03/11/2026
It's National Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day! Today we recognize our Dietitian, Jodi Wellner.
Some wonderful people make it their life’s work to understand nutrition, translate science into everyday choices, and help others feel better in their bodies. This describes Jodi; she's been with PAM Health Clear Lake South since December 2017. Jodi is a graduate of Texas State University and has been a dietitian for 20+ years. Read below about Jodi:
1. What/who helped you decide to become a dietitian?
I became a dietitian because of a family history of obesity and hyperlipidemia. I would read articles about losing weight and decreasing cholesterol, and they all contradicted each other. Then my sister was diagnosed with cancer, and I went with her to her first oncologist appointment. She asked the oncologist if something in her diet could have caused her cancer and if she should change her diet after now that she would be starting chemotherapy. He told her diet did not matter. I could not understand how what you put in your body did would not affect the way your body runs. Shortly after she passed away 2 years later, I met a woman that was undergoing chemotherapy, but she had so much energy and she looked so healthy you would never know that she was in cancer treatment. She credited her good health during chemotherapy to seeing a dietitian and the healthy diet she was following. I changed my major shortly after from theater to nutrition.
2. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be, and how would you make it nutritionally complete?
I love soups. I always to make sure to add vegetables, lean protein as well as some type of complex carbohydrate to my soups so they are complete meals.
3. If you could have a conversation with any food, which one would it be and what would you ask"?
Definitely chocolate. I would ask it: "How can you be so good and so bad at the same time??"
4. If you could give one piece of nutrition advice to the entire world, what would it be, and how would you make it memorable?
Eat at least 80% of your food as close to the way God made it as possible. If your food comes in a bag or a box or you have to reach for it through a window, it is not a food you should be eating frequently.
