There has been a lot of discussion among nutrition professionals, lately about the wealth of inaccurate nutrition information being spread by the media. The problem is the media doesn’t know any better than the public!

Why would the media do such a thing? Do they do this when looking for someone to discuss medical issues? Nope; they contact an MD. Do they do this when discussing teeth? Nope; they contact a DDS or other dental professional.

But when it comes to nutrition, it seems that if someone reads a lot of books or takes some certification program (as many people do to list their qualifications to call themselves a ‘nutritionist’), or just decides to call themselves a ‘nutritionist’, or even today a ‘nutrition coach’, then they are suddenly the person asked to speak to an audience that could be in the millions!

YIKES!

I have shared links of dietitians who have shown up on national shows on Twitter, but not everyone is on Twitter, so I’ll share a couple of them, here:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8295838

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8278705

As a result of the discussions I mentioned above, another colleague finally had enough and felt compelled to write a blog on the issue, which is here: http://tinyurl.com/p27obu.

What is the point to all of this? My point is that as a business professional, you may not know what is really accurate nutrition information and what isn’t. When a ‘nutritionist’ comes onto a national show and gives advice, some of the advice may be just a bit off. Will it harm you? Probably not. But it also may cause you to change your eating habits that COULD actually put your health at risk!

If someone tells you to eat avocado every day for lunch, instead of a balanced meal, I again cringe. I LOVE avocados, but unless you’re working to GAIN weight, I would NOT suggest you eat a whole one every day. Yes, it’s a healthy fat, but it IS all fat! A fat serving is 1/8th of an avocado, which is 45 calories. This means you will eat an extra 360 calories a day if you ate a whole one each day. At that rate, you could gain a pound of weight in 9 days!

And I’ll use another one of of these issues as an example: Fruit. Does it matter WHEN you eat fruit? NO! What’s most important is you EAT it! Now, maybe YOU can’t eat fruit at certain times, like after a meal, but rather than promoting that eating fruit after a meal will slow down digestion (which is mis-information), you need to determine if eating fruit for YOU causes you problems after a meal.

Now, before I get tons of complaints about disparaging the term ‘nutritionist’, let me end by saying that there IS such a thing as a ‘qualified’ nutritionist. Do your homework. Someone who has taken a certification program is NOT anyone I would want providing nutrition information to any family member or friend of mine. But, not everyone decides to take the next steps and become a registered dietitian after getting a degree in nutrition from a QUALIFIED educational program, which is fine. More important is, what do I mean by qualified? A correspondence school is NOT a qualified educational program. A bachelor’s degree or above in nutrition would be a qualified program.

How do you know if a person is someone you should listen to? Look at where they went to school and what their experience is. If they said they attended a particular school, check out the school! It should be an accredited school in the educational system, not some little hole-in-the-wall that provided a diploma.

I’ve love to hear your comments!

Margie

One of my action items for when I was done with school was to get involved, as a volunteer, with the Inland Empire Women’s Business Center . I’ve recently had several conversations with their training manager and they are now taking me up on my offer! Naturally, as a business coach, this is a good fit for me, and I’m excited to work with a wider range of women who wish to start a business.

In 2006, shortly after starting my MBA program at Cal State, I took part in their “It’s Your Time” business plan competition and education program. That was my first ‘real’ business plan, incorporating cash flow projections and a SWOT analysis, neither of which I had ever even heard of before. Naturally, since my MBA emphasis was in Entrepreneurship, after that, I did multiple business plans and marketing plans! In fact, it helped me better map out what to discuss in my book, Just Jump,  and how better to help clients.

The project I am currently working on is evaluating business plans that have been submitted for this very same program that I took part in, as a student, in 2006. I love seeing the fruits of all my labor (school) now paying off!

What I am seeing is a wide variety of clarity, focus and purpose in these plans – good and bad. I also better understand what was being considered when MY plans were submitted for evaluations! Some plans are excellent and I have graded them very high. Others… well, they have more work to do. It is said that in order to increase your likelihood of success with a business, that you have to put a business plan together, and these plans really bring that point home for me!

If you are working on starting your business, be sure to definitely put a plan together! As with the Women’s Center, mentioned above, there are many low-cost or free programs to help you create your plan. The first resource I often point people to is the Small Business Association. Play around on there because they have a LOT of tools to help you! You can also just do a Google search for ‘business plans’, and get TONS of help. Granted, some are better than others.

When clients come to me, or members join the Just Jump into Business membership program, I do things differently than a ‘traditional’ business coach. They have preliminary work to do before they even THINK of starting a business plan because, as professionals who specialize in what THEY do, they can quickly become overwhelmed with the thought of a business plan. They do not know ‘business’. Terminology is different. Focus is different. However, by addressing all the important PARTS of what goes into a business plan from a different perspective, by the time they have completed that preliminary work, they are ready!

We have several different services to help people move forward, and if the one-on-one coaching, small group coaching, or the membership coaching program are not for you, the business planning services, provided by our Business Plan Specialist, Mike Capps, MBA, might be the best route for  you.

No matter what you do when putting ideas and thoughts together for your business, do take the time to put a business plan together. It does not have to be a novel, but it does need to help you focus on what you want to create, what you will offer, who you will target and how likely it is to succeed. For a better sense of why a business plan is important, read Mike’s article, “Business Planning and Business Plans: What’s the Big Deal“. Creating a business plan is a tool for success; use it and benefit from it!

Margie