The Legal Environment

The Legal Environment is very important to our profession of Dietetics. As Paula explained in class, it "is important for governing in groups or society, and providing them with the guidelines which determine how they will operate within the society." I think that people need rules and guidelines to keep them in check. However, as we discussed in class, people lose site as to why the rules were put in place. For instance, in the new reality TV show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, the foods that our children are getting at their schools are not healthy foods. The guidelines that were put in place originally with the Child Nutrition Act, were not implemented so that our children would be fed almost all processed foods. Over the years, the budget for foods at schools got tighter and children's food preferences changed-included more processed, convenient food items with high calorie densisty, and less produce, and nutrient dense foods. This change in children's food preferences is, in part, due to the changes in lifestyle and food intake of their families. Because children's food preferences have changed, I believe they don't like the taste of fresh or unprocessed foods. Now, we are in a situation where congress is willing to budget more money, but it will be a HUGE challenge to change the food preferences of the kids. The kids on this show could not even identify a fresh tomato!

Healthcare reform will also have a big impact on our profession. We hope that it will present us with the opportunity to provide more preventative services rather than nutrition therapy for a disease state. It will be interesting to see what takes place.

Without some of the state and federal funded programs, such as WIC, there would not be an opportunity to help those in need. I feel the government has our best intentions at heart, but not always the means to give us everything we need. And sometimes, I feel that they lose site of why they implemented the programs in the first place. Maybe I am just naive, but I still have faith in our political system...at least for now.

How we can impact our legal environment at a local level is by seeking out opportunities to share our knowledge and worth. Also, I have found that the administrators at my facility are some of my biggest advocates. It they feel you are invaluable, then they will tell the community so. At a state and federal level, one of the best ways to impact the legal environment is to contact your state representative--writing letters, making phone calls. Attending public policy workshop is one of the best things that we can do for our profession.

Getting involved in the legal environment is an idea that overwhelms me and rather scares me. I feel that there is so much that I need to learn within politics and the legal environment. This class has definitely opened my eyes to the importance of such issues, however. Life brings us many overwhelming situations and I do not want to rely on other Dietitians to do my dirty work. I need to "suck it up" and get involved. Public policy should be every Dietitian's job, mine included.