Japanese visitors
take bite of
NIU dietetics
curriculum

by Mark McGowan

Nine Japanese dietitians came to NIU last week for a taste of the nutrition and dietetics program in the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences – starting with a spoonful of soup in the Chandelier Room.

The school, in the College of Health and Human Sciences, hosted the Far East visitors Wednesday afternoon as part of a two-week tour of the United States to learn more about diet and nutrition in this country.

“In Japan, dietetics is not as well developed as it is in this country,” said Ellen Parham, professor and coordinator of NIU’s nutrition, dietetics and hospitality administration program.

“In this country, dietetics education involves a baccalaureate degree, plus a practice program – an internship, usually. About half of the registered dietitians have advanced degrees. In Japan, dietitians are primarily trained in a two-year program, and, not unexpectedly, the graduates do not get a lot of respect in the medical community where they function, which limits the contribution they can make.”

Compounding the problem is the state of nutritional thinking in Japan and a generational clash between older and younger dietitians.

Cherry Voight, an NIU alumna and nutrition services coordinator for Advocate Home Care Products Inc. who accompanied the Japanese group, said the typical current Japanese diet mirrors those found in the United States of the 1950s. After World War II, Voight said, dietitians concentrated solely on ending malnutrition rather than heart disease, diabetes or obesity.

“People were starving,” she explained.

Dietetic curriculum, meanwhile, centers more on a “home ec” model of how to cook food. It pays little attention to a patient’s disease type or nutritional needs, Voight said, and NIU’s visitors want to know more about such clinical and human nutritional aspects built into U.S. programs.

“They want to take our model of the dietetics program back to Japan. For them to receive a degree in dietetics, they would have to leave their country,” she said, adding “they’ve come a long way in just five years.”

Indeed, some of the Japanese educators referred to a “revolution in dietetics education.” This fall, the first students are starting a four-year curriculum modeled in part on dietetic education in the United States.

Shirley Richmond, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, welcomed the visitors for lunch, which also included three kinds of salads and rolls.

They later received an oral overview of NIU nutrition programs, sat in a senior-level dietetics class, learned how NIU’s curriculum is thoughtfully designed to meet industry-expected competencies and heard an introduction to NIU’s dietetic internship program.

Abbott Laboratories and its Ross Products Division, which is involved in assisting and encouraging an upgrade of the education and training of dietitians in Japan, sponsored the trip.

Parham said the visitors found “dietetics education at its best” at NIU.

A bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics from the NIU School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences provides the total knowledge base necessary to excel in the field, and graduates must complete internships that offer practical applications and experience. NIU also offers a master’s degree in nutrition and dietetics.

The class the Japanese attended – FCNS 415 – is Clinical Nutrition I, a course seniors take on medical nutrition therapy, or the use of nutrition to treat disease therapeutically. Judith Lukaszuk, assistant professor and director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics, teaches the class.

“Ours is a full-service program,” Parham said. “A professional group sets the competencies a dietitian should have. We take those competencies and say, ‘If our students are supposed to be able to do this, what experiences must we give them?’ We have designed our classes to provide those competencies.”

9-2-03