By V. Sivaji
There is a common saying, “You are what you eat”.
In layman terms, our body becomes healthy or unhealthy depending on the type of food we consume daily.
Therefore, it is important to eat good food in order to be healthy and fit.
Who better to know about this topic than these two dieticians attached to the Pantai Hospital Ipoh.
They are Yeoh Chai Yen, Head of Dietetics and Food & Dietary departments and Yew Wen Xin, Dietitian.
Being Perakians, it is not surprising that they too love Ipoh’s delicious hawker fare and miss travelling.
Yeoh prefers to go by the name “Cheyenne” while Yew prefers “Cin” for easy communication. Both are products of the Silver state (Perak) and graduated from IMU.
“My simple summary to balance diet practice is to instill a mindful eating basis of eating that is to initiate habitual practice.
“With technology fast progressing and continuing to develop, many approaches learning about balanced diet practice via readily available media but yet then, mindful eating is a habit that needs the understanding, addressing and application on consumption of a balanced diet plate.
“My role is not only as a reference material on delivering the appropriate knowledge to everyone, but also to explore and impress upon intervening on their respective eating habits,” said Cheyenne who got interested in the profession from a young age.
Her job requires her to face patients on counselling of various ages, different living backgrounds and life experience.
Being the head of the department she also leads the F&B department which caters to inpatients and outpatients, not forgetting a unique Café named “S&P Café” (Salt & Pepper Café).
There are some 30 staff in her department and this obviously requires “people management” to the best level.
Meanwhile, her daily routine ranges from meeting patients from a very healthy individual of high level healthy living consciousness to sad consciousness which involves paralyzing patients needing conservative nutrition care for their quality of life.
“Hence, the dietician’s role basically is to provide diet counselling and extensive nutrition support such as enteral (tube feeding through nostrils/gastro) or parenteral (tube feeding through blood vessel) feeding with the same goal to ensure the patient gets their right nutrition needs.
“My hope in the role as a dietitian is not just about career but to actively blend with people sharing knowledge and getting them adopt their own smart healthy lifestyle plan, ” she added.
While not at work she does some workout, cooking/baking, flower seeing/painting/surfing and reading.
She is also looking forward to the post Covid-19 days so that she can travel either locally or overseas.
“I want to explore and experience the cultures, savour delicacies, sights of flowers and scenery and experience the livelihood of the respective people.
Cin, on the other hand got interested in this career since she started with habitual interest in checking for nutritional labels on food products packaging ever since in secondary school.
Her interest was further fueled when her late mother was diagnosed with bile duct cancer during my 2nd Year pursuance in Bachelor of Science (Hons) Dietetics with Nutrition.
“I realised many among the population need appropriate nutritional advice throughout their journey in battling diseases and dedicated myself to pursue this field of expertise,” said Cin.
Similar to Cheyenne, Cin provides personalised diet counselling and dietary management for different concerns such as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol level, and high blood sugar.
“Since food is essential, a balanced diet supplies nutrients that our bodies need to work effectively to provide fuel to the body, building blocks for maintenance of body tissues and cushioning membranes to prevent damage.
“Not forgetting, good food helps in strengthening the immune system especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic,” she added.
After a long day she unwinds by doing stretching and going for a slow jog to relieve stress.
“Apart from exercise, I cook myself a simple dinner and plan for the weekend baking. I also like to explore cooking videos, variety shows but ending up still with my work passion updating with recent published guides or research papers on dietetics,” added Cin.
She hopes to travel to the United Kingdom where her brother resides to enjoy spectacular views of Royal Crescent, Bath Abbey and the Pulteney Bridge.
And not forgetting, she also plans to visit Scotland again to take in the panoramic scenery.
