Q&A With Vanessa Rissetto

What was your inspiration for starting Culina Health?

I became an RD to help people and while I spent years doing that in a clinical setting, patients would come and go quickly. My real epiphany came when I helped out a couple I knew who were pre-diabetic but planning their future together. No one had been able to help them because they didn’t have $1,000 for a session, and even if they had, no one they had spoken to offered an understanding of the culturally appropriate diet they liked to eat.

I was able to work with them over a series of weeks, watching their numbers improve, listening to the impact it was having on their lives, feeling their gratitude and joy every week as I reversed their outlook and gave them a future they were excited about. The need for a more inclusive service became so clear to me through their experience, and so I teamed up with Tamar and we founded Culina Health to help more people like them.

What makes the Culina Health Registered Dietitian team so special?

Currently, we are missing a huge opportunity in our nation’s healthcare system because the system undervalues RDs. RDs improve patient health outcomes, reduce the workload of clinicians, allowing them to give better care to those that need it, and save the system and insurance companies money. RDs are trained to be some of the smartest, most knowledgeable healthcare professionals in healthcare, but are seen as merely a privilege of the wealthy (not true!) and let down by our industry.

Additionally, as women founders of color, we see firsthand the lack of equality and equity of opportunity, so we wanted to build a company that had diversity and inclusion at the core of its vision. You can see this reflected in the diversity of our RDs: Across the US, 98% of registered dietitians are white women – but at Culina Health, that number is 42%. It’s so important for our patients because it makes our RDs more relatable practitioners – and more relatable practitioners are proven to deliver better results.

What is your vision for the future of Culina Health?

My vision for the future of Culina, and the future of nutrition overall, is for an RD to be part of your regular health touchpoints, the same way you might go to therapy weekly, or see a dentist twice a year. RDs are truly the frontline of healthcare, can try out interventions before medication or more extreme measures are needed, are able to spend more time with patients, and can collaborate with primary care providers for better patient outcomes all around.

Why should someone care about their nutrition?

Because everybody eats! Everybody’s relationship with food is slightly complicated in its own way. Nutrition can help you feel better day-to-day, and be an easy way to make marked improvements on your health outcomes before needing to go on medication or pursue more extreme measures. Nutrition really is the first line of defense when it comes to our health, and we want to help patients make informed choices that lead to attainable, sustainable change that fits in with their lifestyle.

What is the biggest challenge facing nutrition care today?

There are 2! Firstly, we need to find ways to educate people that nutrition counseling is available to them at no or little cost via their health insurance. Culina Health addresses this by getting referrals from clinicians, this continues to be the opportunity for this category of healthcare.

Second, competition from celebrity trends, fad diets and influencers. There’s so much false information about food and wellness. Celebrities endorse quick fixes that don’t work at all, or only work in conjunction with surgery, or extreme fitness routines. Quick hit diets don’t work, but often pick up attention in the media because of short term gains that don’t last.

Social media is full of a combination of celebrities, influencers and content creators making claims about foods and eating with no foundation in science. Culina Health addresses this by educating our patients with a science-based, long-term sustainable method with a record of proven outcomes. We are also seeking to spread the science of nutrition through podcasts, articles and appearances on national broadcast TV shows.

Catch Up on Vanessa’s Today Show Appearances