Beth Kitchin is a registered dietician nutritionist and assistant professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. That means she knows more than enough about healthy eating and creating nutritional plans to fit a person’s lifestyle. When she’s not teaching at UAB, you can catch her on her Tuesday morning TV segment for Good Day Alabama or on her blog uabnutritiontrends.blogspot.com. Here, Beth shares some tips for how you can stick to your healthy eating goals this year.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into nutrition science.
I became interested in nutrition back in high school when I got into distance running and joined the track and cross country teams. I also started running in longer road races during the off-season. I changed my eating habits and learned how to carbo-load for long races. I became fascinated with sports nutrition, and that led me to study nutrition in college. I love the integrative science of it all—how biochemistry, physiology, food chemistry, sociology, and psychology all come together. I became a registered dietitian and really focused on medical nutrition therapy. I got my Ph.D. in Health Education and Promotion because by that point (late in my career), I had come to see how behavioral medicine helps people achieve their health goals.
What question do you get asked the most in regards to nutrition?
I get a lot of varied questions, but the one I get a lot is: What’s the best diet? The answer to that is a diet that can help you meet your health needs and that you enjoy and can stick with. I’m not a fan of pre-fab diet plans. Everyone is unique. I see my job as a dietitian as helping people make changes that meet their physical and psychological needs. Sometimes that means learning to like healthy foods that you may not be used to eating. It also means learning to eat some of the foods you love less frequently and in smaller portions.
What are three tips you can offer for eating healthy in the new year?
- Avoid extremes. Any diet that cuts out whole categories of foods or demonizes them is unlikely to make you happy or healthy, unless you have a medical diagnosis like celiac disease or a food allergy. These diets are really attractive at this time of the year, but they’re kind of like a great first date that ends in a sad breakup after the infatuation wears off. Rigid diets that have strict rules tend to make people miserable and often lead to feelings of failure and giving up on healthy eating.
- Commit to being fit. I know this is not an eating tip, but good behaviors tend to cluster. Physical activity is so integral to your health, and when you start moving more, you may find that you feel more motivated to eat healthier foods.
- Set goals the right way. Learning how to set goals that are reasonable and attainable can really help you increase your motivation. For instance, if you drink sweet tea every day, you may want to set a goal of mixing half sweet tea with half unsweet.
What’s your go-to healthy meal or snack?
When I’m grabbing a quick snack, it is often peanuts, peanut butter, and fruit. I also love pistachios, but they’re expensive—especially the shelled ones that I want—so I don’t buy them all the time. Cheese also is a great snack because it really satisfies my physical and psychological hunger.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
My biggest guilty pleasure is clicking through celebrity fashion slideshows. But I’m guessing you mean food. I don’t pair guilt with food—that is a sad combination. I love food—all of it. I also love being healthy and feeling good, so that means eating more of the healthy stuff and not as much of the less healthy stuff. One of my biggest food pleasures is my daily morning mocha: I put a packet of hot chocolate mix in my travel mug and then put my hazelnut coffee in it instead of hot water. It makes me happy and wakes me up. Every day I eat chocolate—whether it’s a mini peppermint patty after lunch (I keep them in my office) or a piece of dark chocolate. I’m lucky because I get satisfied with sweets quickly. A few bites of chocolate cake or a small chocolate chip cookie are usually all I need to satisfy my sweet tooth.
This story appears in Birmingham magazine’s January 2019 issue. Subscribe today!
