Interview with Anne Cain

I recently had the opportunity to interview Anne Cain, RD, and a Senior Editor at MyRecipes.com. If you haven’t checked out this site already, it is a great recipe resource. It has a recipe database with features from Cooking Light, Southern Living, Sunset, Coastal Living, All You, Real Simple, and Health. It has more than recipes, too, with fun articles like Sexy Bikini Body Foods and How-To cooking videos.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to becoming a Registered Dietitian and how you ended up working for MyRecipes.com? Many of my readers have an interest in nutrition and (myself included) hope to go back to school one day to become an RD.

I became interested in becoming a dietitian when I was in high school because I had Type 1 diabetes and had to learn a lot about nutrition in order to control my diabetes. I sort of thought that since I had to know about diet and food anyway, I might as well make a career of it and get paid! Of course, there is certainly a lot more to the training for becoming a dietitian than simply knowing about a diabetic diet, but it was a start.

I went to Auburn University and majored in Nutrition and Foods and was in a dietetics program where you do your practical experience in your four years of undergraduate. There are still a few programs like that out there, but most Dietetics programs require a one-year internship after four years of undergraduate study. You have to be enrolled in a program that is certified for dietetic education and you can find out where those are at the American Dietetic Association website. Then you have to take an exam to become registered to practice dietetics. Once you’ve passed, you are required to maintain your registration through Continuing Education hours.

What is your position at MyRecipes.com and what is a typical workday for you like?

I am the Senior Editor at MyRecipes and help create and oversee food content for the site, along with a team of seven other editors and producers.

There really is no typical day at all, which is one thing I love about this job. Some days I’m at the computer all day writing copy for a nutrition story, a gallery, or a newsletter. Another day we may be in a brainstorming meeting about our holiday package or grilling package. We have to have an outline of our content prepared several months ahead so that the sales people know what will be on the site. I’m also involved in photo shoots at an off-site photo studio, or in the digital studio overseeing the shooting of how-to videos. There are a lot of different types of things that have to be done for a recipe website, so I’m always jumping from one thing to the next.

To hear Anne’s thoughts about soy consumption, raw foods, and weight maintenance, please read on!

I recently read the MyRecipes.com article, “The Truth About Soy.” It does a great job of addressing both sides of the coin when it comes to soy consumption. Can you give us your thoughts on soy-based foods and how (if at all) we can incorporate them into a balanced diet?

I think that soy products are a great source of non-meat protein and probably offer some other health benefits such as preventing heart disease and cancer, although the research is not all definitive. Clearly, if you replace high-saturated fat sources of protein with source of vegetable protein such as soy, you are doing your body some good. I am generally very cautious of jumping on the bandwagon for any one particular food and thinking of it as a "miracle health food". I think you need a balance of different types of food and that no one food can offer all the health benefits you may desire. I think a healthy way to incorporate soy into a healthy diet is to use it in place of high-saturated fat meats and use it in recipes along with plenty of fresh fruits, veggies and grains.

What are your thoughts on the raw foods movement from an RD’s perspective? Are there any great raw recipes you can recommend to incorporate more fresh fruits and vegetables into our day?

As a food editor and one who loves eating all kinds of wonderful things, I find the raw foods movement to be a bit limiting. I’m a big fan of salads and fresh fruits and veggies, and certainly recommend including these in your diet as much as possible. And, in the heat of summer, eating things raw certainly has benefits! But to eat only raw foods is something I would not do, and I think it’s hard for an average person to do this unless they are highly disciplined and determined. And while it’s true that some nutrients can be lost in cooking, cooking itself does not negate the nutrient value of most foods. Eating raw foods can help you lose weight if you are filling up on high-fiber fruits and veggies in place of high-fat snacks and refined carbs, but you are losing weight because you are eating fewer calories rather than because the foods are raw.

It’s hard for me to select only a few raw recipes to recommend since I do eat a lot of salad, fresh veggies and fruits in the summer. I guess my current favorite, because the tomatoes are so good and the basil is plentiful in the pot on my deck, is a tomato, basil and mozzarella salad. I could probably eat this every single day.

Many of my readers have found weight loss to be easy, but weight maintenance to be the bigger challenge. What are your tips on maintaining a healthy weight loss, while also staying sane and healthy?

I think physical activity is probably key to maintaining weight loss, and it’s important to find activities that you enjoy so that staying active is just a way of life rather than a chore.

I think people also make the mistake of thinking that they’ll just "be on a diet" for a while, lose the weight, then all is well. It’s important to develop some new healthy eating habits that you can live with in order to keep the weight off. I think you can still eat a wide variety of foods and not feel deprived, but you must pay attention to portions. Exercise, portion control, and moderation are key. Check out our Healthy Diet channel for a number of tips on weight loss and weight maintenance.

Thank you, Anne! I would also like to thank Nicole Langworthy for arranging this interview. I hope you enjoyed it!

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