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Thursday 12 May 2016

British Dietetic Association gets blasted!

Sometimes a comment comes in which cuts through to the very essence of the topic. This came in yesterday on the British Dietetic Association playing their part in the increasing type two diabetes epidemic post. The BDA's arrogance is breathtaking at times, and this comment is spot on in my opinion. The British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BANT) site is here.

Eddie


"When the public are relentlessly told that they can only 'trust a dietitian' to know about nutrition, it only leads to public confusion and concern about what dietary advice to follow to treat conditions such as diabetes.

In addition, the British Dietetic Association released a statement criticising Dr Ranjan Chattergee's approach, following his dietary advice for diabetics on the BBC programme 'Dr in the House'. This lead to further negative (and extremely offensive) British Dietetic Association twitter feed regarding the apparent 'minimal' level of dietary knowledge that Dr's hold.

Dr Ranjan Chattergee himself stated that the British Dietetic Association did not appear to be interested in the results - in fact his dietary advice had resulted in better diabetic control for these patients. However, we have another association, BANT, the British Association for Nutritional Therapists, which released a statement saying how pleased they were with the advice that Dr Chattergee had provided on the show.

This attitude is rife within the field - in the past dietetic lead audits have taken place to assess whether Dr's have prescribed oral nutrition support sip feeds without the prior input or approval of a dietitian to assess whether the patients needs.

The self promoting slogan 'trust a dietitian' to know about nutrition - eludes to the notion that you cannot trust anyone else. Diabetics have been told for generations that saturated fats are 'bad' for you. Dietitians have told patients to avoid saturated fat, remove skin from chicken, opt for skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, and have essentially demonised fat - all whilst stating that nobody else can be trusted to know about nutrition.

Diabetics have been told to base their meals on starchy foods, to ensure they have a set quota of starchy foods per day. Dietitians have criticised nutrition professionals who gave opposing advice, even going as far as to 'rate and slate' the publications of others on the adequacy of nutritional advice provided.

However, we are now seeing some shift in opinion on low carbohydrate diets for diabetics, with some reputable dietitians speaking out - however facing the prospect of being struck off for stating the truth.

Thankfully, the work of Dr Jason Fung, Dr Rangan Chattergee and many others are enabling diabetics to choose for themselves how to better manage their condition. Dr's are specialists in endocrinology, neurology, all aspects of medicine, and believe it or not, they know how to critically review a research paper on nutrition! So lets stop trying to monopolise the field of nutrition by constantly reviewing and criticising the work of others, especially when the dietary advice provided to diabetics by dietitians for generations is all but questionable."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any dietitian or doctor that is overweight, I don't trust them. If they can't tell me what hormones stores fat, and what hormone burns it, then what advice can they possibly give me? I am 57 years old, 5"9", I weigh 125, I work out with weights and I am building muscle. I have been on the ketogenic diet for 30 years since my endo said I was prediabetic and "no more carbs for you". I cried when he told me that, but now I could kiss his feet for giving me the Fountain of Youth.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Terry Wahls (The Wahls Protocol, Mind your Mitochondria) came to her dietary recommendations by researching and experimenting. First she tried the Paleo diet which helped slow the progress of her Multiple Sclerosis, but it didn't really improve her symptoms. So she turned to micronutrients and came up with a list of micronutrients she thought she needed to add to her diet. She started with supplements but felt that she wasn't getting much from them, so then she started to look for food sources for the micronutrients she thought she needed.

As a practicing physician in a VA teaching hospital, she asked her dietitian friends for help. One of the most telling things I ever heard Dr. Wahls say was that the dietitians COULDN'T TELL HER what food sources would provide the micronutrients she sought. They DIDN'T KNOW.

How can we depend on them if they don't know this basic, fundamental information???

Anonymous said...

Sounds a lot like my medic friend, in his first year of training as a junior Dr, he went on a ward round with a specialist renal dietitian, but for every question the consultant asked her about nutrition her response was the same "I don't know". Its a positive thing to admit when you don't know something, but for goodness sake don't then state to be the only specialists in the area!

Galina L. said...

When somebody believes into something not based in a reality, it is called a religion. Diabetics are treated in the light if dietitian's believes.