My name is Catherine Ko. Welcome to my website.

I am a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), based in the beautiful and culturally diverse San Gabriel Valley, just outside of Los Angeles, California. I have been working in a private practice, providing nutrition consultation to people in need, since 2014.

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, “Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) is an evidence-based, individualized nutrition process meant to help treat certain medical conditions”. I know this sounds daunting, but a simplified version of MNT would be a “low calorie diet” to “weight loss”. The medical condition is obesity, and the corresponding MNT would be a low-calorie diet.

My job is to recommend what to eat, what to avoid eating, or to provide a sensible meal plan. Often I establish behavioral changes into the way people approach food and nutrition. Working in a private practice has been a great privilege and humbling journey. Food is an intimate part of our lives. I get to hear about people’s lives, their struggles and joys of food and help them get more out of that experience. By listening and talking to people about food, my horizon of the world gets expanded and the difficulties of pursuing a better diet are introduced. Some of those challenges presented are : 

• people who just would rather not cook
• people who are not equipped to cook or prepare a meal
• people who have a limited budget, but strive to eat “healthy”
  people who are confused by the overwhelming amount of nutritional information that exist
• people who, in theory, know what to do, but have difficulty translating it into their daily life practice
• people who are discouraged by the monotony of their diet, when they try to change
• people who are stunned by the complexity of the diet prescribed by their doctors

There is a great need for practical advice and information on changing a diet. I’ve been thinking about this for a few years and the idea of this site is finally taking shape: the purpose of this website is to bridge the gap between goals of accomplishing better health and the lack of ability to make it happen through diet.

You can expect to see some my thoughts on certain nutrition-related topics, basic cooking techniques, easy-to-make recipes using inexpensive ingredients, cross-cultural references and the therapeutic effects of such recipes. The reason this website exists is because of my patients taking the time to share their lives with me. In various ways, their stories contribute to this site and I am forever grateful for their trust. My hope is that while you might have stumbled across this blog, you leave with new information and maybe even some inspiration.

– Catherine, 2021