IJN dietician first Asian to win award

NST: It was her daily routine to begin the working day by checking her emails.
And last Oct 31 was no different for Mary Easaw-John, the senior dietetics and food services manager with Institut Jantung Negara (IJN).
A pleasant surprise awaited her.
There was a message that she had been chosen as the International Dietetic Network Star Award Winner 2005 by the American Overseas Dietetics Association (AODA).
Good news has to be shared. She called her husband, businessman John Gomez, her father, P.M. Easaw, and IJN CEO, Mohd Radzif Mohd Yunus.
Mary is the first Asian and Malaysian to receive the award, and had not expected it.
But she said, "Deep down I knew if I never tried, I would never know."
On reaching home, her six-year-old daughter, Zuleika Marie, added the icing to the cake by calling the award the "Mother-Daughter Award", as she had also won the "best reading award" in her kindergarten the same day.
Mary will leave for Ireland later this month to receive the award at the 27th AODA Conference.
She will present a paper there on "The Art and Science of Creating a Nutrition Story for the Media" and moderate a roundtable session on "Compensation for Dieticians" with American Dietetic Association CEO, Ron Moen.
She decided to apply for the award last year after being prodded to do so by the first recipient of the award, Stacia Nordin from Malawi.
Mary sent in a thesis comprising her work of the last two years which included her most challenging work, "The Medical Nutrition Therapy Guidelines for Hypertension and Hyperlipidemia".
She said most Malaysians never think about eating healthy and were only aware of nutrition when they were sick.
"What’s so difficult in eating healthy? Our forefathers used to do it carbohydrates, proteins, vegetables, fruit and water."
"Of course, some physical exercise too. Malaysians have become too sedentary. There are a lot of vehicles and people don’t want to walk anymore."
Mary, who has written three recipe books, said there was no such thing as "good" or "bad" food, only faulty eating habits.
"All the food can actually fit into your eating patterns, it’s just you deciding how much of it you eat."