Internship Update and Homegrown Minneapolis

Last Wednesday marked the midpoint of this UMN-TEP dietetic internship. I have passed the eight-week eating disorders rotation, visited half of the community sites, dabbled in school foodservice, and made it through four weeks of foodservice in a long-term care facility.

And now, right before a two-week vacation, I'm enjoying my Independent Study week. Besides sitting in on an intensive outpatient program at The Emily Program, I am taking advantage some local food events.

Homegrown Minneapolis is an initiative started in December 2008 geared toward strengthening the city's local food system. They've knocked off some impressive items off their to-do list, the most exciting of which to me are:

• Completed a community kitchen inventory of more than 50 commercial and noncommercial kitchens
• Established a food council beginning this January
• Made it possible to use Electronic Benefits Transfer at farmers markets, aka "circulating federal food support into the local economy"

Cleaning out my in-box, I found an email about the initiative's community meeting from Healthy Food, Healthy Lives listserv. Hey, that's tonight! I thought. It was a sign - that and the fact that I heard it mentioned on MPR on my way over.

After a program introduced by Mayor R.T. Rybak that outlined the efforts and successes of Homegrown, we settled in for hosted table conversations. Our hosts for the evening wanted to know what we thought was the most significant progress made thus far and what should be the focus of the food council as it moved forward.   

Homegrown Minneapolis

Our table agreed that connecting the dots between growers, processors, distributors, eaters, and composters signified the greatest progress. And in my opinion, the future focus should be on increasing food availability and access, which is to say, eliminating food deserts.

Also, they should get a facebook page, or something with their logo on it.

Die Artischocke

Not too long ago, I sat down to a lovely steamed artichoke with my family. As the resident dietitian-in-training, I faced questions about this edible bud and its distant relation, the Jerusalem artichoke. I gave superficial answers and resolved to dig  deeper later.

"Sunchoke bloom" by renoir_girl

First, the Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), aka sunchoke, aka sunroot, aka earth apple.*

The sunchoke is in the same genus as the sunflower, which you could guess by the picture at right. Unlike sunflowers, however, sunchokes have an edible tuber packed with the carbohydrate inulin. Inulin is a fructan (polymer of fructose molecules) that resists digestion. The fructose means it can be a low calorie sweetener and its polymeric nature places it into the fiber family. Another source of inulin is chicory root, which you will find at the top of the ingredients list of Fiber One bars.

Second, the globe artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus). Did you know it's a thistle?

"Artichoke plant" by Miran Rijavec

Both the sunchoke and artichoke are in the daisy family, (Asteraceae), but that's where the resemblance ends. We eat the scales of the artichoke bud, as well as the "heart," after removing the immature florets in the center (the "choke" or "beard"). Artichokes can be harvested from the spring all the way through mid-autumn. Most of the US's artichokes are grown in California, as they require fairly warm weather (hardiness zone 7 and above, in case you're wondering).

The artichoke's nutritional selling points include vitamin C, magnesium, and folate, as well as a healthy dose of fiber. Ocean Mist would love for you to believe artichokes are an antioxidant powerhouse. I had difficulty deciphering the USDA article they cited, but certainly believe eating an artichoke now and then is a delightful and healthful experience.

* 50 points for anyone who can tell me what a French "earth apple" is.

Dietetic Internship, Further Explained

The previous post looked at the dietetic internship (DI) as a supervised practice program. This post will examine who's doing the supervising. In my case, it's a joint effort between the University of Minnesota and The Emily Program (UMN-TEP).

Who runs a dietetic internship?

Health care facilities and universities are prime candidates for a DI. For example, in Minnesota, DIs are headquartered in the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Concordia College, and Saint Mary's Hospital in Rochester. Every DI is coordinated by a full-time program director, who sets up the curriculum, schedules rotations, keeps in touch with the preceptors, and so much more.

I mentioned in the previous post that each DI has competencies in clinical, community, and food service. In addition, each DI has an emphasis. Emphases range from more of the same (Food Service or Community) to something different: Disease Prevention/Health Promotion, Information Technology, Sports Nutrition, and so on.

UMN-TEP is the first DI in the nation to have an Eating Disorders emphasis. Many DIs include eating disorders in their curriculum, whether on an inpatient basis or by sending interns to an outpatient facility like the Melrose Institute for a couple of weeks. In this DI, however, we interns get a full nine weeks in eating disorders by cycling through the adult and adolescent facilities and various outpatient programs at The Emily Program. I am currently three weeks into this rotation.

So there you have it, a rough sketch of what the dietetic internship is all about. Questions?