Coveney John, Booth Sue (eds.) Critical Dietetics and Critical Nutrition Studies

Springer, 2019. — 182 p. — ISBN 978-3-030-03113-8.It takes real bravery for a profession to turn inwards and critically examine aspects of professional training and practice. Speaking on bravery, Buddhist nun Pema Chodron notes we should “lean into the sharp points and fully experience them. The essence of bravery is being without deception”. So, what then are the sharp points for contemporary dietetics? Our contributing authors explore the rough edges and offer a range of unf l inching perspectives on how critical dietetics can be used to ask important and, at times, uncomfortable questions. It is only by questioning and ref l ecting that we can advance and ensure the practice of dietetics remains relevant.
This unique book brings together an edited collection of chapters exploring the critical dietetics landscape, what it looks like, feels like and smells like in real life.
Without doubt, the chapters in this book foreshadow authentic, and socially just rewards may come from exploring new ways of being in the profession.
The book’s opening chapter examines the genesis of the critical dietetics move-ment by Jacqui Gingras and Jennifer Brady. The chapter traces the events and circumstances of the movement’s origins in Canada. Practitioner insights and early impacts from the fl edgling movement are provided along with a future vision. In Chap. 2, Brady and Gingras introduce the value, theories and methods of critical dietetics and their value with respect to practice, advocacy and activism. The three tenets of critical dietetics axiology (anti-oppression, critical praxis and reflexivity) are introduced to provide clarity of the movement’s underpinning values.
The next two chapters (3 and 4) turn to examine dietetic training and education with the goal of producing graduate dietitians that can thrive in the twenty-f i rst century. In moving from the profession’s roots in home economics and into health- care professionals, we have grasped the biomedical approach with both hands at the expense of more humanistic approaches to practice. Writing in Chap. 3, MacLellan suggests that in the current educational paradigm, “new dietitians are not ready for the relational and messy aspects of our work”. Changes to underlying belief systems are needed in order to produce new innovative practices that challenge the status quo.