmeric may be added
or it may not it really is just a personal preference yeah
oh i love hearing about that it's going to bloom the
spices before you put them in and it probably just adds that depth
probably of flavor yeah that sounds so
good what about is there a dessert or something
sweet something sweet that something kind of works for
(22:52):
your patient so what we have i'll say traditionally and then other three things
that i do so traditionally we have what's called a poon and poon is really it's
made from different types of brown provisions or tubers most commonly we like
cassava or yucca and it's.
Made into this nice smoothie you can think of it almost like a pudding or something
(23:15):
a little bit more full like a soft dessert that is very sweet as well so some
people tend to like that sweet,
provision-based dessert but i tend to go with my fruit anytime i'm like you
have a sweet tube let's talk about fruit so one that we may be familiar with
in the nutrition world but it's It's also very cultural with prunes and peanut butter.
(23:38):
So that, especially among the Adventist community, because my husband grew up
being Seventh-day Adventist, and he was like, any event that you go to,
if it's the wedding, if it's any particular event, you're going to have prunes and peanut butter.
I've never heard that before. Yes. Wow.
So that is one that dates back into our older days.
(24:00):
For my clients you know I just go on the peanut butter I'm like heavy on the
nut butter so it's like oh let's do some apple nut butters or bananas and nut
butters or the prunes or the beets,
as well just to add more nutrition but still appeal
to that sweet taste yeah okay so when you're working with your clients or patients
how are you plugging some of these ideas into an approach for them because I
(24:26):
know you focus really heavily on of course the cultural dietitian so So,
you know, really culturally informed eating.
So what does your process look like? How have you, you know,
kind of developed your ability to incorporate some of these foods into your counseling?
Yeah. So I think it's important for me to...
In my assessment and my diet history of my clients really
(24:47):
understand what foods they like so i tend to
do food frequency questionnaires with them yeah just for
the purpose of understanding what they regularly eat and
what they would like and then figure out well how
do we make the necessary adjustments depending on
what they go for right now what they're doing or not doing so in
the caribbean i do have a lot of my clients who love north
(25:08):
american or you know european-based taste
foods so i still factor that in as
well i'm not like against any other food it's
just highlighting ours as well and showing them how
we do it so once i have that understanding of
what you know you like you have access to you're comfortable using then you
(25:29):
know i'll say well okay well this is how we can do it i do rely on the balance
plate method because i think it's just visually easy for someone especially
someone who's busy to look and say well am i getting Adding,
you know, a number of food groups on my plate.
Is it relatively balanced? And it's a really good nutrition tool for teaching.
Yeah, sure. It's really practical. I use that, but I have modified it as well.
(25:52):
Like if it's a one-pot dish that we are going to use half and half instead of the quarter and half.
You factor it in that way. I take lots of pictures of my food.
So I always have images to show of practical ways that I would have incorporated
different foods in that way as well.
So you find that I just try to meet my clients where they're at,
(26:13):
instead of just have a very standard way that I would stay well-dressed, what do you need to do?
So once I know what they like, then I am just able to make recommendations accordingly,
you know, have certain recipes.
I'm not the best at recipes, I need to do more. But, you know,
just being able to make suggestions with ways that they can include more of
(26:35):
the foods that are accessible to us here.
Without breaking the back. Yeah. Well, you're kind of making me wonder,
even with all of the meal planning softwares that are out there,
I wonder if there is a deficit.
Some of the things that are incorporated that you would want to include in your conversations.
(26:55):
It is because I still do my meal plans manually.
I would love to subscribe to one of the meal planning services,
but they don't have the foods.
It's not going to be representative. So it's going to work completely against
what I would want to do with my clients. So I'm like, maybe I need to build my own.
But maybe there's a challenge.
(27:17):
There's a challenge out there for sure. Yeah, for sure. There's a challenge.
Yeah. So that's one of the challenges that I would face as well is that it's
not as easy to be like, oh, let me subscribe to certain services that exist
and have my clients, you know, on those platforms because it's not culturally
representative. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. And I saw that on your, I think it was on your Instagram.
(27:38):
I noticed that you were kind of taking different foods and breaking down the
nutritional properties as well.
So helping to educate people about the nutritional value of foods that,
you know, maybe they weren't sure about,
you know, whether to include or maybe they thought they weren't nutritious or
(27:58):
like, what are some of those misconceptions that you're coming across day to day?
Day when you're talking with yeah but i think one thing that another really
good observation thank you yeah i have a goal of i want like my blog to become
a library of online nutrition information related to some of our foods because
(28:21):
what i would have like my clients say to me is that.
I've been searching the internet and i'm trying to figure out how to eat healthier
but i get a list of all of these foreign foods and i'm like and they're trying
to figure out well, what is the equivalent of those locally, like.
What, you know, okay, so there are berries and they say that I need to eat berries,
but we don't have the same access to berries.
(28:42):
So then what can I use locally instead of berries to get, you know,
the same or similar benefit? Right.
So those are some of the questions that they would have. And so I've made it
my mission to be like, okay, let me, even some of the less popular fruits or
foods, let me see how much digging can I dig and what information can I find?
(29:04):
Just to you know make sure that it's accessible so
if they're like some seasonal fruits that we have but
the seasons are very short and the research is
very limited but you know you're like oh yes it's a
fruit so it must be healthy but we're like don't really know all
the time what makes it healthy like what does the nutrition that's found in
there so i've been working on some of those less popular foods as well to you
(29:27):
know bring the research forth in easily digestible way that we can just understand
what we have here and how it can work for us.
And I know here in the U.S., we have the USDA, the Food Composition Database.
Do you all have anything similar to that?
Yeah. We do not. So what I do is I use Food Data Central because Food Data Central
(29:52):
has a really broad database.
I'm able to find most, not all, but most of my foods on there.
Very nice. And then I would use PubMed for like the scientific research and
see what research is ongoing or what has been done.
Those are like my two main platforms that I'm going to use to get my information
that I'm putting out there.
(30:13):
Right. Because sometimes you see a lot of information, but it's unvalidated.
It's like you're not sure where that information came from.
So I try to stick to those sources, resources for that reliable information.
But Food Data Central is really good. It has a lot of information, I must say.
Yeah. I enjoy it. Yeah. Well, that's really fabulous that you've been able to
(30:34):
find some of what you're needing there so you can then communicate it.
Because you know, most people don't think of, oh, I'm going to go to Food Data
Central, right? It's very technical.
It's very technical. Thank you. It's very technical. Yeah, not fun bedtime reading.
So yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome you've been able to harness that. Yeah.
And you're reminding me of the work that's been done around the traditional
(30:56):
Nordic diet, a similar set of parallels where I think like the Mediterranean
diet is so often talked about and talked about and talked about.
But in the Nordic countries, they don't have access to some of those similar foods. So I know.
So it kind of sounds like you're trying to do something similar.
You're thinking, where would I find these foods that have enough of the same
(31:22):
or similar properties that could then result in similar health benefits from consumption?
Yeah. And you're trying to kind of build out those frameworks for people,
which you've got your work cut out for you.
I do. I really do. You sure do. yeah i do
so i do have as you mentioned the mediterranean diet
so i have created a resource for my clients that i
(31:43):
call the caribbean mediterranean diet where i try to substitute you know looking
at the active components of some of the foods particularly like olive oil the
main active you know fatty acid in there that's given all this it will be the
oleic acid which we find and avocados as well,
which is more accessible here than olives or olive oils.
(32:04):
So just trying to find the comparable exchanges so that I can still use something
that's evidence-based and has so much research and find an equivalent for it
that can likely garner the same results or for the same results without trying
to recreate the wheel in that sense.
(32:24):
And leaning on the evidence base that already exists.
Yes. So for others who are listening to our conversation,
who are working with individuals who have food traditions that are different
than their own, what recommendations do you have for them?
(32:44):
How can they develop a little more awareness and more skills around the culinary
piece, the food composition, how to select foods that they're just not familiar with?
I think it's important to have very open dialogue.
I know that we're seen as the nutrition experts, and that means that maybe someone
(33:05):
is going to come with the expectation that we know it all, but we do.
So just being very honest, like, okay, I may have an idea, but your culture
is not my culture, and I would love to learn more.
Can you tell me, how do you prepare this dish? What's the name?
What are some of the ingredients?
What are the cooking methods? So that you have more open dialogue with your
patients, with your clients.
(33:27):
And they'll be very i'm sure most times
they're very willing to share you know what our process looks
like and then it helps you know from your nutritional mind really
think about okay food groups this that the other and really
put it together and understand instead of shying
away from something that you don't understand and then having that disconnect
(33:47):
with your patient or with your client and then just not being able to really
get through to them because you're speaking a different food language as I like
to say but don't be afraid to ask questions even for me sometimes I work with clients of East Indian,
Indo Trinidadian as we call them and there are some things that I know we're
(34:08):
not because we have those cross cultures but then there's still certain parts
of the culture that I don't fully understand because it's not my immediate culture
yeah so I would ask okay so what is this how is it used how do you use it in
particular so that I have a create an understanding.
I'm not going off of an assumption because of their ethnicity.
But I'm allowing this individual to really teach me what they do.
(34:31):
And then I can make recommendations on there. And then what I like to do with
them too is ask, is this something I can, is this feasible for you? So I do recommendations,
reflective listening i would have you know
like motivational interviewing and having them help me build out
their plans as well so i allow them
the opportunity to say well oh well maybe i won't do this way i'll do
(34:52):
this way so maybe i won't have oiled planting but i'll
have baked planting like just having them be an active part of that process
as well so that it's not you just trying to tell them to do something that may
be very unfamiliar but you can get to a common place yeah i feel like like making
changes to what you're eating can be overwhelming and stressful enough.
(35:13):
So then if you introduce this other element of more cost and you can't find
the things and you don't know how to cook them and you don't know what they taste like, right?
It's like the more layers you add on, the more barriers there are for someone.
So what a beautiful set of recommendations that you've given for listening and
anyway, what can we work with that you're okay with?
It's really a beautiful Yeah, beautiful thing. Well, this has been such a lovely conversation.
(35:38):
Is there anything else that you'd like to mention? I would love to mention,
so I know before we got into this recording, we had a conversation and you said
that when you got into integrative and functional nutrition,
you were like, oh, this is what you thought you were going to learn at school.
Me too, right? Right. I'm like, I'm going to learn how to use herbs and spices to heal people.
(35:59):
And I'm like, this is not what I learned. Like, where is this information? Right. Yeah.
So I had a similar expectation for nutrition school that really didn't meet that mark.
But in the Caribbean, we have what's called like bush medicine.
And I guess it's the traditional equivalent to integrated and functional nutrition.
And it's something that I continue to learn so much more about just from an
(36:23):
evidence-based perspective of how do we incorporate some of these elements.
Food some of these herbs in a way that supportive are
not harmful because we know when it comes to herbs sometimes it
just things aren't measured there aren't enough standards and
regulations around those but I was really excited
to get into my integrative functional nutrition certificate and I probably need
(36:45):
to do a more advanced version just to dive deeper into this area as well but
it's very fascinating the impact that nutrition has on the body yeah and that
whole food is medicine paradigm.
I mean, the way that I think of it is how can we use food to positively shift physiology?
(37:06):
And I think that's what we as dietitians, that's what we're all about, right?
We wanted to be able to learn how to use food to really nourish.
And certainly that does mean that when someone's struggling with their health,
how can you incorporate different ways of eating to actually help solve their
problem, right? So to me, it's common sense, right?
(37:26):
This right so so i'm
so grateful for that emphasis and for the formal training right
that we have available to us so yeah yeah
i feel like we never know at all that's no doubt about no we don't always learn
i mean there's always a new trend right there's always something to stay on
top of yeah absolutely anything else in closing amber i'm just really honored
(37:50):
to be on this podcast Cass. I'm really excited about it.
Thank you for the opportunity to really highlight the work that I'm doing and,
you know, just spreading a message of that cultural awareness within the field of nutrition,
because we will, as dietitians, continue to engage with persons who are from
cultures different than our own and being able to really support persons and
(38:15):
just meet them where they're at.
So I appreciate that very much. Good. All right. Tell people where they can find you.
You yes you can find me i have a website as
sarah said it's so fantastic thank you but my
website is the cultural dietitian.com and you can find me on instagram and facebook
and tiktok at the cultural dietitian yeah those are my main my main areas facebook
(38:40):
instagram and i hop on tiktok at time excellent amber's got some beautiful branding
going on so check it out for some inspiration.
All right, Amber, thank you so much again, wishing you well,
good luck with all that you're up to.
And yeah, we'll look forward to staying connected with you.
Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. You're so welcome.
(39:04):
Music.
Welcome to the Integrative Ideas in Nutrition podcast.
This podcast is produced by the Committee of Inclusion, Diversity.
Music.
Equity, and Access through the Dietitians in Integrative and Functional Medicine
Practice Group with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Join us to explore a range of whole food therapies and mind-body modalities
(00:25):
within different settings and cultures and to celebrate the ways that our diversity
in practice and perspective makes us stronger.
Please keep in mind that the information, opinions, and recommendations presented
in this podcast are for general information only.
I am Sarah Thompson-Fajera, Registered Dietitian, Integrative and Functional
(00:49):
Nutrition Certified Practitioner, and your host for this podcast.
Amber Alexis is a public health nutritionist and U.S.-trained registered dietitian
with certifications in integrative and functional nutrition and diabetes management.
She holds two Bachelor of Science degrees and graduated with her Master of Science
(01:15):
in Public Health in 2020 from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Amber has spent the past nine years in various capacities, three plus as an RD,
in the study and practice of nutrition for the management of non-communicable
diseases, and as the owner of the Cultural Dietitian Limited,
(01:36):
has offered virtual client services,
consultancies to organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization,
and freelance writing and recipe development for companies such as Healthline
Nutrition and Medical News Today.
When she's not writing, creating content, presenting, or consulting with clients,
(01:57):
she enjoys travel, quality family time,
and adventurous outdoor activities throughout her twin-aisle home of Trinidad
and Tobago with her husband and two children.
Trend. So yay, Amber.
We are so excited to dive into this conversation together, aren't we?
(02:20):
This will be a lot of fun. Thank you.
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm excited.
Yeah. Okay. So we just want to start right from the beginning.
I know we've covered some of the
highlights in your bio, but what has this journey of yours looked like?
We want to really get the insider's view, developing into the dietitian who
(02:41):
you are today. Thank you.
Well, I am from Trinidad and Tobago, and I still reside in Trinidad and Tobago.
Hence, in my bio, it said U.S.
Trained, right? I'm not from the U.S. I don't live there.
But I would have begun my nutrition career with my first Bachelor of Science degree.
(03:01):
I was admitted to the university. I was going to study biology and agribusiness,
agriculture, agricultural business.
And then I always had this interest, but I didn't have that exposure to nutrition before.
So I was like, okay, I like food. I was an athlete.
I love to eat. But I just didn't know, you know, at one point I wanted to get into medicine.
(03:23):
And I'm like, if I get into medicine, I want to do something with food.
I don't really like the medical, you know, pharmaceutical aspects of it.
And then at career counseling at the university, when I told the advisor my
interest, she was like, you know, I think you're going to really like this course
or this major. And it was nutritional sciences.
(03:44):
So I'm like, yes, this is what I've been looking for all of my life. Like, this is it.
So I immediately dropped my agriculture major, agriculture business major and
took up nutritional sciences.
So I pursued two majors, a double major, biology and nutritional sciences.
Still learning so much more about the field. So I'm like, oh,
(04:05):
well, I don't know what's the difference between a nutritionist and a dietitian.
I'm just like going to become a nutritionist and I'll be able to do what I need to do then.
Completed my degree, I started working on a research project for food security
or food insecurity within the Caribbean.
And then later on, I went into the clinical setting as a dietetic technician.
(04:26):
And in doing so, working along with the dietitians, you know,
seeing and screening patients, inpatients, outpatients.
And like, you know, I really like speaking with patients. Like,
I love education. education.
Although the hospital is not the best for education, but I really love the little
snippets that you have with the patients and being able to interact with them.
So I'm like, you know what, maybe I need to go back to school and become a dietitian.
(04:51):
So I went to a different university, pursued nutrition and dietetics.
I got some exemptions. I didn't have to do the full degree over because there
would have been some commonalities between the two.
And that degree, that university gave me the exposure to be able to go to different Caribbean islands.
So while I'm in Trinidad, I would have been able to go to both public and private institutions here.
(05:14):
I went to Grenada for a few weeks. I would have spent some time in Barbados,
all in the experience of clinical food service and community nutrition. So that was fantastic.
It also afforded me the opportunity to to apply to U.S.
Schools because the university itself does not conduct the internship but they
(05:35):
do connect us with a university in the U.S.
That does but I'm like if I'm going to the U.S. to study I need to get my master's
one time because there's no way I'm going to spend this amount of money to go
do my internship and then still have to get my master's right so yeah so I looked
at at those MSPH or MPHRD combined programs.
(05:57):
So I would have looked at Loma Linda University, University of Southern California,
Berkeley, and then Johns Hopkins.
Johns Hopkins had been my dream university. I'm like, I'm going here, I'm going to apply.
And I applied and I was like, oh my gosh. So I got through and then I came to the US in 2018, right?
Did my program. It was fantastic. But also I was in Baltimore.
(06:21):
Baltimore has a very diverse population that myself
being from the Caribbean that I was able to really resonate with
you know other immigrants who might have been Caribbean or you know of different
cultures because in Trinidad we have we call it a multinational state so we
have basis of African influence Indian influence we have a very mixed fusion
(06:43):
style of food food and food culture.
So I'm able to connect on various sides when you think about cultural food ways.
It really spans a wide range.
So going through my internship, seeing some of the challenges that some of the
patients were having, understanding the cultural competency,
the ways that the dietitians would have approached it.
(07:04):
But it also became clear to me that.
Our culture our food cultures really weren't very
well understood and I you
know felt a little rebellious I was like why is it that when we
think about healthy eating it's always from the perspective we
have to stop eating these foods that we are familiar with
(07:24):
and we have to eat these other foods and I'm like but then
this couldn't be the only healthy food so what's
happening with you know my foods back home like where's the
nutrition and you know where's the the information for there
and it's really lacking it's it's limited compared to some of
the more popular foods that we would see North American
based and European based right so I
(07:45):
felt very passionate about that the pandemic happened and
I ended up staying in the US longer than I
planned to fortunately I had a really good uh student
visa sponsor so they kept extending my visa
so that everything was okay um but in
doing so i'm like i you know i would have sat my board exam during the pandemic
(08:07):
it was stressful but i got through with a baby and then i was like how can i
pass the time so i'm like looking at social media getting familiar with oh my gosh i didn't know.
Right i didn't use social media for that purpose and then i'm like what if i
did a blog what if i I started a blog just to pass the time while I'm waiting
(08:30):
to get repatriated to go home.
Because at the time, the borders were closed in Trinidad and Tobago.
So I couldn't simply take a plane home.
I had to go through a repatriation process.
And in waiting, I'm like, let me start just like putting some nutrition information
there, make it really simple and, you know, use my degree that I just got, right?
(08:50):
Yeah. And I started a blog. At first, I started it with my name.
So Amber Charles was my name then. I had since changed it due to marriage.
But it's not resonating. Like, I want when someone sees the name of my page
or my blog that they kind of have an idea of what it's about.
And I'm like oh balanced nutrition and then I was
(09:12):
like oh my gosh there's so many balanced nutrition things out here like I don't know
let me keep looking and then I was
like what about culture like cultural nutrition this and
I'm like oh the cultural dietitian like oh my gosh the cultural
dietitian it's like yes this is it I switch I'm
like there's nothing there it's like yes this is it because I
felt so really passionate about highlighting our
(09:34):
Caribbean cultural food in a way
that lets us know it's healthy and this is the way that we can use it you know
to support our health goals in various ways and that's how the cultural dietitian
was born out of the pandemic by the time i was repatriated and i returned to trinidad in 2021,
(09:56):
healthline reached out to me one of the editors reached out to me she saw my
blog and liked my writing and invited me to write for healthline and i did that
for for a little over two years.
Nice. So that's from beginning to where I am now. Where you are now.
What that enabled me to do, because during the pandemic, schools were closed, daycares were closed.
(10:17):
So when I returned home, although I initially imagined getting into that hospital or clinical setting,
I needed to be home with my son. So my husband wakes, he leaves for weeks and
he's going to come back like a month or two months later.
So we were like, we need some stability in our family.
And writing from home, writing remotely afforded me that opportunity to stay
(10:39):
at home, be present for my son and still earn an income.
And then it led into referrals for, you know, persons who want to,
you know, they have different goals, whatever the goals may have been.
I'm like, okay, I started off small, like you know little general health eating
clients and then I eventually worked my way up and we are on to three years
now going into my fourth year of private practice remotely.
(11:06):
Thank you and it's
scary but fantastic yeah and what a beautiful
example of seeing a need being
open to the possibilities and it seems like once you
thought of that name it just settled with
with you you just knew you just knew this
is it this is how I feel this feels really yeah this
(11:26):
is it yeah and how are you yourself introduced to
food and cooking when did that become a really meaningful part of of your your
lived experience yeah I would say from pretty young because my mom was always
cooking and she would take me to the market like what we call or what you would
(11:49):
call for the farmers market.
We just used to call it the market and the supermarket was like the grocery store, right?
So she would take me to the market and she would teach me how to shop,
like the lingo, what you're looking for.
So I had that early exposure, I would say like, you know, somewhere around nine or 10 years old.
I should have started taking me to the market with her to learn.
(12:12):
So I had that experience and then cooking at home, like we always had to help.
My mom, when I was five, she suffered a stroke.
So she became disabled as a result she never
had a full recovery from it and so we became like her right hand so anytime
she needed to cook we needed to be there to we would have been like the sous
chefs prepping everything for her so we would have been in the kitchen you know
(12:36):
prepping and cutting things up and then she'll be like come and see what i'm
doing and come and see how i'm cooking.
Right so i had that really early exposure in terms of
cooking or seeing certain foods prepared
understanding where the foods are coming from we had
experiences like my uncle used to live countryside so
we would go visit him and like pick fruits from on
(12:57):
the trees i loved going to says going to visit him because
he had so many fruit trees and you will just
be able to pick it off the tree and eat it fresh and that was fantastic so
i had that early exposure i just didn't have the knowledge that
you know i i felt like there must
be something more to food but i i didn't know until much later
in life right the actual impact that food
(13:19):
can have but cooking like every sunday
was a you know a massive meal so
we always had all these different foods and it was a very
full heavy meal we call it sunday lunch traditional sunday
lunch so at least once a week i would
have been in the kitchen with my mom experiencing that what
kind of fruit was it on those trees
(13:41):
oh my gosh so covers yeah then
it would have like what we call pomerak or i think it's like
star apple in some places we call it star apple
star or rose apple and then mangoes and cherries and he had this we call it
five finger but it's going to a starfruit as well or carambola yeah so those
(14:06):
yeah love and guava is like my favorite.
And did you ever have a good guava the whole time you were in the U.S.? I have to know.
You know, I did. You did? I was like, yeah.
So there are Caribbean stores there that you can shop and get food items. But Walmart.
(14:27):
Was it Walmart? I think they have a grocery section. They do.
They do. And they had guavas. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. And we bought. Yeah, so they do.
And I was like, this is pretty good. So yeah, I didn't have a good one. You got lucky.
All right. All right. All right. So when you reflect on Caribbean foodways as
(14:51):
a whole, you know, like your own experience.
Growing up, learning about these foods at the market and experiencing these
ways of eating, what would you define as the characteristics of traditional Caribbean foodways?
And you know i want to talk to you about some of the dishes and flavors and
things that that really stand out to you one of
(15:13):
the characteristics will definitely be peas and beans we
do a lot of those like what we call ground provisions
or tubers so we call it dashing but
you may know it as taro castava or
yucca we have eddles or i believe it
may be called malanga in some places so those
are like staples to our
(15:36):
diet rice and peas are staples to
our you know to our diets a lot of flour based products so rotis or flatbreads
fried or roasted or baked are really staples so what you had traditionally we
used to have a lot of family meals and that particular traditional Sunday lunch.
(15:57):
It has since changed, you know, with the growth of eating out and certain restaurants
or franchises that are in our communities now,
but we would have that Sunday lunch and sit and eat together and have conversations
over food more than we would, you know, sit and eat in front of a television.
That used to be a really traditional way of connecting as a family.
(16:20):
At least in my family, we would sit for lunch,
sit and, you know, someone will say a prayer and we'd open and then we would
sit and eat and have conversation at least once per week we sit and have that
type of community isn't quite like that right now and things have changed but
that was a traditional part of it but you would find that.
(16:43):
Cooking at home is very important
right we've only really transitioned to
eating out more because of how busy our lifestyles
have become and how hectic things are and you're tired and
you're working from morning to night but cooking at
home is very you know knowing how to cook
and infuse different flavors is really important because it's
(17:06):
one of the ways that we are also we express our hospitality as
well so when someone comes to your home you
want to be able to offer them food as a
way of being accommodating and expressing love and
care and concern through food so it has always been
very important i can imagine there's a a role
of culinary nutrition too and probably how you
(17:27):
how you work with people right yes even when
you think of spices you asked about flavors earlier we love spices
not necessarily spicy food but things
and spices so we love what we
call fresh green seasoning so like cilantro cilantro
those are slightly different thyme or
(17:47):
different types of thyme and green onions we call
them syve like having those at like the like habanero I know it's very hot but
we have a version of that that we call pimento but it's not as spicy as a habanero
yeah but then we also have scotch bonnet peppers so different flavors that we like to incorporate.
(18:08):
Ginger and garlic and onion and cinnamon
turmeric like we use a lot of those in our meals to add flavor yeah so it's
an important part of when i'm speaking to my clients as well and saying well
especially if you know maybe we need to be mindful of the amount of sodium intake
for any particular reasons like okay this is how we're gonna.
(18:29):
Flavor our foods without you know losing the
palatability because you're eating healthier so these are
the strategies these are the foods that we want to you know make sure we
have at the base of our meals yeah yeah yeah
are there a couple of specific dishes or
recipes that you find yourself kind of going back to
over and over that are just really nutrient dense or
(18:50):
really significant to you or delicious delicious.
I would say we have
a meal called pillow and pillow is
a one-part dish so it's a mix of rice and
peas and it can be vegetarian so.
It can just be rice and peas with pumpkin and carrots or sweet
(19:12):
peppers if you want to add them and different seasonings or.
Hoops and spices uh you can add different meats you.
Can do chicken you can add beef i think there's.
Like two main ones that you may really add if you're adding meat
but it's such a fantastic tip you
know it could be easy an easy one-part meal
to have that really adds so much nutrition
(19:33):
so much flavor and then we tend
to eat like have it with slices of avocado or
we may do like a cabbage and carrot coleslaw to
go along with it or just sliced cucumbers and sliced
tomatoes on the side to pair with the aloe so
i feel like it's one of those dishes that it's very
familiar but also allows business
(19:55):
the opportunity to add more nutrition when you think of
adding more fruits vegetables to go along with
it because it's culturally paired with a
fruit or vegetable accordingly right so
it's a really good opportunity to have those types of discussions
with clients yeah so anything peas based
so we have like um roti and with
(20:18):
the roti we'd use like chickpeas we call it chana
and that's typically typically going to
be curried so that's one another pea based
one that we have would be split peas and we
make dal from it but the way that we make dal is
different to the traditional indian dal you know
so different different peas that we use different preparation but we
(20:38):
have dhal um that's usually you know
paired with rice and probably be fish and then
stew lentils will be another one as well so you find out a lot of pea based.
And there are a lot of vegetarian options if you need it right or you can add
the meat and you need it as well so i find that the pea based options and then
(20:59):
like the one One-pot options are really good for highlighting nutrition.
And because we tend to add so many vegetables, so like when we're cooking the
stew peas, when we're cooking the pillow, you're adding pumpkin,
you're adding carrots, you're adding maybe sweet peppers or bell peppers,
you know, different things that you add.
So you may not always see that it's paired with like perfect side up.
(21:23):
Side dish of like a salad but we do incorporate that
nutrition throughout the dish itself right right
right right and so if you if you were to make a
dal dish is it is it heavily turmeric based
what kind of spices do you use right some people use turmeric some do not my
dog is barking but it will be so we have different types of curries we may have
(21:47):
like a general masala curry and then there's a curry that you may call goat
or duck curry and then there's a general.
Curry powder so we particularly my husband is
very adamant about having all of these different curries in the
past jira or ground cumin that adds
you know a lot of flavor that we use a
technique called chunke where you would put
(22:10):
the garlic with the ground cumin in a
spoon or container of oil and then
you like basically essentially fry that and then
you add that to your peas dish like the
dal and it adds a whole element
a new layer of flavor as well right so
yes okay so sometimes turmeric is added yeah
(22:31):
yeah so turmeric may be added
or it may not it really is just a personal preference yeah
oh i love hearing about that it's going to bloom the
spices before you put them in and it probably just adds that depth
probably of flavor yeah that sounds so
good what about is there a dessert or something
sweet something sweet that something kind of works for
(22:52):
your patient so what we have i'll say traditionally and then other three things
that i do so traditionally we have what's called a poon and poon is really it's
made from different types of brown provisions or tubers most commonly we like
cassava or yucca and it's.
Made into this nice smoothie you can think of it almost like a pudding or something
(23:15):
a little bit more full like a soft dessert that is very sweet as well so some
people tend to like that sweet,
provision-based dessert but i tend to go with my fruit anytime i'm like you
have a sweet tube let's talk about fruit so one that we may be familiar with
in the nutrition world but it's It's also very cultural with prunes and peanut butter.
(23:38):
So that, especially among the Adventist community, because my husband grew up
being Seventh-day Adventist, and he was like, any event that you go to,
if it's the wedding, if it's any particular event, you're going to have prunes and peanut butter.
I've never heard that before. Yes. Wow.
So that is one that dates back into our older days.
(24:00):
For my clients you know I just go on the peanut butter I'm like heavy on the
nut butter so it's like oh let's do some apple nut butters or bananas and nut
butters or the prunes or the beets,
as well just to add more nutrition but still appeal
to that sweet taste yeah okay so when you're working with your clients or patients
how are you plugging some of these ideas into an approach for them because I
(24:26):
know you focus really heavily on of course the cultural dietitian so So,
you know, really culturally informed eating.
So what does your process look like? How have you, you know,
kind of developed your ability to incorporate some of these foods into your counseling?
Yeah. So I think it's important for me to...
In my assessment and my diet history of my clients really
(24:47):
understand what foods they like so i tend to
do food frequency questionnaires with them yeah just for
the purpose of understanding what they regularly eat and
what they would like and then figure out well how
do we make the necessary adjustments depending on
what they go for right now what they're doing or not doing so in
the caribbean i do have a lot of my clients who love north
(25:08):
american or you know european-based taste
foods so i still factor that in as
well i'm not like against any other food it's
just highlighting ours as well and showing them how
we do it so once i have that understanding of
what you know you like you have access to you're comfortable using then you
(25:29):
know i'll say well okay well this is how we can do it i do rely on the balance
plate method because i think it's just visually easy for someone especially
someone who's busy to look and say well am i getting Adding,
you know, a number of food groups on my plate.
Is it relatively balanced? And it's a really good nutrition tool for teaching.
Yeah, sure. It's really practical. I use that, but I have modified it as well.
(25:52):
Like if it's a one-pot dish that we are going to use half and half instead of the quarter and half.
You factor it in that way. I take lots of pictures of my food.
So I always have images to show of practical ways that I would have incorporated
different foods in that way as well.
So you find that I just try to meet my clients where they're at,
(26:13):
instead of just have a very standard way that I would stay well-dressed, what do you need to do?
So once I know what they like, then I am just able to make recommendations accordingly,
you know, have certain recipes.
I'm not the best at recipes, I need to do more. But, you know,
just being able to make suggestions with ways that they can include more of
(26:35):
the foods that are accessible to us here.
Without breaking the back. Yeah. Well, you're kind of making me wonder,
even with all of the meal planning softwares that are out there,
I wonder if there is a deficit.
Some of the things that are incorporated that you would want to include in your conversations.
(26:55):
It is because I still do my meal plans manually.
I would love to subscribe to one of the meal planning services,
but they don't have the foods.
It's not going to be representative. So it's going to work completely against
what I would want to do with my clients. So I'm like, maybe I need to build my own.
But maybe there's a challenge.
(27:17):
There's a challenge out there for sure. Yeah, for sure. There's a challenge.
Yeah. So that's one of the challenges that I would face as well is that it's
not as easy to be like, oh, let me subscribe to certain services that exist
and have my clients, you know, on those platforms because it's not culturally
representative. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. And I saw that on your, I think it was on your Instagram.
(27:38):
I noticed that you were kind of taking different foods and breaking down the
nutritional properties as well.
So helping to educate people about the nutritional value of foods that,
you know, maybe they weren't sure about,
you know, whether to include or maybe they thought they weren't nutritious or
(27:58):
like, what are some of those misconceptions that you're coming across day to day?
Day when you're talking with yeah but i think one thing that another really
good observation thank you yeah i have a goal of i want like my blog to become
a library of online nutrition information related to some of our foods because
(28:21):
what i would have like my clients say to me is that.
I've been searching the internet and i'm trying to figure out how to eat healthier
but i get a list of all of these foreign foods and i'm like and they're trying
to figure out well, what is the equivalent of those locally, like.
What, you know, okay, so there are berries and they say that I need to eat berries,
but we don't have the same access to berries.
(28:42):
So then what can I use locally instead of berries to get, you know,
the same or similar benefit? Right.
So those are some of the questions that they would have. And so I've made it
my mission to be like, okay, let me, even some of the less popular fruits or
foods, let me see how much digging can I dig and what information can I find?
(29:04):
Just to you know make sure that it's accessible so
if they're like some seasonal fruits that we have but
the seasons are very short and the research is
very limited but you know you're like oh yes it's a
fruit so it must be healthy but we're like don't really know all
the time what makes it healthy like what does the nutrition that's found in
there so i've been working on some of those less popular foods as well to you
(29:27):
know bring the research forth in easily digestible way that we can just understand
what we have here and how it can work for us.
And I know here in the U.S., we have the USDA, the Food Composition Database.
Do you all have anything similar to that?
Yeah. We do not. So what I do is I use Food Data Central because Food Data Central
(29:52):
has a really broad database.
I'm able to find most, not all, but most of my foods on there.
Very nice. And then I would use PubMed for like the scientific research and
see what research is ongoing or what has been done.
Those are like my two main platforms that I'm going to use to get my information
that I'm putting out there.
(30:13):
Right. Because sometimes you see a lot of information, but it's unvalidated.
It's like you're not sure where that information came from.
So I try to stick to those sources, resources for that reliable information.
But Food Data Central is really good. It has a lot of information, I must say.
Yeah. I enjoy it. Yeah. Well, that's really fabulous that you've been able to
(30:34):
find some of what you're needing there so you can then communicate it.
Because you know, most people don't think of, oh, I'm going to go to Food Data
Central, right? It's very technical.
It's very technical. Thank you. It's very technical. Yeah, not fun bedtime reading.
So yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome you've been able to harness that. Yeah.
And you're reminding me of the work that's been done around the traditional
(30:56):
Nordic diet, a similar set of parallels where I think like the Mediterranean
diet is so often talked about and talked about and talked about.
But in the Nordic countries, they don't have access to some of those similar foods. So I know.
So it kind of sounds like you're trying to do something similar.
You're thinking, where would I find these foods that have enough of the same
(31:22):
or similar properties that could then result in similar health benefits from consumption?
Yeah. And you're trying to kind of build out those frameworks for people,
which you've got your work cut out for you.
I do. I really do. You sure do. yeah i do
so i do have as you mentioned the mediterranean diet
so i have created a resource for my clients that i
(31:43):
call the caribbean mediterranean diet where i try to substitute you know looking
at the active components of some of the foods particularly like olive oil the
main active you know fatty acid in there that's given all this it will be the
oleic acid which we find and avocados as well,
which is more accessible here than olives or olive oils.
(32:04):
So just trying to find the comparable exchanges so that I can still use something
that's evidence-based and has so much research and find an equivalent for it
that can likely garner the same results or for the same results without trying
to recreate the wheel in that sense.
(32:24):
And leaning on the evidence base that already exists.
Yes. So for others who are listening to our conversation,
who are working with individuals who have food traditions that are different
than their own, what recommendations do you have for them?
(32:44):
How can they develop a little more awareness and more skills around the culinary
piece, the food composition, how to select foods that they're just not familiar with?
I think it's important to have very open dialogue.
I know that we're seen as the nutrition experts, and that means that maybe someone
(33:05):
is going to come with the expectation that we know it all, but we do.
So just being very honest, like, okay, I may have an idea, but your culture
is not my culture, and I would love to learn more.
Can you tell me, how do you prepare this dish? What's the name?
What are some of the ingredients?
What are the cooking methods? So that you have more open dialogue with your
patients, with your clients.
(33:27):
And they'll be very i'm sure most times
they're very willing to share you know what our process looks
like and then it helps you know from your nutritional mind really
think about okay food groups this that the other and really
put it together and understand instead of shying
away from something that you don't understand and then having that disconnect
(33:47):
with your patient or with your client and then just not being able to really
get through to them because you're speaking a different food language as I like
to say but don't be afraid to ask questions even for me sometimes I work with clients of East Indian,
Indo Trinidadian as we call them and there are some things that I know we're
(34:08):
not because we have those cross cultures but then there's still certain parts
of the culture that I don't fully understand because it's not my immediate culture
yeah so I would ask okay so what is this how is it used how do you use it in
particular so that I have a create an understanding.
I'm not going off of an assumption because of their ethnicity.
But I'm allowing this individual to really teach me what they do.
(34:31):
And then I can make recommendations on there. And then what I like to do with
them too is ask, is this something I can, is this feasible for you? So I do recommendations,
reflective listening i would have you know
like motivational interviewing and having them help me build out
their plans as well so i allow them
the opportunity to say well oh well maybe i won't do this way i'll do
(34:52):
this way so maybe i won't have oiled planting but i'll
have baked planting like just having them be an active part of that process
as well so that it's not you just trying to tell them to do something that may
be very unfamiliar but you can get to a common place yeah i feel like like making
changes to what you're eating can be overwhelming and stressful enough.
(35:13):
So then if you introduce this other element of more cost and you can't find
the things and you don't know how to cook them and you don't know what they taste like, right?
It's like the more layers you add on, the more barriers there are for someone.
So what a beautiful set of recommendations that you've given for listening and
anyway, what can we work with that you're okay with?
It's really a beautiful Yeah, beautiful thing. Well, this has been such a lovely conversation.
(35:38):
Is there anything else that you'd like to mention? I would love to mention,
so I know before we got into this recording, we had a conversation and you said
that when you got into integrative and functional nutrition,
you were like, oh, this is what you thought you were going to learn at school.
Me too, right? Right. I'm like, I'm going to learn how to use herbs and spices to heal people.
(35:59):
And I'm like, this is not what I learned. Like, where is this information? Right. Yeah.
So I had a similar expectation for nutrition school that really didn't meet that mark.
But in the Caribbean, we have what's called like bush medicine.
And I guess it's the traditional equivalent to integrated and functional nutrition.
And it's something that I continue to learn so much more about just from an
(36:23):
evidence-based perspective of how do we incorporate some of these elements.
Food some of these herbs in a way that supportive are
not harmful because we know when it comes to herbs sometimes it
just things aren't measured there aren't enough standards and
regulations around those but I was really excited
to get into my integrative functional nutrition certificate and I probably need
(36:45):
to do a more advanced version just to dive deeper into this area as well but
it's very fascinating the impact that nutrition has on the body yeah and that
whole food is medicine paradigm.
I mean, the way that I think of it is how can we use food to positively shift physiology?
(37:06):
And I think that's what we as dietitians, that's what we're all about, right?
We wanted to be able to learn how to use food to really nourish.
And certainly that does mean that when someone's struggling with their health,
how can you incorporate different ways of eating to actually help solve their
problem, right? So to me, it's common sense, right?
(37:26):
This right so so i'm
so grateful for that emphasis and for the formal training right
that we have available to us so yeah yeah
i feel like we never know at all that's no doubt about no we don't always learn
i mean there's always a new trend right there's always something to stay on
top of yeah absolutely anything else in closing amber i'm just really honored
(37:50):
to be on this podcast Cass. I'm really excited about it.
Thank you for the opportunity to really highlight the work that I'm doing and,
you know, just spreading a message of that cultural awareness within the field of nutrition,
because we will, as dietitians, continue to engage with persons who are from
cultures different than our own and being able to really support persons and
(38:15):
just meet them where they're at.
So I appreciate that very much. Good. All right. Tell people where they can find you.
You yes you can find me i have a website as
sarah said it's so fantastic thank you but my
website is the cultural dietitian.com and you can find me on instagram and facebook
and tiktok at the cultural dietitian yeah those are my main my main areas facebook
(38:40):
instagram and i hop on tiktok at time excellent amber's got some beautiful branding
going on so check it out for some inspiration.
All right, Amber, thank you so much again, wishing you well,
good luck with all that you're up to.
And yeah, we'll look forward to staying connected with you.
Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. You're so welcome.
(39:04):
Music.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.