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
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Interesting point, Margie! Even though I myself am not (nor do I claim to be!) a nutrition professional, you are completely right in that education AND experience are both vital in making an individual a qualified source of advice or information. Would you take your car in for a new transmission to someone who claims to know what they’re doing, but really only has experience in basic car maintenance and no formal training? Of course not! So, why would someone willingly put their HEALTH at risk by taking advice from unqualified individuals, when it is so relatively simple to discover if their qualifications are indeed legitimate?
This also leads me to think that, for individuals reading this who ARE legitimately qualified nutrition professionals, putting out to your market the fact that you possess these skills is most certainly a great way of self-promotion! One great thing I’ve learned from Margie is to know and recognize your personal strengths and weaknesses, but to NEVER sell yourself short, both to the world AND to yourself!
Thanks again for the interesting read, Margie!
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Great site…keep up the good work. I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,
A definite great read…
-Bill-Bartmann