Hello and welcome!
Antiracist Dietitian is a newsletter about the intersection of nutrition and racial equity, covering history, food systems, land, water, politics—basically everything that lies beyond the individual choices you make about the food you eat.
I write about what I wish I had learned as a nutrition student, and am creating a space that centers honesty, vulnerability, and the lived experiences of people of color.
I am part of the 5 percent of dietetic professionals who identify as Asian1. Meep! (That’s the tiny sound I hear in my head when I think about us, a little blip on the map.)
But actually, that’s a lot closer to matching the population demographics of the United States (7.2 percent of the population is Asian) than the number of Latine and Black dietitians (RDs) and dietetic technicians (DTRs).
18.7 percent of the U.S. population is Hispanic or Latine, compared to 6 percent of RD/DTRs
14.2 percent of the U.S. population is Black, compared to 3 percent of RD/DTRs
80 percent of RDs are white and 93 percent are women2
This newsletter is not only for dietitians, dietetic interns, nutrition students, or other nutrition professionals—if you are interested in nutrition as part of a big, messy, fascinating, interconnected web of people and systems, you are in the right place. Not everything I write will explicitly be about race and racism, though it will always be there, because if you are a BIPOC person, you know it is always there.
What to expect
I send three newsletters a month:
Every other Wednesday is an essay covering a topic I don't see discussed enough in the nutrition world
One Friday a month is a brief discussion of something behind-the-scenes of this newsletter or more personal
Paid subscribers receive all newsletters and have full access to the archives. Free subscribers receive the Wednesday newsletters.
This newsletter is 100% reader-supported. Paying for a subscription ($5/month or $40/year) supports the time, care, and research I put into this newsletter, and allows me to stay financially sustainable without having to work with large food corporations or their trade associations, as many dietitian-writers do. Thank you for helping me live by my values!
Supporting subscribers also receive access to a PDF version of each essay (great for classroom discussions, sharing with colleagues, or including with DEI resources), an invitation to a Zotero group where you can access all the research I used for each essay topic, and other occasional perks.
If you have the means, becoming a Founding Member ($140/year) helps me offer subscriptions to dietetic interns and students who cannot afford them.
If you are a dietetic intern or student who cannot afford a paid subscription, or just someone who does not have the budget for a paid subscription, please email me at hello@anjaliruth and I will set you up, no questions asked.
About me
I am a writer and weight-inclusive public health dietitian focused on food systems, racial equity, and nutrition. I am half Thai, half white, and grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles. I was a contributing editor for the award-winning food website The Kitchn before getting my master of public health from Tulane University. In New Orleans, I led an innovative city-funded corner store program that increased fresh food access in low-income neighborhoods, and worked with food entrepreneurs looking to operationalize racial equity in their businesses. I currently live in Denver, Colorado with my husband and two kids.
Want to know more? Check out these posts:
Want to get in touch? Email hello@anjaliruth.com.
Join us!
This is a community coming together to learn, to grow, and to change the status quo, at least in our own lives and work. I'm just a person. You're just a person. Let's learn together and be vulnerable and make the world a better place in some small way.
For non-white groups, I am using the numbers for that racial/ethnic group alone, plus that racial/ethnic group in combination (for example, those who identify as Asian alone + those who identify as Asian in combination with another race = total percentage of Asian people). This is based on my lived experience as an “Asian in combination with white” person. No one ever assumes I am a white person.
Population demographic information comes from this 2020 Census report. Statistics for dietetic professionals come from the 2020 Needs Satisfaction Survey conducted by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Commission on Dietetic Registration.
