Being a nutritionist in self-media: Food and health cannot be lived up to

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Xie Lifeng Oria

PhD candidate at McGill University, Canada

Canadian registered dietitian

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Text/Tsuki

Picture/Oria

Editor/Li Wenbo

“The rich and delicate feeling of food is something that can last a lifetime. There are endless experiences. In fact, there is no fixed method for eating. It is a knowledge full of human fireworks, and it is also an impromptu performance art that is integrated with life." - Cui Daiyuan's "Taste of Beijing"

Oria followed her parents to live in Canada since she was a child, studying and working in Canada. As a senior "foodie", Oria found her ideal career and grew into an excellent registered dietitian. Now, while continuing her studies and work in Canada, she is conducting down-to-earth nutrition science popularization on domestic social media. She hopes to return to China in the future and contribute to the health of the Chinese people.

The following content is narrated by Oria herself.

Canada is a country of immigrants. I am very lucky to have been exposed to the charm of different cultures since I was a child.

For example, when I was in junior high school, my classmates all brought meals, and I would observe their eating habits. There are Indians, Africans, and Europeans in the school, and everyone has their own unique eating habits. I think it’s interesting just to see the different foods in their lunch boxes!

In addition, volunteering in the community also allowed me to come into contact with people from different countries. Their behaviors and lifestyles are all very different. I am very interested in this cultural difference. , and have been trying to explore the differences and similarities from different cultures.

China’s food culture is extensive and profound, but we can also learn from many of the essences of foreign food cultures. The differences in food culture between China and foreign countries caused by the perception of food is what I want to share with Chinese "foodies", and it is also one of the reasons why I started sharing on a public account.

For example, my latest article is about "quinoa".

The benefits of "quinoa" have been introduced by many domestic media. This is indeed a very good food. I also hope that this food can be integrated into the daily diet of Chinese people and add some different colors to our Chinese food culture.

In order to understand the story of "quinoa" more deeply, I stayed in South America for about two and a half months, living with the locals to understand the local quinoa food culture. Then I will combine the Chinese people’s eating habits and use the Chinese people’s eating habits as a basis to put forward some suggestions for improving the diet.

Drinking more hot water

is not a Chinese patent!

Diet and nutrition are not just what you eat every day, but a part of life. I spend about three months of the year exploring the world.

During the trip, I will not only look for and come into contact with types of food I have never seen before, but I will also observe the way the same food is presented in different civilizations.

For example, rice and dumplings are the two most familiar foods to us Chinese, but in fact, the way to eat rice is different in different parts of the world; dumplings are not unique to China, Europe and Italy have their own The dumplings, although using a different cooking method, are certainly familiar to Chinese people.

The different perspectives on food are also very interesting. I originally thought that "drinking more hot water" was a Chinese patent, but when I lived in Bolivia, I discovered that this is also the case in South America.

When I was sick, the locals told me that you should not drink cold water. Drinking hot water is good for your stomach and throat. China is in Asia and Bolivia is in South America. They are far apart, but they have so many similar places. This is a very strange feeling.

In addition, traveling can also trace the historical auspiciousness. For example, I once visited Turkey, the terminus of the Silk Road. From the food culture of the local people, I can feel what the entire spice market was like at that time. From Asia to Europe little by little.

Although the past history has disappeared, many "relics" have solidified them in culture, waiting for us to discover, and food culture is one of them.

In order to be a real "foodie"

I studied nutrition

I worked part-time as a nutritionist during graduate school, doing one-to-one nutrition at the time We will provide consultation and go to the community to teach children some simple nutrition knowledge. I have also been to South America as an international volunteer, teaching local women how to eat healthier in communities in South America.

In terms of nutrition, we have three main areas: clinical nutrition, community nutrition and food nutrition. I personally prefer community nutrition. That is what I am trying my best to promote and popularize. My current scientific research project also hopes to build an online education platform to help diabetic patients better change their eating habits.

In fact, my becoming a nutritionist is also related to the fact that my father suffered from type 2 diabetes when I was eighteen years old. Since I was a child, my father has been cooking all kinds of delicious food for me all day long and taking pictures of them. Very beautiful photos, which also gave me a lot of inspiration. On the one hand, I want to help my father to regulate his body better and choose nutrition. On the other hand, I also want to carry forward this "foodie spirit".

But if you don’t know what you are eating, you will not be able to be a 100% foodie, and it may even threaten your own health. In order to satisfy my goal of being a foodie, I chose to be a nutritionist, and then accidentally studied for a doctorate in nutrition.

I want to build a simpler, more interactive and more personal online platform to integrate nutrition knowledge, life knowledge and medication knowledge into the daily life of diabetic patients.

But for science itself and the popularization of science, most people stay at a relatively superficial level. For example, friends around you will simply tell you that eating fat is bad for your health. But is fat an absolute bad thing? What are the consequences of not eating fat at all? How much should we eat and what is reasonable?

In fact, they just don’t know how to use it. My purpose, including the purpose of my scientific research direction, is to promote health. I want to integrate real science into life instead of using all kinds of intimidating scientific terms. This is why the name of my official account is "A Very Down-to-earth Nutritionist". I want "science" to become a tool that you can pick up at any time.

My self-media entrepreneurship secrets

I classify the secrets of self-media entrepreneurship into three major points: teamwork, fan interaction, and continuous charging.

I just opened Weibo at the beginning and updated it intermittently for about a year and a half. Later, I felt that this was not a long-term solution and wanted to devote myself to this matter more seriously. But I didn’t understand a lot of operational knowledge, such as operating models, marketing, interacting with fans, etc. I didn’t understand it at all. Later, I found two powerful friends to help me.

Now we have become a team of four, everyone is responsible for different areas, and everyone has their own dedicated work. With the help and encouragement of the team, everyone supports each other and brainstorms, and our science popularization has become more efficient and interesting.

In addition, I have met many netizens from various directions in the past few years as a self-media, and many of them have gradually become good friends in real life.

I think the most interesting thing about doing self-media is that you can see and recognize people of different ages and backgrounds, and you can learn a lot from them. In our fan community, everyone talks about life and diet every day, which is actually a kind of learning. A lot of great ideas come from my fans, and I’m very grateful to them.

In addition, when we do science popularization, we spend most of our time doing "knowledge output." This requires us to continuously carry out "knowledge input". When the group is asked questions that I don't know how to answer, I regard it as a motivation to stimulate me to recharge.

Although self-media entrepreneurship is also entrepreneurship, it is not just as simple as making money. Strive to improve yourself and then better share your results with everyone. I think this is the greatest meaning of self-media.

The first person to eat crabs

Chinese consumers’ pursuit of healthy living continues to intensify, and consumers’ life concepts and health management behaviors are undergoing significant changes. The current situation is that nutritional needs are everywhere. The National Nutrition Plan (2017-2030) was also proposed at this time and established a long-term strategy focusing on the development of the nutrition and health industry.

In fact, starting from 2017, the China Nutrition Association has begun to establish the qualification certification of Chinese registered nutritionists, and the entire industry is slowly developing in a good direction. There are many good nutritionists in China, and overseas registered nutritionists are slowly returning to China. But no matter which country you are in, there will always be certain misunderstandings about nutritional knowledge, but the extent is different.

I am afraid that the situation faced by Chinese nutritionists is similar to that of traditional Chinese medicine, which is a field full of misunderstandings and prejudices.

For example, when I meet a stranger and introduce myself as a nutritionist, the other person’s first reaction is usually: Are you a nutritionist? Quickly make me a recipe and tell me how to lose weight.

Of course, our job is not just as simple as losing weight, and there are also big misunderstandings about losing weight alone. Many young women lose weight by skipping meals. This is not only harmful to health, but the even more frightening truth is that they cannot lose weight no matter how hungry they are.

I once answered some nutrition-related questions on Zhihu, and many people came up and questioned: Isn’t a nutritionist the kind of person you can get by just reading a book and taking a test? Can’t everyone be a part of it, can’t they just prepare meals for others?

At that time, I discovered that people not only misunderstood the scientific theories of nutrition, but also had great misunderstandings about our profession as registered dietitians. Therefore, even my own career must be included in the scope of popular science. This matter sounds a bit dumbfounding, but as the first group of people to eat crabs, these are all things I must face and overcome.

Coupled with the fact that there are so many different cuisines in Chinese food, food is really something that is engraved in the bones of the Chinese people. It is too difficult for us not to eat, but combining nutrition and food to make everyone eat healthier and happier is something that can be achieved through my efforts. My platform has also been sharing more nutritious food cooking methods with everyone.

In the future, we may expand our business into food evaluation, online classes, one-on-one nutrition consultation, etc. For me, doing self-media is the output of knowledge, and doing scientific research is part of my knowledge input. I obtained nutritional knowledge from scientific research, and then really applied it to everyone's lives, forming a virtuous circle.

For me, the relationship between doing scientific research and doing online science popularization is to take it from life and then use it in life. Eat well, treat yourself well, and know how to live. This is the kingly way.