College of Arts and Sciences professor Anastasia Snelling worked as a dietician in a clinical setting where the patients were motivated to improve their diets because they were seriously ill; her work now focuses on preventing people from getting ill in the first place.
Her work did not make a huge impact because the patients were trying to fix problems that were already present, she said. Good nutrition is more effective in preventing disease and long-term problems and less effective when fighting preexisting problems.
"It would be better if we could get them where they live," Snelling said. It would be better before the hospital bed."
Snelling, who has a doctorate and is a registered dietician, works at AU as a professor in CAS's Department of Health and Fitness and as a researcher.
Her research focuses on how to make it easier for people to make healthy and nutritious choices to avoid illnesses later in life, by promoting policies that create a healthier environment, she said.
To best create an environment where people in all walks of life can make healthy choices involves the government including health promotion and disease prevention in the health care system, Snelling said.
"Chronic disease is making the health care industry go bankrupt," she said.
Promoting more nutritious food alternatives could help reduce health care costs in the long run, Snelling said.
"Nutrition is a fairly young science," she said.
Nutritionists are discovering that real foods in their most natural state are healthier than foods that have been processed and fortified with vitamins.
People tend to think that they can replace eating whole grains and vegetables in their most natural form with a supplement or fortified food, which is a real big misperception, Snelling said.
This does not mean that daily vitamins and other supplements should never be used, she said.
"There is a value to dietary supplements, but they should be taken for a case-by-case basis," Snelling said.
Some individuals might need supplements if they have a specific deficiency, due to genetics or diet, she said.
Making healthier choices would also be easier if there was more regulation regarding the source of our food, Snelling said.
The recent salmonella scare that has resulted in the voluntarily recall of more than 2,100 peanut products is not surprising, she said.
"It was just a matter of time before some sort of food-safety mishap happened," Snelling said.
The amount of regulation about food safety needs to increase, she said.
"We don't know enough about the source of our food," Snelling said.
She said that if people who want to be healthier, they should recognize that small changes really make a difference.
"Walk 15 extra minutes a day, or instead of eating dessert at both lunch and dinner, eat it only at dinner," she said.
Making small choices can really affect health in the long-run, Snelling said.
"Your health is a savings account," she said. Putting in a small investment now, can lead to significant returns later.
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