Sangeeta Pradhan, RD, LDN, CDE is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator. Pradhan is the Diabetes Program Coordinator of Charles River Medical Associates, a large physician practice group, where she leads a team of Nurse Practitioners and a Registered Dietitian, ensuring compliance with the ADA standards of care. Pradhan is currently the Chair of the Central Mass Dietetic Association.
Pradhan is also a professional speaker, and gives talks at corporate and nonprofit accounts on a regular basis. She was a speaker at the Mass Dietetic Association state-level annual conference in 2015 and in 2016.
Pradhan is a guest blogger for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’, (formerly the American Dietetic Association), “Food and Nutrition” magazine, and India New England’s nutrition columnist. She is passionate about getting the facts about nutrition to the common consumer and to this end, blogs on her nutrition and food blog.
INDIA New England News: Please tell our readers about your work and what you enjoy most about it?
Sangeeta Pradhan: I work as the Diabetes Program Coordinator for a large physician practice group in the Boston area. Our program has accreditation through the ADA and as the Coordinator, I am responsible for ensuring compliance with the ADA national standards of care. In addition to counseling patients one-on-one, I also teach group education classes on nutrition and diabetes management, with the aim of giving patients the skill set to manage their diabetes or prediabetes, and prevent the progression of the disease.
This is the part of my job that I enjoy the most, as it puts me in a position where I get to empower patients to make meaningful changes in their lifestyle and prevent or even potentially alter the course of disease. Given the emerging scientific evidence on how powerful diet can be in impacting one’s health, it is very gratifying to see the “aha” moment that patients have when I share key, nutrition related guidelines with them. It is even more gratifying to see them attain their health related goals and knowing that I may have helped guide the process. That said, when it really comes down to it, I realize that it is not the end, but the means to get there, or the journey itself that is inspiring. I feel that we all have immense potential to impact our world, and when we harness it towards a good purpose, we have served a worthy cause. Most importantly, I love what I do, and enjoy working with different people from every walk of life so much, that my work becomes its own reward.
INE: To which charitable, community and professional group do you belong and why?
SP: I am currently a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a national, non-profit organization, and am the Chair of one of its local chapters, the Central Mass Dietetic Association. Given the pivotal role that diet plays in impacting our health, dietitians today are uniquely poised to positively impact our nation’s health by disseminating evidence based, nutrition related advice. As Chair of CMDA, I am in a position to empower my fellow RDs to rise to the top of our profession, and positively influence the health of the community at the local, state and even national level.
INE: What are your hobbies and interest?
SP: I am an avid cook and blogger. My blog is the perfect marriage of these two abiding interests. I also strive to bring to my audience, nutritional facts without hype, and my blog provides an excellent platform to do just that. I also enjoy walking, hiking, travel, and reading.
INE: In what way do you feel you have most positively influenced or served the local community and your company/organization and professional field?
SP: Professionally, I have been spearheading CMDA events that provide direct community outreach and or inspire my fellow RDs to give back to their profession and community. I also maintain an active nutrition blog that discusses front burner nutritional topics that may be uppermost in the minds of consumers. In addition, my blog features a repertoire of healthy recipes using every day ingredients that most folks have in their kitchen cabinets. I have been receiving excellent feedback from my readers and a growing number of followers. I also conduct nutrition talks at nonprofit organization, health fairs, as well as within my own professional organization at local and state level events, where I discuss evidence based topics related to nutrition and health. My mission is to cut through the clutter surrounding the topic of nutrition today and just tell it like it is, sans the hype. Through my professional work, my talks, and social media outlets including my blog, I have been striving to get this message to the consumer. I take great pride in my profession, and feel blessed to be in an era when RDs can positively influence the health of our community at a grass roots level. Thorough these efforts, I hope I can touch and transform people’s lives.
INE: Your rare talent?
SP: I am just discovering that I have a talent for photography!
INE: Your favorite books?
SP: “How to have courage, calmness and confidence”, by Paramhansa Yogananda
INE: Your favorite quotes?
SP: “Unselfishness is the governing principle in the law of prosperity”- Swami Yogananda and “Freedom begins with owning your flaws and disowning your fears”- Umair Hague.
INE: Who inspires you the most?
SP: My Dad, who always embodied calmness in the face of adversity. His philosophy was to accentuate all that is positive in one’s life and downplay the negative. In so doing, you give negative events less power over you, and by highlighting all that is good in your life, you create an environment of positivity, harmony and success, which in turn begets success and harmony.
INE: Your core value that you try to live by?
SP: Give it all of you have got in your work, in your relationships and in everything that you undertake. Speak from your heart, maintaining the highest sense of integrity, for when you do something with the purest of intentions, the results will speak for themselves.
