(December 9, 2015 at 8:45 am)Aractus Wrote:(December 7, 2015 at 9:02 pm)LadyForCamus Wrote: I am a Registered Dietitian! It is SO nice to meet not only a fellow Atheist, but fellow nutrition professional as well.Are you working toward your RD? Thank you for clarifying the Gluten issue for others. It is one of my biggest pet peeves!
One of the other things that deeply concerns me is the issue of eating disorders, and fad diets in particular 80/10/10 (/veganisim in general).
I am genuinely shocked at the number of 80/10/10 adherents that are on youtube going on about how great the diet is AND also admit to having had an eating disorder. Here's but one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYdfWhBpQUs
Perhaps even more shocking is that she also sells a "health ebook". She's 19, hasn't studied nutrition (obviously) got her information from the likes of Doug Graham (who also never studied nutrition which you would know but I'm mentioning it for the other AF members), and Leanne Ratcliffe (better known as "Freelee") who just like Graham sells her unqualified health advice, she's also an ex-anorexic (that's if she isn't still suffering from an eating disorder that is), and they're participating in the "fad diet" arena the same way that every large corporate does which is that when people complain "it's bad and it doesn't work" they blame the people not the diet. Although she claims to be qualified, she also claims her anecdotal experience is more important and accurate (see this). I imagine the qualification she claims to have is this worthless piece of junk.
They have so much junk-information out there that it dwarfs proper scientific research. Obviously since you're a dietician and not a psychiatrist you're probably not the best person for people suffering from eating disorders to see, but clearly not everyone who follows this shit has an eating disorder, so my question is does it frustrate you when clients have beliefs about food that run contrary to professional opinion? And do you ever tell clients that following such diets is a risk factor for developing mental illnesses?
Last semester in a class I was, well more horrified than shocked to be truthful, when one group presentation made the claim that people can get Vitamin D from mushrooms. And that was in a third-year course (with two previous unit prerequisites), not a first-year course! I wonder what mushrooms they've been eating...
What a great question! It is very frustrating when clients have warped or extremist beliefs about diet and nutrition, but I am not frustrated with the client, I am frustrated with the unqualified individuals (like the two great examples you provided above) who are infecting people with such nonsense. It infuriates me on so many levels.
For one, they don't realize they could cause someone serious physical and/or mental harm (like you mentioned about eating disorders) by dispensing medical nutrition therapy, or even false ideas about what diet is "right" for good health, without a formal education.
It also pisses me off that in this country people don't feel they NEED a formal education in nutrition. It's ironic how so many "nutritionists" scoff at the importance of scientific evidence, or even more sinister, spread the poisonous idea that you can't trust nutrition research, or the FDA, or the USDA, or the AHA and ADA because it's all one big national conspiracy to keep us fat. People are so confused as it is, and then they hear "don't trust the professionals!"
So, I am rambling, I apologize! To answer the second part of your question, yes, I definitely try and steer anyone I can away from harmful, restrictive, scientifically unsubstantiated diet fads. As you mentioned, I am not qualified to treat eating disorders, but maybe I can stop someone from going down that road in the first place. I had not heard of "freelee" until your post, and I have to admit after reading up she is one of the wackiest I've come across. She is a good example of someone who may actually be giving people eating disorders with all that nonsense about only raw until 4pm and her crazy macronutrient ratio. Scary. What is your work like as a public health professional?
Nay_Sayer: “Nothing is impossible if you dream big enough, or in this case, nothing is impossible if you use a barrel of KY Jelly and a miniature horse.”
Wiser words were never spoken.
Wiser words were never spoken.
