Letter From an Angry Tufts Nutrition Researcher...

I received this letter recently from someone I used to know, who is now studying and researching the economics of food at Tufts University (a very noble, yet very different field of study). Her message is very angry and accusatory, yet I think (sadly) indicative of how a more mainstream nutrition "professional" might see the work practiced by a more holistic nutrition model. I wanted to share not only her letter, but my response, so all of my blog followers can have a better understanding of what I do! I posted it here on my blog, so see the link if interested!


Hey Rachel-

I don't know if you have your RD, but if you don't, I just wanted to say that I think it is totally inappropriate for you to be giving dietary advice! I hope your clients know that you aren't an RD (are you? correct me if I'm wrong). I am NOT an RD, which is why I NEVER give dietary advice, and, if someone asks me, "well, you're doing your PhD in nutrition, don't you know enough to give me dietary advice?" I respond, "no, I don't, I'm a researcher, I am NOT clinically trained, I haven't taken the exam, and my specialty is in the economics of food, so here is the phone number of a good RD that I know."

Probably you should do the same, especially because it seems that you are recommending only what is "trendy" in the world of "alternative nutrition," things that haven't necessarily been established in the literature yet.... I hope your clients know that you're not qualified! It bothers me when people give advice when they aren't certified or appropriately trained, because they think they're just "going against the system," which is apparently cool and hip and makes you not have to get the proper credentials.

Look, if you really want to change the system (and I understand that there are important things to change, and things that could be improved), just get the RD, and work in policy or research! Change it from the inside...otherwise, you're just whining! The patients/clients who really need people like you (educated in health/nutrition), are mostly poor, and can't afford your fees unless you work in a clinical setting, which you can't do if you don't have an RD! Unless you do pro-bono for malnourished, poor clients, don't pretend that you are "making a difference" in any consequential way.

Anyway, feel free to un-friend me....(maybe I should un-friend you, my message might provoke some kind of vindictive backlash, I suppose??)....I'll understand if you do, this is obviously a very bitchy, arrogant, butting-in-to-your-life-when-I-don't-know-you-anymore message. Unfortunately, I couldn't help it. I'm quite an arrogant person, and fine with it! Have a nice life! Try not to give anyone heart disease.


MY RESPONSE:

Don't fear a vindictive backlash, while I do think your message was a bit ignorant (and undoubtedly arrogant, as you pointed out), I think you are the one getting more worked up here than I am! However, I would like to address a few things.

First of all, I'm not sure if in between your rants you were able to check out my website to see what I actually do, but just in case you don't know, I do have a 2 year certification from Bauman College of Holistic Nutrition...I am not simply blogging about the "trendy" new fad diets out there. And let me tell you a bit about what got me to this point, since you're right, you don't know me at all.

Post Guatemala, I worked in social services with various non-profits for several years, both in domestic violence shelters and as a case manager for a child abuse prevention program, where I did home visits with my clients. Seeing the kinds of foods they were putting into their bodies, and the diseases that were created by lifetimes and generations worth of non-nourishing foods, along with some personal health issues, led me to consider getting my doctorate in Naturopathic medicine. After a few pre-reqs, I realized this was financially not feasible, and ended up finding Bauman College of Holistic Nutrition, since nutrition was/is my main area of interest.

My long term goal is to open a wellness center which provides, first and foremost, community education in poor/uneducated communities, and sliding scale fees (which if you saw on my website, I do now as well). So yes, I feel good about the difference I am working towards making, and I think it will be/is consequential.

As far as our ideas about food and diet go, we simply just don't agree, and that's ok. I do give dietary suggestions. I would never tell my clients who were thinking of visiting an RD not to, by any means, and I'm sure there are many good ones out there. But the RD's I've met in my practice have a very different approach than I take, which is more a USDA food pyramid based model (for example, fat is just a tiny little triangle, and canola oil is recommended, an oil that is oxidized before it even hits the shelves). Here is one of the various studies I have read, a 2010 meta-analysis on saturated fat and heart disease risk:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20071648

This is showing that there is very little statistical evidence for the occurrences of saturated fats and heart disease. Furthermore, the study does not specify the kinds of fats they were using...there is a world of difference between conventional (non-grassfed, commercial) butter, and raw, organic coconut oil, for example. Please also check out this following article by Mary Enig, PhD, an expert in lipid biochemistry and author of Know Your Fats, and Eat Fat, Lose Fat.

http://westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/526-skinny-on-fats

So do I think I'm "going against the system?" Perhaps sometimes I do when I am confronted by attitudes such as yours, but mainly what I focus on in my day to day practice is helping my clients who have (in most cases) tried a more conventional diet model (lower fat, higher carbs, for example), and have experienced ongoing health problems (ranging from something less serious like heart-burn to more serious degenerative disease). When they come to a Holistic Nutritionist, they generally realize that changes need to be made that are, many times, outside the scope of the RD's they have seen previously.

So thanks for your input, but I feel pretty good about the knowledge I have acquired, how much more there always is to learn, and the practice I am growing to help people, regardless of their economic status.

Rachel Fiske, NE, CPT-NASM
madronawellness.org