Earlier this year, however, she decided to return home to Iowa City, where she wanted to work in a business environment. Landing the new dietitian position at Hy-Vee, she now does individual nutrition counseling, holding grocery store tours on nutritional eating and community education sessions.
Guatemala RPCV Cindy Goody is dietitian with Hy-Vee
Dietitian teaches nutrition
Woman brings expertise to Hy-Vees
By Rob Daniel
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Caption: Cindy Goody, a dietitian with Hy-Vee, performs individual nutrition counseling by holding grocery store tours on nutritional eating and community education sessions. Press-Citizen / Hannah van Zutphen-Kann
A mother's example and issues with her own weight as a child led Cindy Goody to want to become a dietitian.
"I got to college and I took care of it with physical activity and food intake," said Goody, 37, about the weight concerns. "(Becom-ing a dietitian) was a desire to understand and know more. When I counsel patients, I have the science down, but I want to individualize it for each person's educational level and needs."
Goody returned to her native Iowa City from Cincinnati two months ago to become a dietitian at the Waterfront and First Avenue Hy-Vees in Iowa City. The Hy-Vee corporate office recently created the position as part of its consumer health education program, with 10 dietitians hired so far in the company's stores. Waterfront Hy-Vee store director Al Dix said Goody helps with teaching shoppers about nutrition, health and how to manage diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.
"People are really interested in diets and maintaining health," Dix said. "She helps us with promotion of healthy foods. We're kind of on the ground floor with this, but when we get into the training years from now, she'll become even more valuable."
Goody's road to pioneering a newly created position started in rural Iowa City. The daughter of Jim and Dorothy Goody, she attended Lone Tree High, graduating in 1986. Her mother, a nurse and now director of Atrium Village in Hills, helped to nurture Goody's interest in food nutrition.
"I wanted to have a profession where I could make a difference and be employed," Cindy Goody said. "I figured as long as people have to eat, I'd stay employed."
Goody moved on to Iowa State University in Ames, where she obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees in food nutrition. She then joined the Peace Corps in 1993, moving to Guatemala, where she worked as a dietitian. Working primarily with rural women's groups and schools in Guatemala's mountain region, Goody said the aim was to eliminate nutrient-deficient illnesses such as anemia and protein malnutrition.
Goody said she wanted to do something in repayment of the scholarship she received to attend Iowa State.
"That was really an altruistic move," she said. "I decided it was important for me to do something for somebody else."
Two years later, Goody returned to the United States, taking a health promotion coordinator job at a hospital in Coral Gables, Fla. She spent a year there before coming home to Iowa City, where she earned her doctorate in education at the University of Iowa in 2000.
Cincinnati was her next stop, where she became a professor of nutrition at the University of Cincinnati. She taught classes, researched diabetes and consulted universities in Mexico and Guatemala as well as the United States Department of Agriculture and the American Dietetic Association.
"It's a lot of pushing the boundary of science in nutrition," Goody said. "I spent a lot of time reading and writing."
Earlier this year, however, she decided to return home to Iowa City, where she wanted to work in a business environment. Landing the new dietitian position at Hy-Vee, she now does individual nutrition counseling, holding grocery store tours on nutritional eating and community education sessions.
"It really is to take an individual approach to an individual's concern," she said of the grocery store tours, which are geared to either natural foods or shopping for diabetics or heart patients. "Whether it's increasing water consumption or fiber consumption, start small and conquer that step before moving on to the next step."
Goody uses her fluency in Spanish as well to educate a growing Hispanic market, often translating nutritional information into Spanish.
She also wants to educate the public on proper nutrition and new thoughts in the field. This includes teaching about the new food pyramid or the different fats in food through group on-site presentations.
"It's focusing on cutting edge food information, ... on marketing, kids' food, sugar," she said.
With her position as one of 10 dietitians company-wide at Hy-Vee, Goody said she hopes to provide a good service to the area.
"It's a logical fit that grocery stores offer this type of service to the community," she said. "Once food is eaten, it's nutrition."
Reach Rob Daniel at 339-7360 or rdaniel@press-citizen.com.
