Dietitians Role in Diabetes and Obesity

It is becoming clearer that the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) is increasingly complicit in the epidemic in the United States of diabetes and obesity.

With about 70 million people in the United States either with or undiagnosed with type 2 diabetes, it is undeniable that they have great influence in the dietary guidelines published every five years by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The number of times staff and officers of AND have been discovered promoting junk food is surprising.

Recently, the AND organization has stopped showing who they receive funds from on their website. They list a few sponsors, but leave most off the list. Now they want us to believe they are not shills for Big Food.

The other problem AND has created is a problem for diabetes education when a person has two titles – Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) and Registered Dietitian (RD). When they are supposed to be teaching diabetes education, the RD is instead instructed to teach nutrition as the education and then they attempt to double bill insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid for both.

All dietitian advice is brought to you by their sponsors and has been for a very long time. Now that it’s becoming more blatant, maybe the public will finally figure out that being a dietitian is akin to being a corporate big food representative. During the months of February and March, 2015, AND started promoting Kraft Singles, the individually wrapped slices of “cheese product” popular in school lunches. This is the first product to boast the AND’s new “Kids Eat Right” label. Kraft Singles are not cheese, but a combination of chemicals that represents fake cheese.

Then the Associated Press recently broke a story showing how dietitians were promoting small cans of Coca-Cola as a snack. Ben Sheidler, a Coca-Cola spokesman, compared the February, 2015, posts to product placement deals a company might have with TV shows. "We have a network of dietitians we work with," said Sheidler, who declined to say how much the company pays experts. "Every big brand works with bloggers or has paid talent."

With the current atmosphere within AND, I don't see much success coming from a group called Dietitians for Professional Integrity. The group has called for sharper lines to be drawn between dietitians and companies. Andy Bellatti, one of its founders, said companies court dietitians because they help validate corporate messages. And without corporate money, AND will continue to function as it will have complete control in the messages it allows and the dissenting group will be banned from AND.

Other companies including Kellogg and General Mills have used strategies like providing continuing education classes for dietitians, funding studies that burnish the nutritional images of their products and offering newsletters for health experts. PepsiCo Inc. has also worked with dietitians who suggest its Frito-Lay and Tostito chips in local TV segments on healthy eating. Others use nutrition experts in sponsored content, the American Pistachio Growers has quoted a dietitian for the New England Patriots in a piece on healthy snacks and recipes and Nestle has quoted its own executive in a post about infant nutrition.

If you are looking for safe nutrition advice, do not look to the members of AND or the Academy for safe nutritional information. They are a tool of big food and have been for many years, even before the name change. Maybe they are becoming too self-confident and will continue to throw any good reputation they may have out the window.

More on AADE Activities

This not an easy topic, but I feel very confident that the article written by ANH-USA is on target. Where the problem in the proposed bill starts and needs change is - (a) IN GENERAL. —Section 1861(qq) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(qq)) is amended — (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘by a certified provider (as described in paragraph (2)(A)) in an outpatient setting’’ and inserting ‘‘in an outpatient setting by a certified diabetes educator (as defined in paragraph (3)) or by a certified provider (as described in paragraph (2)(A)).’’

There is more in the bill than the AADE website shows, but at this point I am not allowed to use it. One of my Senators has told me this and he is stating that at this time, the bill is not scheduled for committee and several attempts to bypass committee approval have met with defeat. Both my Senator and the attorney have stated that it is doubtful there will be action this year on H.R. 1726 and S. 1345.

On September 25, I met with an attorney who specializes in Social Security law. He feels that the landscape has changed. I had a printout of the two bills and he read and reread both and asked if I had any other versions available. After his arrival in Washington DC, and a meeting with several Senators and Representatives he called me on Saturday and stated that I could blog about what I knew, but that he could not say more at this time other than what is in the paragraph above.

The attorney did state that the bills currently on file confirm the article published by ANH-USA. If the wording is not changed, what the AADE told Diabetes Mine indicates they are deflecting the truth.

On Monday Oct 5, the attorney called again and stated he does agree that some wording needs to be added to fairly reimburse CDEs for their time on education. He thanked me for sending a copy of my blogs for Oct 3 and 5 and he is upset by the law in Kentucky and the charge of a misdemeanor for violating the law.

I will continue to correspond with both my senators and my representative to urge them to not approve the version currently on file. It is also no surprise that the members of #DiabetesMiseducation Coalition oppose these bills.

Founding members of #DiabetesMiseducation Coalition include:

• International Association for Health Coaches
• National Association of Nutrition Professionals
• Nutrition Therapy Association
• National Health Freedom Coalition
• University of Natural Health
• Maryland University of Integrative Health
• Alliance for Natural Health USA
• American School of Natural Health
• Institute for Transformational Nutrition

These are all organizations that would be excluded under the changes, plus a few more.

This is speculation on my part, but I think that with all the AADE members and officers that have both the CDE and RD (registered dietitian)(dual) titles may be behind this and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is making its presence felt in the actions of the AADE.

I will make my feelings known about the dual titles and that something needs action to specify that if they are acting as CDEs then they need to clearly state this at the beginning of any education and not stray into nutrition as many are doing. I have spoken about this with one of my Senators and she agrees that it should be one and not both and they should only bill Medicare for one topic and not two as some have been accused of doing.

Information on Monopolistic Health Organizations

When dealing with registered dietitians (RDs) and certified diabetes educators (CDEs) you will often be given bad advice. Not only is this true in the United States, but is full blown in Australia. At least others are blogging about this and letting everyone know about dietitians and how bad they are.

The dietitians in Australia, DAA (Dietitians Association of Australia) are really punishing one that advised a patient to eat low carb. Read this blog and then this blog. Apparently, it is against the law as stated by dietitians in Australia to promote low carb. Her dietitian organization, the Southern New South Wales Local Health District (SNSW Health), has removed her license and banned her from all dietetic activities.

As if this was not bad enough, we have Dr Darren Curnoe writing in The Conversation “that there is plenty of evidence that humans have evolved to eat carbohydrates especially starches. Take the amylase genes which evolved to aid the digestion of starch either in our saliva or pancreas through secretion into the small intestine.” Associate Prof Darren Curnoe is based at the University of New South Wales. See the relationship? It is small wonder that the SNSW dietitian group heavily promotes carbohydrates.

I think those of us in the USA have an advantage as several court cases have stopped medical groups and others from running monopolistic and restrictive organizations. Read this - On February 25, the US Supreme Court ruled that North Carolina’s dental board violated antitrust laws by shutting down hair salons and day spas that offered teeth whitening services. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The decision preserves the power of antitrust enforcers to scrutinize professional licensing organizations, even if they are designated as state-government entities.”

Then with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Steve Cooksey was able to take the state of North Carolina and the Board of Dietetics and Nutrition to court on freedom of speech grounds, and with the assistance of the Institute of Justice have the court rule in his favor. With the Supreme Court case and this court decision anything put forth by the American Association of Diabetes Educators at the state level should be lost by the state CDE boards.

Therefore, I think if those of us that blog about diabetes and try to educate people about diabetes are put under the strain of criminalization by any CDE state board of diabetes education, we will have the law on our side. This means that the different meal plans (low carb or paleo food plans) are challenged by the AADE or AND, they will be dismissed.

This is good news and hopefully I will have more later.

Know When You Are Receiving Bad Advice

When dealing with registered dietitians (RDs) and certified diabetes educators (CDEs) you will often be given bad advice. You need to learn what some of the bad advice is and how to turn this back on them.

Yes, I can say mandates, mantras, and other platitudes because they are often what you will receive. They often don't properly assess you and try to bully you into accepting what they are telling you.

Recently, two of our members met with a RD/CDE (dual titles) for classes. Sue had not intended to go, but her doctor did ask her to go and report back to him. The other member was Jennifer and she was hoping to hear something more than she had been hearing from us.

When the class started, the emphasis was on whole grains and eating enough carbohydrates to prevent brain damage. Jennifer asked how many that meant and the answer was 45 grams to 70 grams per day. This told Sue that she had to think fast, but the instructor was on to planning meals that would see to it that they consumed enough carbohydrates.

When she finished with this and asked if they understood what they had been told, Jennifer asked if testing showed that they were too high for the blood glucose reading, should they reduce the grams for the next meal? The instructor did not miss a beat, but went right to telling them that if the reading was too high, they should talk to the doctor about increasing their medications or adding another medication.

Sue held her peace for that round as she was planning on dropping the bomb later. Jennifer asked what would be too high a reading and the instructor stated 180 mg/dl. Jennifer said that is in the range that could cause complications and the instructor said not if she was able to add another medication.

Jennifer said then she would need to reduce her carbohydrates as anytime she consumed whole grains; she would spike over 220 mg/dl. The instructor then advised her to have a talk with her doctor as she needed the nutrients found in whole grains.

At that point, Sue felt things had gone far enough, so she explained to the instructor that she was off all medications and eating low carb/high fat as was her husband. That really upset the instructor to the point she said that then she was not diabetic and why was she taking the class. Sue said that she had support from her husband and their support group and her doctor to work at getting off all medications and with the exercise and food plan has been able to stay off all medications.

Sue continued that whole grains are not the end-all and the nutrients could be found in other foods that were nutrient dense and did not have the carbohydrate content. Sue said even the ADA has partially accepted the low carb/high fat food plan which meant that the instructor was following the USDA guidelines instead. Sue concluded that by not encouraging testing and advising more medications that she was a fraud and did not have the best interests of patients in mind, only the interests of the corporate sponsors of the AADE and AND.

With that Sue and Jennifer left. Jennifer was very surprised at what the instructor had said and the way she was pushing whole grains, carbohydrates, and medications. Sue said she was glad Jennifer had asked about testing as most of the time they will not talk about testing and the readings to avoid. Sue said that her pushing medications is not good as this is what causes people to gain weight and often need more medication. The meal plan needs to be such that less medication is needed and if necessary help lose weight.

Jennifer asked how often to test. Sue told her to always test in pairs to be able to see how the meal affected her blood glucose levels. They had arrived at their cars and Sue said she was welcome to contact most of the older members and to ask her questions. They went their separate ways and Sue told her doctor what had happened. He thanked her and said this confirmed an earlier report by one of his patients.

Dietitians up to No Good

I don't know what else will be uncovered, but my respect for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) has reached a new low as it has for many of its members. They use the promotion of keeping us safe and being the only safe source for nutrition. If what they are doing now is any indication, they would be the last group I would want in charge of my nutrition.

All dietitian advice is brought to you by their sponsors and has been for a very long time. Now that it’s becoming more blatant, maybe the public will finally figure out that being a dietitian is akin to being a corporate big food representative. During the months of February and March, AND started promoting Kraft Singles, the individually wrapped slices of “cheese product” popular in school lunches. This is the first product to boast the AND’s new “Kids Eat Right” label. Kraft Singles are not cheese, but a combination of chemicals that represents fake cheese.

Then the Associated Press recently broke a story showing how dietitians were promoting small cans of Coca-Cola as a snack. Ben Sheidler, a Coca-Cola spokesman, compared the February posts to product placement deals a company might have with TV shows. "We have a network of dietitians we work with," said Sheidler, who declined to say how much the company pays experts. "Every big brand works with bloggers or has paid talent."

With the current atmosphere within AND, I don't see much success coming from a group called Dietitians for Professional Integrity. The group has called for sharper lines to be drawn between dietitians and companies. Andy Bellatti, one of its founders, said companies court dietitians because they help validate corporate messages. And without corporate money, AND will continue to function as it will have complete control in the messages it allows and the dissenting group will be banned from AND.

Other companies including Kellogg and General Mills have used strategies like providing continuing education classes for dietitians, funding studies that burnish the nutritional images of their products and offering newsletters for health experts. PepsiCo Inc. has also worked with dietitians who suggest its Frito-Lay and Tostito chips in local TV segments on healthy eating. Others use nutrition experts in sponsored content, the American Pistachio Growers has quoted a dietitian for the New England Patriots in a piece on healthy snacks and recipes and Nestle has quoted its own executive in a post about infant nutrition.

If you are looking for safe nutrition advice, do not look to the members of AND or the Academy for safe nutritional information. They are a tool of big food and have been for many years, even before the name change. Maybe they are becoming too self-confident and will continue to throw any good reputation they may have out the window. They are making themselves harder to ignore and people are beginning to doubt whether they are the organization to consider for sound or safe nutrition information.

Important News about Dietitians

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) is finally being set back on its heels. In their drive to become the only organization authorized to dispense nutritional information, they are meeting stiff opposition that is foiling their every move and in 2014, the organization lost their stranglehold on Michigan.

Michigan passed its Dietitian/Nutritionist Licensure Act in 2006. This created a monopoly for Registered Dietitians and excluded other nutrition professionals whether equal or better educated and qualified. On July 15, 2014, the governor signed HB 4688 into law, repealing the state's monopolistic licensure law for nutrition professionals.

The effort was a combined effort of several organizations that are working to prevent or repeal other state licensure laws. Other notable successes this year:

• “In New York, ASB 4999, a bill sponsored by the AND which we fought, ultimately died in committee because of all the messages you sent to NY legislators.
• In the last three years, ANH-USA and its allies have managed to block nineteen separate attempts to institute monopolistic dietetic laws across the nation. We also proactively and positively reshaped the anticompetitive law in Illinois, where the AND is headquartered.
• The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) keeps a list of professions where each is defined in detail and statistics about it are kept. Previously, “Dietitians and Nutritionists” were categorized together, and the AND was listed as the sole certifying organization for the entire profession. In a milestone victory on January 8, 2014, nutritionists managed to get “Nutrition” defined as a different profession than “Dietetics,” and importantly, the BCNS (Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists) is now identified as the certifying organization for nutritionists. This national, federal recognition of the unique credentials of Certified Nutrition Specialists is extraordinarily important.
• And don’t forget our recent federal victory in which nutritionists won equal recognition with dietitians for the right to prescribe patient diets in hospitals.”

Some of the organizations working in cooperation include the Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists (BCNS), the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH-USA), and other national groups.

Are RDNs Being Taught Proper Nutrition?

If you don't believe that registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) are in the pocket of Big Food, you need to read this blog. The Academy of Dietetics and Nutrition (AND) keeps setting themselves up as the only organization to educate people about nutrition, but it fact are just parroting what Big Food and Big Government wants them to say.

The annual conference of the California Dietetic Association demonstrates just how in bed with Big Food the group is. I suggest that you read this article by Kiera Butler, who attended the conference and had some real interesting comments about the sponsors. They included the Wheat Council, Hershey's, McDonalds, the International Food Information Council, Coca-Cola, Abbott Nutrition, Pepsi, General Mills, and Kellogg’s.

The RDNs were told that GMOs are perfectly safe and environmentally friendly. Unfortunately, the jury is still out on this and many proposed studies have been stonewalled and funds withheld. This is how the USDA and Big Agriculture protect their vested interests. The Wheat Council hosted a presentation about how gluten intolerance was just a fad, not a real medical problem. For those that live with Celiac Disease, it is a real medical problem and whole grains are permanently off the menu.

Lest you think that all members of AND are in agreement with Big Food, they are not. They have formed a new organization named Dietitians for Professional Integrity (DPI). This group is presently trying to work within AND. It will be interesting to see if they are successful, which I have big doubts considering the leadership of AND and the activities at the state level to have laws passed to make criminals out of other professional nutritionists with more nutrition education.

Take time to thoroughly explore the link above and learn what some members are trying to do. I wish them well in their endeavor. Attempting to work within AND will require a lot of effort and cause problems for them which they may have difficulty overcoming.

An Interview That Did Not Happen

It is with great reluctance that I am doing this blog. I have been attempting contact with the Academy of Certified Diabetes Educators and I trust one of the current board members that on March 26 stated that my request for an email interview was being forwarded to the Academy Board President. It is now April 23, and I have had no contact with the current board president.

This does concern me as a person with type 2 diabetes. Then I opened the ACDE website and this I quote,

“An Important Legislative Update!

Indiana Diabetes Educator Licensure

The ACDE Board of Directors (BOD) was disappointed to learn that Indiana Governor Pence signed Bill SEA 233 into law. This bill allows for a person who has NO healthcare licensure or registration to obtain a “diabetes educator license” in Indiana. The ACDE BOD recognizes that only qualified licensed/registered health care professionals who have passed a validated examination are qualified to provide diabetes self-management education. We will work closely with NCBDE and the Indiana Medical Board regarding implementation of state regulations. Our goal is to educate legislators and the general public about the validity of the CDE® credential to ensure quality diabetes education services that meet national standards are provided to those with diabetes.”

Obviously, the Indiana state legislature and the Governor of Indiana saw a clear purpose for passing this bill and making it law. Could it be that the people of Indiana are not being served by the CDE profession? Could it also be that the medical community asked for this because of problems and lack of education being given by the CDEs in Indiana?

This should bring caution to both CDE organizations and cause for investigation before making the above statement. If either of my questions is answered yes, then the CDE profession needs to investigate the reasons the law was passed and find out what the members of their profession have done to cause the law in the first place.

I have been blogging about the lack of education for people with type 2 diabetes, whether on oral medications or insulin. Many of the doctors in the state of Iowa are also upset about the lack of and poor education provided people with type 2 diabetes. Even many people with type 2 diabetes do not like the education provided by CDEs when it amounts to mandates, mantras, and worn out cliches.

Several of our local doctors are working with people in the local diabetes support groups for education and spending some time educating groups of us to help their patients. It would be great if we could be reimbursed for some of our time, but currently we do this on a volunteer basis as we feel the urgent need to help the other people with type 2 diabetes.

The above notice from the ACDE website concerns me, as it appears that the organization wants to be in charge of limiting who can pass on knowledge about diabetes to other people with diabetes. This sentence from the above quote does make one question the motives and how exclusive they intend to become. “Our goal is to educate legislators and the general public about the validity of the CDE® credential to ensure quality diabetes education services that meet national standards are provided to those with diabetes.” Bold is my emphasis and whether the national standards will be for the benefit of people with type 2 diabetes.  Quality diabetes education requires more than mandates and without educators that have diabetes themselves, often we receive little education of value when they approach education in a one-size-fits-all mode.

Exclusivity is the motto of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) and we don't really need another organization that promotes they are the only organization to legally serve people with diabetes education. The AND organization also tried to limit freedom of speech about nutrition and criminalize people not in their membership writing about nutrition and teaching nutrition in North Carolina and Ohio.

Healthy Plate By Joslin, Maybe Not So Healthy

If you are a follower of the ADA food plan, you will enjoy the Joslin healthy plate. If you need to gain some weight, you will love the Joslin healthy plate. Does this tell you what you need to know about the Joslin healthy plate?

It is not as interactive as a person would like and in fact is rather rigid in options, as you would expect a registered dietitian to be because of being a proponent of BIG Food. I attempted to get a variance to help with weight loss, but everything I tried came up the same when I wanted Joslin healthy plate to do the calculations. If I were to follow the plan, I could figure on gaining approximately 5 pounds per month. Some weight loss plan!

Even using a meal plan that you may have and then following this route would not let you have fat or products containing fat. This shows that unless you use their high carbohydrate – low fat (HCLF) foods, you will not even be able to have a balanced meal that you might like to eat. Yes, those with diabetes that are able to consume the HCLF without causing spikes in their blood glucose levels can eat this. For the majority of people with type 2 diabetes, the Joslin healthy plate food plan will not be one that you will find satisfactory.

I can only surmise that the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) has been more influential in reminding their members to follow certain guidelines instead of allowing any deviation from positions not supported by BIG Food.

While the American Diabetes Association (ADA) does now support other food plans including low carbohydrate – high fat (LCHF), the AADE and AND will not allow what the ADA allows. These two groups will continue to loose support among the patient population for their rigid position.

Nutritionally Unsound Fad Diet Endorsed By AND

I admit the last three weeks have not been good for my blood pressure. Again, my anger is fired by another group telling people with diabetes what they should be doing. This time it is the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) that is endorsing a fad diet based on white rice and fruit. White rice is not a food that is good for diabetes and causes our blood glucose to spike to high levels because the glycemic index is very high. The right fruit can be beneficial for diabetes, but certainly not all fruit as this fad diet proclaims.


Amy Jamieson-Petonic, a registered dietitian and a spokeswoman for AND is promoting the Rice Diet as nutritionally sound. The AND supports the Rice Diet, with few concerns such that it is difficult to follow and that it is low in vitamin D and calcium.


“There are so many weaknesses with this diet that it’s difficult to know where to start.

• First, the reason people lose so much weight is that dieters consume only 1200 calories per day—many of which are empty calories.
  
• The diet is low-fat and low-protein, even though healthy fats and proteins are essential for maintaining health.
  
• Despite the fruit, it’s low in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), and this may accelerate the degenerative diseases of aging.
  
• White rice is extremely high on the glycemic index, which means that rice is rapidly digested and absorbed, resulting in dramatic fluctuations in blood sugar levels—the very things that can develop into type 2 diabetes or for those with type 2 diabetes, make it more difficult to manage.
  
• Too much fructose in fruit can be dangerous as well. While it’s better to have fructose in the form of whole fruits, people with diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol should be careful to limit fructose to 15 grams per day or less and even healthy people should probably not exceed 25 grams a day. One way to assess your fructose sensitivity is to have your uric acid levels tested.”
  

Given these reasons, I have to seriously wonder why people are determined to follow the AND way of nutrition when they have many companies in the processed food industry and companies such as Coca-Cola sponsoring their activities. The AND is continuing to press state legislatures and the federal agencies to allow them to be the only group educating people about nutrition. Then after getting many states to pass the legislation, they seek to criminalize degreed nutritionists who actually promote good nutrition.

Article about Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Are we headed for problems in the field of nutrition? If the Academy for Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) has their way, many people with chronic diseases will be worse off than they are presently. Those of us with diabetes will need to educate ourselves completely about nutrition to avoid the poor information that will be dispensed by those licensed by the AND. AND's former name was ADA (American Dietetic Association),

Currently in several states where AND licensure has been passed by state legislatures, nutritionists of all types are being force out of business. This includes, but is not limited to nutritionists having a PhD in nutrition, but other highly trained nutritionists specializing in other fields, but give out nutritional information. Am I endorsing all types of people giving out nutritional advice? No, but those that have a degree in nutrition should not be forced out of business just because they do not want to belong to AND.

However, this is what is transpiring in many states where the AND has gotten their licensure bills passed. They consider people not part of their organization as competition and are going after them with a vengeance unlike many of us have seen before. Yes, history shows that this has happened before in the medical community between different professions, but the bitterness this time is very bad for the registered dietitians (RD) and style in which the AND is attempting to end competition.

At least now several groups are fighting the efforts of the AND and their campaign to criminalize non-RD nutrition providers. These groups include the Alliance for Natural Health, USA, the American Nutrition Association, and the Weston A. Price Foundation. These groups plus other organizations are mobilizing their memberships and constituents to oppose the AND monopoly. Even consumers will lose the choice of nutrition professionals to choose from and where they wish to receive nutrition information.

If you do not wish to have policies from the American Diabetes Association, the USDA, and other government agencies that the AND follows and advocates, then you need to pay attention and oppose the actions of AND in your state. If you did not read my previous blog on the same topic, read it here and the links in the blog. Read the link for starting this blog here.

I know from correspondence with several people I consider friends in the current AND and outside, that some of them are joining other organizations where they will be able to practice nutrition outside the AND and one is retiring to avoid the squabble. A couple of current RDs will retain their membership in AND until such time as they are able to leave.

It is a shame that so much of the then ADA (American Dietetic Association) and now Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics licensure requirements was pushed through many state legislatures so quietly. Now the battle will be to have the laws repealed or changed to prevent the monopolization of nutrition. Check the licensure requirements for you state here,

What Is the American Dietetic Association Attempting?

This is definitely a two-edged sword and I have to wonder at the basis for the name change. The American Dietetic Association (ADA) changed its name to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) in January 2012. Does this mean that they now have an organization for teaching nutrition and dietetics? Or, is this now an organization through which they will enforce their mafia-style tactics on their members to keep them in line and preaching their mantras. I suspect all of this and more after reading this article in forbes dot com.

The article is several pages and points out a frightening array of changes ahead as they attempt to gain control of the field of nutrition. They are doing this through credentialing and state licensure. In the process, people that have degrees in nutrition and are practicing their profession will no longer be allowed to under efforts being supported and lobbied for by the AND. Until they become credentialed under the Commission on Dietetic Registration, they will be forced to stop what they are teaching. Under the laws supported in some states, if they do not stop, they may face jail time and severe financial penalties.

I even have to wonder if they will go after instructors teaching nutrition in our colleges and universities. This remains to be determined, but under the laws of a few states, this may be possible. We do not need nonsense like this crowding our over worked court system.

What the AND has done in effect is to prevent the nutritionists from forming their own group and credentialing organization. They are in effect legally taking over by bringing this group of people under their control, and credentialing. If you doubt this, why else would this organization apply to the US Patent and Trademark Office for a series of certification marks, a type of trademark related to credentialing, for a comprehensive array of nutrition-related professional titles, including:

• Certified Nutrition Associate
• Certified Nutrition Coach
• Certified Nutrition Educator
• Certified Nutrition Manager
• Certified Nutrition Professional
• Registered Nutrition Associate
• Registered Nutrition Coach
• Registered Nutrition Educator
• Registered Nutrition Manager
• Registered Nutrition Professional

The certification mark applications, in conjunction with the name change, suggest that the AND is attempting to expand its scope and influence, from its decades-old role as the industry group for Registered Dietitians, to now encompass the entire field and professional practice of nutrition.

To quote from the article “The document specifically bemoans that the word “dietitian” (the trade group’s decades-old area of coverage and specialty) is regulated far more heavily than the word “nutritionist”:

Simply put, governments more strictly regulate the work of and qualifications for dietitians than it does for nutritionists, and competitors are explicit about their intention to exploit this dietetics/nutrition distinction. An array of competitors is already providing would-be clients with personalized health education and nutritional counseling in growth areas such as prevention and wellness and in private practice careers. The required and necessary skill set of RDs competing with these other nutrition professionals may not necessarily be the same that clinical dietitians [sic], but RDs cannot cede this expanding market to others who clearly intend to provide nutrition services. [Emphasis added]”

The document does list in detail the competitive threat posed by many different types of non-RD practitioners who give nutrition advice and includes the threats from nurses, pharmacists, personal trainers, chiropractors, and naturopaths and homeopaths.

As the author of the article was so careful to document, “the devil is in the details.” In several states the then ADA was able to force several qualified nutritionists out of business because the law was not specific enough for their profession in allowing for them to dispense nutritional advice as part of their practice and thus ADA succeeded in forcing them out.

It will be a sad day for nutrition if this is allowed to run its course and obesity will become even more of a problem. Plus we will be forced to live closer to USDA guidelines. If the AND makes further intrusions into the healthcare system, we may be forced to pay fines for not eating by their guidelines.

Carefully read what the full article says and especially take time to read this PDF from the files of the then ADA, now AND.