Do The Change: Challenging and Reimagining OEHS
This podcast focuses on highlighting upcoming leaders in their fields and how they got to where they are today with a special focus on the field of Occupational Health and Environmental Health Sciences & Health Equity. So we are going to be talking about all the hills and valleys of their journeys and get some insight into non-traditional paths into the field. Sponsored by the Northern California Education and Research Center for Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of California Berkeley, San Francisco, and Davis.
Do The Change: Challenging and Reimagining OEHS
Do the Change: Episode 7 - Nike Omomukuyo (Part 1)
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Join us for a conversation with Adenike Omomukuyo, a 3rd year MPH/RD student at UC Berkeley. Through her education, Adenike became acutely aware of the invisibility many face in the world of nutrition, which motivated her to delve deeper into the intricate relationship between the body and food, and to advocate for body liberation and representation. In this episode, Nike sheds light on her path to becoming a dietician and navigating the complexities and barriers that can hinder underrepresented individuals from entering the fields of nutrition and dietetics.
See full transcript here: https://www.coeh.berkeley.edu/do-change-Nike-Omomukuyo
Hi everyone! Welcome to the Do The Change podcast where we're challenging and reimagining OEHS. In this podcast we focus on highlighting upcoming leaders in their field and how they got to where they are today with the special focus on the field of Occupational Environmental Health but we're also touching on other topics as well. So we're going to be talking about all the hills and valleys of their journeys, get some insight into some non-traditional paths into the field. So my name is Tyra Parrish and I'm a recent graduate from the MPH program here at Cal and our guest for this episode is Nike Omomukuyo.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Omomukuyo.
TYRA PARRISH:Yes, close enough. I am so sorry.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:It's okay.
TYRA PARRISH:Just, full transparency, I practiced, but.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:She did. We appreciate it. Thank you.
TYRA PARRISH:Thank you so much. So Nike is a current third year Masters in Public Health student at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She's concentrating in Maternal and Child Health Nutrition. After graduating from Cornell with her BS in Human Biology Health and Society, she has spent the past five years working in Public Health Nutrition, sorry, in the Public Health Nutrition field as an anti-racist health policy innovator, implementation science researcher, and recovery coach. Her special areas of interest center on eating behaviors around socioecological stress and trauma, and food as medicine reformation? Reformation. Sorry, y'all my stutter is catching up with me right now. An aspiring pediatric dietitian, she aims to transform the nutrition care process of vulnerable BIPOC youth through a health equitable lens that constructs racial- racially international models with treatment settings, offers language for strengths-based trauma-informed feeding approaches and ultimately prioritizes community, inclusivity, sustainability, and healing. So Nike, welcome to our podcast and thank you for sitting with me as I go through those words.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Oh my gosh.
TYRA PARRISH:I know, all that-
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Thank you for that. Oh my gosh, thanks for that introduction goodness. It is such an honor to be here thank you for making the space. I think this is a really like powerful thing to be doing as we like uplift each other's voices. so I'm excited to be here.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah, I'm so glad to have you here and we're gonna jump into our first question which is actually a check-in question. So what was the last book that you read, what was it about, who was it by and if you could rate it out of 10 what would it be?
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yeah, so I love this question. I've actually, this summer have been trying to get back into reading. I used to love reading especially when I was younger but, life. But this summer the last thing I read was Summer on the Bluffs. It's a non-fiction novel by- sorry, fiction novel, my bad by Sunny Hostin. And it's kind of just giving tea behind like black wealth and black luxury in Oak Bluffs. And Oak Bluffs is one of the most exclusive black communities- black beach communities in Martha's Vineyard. Which is in like the Northeast, so very juicy. I would probably give it a good eight, eight out of 10.
TYRA PARRISH:Oh, cool.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yeah it's been nice of a summer read for sure.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah, okay cool. And I feel like that's timely because Martha's Vineyard's where people or particularly black people go to during the summer so that's very timely.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yeah, for sure I've also like- I've always wanted to go to, I guess I kind of wanted to go to Martha's Vineyard, I never got- I've never been able to. For many reasons, because it's expensive. So it felt like I was there just from reading the book and then I think a lot of like black women also in this generation have been trying to lean into like black luxury, in like little but big ways. So I just love like reading about it and just like seeing the drama and the story, the stories behind it. So, recommend for sure.
TYRA PARRISH:Okay, I'll definitely check it out because I've been looking for new books, which is why I really like this question. So I think the last book that I read, I did finish this other book so I'm into like crime like novels or actually mysteries like Sherlock Holmes.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yes.
TYRA PARRISH:I just recently read this book, it's called, I think it's called A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Sounds crazy, but it's just about this girl where for a high school project she decides to like investigate a town like murder. Essentially, she found out that the person who was accused of doing it was completely innocent and she actually finds the actual person who did it. But it's like a class capstone project, so it was super cool because I really appreciated one, the book also had images in it so you can kind of follow along with her, but then she also typed like capstone entries so you felt like you were-
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:No way.
TYRA PARRISH:Felt like you were investigating with her, and it was super cool.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:That is so cool.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah, it was really good, an easy binge read. And that was actually the first book that I've read for fun since high school because college made everything not fun.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Talk about that, talk about that.
TYRA PARRISH:So, yes I think now I'm trying to venture, I'm like okay, I got one now let me ventured into different genres again.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yeah, that is so cool. Do you feel like, I'm curious is like what inspired you to want to pick a mystery based novel?
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah, I feel like I'm always for like even with movies, I enjoy movies and books where I'm kind of confused for like majority of the book, and then at the end-
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:It makes you think.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah, and everything's like makes sense, and like that just keeps my mind engaged. I'm trying to figure out who did it like or whodunit type of thing and so I feel like I was- I was thinking like if I'm gonna start off with a book, a new book or like a new kind of re-finding my love for books, why not do it- why not find a genre that's close to what I love watching? So-
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yes.
TYRA PARRISH:So I chose it, yeah.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:That is so exciting I can't wait to hear what genre you explore, you explore next.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah, I have the Michelle Obama books. Maybe, Michelle I don't know if Michelle's a genre but Michelle Obama is a vibe.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:We can make it a genre. She should honestly have her own genre.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah. Just Michelle.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Just Michelle, yep.
TYRA PARRISH:Okay, so I'm just gonna jump into the, now the first official question of the podcast. So walk us through your journey into the field of nutrition, was there any defining moments or experience kind of in your life that made you choose nutrition or do you feel like it was more like a collection of experiences and moments that pushed you into the field of nutrition?
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yeah. this is a great question, I think it helps me in the present, after going through so much already in the space to have some like important reflection. I think I would say that my journey in the field was a collection of experiences and moments for sure. I think my first, first introduction into like food and foodscapes came from like birth. I'm, I am Nigerian American ethnically, so that just exposed me to a very unique plate of different kinds of rich spices and rich foods and just very traditional Nigerian dishes from childhood. I grew up mainly having Nigerian dishes and then, my parents are immigrants and so in trying to assimilate to American culture also having experiences of them trying to like Nigerianize or Americanize, like American dishes. There's one thing my mom used to do, is sometimes she tried to make us spaghetti, like traditional American style spaghetti. And she would make Nigerian stew, which if you've ever had Nigerians do it's extremely spicy. So she's making this Nigerian stew to be the tomato sauce base for the spaghetti and then she mixes it with the spaghetti and so it's like you're supposed to be eating spaghetti-
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Like the American style which is a lot more like potable, not as like heat, you know you don't have as much heat in your mouth. But in her effort to like make it like assimilate, you know to the style, the food styles of America that's something that I experienced a lot. So that was my first introduction into just like understanding my own unique foundation in nutrition. Like my own unique nutrition landscape, and then I also, born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. So that was another very unique experience in a cent- like the center or the epicenter I would say of like black food geography.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:In the South. So,exposed to traditional southern style foods most of my life, mixed in with being Nigerian. And then, when I moved to Seattle and I was a teen, I started going to high school there and that was my first time being in a food geography that was a stark contrast to how I grew up. Like fully. And I think honestly that was probably my first introduction into diet culture. Because I did not grow up on that. At least within my own like southern hub, Nigerian American hub. And I had a hard time understanding it. A lot of my peers in my high school would like eat predominantly solids, you know or just very like very eurocentric style lunches and things that I wasn't used to. So I think it made me like hyper aware of how I stood out, and then also just I was the only black woman, black person in a lot of my classroom spaces so I was having a hard time just like trying to understand this new environment. And then just seeing like a difference, being very stark with diet culture, like my first introduction to diet culture. Unfortunately, I went through a lot of other, I also just you know grew up having to overcome a lot of trials and tribulations in my life. And I don't think I understood how much those things were impacting me, again being Nigerian American, being a child of immigrants, and then also now, when I entered by undergrad, I would be like first generation. So I was also now a first generation college student. I am the youngest and only daughter in my family and so kind of just like kind of feels like you're like the first daughter a little bit-
TYRA PARRISH:Yes.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:At times, and that can be a lot of pressure and expectation. I think I had to grow up really fast very young. And so I was and also again just having overcome a lot of severe trauma as a child, and so I was just trying to do a lot of things. Essentially trying to control a lot of things and manage what I think was like underlying anxiety.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:And I think that once I got into college I was- I got into it an Ivy league Institution, and I was working multiple jobs to help with my school, and I was pre-med and again all these other things, and so I think I just got very overwhelmed. And in my effort to like manage that anxiety I started to hyper-focus on food, and I think something that I could control, I thought I could control to fit in and assimilate in these spaces that were triggering my anxiety was like my body. And so I unfortunately went through a really hard time where I developed an eating disorder, you know from like my time- That I've had I think most of my life, but I don't think really manifested fully physically until I got into college. That led me into an even deeper relationship with understanding my connection to my body and then how I interact with food. I went through treatment, was really lucky and privileged to have been able to undergo intensive treatment to help me with my recovery process. And within the treatment space I also was just seeing lack of representation. From the screening process of me being diagnosed with you know my condition, and then also to just the treatment and the intervention and the space. Eating disorders are the number one cause of death for mental disorders- oh sorry the second cause of death for mental health disorders, second only to the opioid overdose.
TYRA PARRISH:Yes.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:A lot of people don't know that. And also a lot of BIPOC and queer folks are likely more, are more likely to be experiencing disorder eating symptoms, but they're half as likely to be asked about it or screened at their, by their by their physician. So I was just seeing a lot of inequities and invisibility I felt like, in the space. So that kind of got me thinking even deeper about what it means to be a black woman, what it means to be a Nigerian American, what it means to be first generation, what it means to be a child of immigrants, trying to understand the relationship with their body and with food.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:And trying to bring those things together. I got really interested and once my recovery got better and I you know was able to be more fully recovered, I felt comfortable actually putting myself in the nutrition space more as like an advocate. Especially with movements that were celebrating body, you know body liberation. And initially at the spaces that, the organizations that I was working with on my campus in undergrad,
I was really excited, I was like:oh my god like this is important, you know representation is important. And I feel so, I feel much more confident in myself and you know I feel like I can really advocate and support for increasing representation, also encouraging screening and access and all kinds of stuff for other black women who look like me, who struggle with things that I go through but just don't have the language, the support, the access understanding, all kinds of stuff. But even in those spaces there was still a lack of diversity and representation and it felt like the intentionality around how we were trying to really incorp- like bring in marginalized groups was lacking. That got me so frustrated.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:And I think, I was trying to think of, think through more ways again to help with like really advocating for marginalized communities who were in the space, who I know were struggling similar to how I struggled. And I thought that was going to be medicine, I came into undergrad being pre-med. I wanted to be a doctor, but that changed. And then thinking through it more after going through my experiences, I think I was leaning more so into like how could I think about like the nutrition-dietetics space as someone who can like provide care. Having the understandings that I have that are intersectional and nuanced. And that got me into- try and understand research. And trying to think through ways that I could use my mind and my experience to help build language and disseminate information about representation and symptoms and just like the uniqueness of it that a lot of communities of color, especially black communities don't have. So all in all, this urgency I would say just kind of like sparked for me. And then that helped me feel more comfortable in placing myself in more nutrition kind of related spaces with organ- partnering with organizations to help just like highlight the intersectionality of it all, and also just speak to the harms that are being done by the lack thereof. And that's kind of what led me to, that's kind of what helped us facilitate most of my career journey, so far. That was a long rant but-
TYRA PARRISH:It wasn't long girl no, it wasn't a rant.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:I hope it made sense. TYRA PARRISH: It was your story. Yeah.
TYRA PARRISH:I just want to pause and say just thank you for sharing that, because all of that is particularly just- I know you as a friend, where that's just, one it's super awesome just hearing kind of how you got to where you are in nutrition. This is actually my first time hearing it, so thanks so much for sharing, and I think that it's just amazing that what you're doing is essentially like- I'm trying to find the word, but essentially what you're doing is you are showing up for people who look like you in the space of nutrition. Which is awesome because you were in it yourself and you yourself was talking about how like there's a lack of you and there's a lack of people like you in those spaces, so it's really awesome that where you're at now is like: okay, well now I'm here in this space so that when someone shows up, you know what I mean?
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Absolutely. Thank you for-
TYRA PARRISH:But that's really awesome, and I just want to acknowledge that because that's just just another level of just being present and showing up for folks. nd so thank you so much for for sharing that and bringing just, yeah that's just awesome. that's all I want to say, it's just like you're amazing.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Oh my god, thank you that's so sweet. I appreciate the affirmation.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:And the encouragement, I think representation and visibility is so powerful and I think over the years as I've like continued to understand my story, I think I've been like empowered by it.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:And I found more strength in it and just like owning it. Which can be hard especially being in the nutrition and dietetics field because that lack of visibility is an ongoing thing in the space
TYRA PARRISH:Right.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:So it can feel even at like, it's an ongoing I think internal, mental battle. So I think it's important it's so important and it's a lot of power in owning your story and hopefully helping others feel connected to it and feel seen. That's all, all that I'm about in the nutrition dietetics space.
TYRA PARRISH:That's amazing.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Thank you.
TYRA PARRISH:Like I wish, I need to find more synonyms for amazing but that's the, that's what I'm, that's the word that's coming out of my spirit.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yeah. I'm receiving all the love and support.
TYRA PARRISH:Thanks, okay.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Thank you.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah, so I'm gonna jump to- well it's, it's actually in connection to what you just shared, but were there any mentors or folks who had showed up for you kind of during that journey as you're kind of getting into the field of nutrition, so were there any folks who provided that guidance and support and how did they contribute to your growth and just development as a leader and advocate in that space?
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yeah, absolutely. So, again, the whole like within nutrition and dietetics there, it's barely, there's barely in any representation of BIPOC folk, the black folk, a black woman. And I think at the time that I was going through recovery, my recovery journey, like almost five-ish years ago, I didn't see anybody. And I was trying to heal through, unlearn, relearn, learn new ways of self-discovery and understanding of myself and feel empowered, but also struggling to do that because I just felt really isolated and really alone. And I don't even know how I stumbled across this person and her work, but I came across Sonya Renee Taylor's book, The Body is Not an Apology. Which is written by the amazing Sonya Renee Taylor, another phenomenal black woman, who wrote this book talking about the act of radical self-love, as it relates to blackness and fatness. And how as it relates to being big bodied, and reading that during, as I was like, during my recovery period was like super enriching. And I felt like it helped me reconnect with myself in ways that the traditional like treatment that I was getting wasn't really giving me. Just from her words alone, I felt like solidarity. And the way that she talks about it in the book is like, surrendering to the internal war that we have within ourselves. And she talks about radical self-love as being more than like a truce or a ceasefire but like our very existence. And just offering empathy to ourselves, and that was like so beautiful for me to read during my recovery. So that was probably the first I would say like mentor/role model that I saw on my journey. And then as I was trying to understand ways to con- like really amplify language and information and see if there was any research that was being done around this like problem, I came across Sabrina Strings-
TYRA PARRISH:Okay.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Who wrote Fearing the Black Body. And she actually was a Berkeley Alum herself.
TYRA PARRISH:Go girl.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:And yeah, exactly. And again speaking to the racial, the racism you know the racist foundings in nutrition and dietetics as it relates to BMI and anthropometric measurements that are used, that were created and are still being used to measure body size, but were created by elite European white Americans to inferiortize African, black features. So from our faces and our bodies, and she talks about how there's been a history and an ongoing legacy of white preference towards slimness and aversion to fatness, again through inferiorizing Blackness. So I was like wow, this is this is literally what I'm trying to say, and what I have been feeling and struggling with and seeing, since my move to Seattle, in being introduced to diet culture.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Since you know going, being in college and being in a you know an Ivy League institution, where are again very much like a minority. And then going through treatment as someone who has an eating disorder and again, just being really invisible and not properly represented. So I just felt so seen by all of these instrumental black women who were speaking and voicing and putting words behind the issues that I had endured, and the issues that many black people, black women, black adolescent girls are still struggling with. So I think those are definitely like the two role models that I saw that just affirmed, affirmed the vision and the mission that I think was being created for me earlier on in my career.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah And I think that sometimes you just need that voice so you just feel like it's not just me. There's other people who are going through this, and then actually like what I'm feeling is not because there's something wrong with me. It's because of all these outside things. But if you didn't, if you don't know that then it's very valid to feel like it's like a you like individual like experience so.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Absolutely, yeah.
TYRA PARRISH:I mean those two women sound dope, and the fact that you found them both is like wonderful. And the way you describe both books I'm like hold o,n let me read that like radical self love-
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Highly encourage everyone, yes.
TYRA PARRISH:Awesome.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Absolutely.
TYRA PARRISH:And freeing. Very freeing.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Mmhmm.
TYRA PARRISH:Connecting the art with yourself, is-
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yes. Absolutely
TYRA PARRISH:Kind and loving to yourself, but-
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yes.
TYRA PARRISH:I think it's another thing, like when you're reading it and like you're internally affirming that to yourself, which is awesome.
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:For sure.
TYRA PARRISH:Yeah, so I'm gonna jump to the next question which is still connected, actually all these are connected and I'm here for it. How do you stay grounded in your community as you navigate through nutrition. So you kind of touched on it about how you've kind of had these different moments and experiences where like, where you're saying kind of- no not kind of, you're staying connected with your community as you're moving through this. And so like this question is more tailored towards maybe now or recently, of how you've stayed grounded as you're now working through and finishing your MPH, and also were there moments where you felt kind of challenged in that staying ground in your community, and then how did you grow from that?
ADENIKE OMOMUKUYO:Yes. Another great question. Being, I think once- I don't you know I don't think I realized just how further isolating it would be to stay in the nutrition dietetic world earlier on, beyond just what I was seeing from the treatment intervention space and then like experiences trying to be like, be an advocate, be in the advocacy part of nutrition. And then I had to do a lot of my own digging to find that community. So that way I wasn't feeling alone or further gaslit. I wasn't gaslighting myself or being gaslit by the predominant mainstream culture that I was around me. And so I think it was probably during 2020, the heat of 2020, when a lot more voices, black voices were being uplifted and respected, that I came across other dope amazing BIPOC leaders who have been preaching the same things. And that has that has been extremely, that was extremely validating and affirming.
TYRA PARRISH:Hi guys, this is Tyra Parrish, your host for this episode and we have reached the end of part one of this conversation with this amazing speaker. Don't click out yet, because part two of this conversation has already been posted, so go ahead and click over to the next page, and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and Spotify page.