Every August 11 we celebrate Nutritionist Day, a date that invites us to shed light on and reflect upon the role of those who dedicate themselves to nutrition in the comprehensive care of health. Feeding ourselves is not merely a biological requirement; it is part of our culture, our identity, and our daily life. Eating is a profoundly human act, traversed by our history, our emotions, our relationships, and, above all, by the context in which we live.
However, for a long time the nutritionist’s work was reduced to delivering a “diet”: a sheet with measured foods, schedules, quantities, and restrictions. Fortunately, science evolves, and today we know that this is not enough.
Why strict diets don’t work
Diets fail not because people lack the will to sustain them, but because they were designed as a simple solution to something far more complex.
Often, these plans promote rapid weight loss that is difficult to maintain over time, which can be accompanied by loss of muscle mass, weight regain, and, above all, frustration, guilt, and a sense of failure.
That is why today nutritional spaces go far beyond mere dietary changes. It is not only about altering what we eat, but about guiding real and sustainable change processes. Changing habits is, in fact, about changing the way we live.
Deconstructing to relearn
Building new habits inevitably requires deconstructing others that we have spent years, or even a lifetime, practicing, often without questioning them. Therefore, the process is rarely quick or linear: it is deep, challenging, and entirely different for each person.
Of course, knowing about foods is important. Questioning what we know, what we learned, and what we repeat mindlessly is also part of the process. But knowledge alone is not enough. Most people know, or can easily access, information about what constitutes a healthy diet.
The real challenge arises when we try to adapt that knowledge to our life and sustain those choices in everyday life. Information, by itself, does not generate lasting changes unless it is accompanied by tools that translate it into feasible actions.
Reconnect with the body and understand emotions
We need to learn to recognize our body and reestablish a connection with it: to understand our true hunger and fullness signals.
It is essential to understand that we do not always eat because of physical hunger, that emotions often condition our decisions, that the environment influences us more than we imagine, and that there are automatic responses that appear even when we do not register them. All of this is part of the nutritional work.
Learning to nourish ourselves healthily means making feasible decisions in an environment that often promotes exactly the opposite: immediacy, excess, guilt, and pressure.
The professional’s role: a personalized journey
Learning to eat healthily involves developing skills that many people were never taught: planning, organizing the groceries, building an environment that facilitates better choices, adapting to different contexts, and finding strategies that we can truly sustain over time. At the same time, creating safe spaces where we can talk about food without fear or judgment, and working on our choices with respect and patience.
Throughout this journey, the nutritionist’s role is to accompany. Not to tell you what to eat and when, but to help you discover what you need in your own reality, with your story, your challenges and your strengths, and to build together the tools that allow you to change your life in a feasible and sustainable way.
Because changing habits also means transforming the relationship we have with food, our bodies, and ourselves. And for that, professional guidance makes a huge difference. On Nutritionist Day, the profession celebrates the work of many colleagues who, with commitment, scientific evidence, and a deeply humane perspective, sustain spaces of care, listening, and transformation. Spaces where diets are not dispensed, but paths are built.
*The author is a medical specialist in nutrition, an obesity expert, and president of the Argentine Society of Nutrition.
