Tuesday 25 September 2012

Most Medical professionals and Authorized Dietiti

I was pretty pissed off when I wrote the draft to this post a few days ago.
Since then, I’ve cooled down a little bit.
I’ll leave the original title, as well as the image that I had selected for the post, since I already forked out a few bucks for the license.
But I have completely rewritten it since the original draft.
Being angry isn’t helpful to anyone, and I think a voice of reason is always more convincing and helpful than a voice filled with spite.

Registered Dietitians and Nutritionists

These people are supposed to be “the experts” on health and nutrition.
After all, they need to finish several years of college to get these credentials, so you might start to think that they would actually know what they are talking about.
But somehow, almost every time I see them giving out advice, their claims challenge both common sense and basic science.
They almost never cite studies or sound arguments for their claims, but insist that you should heed their word just because they have gone to college and have credentials behind their names.
On several occasions I’ve started an on line argument with a nutritionist about some claim that I think is bogus, such as that saturated fat is bad for you or that low carbohydrate diets are unhealthy.
Never, ever, has any of those “experts” been able to say anything when I provide them with studies that actually prove them wrong.
Before I continue, I’m sure most dietitians are good and sensible people that only want to help. However, you will find biased and arrogant people in all professions, it just seems that in nutrition, these people are especially prominent.

Mainstream Nutrition is Tainted by Politics and Money

The main problem here, is that most dietitians promote the guidelines provided by the USDA (The United States Department of Agriculture — huh?).
The problem is, is that these guidelines aren’t based on what is best for the individual, and they don’t take into account the scientific progress that has occurred in the last few decades (1).
The guidelines are tainted by politics and financial conflicts of interest, and it just so happens that these guidelines are very profitable for the US Economy (The Agricultural and Pharmaceutical Industries).
I am 100% certain that an independent panel of scientists would come to a massively different conclusion.
It has come to the point where almost any sensible, health-conscious individual seems to know more about how to be healthy than these corrupt “experts”.


Things They Get Wrong, Every Time

It doesn’t require a college degree to be able to read studies on nutrition. The text is fairly simple for anyone who has a basic understanding of science.
I’ve been doing this for years, way before I started med school.
And these studies often completely demolish claims made by the dietitians, such as these:
     
  • Dietitian: “Saturated Fat Causes Heart Disease” — Truth: “Saturated fat has no association to heart disease whatsoever.” (2, 3)

  • Dietitian: “Gluten is okay for those who don’t have celiac disease” — Truth: “Several studies show that gluten is harmful for non-celiacs”. (4, 5, 6)

  • Dietitian: “Everyone, even the diabetics and obese should eat a high-carb diet with plenty of whole grains” — “The diabetics and obese should eat low-carb, every controlled trial says so.” (7, 8, 9, 10)

  • Dietitian: “Sugar isn’t that bad, it’s just empty calories”. — Truth: “The calories from sugar and HFCS are vastly different from starch, because they contain a high amount of fructose, which has many negative metabolic effects.” (11, 12)
This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to see the entire dietary guidelines torn apart by a group of real scientists, then check out this study. It is fairly easy to read, and anyone interested in health should go through it at least once.
The biggest, unforgivable mistake, in my opinion, is not acknowledging the therapeutic potential of low-carb diets, not even for diabetics.
Promoting a high-carb diet to diabetics is a crime against humanity.

Conclusion

I’m sure some nutritionists and registered dietitians are okay, and are willing to accept new facts instead of the old bologna they were taught in school 40 years ago.
Unfortunately, those who are most prominent in the media seem completely unwilling to change their minds, despite the entire western world going through a public health crisis.
Anyway, I’m not going to continue starting on line arguments with these people. It is a waste of time. Things will change when these people retire. I just wonder how many millions of lives will be unnecessarily forfeited by the time that happens.

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