In article >,
"graham" > wrote:

> "sf" > wrote in message
> ...

> > Oh, so they're the chiropractors of that industry? I just assumed
> > they were all college grads with a science background, had to pass a
> > test to be licensed, had adhere to standards and follow good practice
> > guidelines. Silly me. I have a self-contained HMO, so I don't have
> > to think about those kinds of details.
> >
> You have to be careful with these titles these days. Some "nutritionists"
> are in fact re-labelled, genuine dieticians, trained in established
> universities. However, a helluva lot aren't and they are "certified" by
> mail-order "colleges" and peddle all sorts of unscientific garbage.

Registered dietitians have at least a bachelor's degree, complete an
internship or supervised practice, and pass a national exam. For
specialties such as diabetes, pediatrics, kidney disease, and nutrition
support of ICU or burn patients, additional training and certification
are needed. In many states they may need to be licensed or certified.
The standard undergraduate curriculum in dietetics requires more
chemistry than that for nursing students and is roughly equivalent to
that required for admission to medical school. Graham is correct that
anyone can pass him/herself off as a nutritionist, even the 16-year-old
pimply part-timer at the GNC.

As far as the "influence" goes, the curriculum is not dictated by big
food. Nobody came into my office when I was teaching and said that I
should teach that high-fructose corn syrup was healthy. On the contrary:
I told students that the first thing they needed to do to lose weight
was to lose the sodas and sweet drinks. I also took a very jaundiced
view of supplements and herbal "remedies", mostly because of the lax
regulation and potential interactions with drugs. I gave students the
tools to think critically about the issues of nutrition and draw their
own conclusions. (One of my student projects was to review a diet book
and discuss it in class. Some of the books were real quackers.)

Finally, the amount of money "thrown" at dietitians' meetings is chump
change compared with medical societies. This is where the real influence
peddling is done. There's a reason that the cholesterol reduction
guidelines consist of statin drugs first, lifestyle alterations later.

Cindy

--
C.J. Fuller

Delete the obvious to email me