This February we officially announced my collaboration with Princeton Nassau Pediatric Group here in Princeton, New Jersey. The venture is one that started to take shape this past October and I am beyond thrilled to have now been consistently seeing patients twice a week.
My desire to work in a pediatric setting has been long before this year. Ever since attending University of Michigan's School of Public Health I have believed in the power of collaboration between physicians and dietitians. And having the opportunity to do nutrition education with children at Michigan really opened my eyes to the importance of supporting and helping and educating our future generations.
The reality is, we are in the midst of a chronic disease epidemic with scary incidence rates. Diabetes has increased 40% in the last 5 decades and over 75% of our health care efforts and costs are linked to chronic disease. What scares me even more than those stats are that one third of today's children ages 10 - 17 are classified overweight / obese, over 50% of our food is processed, and chronic illness is starting to become a new normal for children.
I deeply believe in the power of food to both treat and/or reverse disease. And I don't believe that diet alone is always the answer. I feel so fortunate to live in a time where we can rely on good doctors and strong effective medicine. But I very much think that integration between physician care and integrative, functional nutritional therapy, can really shape our long term health and longevity.
How powerful it is to be able to work with a young, impressionable group, educating them on how food functions in our bodies, helping them to overcome already developed food struggles and fears, and guiding them towards a relationship with food that will hopefully lead them to a long healthful live preventative of later onset disease, such as diabetes or heart disease.
The time is now to support on children on how to lead long, healthy lives and I am so honored - so lucky - to be able to be part of this education initiative here in Princeton.
[If you are looking for a consult or more information please contact me kim.d.mcdevitt@gmail.com or 443-310-4456]