March 9 Is RDN Day

Every profession needs their day, but this profession needs something more than a day of celebration, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist day is not something I will celebrate as long as this group continues to promote low fat high carbohydrate meal plans.

Even in hospitals, one should seldom specify a meal for diabetics as it will be very high carbohydrate low fat with few exceptions. You would be better served specifying the food you want or accepting a normal meal and eating the low carbohydrate foods on the tray. The last time I was in the hospital, the doctor ordered my meals, they were very high carbohydrate meals, and I seldom consumed but a taste of a few of the foods on the tray.

Since 2008, the second Wednesday in March has marked Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) is trying to take control of National Nutrition Month and focus the attention all on them.

Registered dietitian nutritionists meet stringent academic and professional requirements, including earning at least a bachelor’s degree, completing a supervised practice program and passing a registration examination. RDNs must also complete continuing professional educational requirements to maintain registration. More than half of all RDNs have also earned master’s degrees or higher.

For some reason, I sincerely doubt the last statement above. I have read that the number is closer to one third only having a master's degree. Yet in the profession of nutrition that are not members of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) or the American Society of Nutrition (ASN), 82 percent have a master's degree or PhD in nutrition.

This tells me that there are reliable nutritionists available and our support group is fortunate to have access to two of them. We do not need to rely on members of AND and ASN that are shills of Big Food and Big Pharma. This is the reason our group will not celebrate a day for members of AND.

According to a spokesperson for AND, the majority of RDNs work in the treatment and prevention of disease (administering medical nutrition therapy, as part of medical teams), often in hospitals, HMOs, public health clinics, nursing homes or other health care facilities. Additionally, RDNs work throughout the community in schools, fitness centers, food management, food industry, universities, research and private practice.

March is National Nutrition Month, and this is the one reason we do recognize the two nutritionists that work with our support group.