Q&A With Dalina Soto
Q: What is your favorite part about being Latina?
A: The music!
Q. What is your superpower?
A. I’m a very good teacher.
Q. Do you remember a time when you were underestimated?
A. When I was graduating as a dietitian, I was applying for my dietetic internship and needed a letter of recommendation. I went to my advisor and asked her for a letter, and she flat-out told me no. She said she didn’t see me becoming a dietitian and didn’t think that working in the Latino community would advance my career because most of the community is non-compliant. I have proved her wrong.
Q: How do you think of food?
A: Food is something that encompasses a lot of things. It’s community, culture, pleasure, and nourishment, and it brings us together. People often see food only as fuel. I think that’s such a disservice to what food is. For humans as a species, food is a connection. Animals don’t have that. They eat and go about their way. But we have evolved to have a pleasure sensor in the brain that’s “lit up” by food. It’s something that differentiates us from other species- we’re able to gather, communicate, and express ourselves through food. It’s so beautiful, and we should not fear that.
Q: You’ve said on your social platforms that nutritional recommendations in this country have been “white-washed,” what do you mean by that?
A. Dietary recommendations are made from a very Eurocentric view. The people creating the guidance set out to make it for the American people. But who do they view as the American people? They’re not considering anybody other than white Americans as Americans. Even the latest nutritional guidelines, which try to incorporate some cultural foods, don’t do a good job because they are too broad. And also, for us as healthcare professionals and the textbooks that we are being educated with, there’s so many stereotypes and biases that are ingrained in what we are learning. As a Latina, I had to use a lot of critical thinking to be like, “Well, this can’t be true, right? This makes no sense.” We all believe in science, but we must be able to apply it to different cultures and different people. The United States is not just one type of person.
Q. What is the Chula Method? For those who don’t follow you yet, that’s what you’ve labeled your method as a dietitian for the large community you’ve built.
A. It’s a place where you can find authentic health. It’s a place where you come to find yourself and really figure out what it is that you want in life without a side of fear. I think all the nutrition recommendations or even medical recommendations are so fear-based. It’s like you do this, or you’re going to die. If you don’t do this, you’ll get sick, you know what I mean? Everything is so fear-based, and there’s so much fear-mongering, and I want people to take control back and stop living in this fear. We already have stressors in so many other places, food should not be a stressor.
Q. What is a common misunderstanding about our food staples as Latinos?
A. There’s so many foods that are native to our countries that are so nutritious, and they’re not valued until an influencer or some guru goes to the country and says I discovered this food. Take quinoa for example. All of a sudden it’s become a superfood and everybody wants to put quinoa in their food. Think of tortillas. They’re so often bad-mouthed, but the indigenous cultures of Mexico created them and they have a lot of bioavailable, nutrition. It’s a whole grain and you add so much nutrition to it. But all that people see when they think of Mexican food or tacos is unhealthy. It’s a cheat day. For the Dominican Republic it’s plantains — everybody’s like, “It’s a carb, it’s bad for you.” And yes, it’s a starchy vegetable, but it’s loaded with fiber and minerals and vitamins from the ground. It has more nutrition than wheat bread. But again, we’re not thinking about it that way because we’ve been conditioned to think that this white-washed way of eating, this “clean” way of eating, is better, when in reality, our foods are good. We’re just not educated on it.
Q. How have you seen the health of your Latino patients change when you work with them through this lens?
A. The results are in the numbers when it comes to their lab work. I see how their stress goes down. I see how their hemoglobin A1c goes down. I see how we can bring down the bad cholesterol and bring up the good cholesterol. And how we can make a difference in their health, whatever that means to them, because they’re no longer plagued by this idea that their food is killing them.
Q. What do you say to Latinas who constantly try to “improve” their bodies through dieting?
A. You deserve to be at peace with the body you have. Bodies change, and I know it’s cliche to say this, but your worth does not. We live in a world where we’re constantly fighting so many other things; we should try to be at peace with our body, to nourish our body, and to at least feel safe in the body we have as much as we can.
Q. Who is another Latina we should feature on Informada?
A. Camila Ramón over at Peloton.She’s great. She’s doing so much for the community by bringing access to exercise differently, so that all bodies feel comfortable exercising.