Why Don’t We Trust R.D.’s?

by Diana Savani, RD, LDN

Why don’t we trust dietitians? Has the thought ever crossed your mind?

Maybe you have always been interested in nutrition and healthy habits, but it never came to mind to meet with a Registered Dietitian? Why is that?

The last time you needed a teeth cleaning, who was the first person you thought to visit? Probably your Dentist who is licensed to do dental work.

The last time you needed your car fixed, who did you take it to? Most likely a mechanic who you knew was properly trained and had reliable experience.

What about the last time you needed an electrician to fix the wiring in your home? I’d bet you called someone who was a professional, licensed electrician to reduce risk of any dangerous electrical work.

So why is it that when it comes to our nutrition needs, we tend to trust the people we are closest to, rather than those who are the most qualified?

When was the last time you were looking for information on the latest diet trend? Where did you look first? Google? A Facebook group? A magazine? Your next door neighbor who works in finance but seems to be into healthy eating? Why is it that when it comes to our nutrition needs, we go to the person who will tell us what we WANT to hear, versus what we NEED to hear?

What do we want to hear, anyway?

What I’ve learned throughout my years as a Registered Dietitian, is that we want INSTANT results.

Which option sounds more appealing to you?…

1) Person who you are friends with on Facebook who sells meal replacement powders:

“Enjoy this quick chocolate shake instead of breakfast every day and lose 20 lbs by next month!”

2) Registered Dietitian:

“Focus on making small changes over time so it’s more manageable and enjoyable, keep it balanced, and expect slow but long-lasting results.”

Which one are you leaning towards trusting? 1? We all naturally tend to want INSTANT gratification, but wouldn’t it also be great to jump off the yo-yo diet bandwagon and get on track with never having to worry about going on a diet EVER again?

Did you know that there is a professional license for the highest qualifications in the nutrition field? The Registered Dietitian credential is not a fancy way of saying “someone who works in a hospital and tells patients what they can’t eat.” The R.D. on the end of someone’s last name tells you that person spent at least four years in college to get a Bachelor’s Degree in nutrition or a related health field, spent another year in an unpaid supervised practice dietetic internship, passed the nationally recognized Registered Dietitian Examination, AND maintained their education status through continuing education credits each year since.

In case you have not yet heard, the state of Florida is planning to set a law to require anyone providing personalized nutrition advice to get a license. As they point out in this WTMZ-TV 69 News article, “The inconsistencies stand to cause confusion about the qualifications of people who offer nutrition counseling.” They also continue to describe the major differences between the qualifications and education requirements to gain a certificate as a health coach versus becoming a Registered Dietitian. So, if Registered Dietitians spend so many years gaining knowledge based off of the most recent and reliable science-based information, why does most of the general public still steer away from dietitians when they seek nutrition information?

Okay, so what about the nutritionists? I mean, it has “nutrition” in the name, so that’s who we should go to for nutrition advice, right? Well, yes and no.

Some states actually include “Nutritionist” in the RD credential or license, giving someone the RDN or LDN letters to their name. However, there are NO specific requirements for someone to title themselves “nutritionist” and start taking clients seeking general nutrition guidance. Yes, that means you literally could become a nutritionist tomorrow if you’d like, even if you currently have zero experience in the health or nutrition field.

Does this mean ALL nutritionists have no experience? No! Some nutritionists may have actually completed the four year Bachelor’s degree in nutrition and then decided not to move forward with the internship and RD credential, and just work in the nutrition field doing general education versus medical nutrition therapy… but again, another nutritionist could be someone who is actually an event planner and decided to start helping people eat more vegetables. Encouraging healthy behaviors is a wonderful role to take on, but when personalized nutrition recommendations are being given by those who do not have the education or experience to back up their recommendations, it becomes a safety issue. 

The problem that I see way too often, is the majority of the public seeks out nutrition information related to managing specific health problems from random people they know or somehow found on the internet. There are thousands and thousands of Instagram accounts dedicated to food and nutrition. Some of them are run by Registered Dietitians, or even nutritionists with some nutrition background, while many others are run by people who are part of a multi-level marketing program designed to sell you supplements and meal replacements, or people who just decided they like talking about nutrition even though they do not have the formal education behind it.

There are even all kinds of support groups on Facebook for people with specific health conditions to be able to connect with other people going through the same thing. This sounds great and all, and I actually believe a support group can be so helpful for many people going through tough times, but often times these groups are run by people with no experience in the health field whatsoever, and they are giving out very specific recommendations to people they have never met. THIS IS NOT OKAY. In fact, this is DANGEROUS. While I may not be able to stop everyone out there from giving dangerous health advice, what I can do is ask you to NOT go to random people on social media for your health information. Seek out a professional who is the qualified expert in the field related to your condition to make sure you are getting advice that will keep you healthy and SAFE.

Now, not only are Registered Dietitians working in hospitals, we are also working in schools, for food companies, in our own private practice settings, in supermarkets, and for various community health organizations. Some programs even exist to offer low cost or even free general nutrition education, which I have had the pleasure to be a part of.

I recently met with someone to give him a general understanding of nutrition for diabetes prevention and management, and in the setting I was educating him in, I was able to offer this education for free. Upon arrival for his appointment with me, he vented to me that he had gone on Facebook in the diabetes support group he is part of and was excited to share with those in the group that he found a dietitian who could give him the education he needed at no cost. To his surprise, he received a long list of comments from many people in the group, and he decided to share some of them with me. Here are a few examples of what he read…

“Don’t do it. A dietitian will not help!”

“I saw a dietitian and my blood sugars got so much worse! I went on my own diet and now my blood sugar levels are perfect!”

“Stay away! They will NOT help and her services are FREE! Obviously she does not know what she is doing!”

I’d bet you can imagine how these comments made me feel… which led me to writing this article. So, rather than physically explode (which is what I felt like was about to happen), I kindly educated this gentlemen on my education background and my experience in the field, and ensured him that he could trust the information I was providing him. I also explained to him, programs like the one I was working in when we met, have been designed carefully to allow low cost or FREE education, purely so we can educate as many people as possible. As health professionals, we know that people cannot always afford certain services, especially since nutrition education is not always covered by insurance. We also did not get into the health field to make money… we did it because we WANT TO HELP PEOPLE. If I am offering nutrition services at a lower cost than others, it is NOT because I do not know what I’m doing. It’s because I’m trying to make my services as accessible as possible so we can get MORE people feeling their absolute best. 

While I was able to, sort of, turn him into believing in dietitians again, it was obvious to me that there are most likely hundreds and hundreds more people in that group that are being convinced that dietitians are out to make people’s health problems worse. So I ask you again … WHY do we have this stigma around dietitians being incapable of helping us with our nutrition-related problems?

I’ll share one more example to prove to you that this truly is a growing problem. 

I, too, have my own health problems. Yes, even if you eat healthy and exercise regularly, and even if you are a dietitian, health problems can still exist. I found out a few years back that I have hypothyroidism and I have yet to find out what is causing mine, as it has not shown itself to have an autoimmune foundation. As a person who has always been generally healthy with consistent healthy habits, I was surprised to become diagnosed with hypothyroidism. It’s a frustrating feeling, but at some point there’s just nothing you can do other than focus on managing it. So, I took my doctor’s recommendations (because I trust my own medical professionals since it is their area of expertise) and started taking a daily thyroid medication. I also started reading a TON of information on thyroid disorders, because I found it fascinating and I wanted to learn more about what was going on in my body. 

Through my own reading, I came across a Facebook support group for women with hypothyroidism. Sounds great, right? Well, I joined the group, which required filling out a questionnaire and getting approved to be allowed into the private group, and since then I had sort of spent the last couple years just reading what other women were posting. A lot of people were posting their latest blood test results, their current mediation types and doses, what supplements they were taking, and general questions. Again, I just read a lot of the discussions and kept to myself. If someone recommended something that sounded interesting, I wrote it down to ask my doctor about during my next visit, rather than just diving into it myself before confirming it’s effectiveness or safety. 

Recently, someone posted on the support group page that she heard from people in this group that she should be on a gluten free diet. I knew from my own education background and the research I had done (reading from RELIABLE sources and discussing the information with a variety of medical professionals including Medical Doctor’s and Registered Dietitians), that someone with a thyroid condition that does not result from an autoimmune cause may not benefit from going gluten free. This young woman was asking how to find out what foods are gluten free and what to eat. So, rather than giving my own recommendation since that would not be SAFE to recommend health/diet changes to someone I do not know, EVEN AS A DIETITIAN, I decided to just leave a comment. I wrote “I would recommend talking to a Registered Dietitian before making any major diet changes, and they can help you.”

I fully expected positive responses, but instead, this is what I got…

“WHY a dietitian? They are just going to suggest eating the food pyramid… have you ever tried or looked at the food pyramid??!?!?! Have you ever thought “oh, food contributes to inflammation”?!! Probably Not!!”

Of course, this fired me up quite a bit, but I tried to stay calm and keep it a professional discussion, even though the other participants were not necessarily interested in that. I responded by saying that not only do I have hypothyroidism, I am actually a Registered Dietitian myself which is how I know that one could help the person who posted originally, and that I also know a great deal about the relationship between diet and inflammation. Also, I dare you to find me even ONE Registered Dietitian who still uses the Food Pyramid to educate their patients. I’ll wait.

I responded politely and professionally to a few other people, who were also informing me that the information I was sharing was 100% incorrect, that I should reread the rules of their page before I tell them they were wrong, and accusing me of having an inaccurate diagnosis myself and ensuring me that my hypothyroidism is probably autoimmune. *Face Palm* Let me just say, I never accused anyone of being wrong. I merely stated that thyroid disorders that do not result from autoimmunity do not always require cutting out entire food groups.

After expressing in one of the comments that I felt I was being unfairly attacked for merely trying to answer the young woman’s request for resources, I pointed out that this was the first time I had ever commented in this page and I had fully expected to be supported, since you know, it’s a SUPPORT group. Well – they then removed me from the page and blocked me so that I cannot even request to get back in. How’s that for support?

I’m not sharing all of this with you to vent or complain. Ok, maybe I wanted to vent just a little… but I really am sharing this with you to prove one thing… THESE SUPPORT GROUPS ARE NOT YOUR DOCTOR. While the groups description actually states “we are not medical professionals and you should run all of the information you receive here by your doctor,” some of the admins (who I checked out on Facebook and determined they have no medical experience) were actually recommending medication and diet changes regularly to people on this page. If you are part of a support group online for any health condition, use it as a TOOL… not a REPLACEMENT for your treatment by a qualified, licensed health professional. If the people running these groups truly wanted to provide the members with the best support possible, they would invite reliable resources into the group, such as dietitians or medical professionals who could answer general questions and point people in the right direction when they seek further education and resources. Instead, this specific group chose to spread the consistently inaccurate message around health professionals – that we are out to get you and lie to you when you ask us for help. 

So here is the last time I’ll ask you – How come when we need help with our car, we go to a mechanic; when we need electrical work done we go to an electrician; when we need dental work done, we go to a licensed dentist…but when we need to lose weight, gain weight, manage a health condition impacted by nutrition, or get answers to our nutrition questions, we go to our friend, neighbor, coworker, social media stranger, or the media? Is it because, well, “everybody knows how to eat”? Okay, fair. Yes, we all eat. It’s as simple as that. Or, is it? Maybe it has to do with a sense of little risk in changing how we eat.

Whatever the reason is, I will promise you this – a Registered Dietitian has not been trained to trick you into diet changes that make you miserable or lead your health in the wrong direction. A Registered Dietitian is someone who spent years getting to the point where they truly understand the science of food and how it impacts our body when we eat it. A Registered Dietitian is someone who wants to help make your life easy and enjoyable by teaching you how to choose and make foods DELICIOUS and nutritious to support your health long-term. A Registered Dietitian is someone who will offer you support when you struggle with emotional eating, planning meals for your family when you have picky eaters at home, coming up with meal and snack ideas that you can enjoy with your multiple food allergies, or even figuring out how to read a nutrition facts label when grocery shopping. Us dietitians want to help. That’s all. We offer support in any way that we can, and I promise you, we won’t just preach the food pyramid or tell you to “go on a diet”. 

If you are ready to make changes with your nutrition habits that will give you health results to last a lifetime, without giving up your favorite foods or activities, talk to a R.D.

We can help.

We want to help.

Use the resources we have available in our world surrounded by all things technology as what they are – resources.

They are available to provide one tree branch of support, but we can’t get to the top of the tree without the rest of the branches, so keep climbing and talk to all kinds of health professionals until you find the best way to manage your health needs and goals, safely, effectively, and happily!

So, the next time you need nutrition advice, who ya gonna call? Ghost Busters!! Wait, no, that’s not it…