Adams Smith slices into homegrown nutrition business

By Kayleigh Rahn
Kristina Adams Smith grew up playing in the dirt with her mother and grandmother.

And, from the women in her family, she learned at a young age to collect a garden harvest and transform the goods into delicious, healthy meals for the family. Working in the kitchen with the spoils from the family garden helped Adams Smith draw a special connection to real food early in life and eventually to a fulfilling career teaching people how to have healthy relationships with what they place on their plates.

And after nearly two decades of working in a medical center atmosphere, the Tuscola native is launching her homegrown nutrition counseling and cooking demonstrations business –Sliced Right Nutrition–that focus on weight management and healthy relationships with food.

Following 12 years of work with Carle Foundation Hospital and six years at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Services, Sliced Right Nutrition is Adams Smith’s next venture.

The two-fold business model offers nutrition consultation in one-on-one or group counseling in a variety of mediums and cooking demonstrations by Adams Smith that showcases her arsenal of healthy swaps in the kitchen.

“As long as I can remember, my grandmother canned, and in the summers that’s where we spent our time, my mother helped her, and I think just seeing and being exposed to the love of gardening and canning, that brought of love of home cooked food with it,” Adams Smith said. “As I got older and went to school I kept thinking what could I do. It was either culinary school or, after talking with my adviser, the dietetics option came up. She said a master’s in nutrition is one piece, but a degree in dietetics can open a lot more doors.”

The 1988 TCHS graduate earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in dietetics at Eastern Illinois University and completed a dietetic internship at Carle. While working through the clinical rotations there were a variety of departments interns experienced.

“When I did the community rotation, that’s the one that stuck with me the most, being out in the community, talking with people who had lots of questions about how can they do better,” she said.” When I did the clinical rotation piece, I was hearing from people who were there because they weren’t taking care of themselves. Very few and far between would you get someone who was ready for change. That’s when it clicked. I want to be reaching the people who are ready to hear what I want to say, who are ready for a change.”

The full story can be found in the Wednesday, Jan. 16 edition of The Tuscola Journal.