I am a registered dietitian based in San Jose with a husband and two beautiful kids teaching me to be patient and multi-task. I spend my free time playing badminton, hiking and watching movies.
Growing up in a very traditional Indian (Asia) family, I have learnt to enjoy food in many different forms. Whenever I had a common cold or indigestion, I remember my mother giving me a decoction made from medicinal herbs and ginger. I learnt to experiment with foods and learnt to use them as medicine for common cold and flu. These practices taught me that route to being healthy, begins by having healthy food. This realization got me interested in the dietetics as a profession.
During my journey as a dietetic student in India, as I studied in depth about food, its properties and the way it affects the body, I began to appreciate the importance of choice of food to our health and well being. During my undergraduate internship in an Ayurvedic hospital I learnt how food could be used as medicine and I could connect to what my mother used to prepare as home medicine when I was a child.
I completed my bachelor’s in clinical nutrition and dietetics from Bangalore University, Bangalore, India. After working for a year as a dietitian I went back to school to get my master's degree in dietetics and food service management from Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, India in 2005 and graduated in 2010.
After I moved to the US, I decided to continue my work in the field of dietetics and graduated with a second bachelor's in dietetics from San Francisco State University. I completed my internship at Garden to Table Nutrition. I received my registered dietitian certificate from CDR in February 2021.
I am a person with the “never give up” attitude. With this positive attitude I always try to find a solution to any problem I come across. While at school during my Masters, I continued working as a dietitian in a multi-specialty hospital. When I was attending to the health needs of the underserved and lower economic population there, I was the only dietitian helping around 150 patients including ICU, inpatient, emergency and outpatient departments. As most of the patients weren't able to afford the prepared formula for tube feed, I started thinking about blenderized feed. As the hospital did not have a dedicated place for tube feed preparation, I developed a training program for family members on how to prepare blenderized feeds. This made me realize that the role of a dietitian in a person’s life is much more than counseling and diet planning. Since then, I strive to make nutrition care accessible and affordable to everyone.