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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho's teaching our dietitians? Snack companies
http://www.jsonline.com/business/whos-teaching-our-dietitians-snack-companies-b99214072z1-248110081.htmlFrito-Lay explains to dietitians how it removed trans fats from its Lay's potato chips and other snacks. The makers of high fructose corn syrup encourage them to question a study that ties the prevalence of the sweetener derived from corn to higher rates of Type 2 diabetes. And the company famous for its Frosted Flakes cereal teaches about the benefits of fiber.
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The practice has raised ethical concerns among some who say it gives the food industry too much influence over dietitians. They argue that companies use the classes as a way to cast their products in a positive nutritional light. Not to mention that companies often collect the contact information of dietitians to mail them samples or coupons, in some cases to share with their patients.
"It's not education. It's PR," says Andy Bellatti, a dietitian based in Las Vegas who helped found Dietitians for Professional Integrity, a group of about a dozen dietitians who are calling for an end to the practice.
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)surrealAmerican
(11,360 posts)Last edited Mon Mar 3, 2014, 10:41 AM - Edit history (1)
When the public refuses to properly fund education, someone will fill the gap - someone with an agenda that is.
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)Both the new and old food pyramids suggest far too many grains for our usually sedentary lifestyles. If you're young or an athlete or working on a farm all day, then more grain is fine, but most of us sit at desks and have to try to find time to exercise.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)Disputes with the dietitian I have to work with over this very issue. I am an executive chef in the health care industry. A registered dietitian is statutory position in all health care facilities. Manufacturers of prepared foods have brainwashed dietitians into believing that prepared foods are the only way to stay in compliance with the regulations. The current dispute is over serving canned prepared sausage gravy over making it from scratch. .I will ultimately win the dispute, but feel making gravy from scratch is a nobrainer.
dionysus
(26,467 posts)reformist2
(9,841 posts)Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)school district dietitians have determined that pre-processed pizza, pre-processed chicken nuggets, pre-processed hot dogs, etc., are part of a well-balanced diet. Seriously, look at any school cafeteria's menu. It's ALL pre-processed foods. I understand the newer schools don't even have stoves/ovens, they have commercial microwaves in order to heat up all that pre-processed food.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)Hospital nutritionists are some of the most poorly educated people I met on my sally through the MIC (medical industrial complex) with my mother. They have no idea the basic premise of food and how it works in your body. One thought that sugary jello was better for a diabetic because "it doesn't have any fat." And hospital kitchens and the food they serve is as palatable and nutrient-free as airplane food, but you are paying as much as if you were eating at the most expensive hotel in the world.
The entire medical school system has been captured. They do not understand how to heal, only how to guess after a thorough bout of testing what you may have and then prescribing medications to see what happens. The European and Asian doctors we went to were far better educated and thoughtful. The Americans were like prescription generator machines--receive input, output approved response--they could not discuss a diagnosis or even alternative options. The older American doctors were usually at least experienced and could draw on that.
Western medicine is falling very far behind on the basics. We do well for the specialties and emergency medicine, but less glamourous fields like nutrition, pain, and overall health are woefully lacking. If a corporation can't make money on it, no one cares.