The no-diet dietitian
Registered dietitians don’t get to make a wish each March for National Nutrition Month. But if they did, Michelle Gallant’s might be this: for everyone to just stop dieting. It sounds a bit strange. After all, Gallant’s job is to help people eat better, a mission that conjures an image of a food-pyramid-wielding spoilsport out to replace our burgers and milkshakes with spinach and whole grains. “People think of us as the food police,” Gallant said one afternoon in her Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) office. “But I call myself the no-diets dietitian.” As one of only two full-time clinical dietitians at HUHS, Gallant juggles many duties at the University. She counsels clients with eating disorders, advises patients with diabetes or high cholesterol on their food choices, and educates everyone from bewildered freshmen to busy graduate students to new parents on how to manage meals. But Gallant is best known for her classes on...