Should You Listen To Your Nutritionist, Dietitian Or Doctor?

in 2015 we had a conference and Dr Ferman spoke he gave two lectures one of them has 175,000 views on YouTube one has 200,000 Brenda Davis gave a lecture that has 75,000 views Brian anamarie have given many lectures that have tens of thousands of views each a lot of people have seen this stuff and showed these to a lot of people and I said you know what do you think and very often they go that was fantastic that was amazing information

and I say okay great what so are you going to change anything they say well I spoke to my nutritionist or my dietitian or my doctor and they said something else and I said so what are you going to do they said well I’m going to listen to my nutritionist or dietitian

so I’m wondering you know should people listen to their I mean okay so should when someone says I spoke to a nutritionist or I spoke to a dietitian or I spoke to a doctor about diet um should they assume that person is qualified trained I mean what how should they interpret the word dietitian and nutritionist has a lot of weight people respect it what should they make of it because it seems like most nutritionists and dietitians I don’t know of most but many are not recommending what you’re saying they’re saying that fish and chicken is fine

so uh just so everybody is clear and understand a dietician um has to do an undergraduate a degree program that is at least in at least in Canada I think it’s the same in the states four years plus an internship or a masters and as of next year I believe it will be a masters and so it’s for at least uh five to six years of of uh postsecondary education so there and and training in assessing liter you know scientific studies and so forth

however there still is a fairly big influence of Industry on the profession and I can remember when I was in university and this is you know what 35 or so years ago uh we were actually courted by the dairy and meat Industries uh they gave us free uh educational materials to use in our practices uh free little courses after you know after hour hours at school they they provided us with all sorts of beautiful things

they still fund a lot of our annual you know meetings and our nutrition month and so on and so forth Ventures proposed to you yeah um you so so there is some influence but just know this that just as there are Specialists within the medical profession they are Specialists within the dietetic profession and what I’m seeing is more and more dietitians or registered dietitians who have tremendous interest in plant-based nutrition

and there there is actually a Practice Group within the Academy of nutrition and dietetics with probably at least 1500 members that are vegetarian or vegan dietitians or have great interest in that realm so when you’re seeking out a dietitian or nutritionist it’s I think it’s really important to find out what their area of specialty is and what their sort of bias is and if you’re looking for someone who’s more plant-based uh to be looking for that

and to understand that the average dietitian like the average physician is still recommending what we consider a you know sort of balanced diet that includes foods from all of the food groups and so on and so forth but there you do have options and there are many more

I’m you know when I when I became vegan 30 years ago I honestly thought I was the only vegetarian dietician on the planet i’ had never met another one I I yeah I had never and I was terrified I thought I was going to be ousted from the profession when they found out I was I I was eliminating two of the four food groups you know so it was it was scary

and and but I can still remember thinking to myself if I don’t stay and try to affect change within my profession who will you know I knew I had to have the courage to stay and so what I did was just I made sure all my eyes were dotted and my tees were crossed and that I could back up with you know evidence-based research everything I was saying

I got very familiar with the World Health Organization resources and I became a strong voice and and so before I knew it I was being invited to speak at dietetic assoc assciation conferences all over the world and and I was able to teach my fellow dietitians more about plant-based diets and and so it all worked out really well

as a matter of fact my writing partner vanto Molina just won the highest award offered by dieticians of Canada and a vegetarian dietitian that was here earlier today Rita um is it bethesa I I’m not sure I’m pronouncing her last name right but she just won the highest award offered by The Academy of Nutri nutition um and dietetics in the United States and so things are changing there it’s it’s quite hopeful um and so just a little bit of positive news there

I think but I would say generally the education that any of us received Anna dragged me back way back when I was 50 to get my doctorate degree in nutrition and we spent three and a half years studying day and night and on planes and everything and frankly when we took our final exam I had to lie on half the test to pass it because if I didn’t lie I would have failed after three and a half years of hard work getting this degree this diploma

so it’s what we’re learning at school we have to have imaginations we have to have uh interest to move beyond what we were taught Dr Ferman did he didn’t learn a thing about nutrition at school from his practice by the way he basically started to think wisely hey maybe diet and nutrition has something to do with it he didn’t learn a thing

I frankly was told when I was going going for that education that you had to take milk and so can you imagine this is what they’re teaching it wasn’t you know a thousand years ago we’re talking 20 years ago this happened and it’s also what dietician and nutritionist are expected to say because some of them come to our Institute and they say you know I wish I could give these advices but I’m not expected to give these advice

so that’s two why are people asking their Physicians for nutritional advice anyway yeah exactly why don’t you ask your um mailman probably knows more you know about the same amount but that regardless of that there’s going to be a broad spectrum of opinion among male men either female and there’ll be a broad spectrum of opinion among legal profession and among doctors who have all different viewpoints

you just happen to have one doctor you’re asking for his Viewpoint just go ask anybody else you know it’s the same it’s not anything that you should base your life on it they’re not highly educated in this field they didn’t dedicate their life to reviewing thousands of studies we’ve reviewed maybe 50,000 studies on nutrition before we come to a recommendations they don’t do it any time it’s not their specialty why would you ask them for their opinion

I can remember the first time I ever spoke to a group of medical doctors it was probably I don’t know 30 years ago and and I was really nervous because doctors know so much and I thought oh it’s going to you know it’s just going to be challenging to speak in front of them and at the end of the the talk I was absolutely shocked at the questions they were asking me

U they asked me but don’t cashews have cholesterol um and of course I thought to myself did you not take grade 11 biology and and then they one doctor said well you know that that orange juice that you buy and that’s frozen in the little can Is that real orange juice and and and I’m not trying to be condescending but I it was just what I learned there was that the questions they were asking were not any different than the questions I would have received from a general public audience

and it was at that point I realized that they’re hungry for nutrition information and they they haven’t received a lot in the past so and of course we can put an Applause to the American College of livestone Medicine when I was a founding member when there were 40 of us and now there’s 8,000 or more people they’ve is it 8,000 well I think it’s more than that they’ve doubled in their attendance you know each year for many many years now and um and so there’s a lot of Physicians that just like the general population is expanding

there it’s so rewarding to see so many Physicians that you know call me up and thank me and are fans and they they ask me for stuff and they buy my books and bu bulk give it to their patients so on the other hand there are lots of doctors who are really excited about this who legitimately want to do what’s best for their patients and they very in a very very um touching and impressed by so many doctors who are trying their best to incorporate this information their practice today