Food Plans According to RDs

A blog on the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) site caused me to read the entire blog. This blog is written by a registered dietitian (RD) and certified diabetes educator (CDE) among other titles. She is writing this for other CDEs and RDs and is very careful to do it correctly.

She starts by promoting low fat high carbohydrate food and discouraging sweetened beverages. By starting with eating more fish, she sets the tone of her blog. Then we learn that it is the Mediterranean and DASH diets are the foods we should be modeling our meal plans around. These are high carbohydrate foods, but she suggests this is a better route than focusing on quantities of carbohydrates. Next, she explains that the recommended diets help to minimize food plans rich in fatty meats and cheese. She says this (fatty meats) is often the default when patients are encouraged to reduce carbohydrate intake. Then she carefully states this elimination of carbohydrates would be horrifying and says she jokes with her patients that all carbohydrates should not all come from ice cream.

Then the author goes mandating when she says that one food plan does not fit all patients and that this is important to our message delivery. She says they can start listening to the patient, but she also says we must adjust their food plan to meet their needs, coach them through eating real food, and work with them to minimize the intake of foods that lack nutrient density.

In other words, this is the same message just reworded and it is to be fed to us, as patients, in a way that will guide us into eating more carbohydrates and less fat. When she concludes with this statement, “It is our job to help the patient find a way to incorporate nutrient rich foods into their daily lives, help to minimize blood glucose excursions and promote overall health,” she is really saying that RDs and CDEs need to work more diligently to convince us that we are eating more healthy foods. I don't know that more carbohydrates and less fat is healthier, and for many people this will maximize blood glucose excursions and continue to make us less healthy.

It is surprising how the English language can be used to mislead the people that are not familiar with the different ways of saying something. I admit that I almost thought about it differently – for a while, but in rereading the blog, I could not help but see the real meaning. I hope you will agree.