How I got to love nutrition
I was born in Alabama, but my journey has taken me far from my place of birth. Growing up in a small town near Birmingham didn’t stop me from dreaming of being a missionary in a faraway country. Some of my earliest memories are of listening to missionaries on stateside assignment and thinking that would be the most wonderful thing a person could do!
After becoming a Christian at an early age, I had my ups and downs learning what it meant to grow in Christ. I had a turbulent college experience, during which I questioned what I really believed — but “the missionary call” never left. As a junior in college, I finally had the chance to work as a summer missionary in Iowa, and then the next summer, in Israel. Both of these experiences confirmed that call, but the summer of 1972 in Israel sealed the deal!
The path to nutrition
My junior year in college, I had changed my major from predentistry to nutrition and dietetics. I had been studying nutrition for two years when I spent those four months in Israel. I still recall the Arab names. I still see the faces of the street vendors in the old city. I still smell the roasting pine nuts.
All those things were seared into my memory as I realized that the nutritional diseases that I had been studying for two years were right there in front of me, jumping right off the pages of my textbooks into real life! Vitamin A deficiency, scurvy, rickets, protein calorie malnutrition — I saw them in people every day. In those four months, not only did I see the spiritual needs rampant in those faraway places I had dreamed about, but I saw physical needs as well.
And so I came home, graduated from college, spent a year in a dietetic internship to become a registered dietitian, got married, went to seminary, went to language school, and then went to Venezuela as a Southern Baptist missionary and worked there as a nutritionist for 11 years.
An unexpected placement
To tell you the truth, I wanted to go as a missionary to just about anywhere … except Latin America. My two semesters of Spanish in college nearly gave me a nervous breakdown (literally). Having stayed up too late studying for a Spanish final, I collapsed in sobs to the horror of my instructor, who promptly sent me to the infirmary!
But God does have a sense of humor, so He sent me back to try again — this time in Costa Rica — for a whole year! Full-time language study was much better, but I must confess that I polished off what Spanish I learned in Costa Rica by watching Venezuelan novelas (soap operas).
Just my second year in Venezuela, I was asked to teach nutrition classes to the wives of students at the seminary. We struggled through that together, but by the end of the course, I had more of the nutrition vocabulary down and started working with women’s groups in the churches.
Armed with materials from the Venezuelan Institute of Nutrition and accompanied by a Venezuelan nutritionist much of the time, we began our nutrition education classes for pregnant women and mothers. Of course, my work as a nutritionist went alongside work in the local churches. After my two children were born there, I was able to model the benefits of breastfeeding and proper weaning foods as I went from pillar to post with my children in tow, including traveling to teach nutrition education for missionaries and churches in other Latin American countries. My children marvel at all the countries they have been to with no recollection at all — they were too little to remember.
Life in Venezuela
I loved living in Venezuela. I came to love the country. I came to love the people. I learned to love the Latin way of life and mindset — so different from those in North America.
There, relationships and family come first. There, time is relative. Time is taken to spend with the children, parents, and siblings. Family is very important. Friends are very important. Time is still taken to live every day as you walk (and I emphasize walk) from the baker to the meat market to the vegetable and fruit markets.
It was in Costa Rica and Venezuela where I first experienced “slow food” — where time was taken to purchase local ingredients from friends, cook the meal with family and friends, and linger at the table and savor the food and the experience. Life in Latin America and many other Third World countries still allows time for healthy eating, physical activity, and rest.
Although the Americanized lifestyle in many large Third World cities has changed this, the majority of people in those regions still take time to live. I learned so much from Venezuela.
If you’d like to dig deeper into my journey of discovering God’s plan for health and wellness, check out my book, Made For Paradise: God’s Original Plan for Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Rest.
As a helpful resource, I have lots of articles on healthy ingredients and recipes that you can implement into your daily life.
