Hello all, sorry about another lengthy delay in updates. My life as an intern has become even more hectic with over 3 hours of commuting to Northern Virginia each day. Luckily I can often drive in with my dad (who works in DC nearby) or stay with friends who are closer.
But I don’t mean to sound whiny- I feel like the luckiest dietetic intern out there. Why, you ask? I have the opportunity to currently be working at the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP). Still not clicking? Well, you may have heard that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 recently came out. USDA’s CNPP along with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are the ones responsible for this project that is released every 5 years.
In a nutshell, I have been afforded the opportunity to be rotating with the organization responsible for releasing the Dietary Guidelines, a document that outlines the best nutrition research out there, DURING the release of the Dietary Guidelines…which only happens once every 5 years. How cool is that?!

USDA CNPP is also responsible for the Food Guide Pyramid
The people working at CNPP are so inspiring, whether they are Registered Dietitians or non-dietitians who work to support nutrition communications and policy. They all seem to love their job and feel very passionate about communicating nutrition to the American public. Can you tell I love it here, or what?
The projects we are assigned to work on are very exciting! My partner and I are mainly working with the Nutrition Communication and Marketing Division of CNPP. I actually can’t share too much with you all because it’s confidential at this point in time…but as certain things are released I will blog about it and let you know what I was a part of. It feels awesome to know that things I am helping out with now may impact the public on a national level. It blows my mind! I mean, I loved helping people on an individual level during clinical, but to reach thousands, potentially millions of people? I can’t even tell you. I mean, I’m just an intern!
I’ll return another time to summarize what I’ve learned about the development of the Dietary Guidelines that were recently released. Looking forward to another three weeks here at CNPP!
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