RDNs vs. The Washington Post
If you are keeping up with nutrition-related news articles and stories, you’ve likely seen The Washington Post’s recent story from April 3rd titled “As obesity rises, Big Food and dietitians push ‘anti-diet’ advice”.
In this blog, I’ll be going through some of the topics discussed, summarizing and adding my own input as someone involved in the profession of dietetics.
Throughout this article, The Washington Post slings criticism at RDNs for their role in big food and for supposedly pushing diet advice that promotes obesity. It is of note that The Post failed to reach out to AND for comment, and as a result received no further context on the non-diet approach in nutrition care. While some points warrant further discussion, The Post has effectively grouped all RDNs within the profession together and accused them of promoting obesity and unhealthy diet habits (which is not the goal of the anti-diet / non-diet approach AT ALL!!). As AND President Lauri Wright responded:
“Medical Nutrition Therapy Behavioral Interventions Provided by Dietitians for Adults with Overweight or Obesity” emphasizes the importance of understanding the many factors contributing to health and tailoring treatment plans to each person's unique needs, goals and preferences. It is evident that the authors of yesterday's article fail to grasp this complexity, and their conflation of a food philosophy held by some practitioners with the evidence-based treatment interventions of an entire profession, is at best, irresponsible.”
The Post also mentions on several occasions stories of people who followed anti-diet influencers (emphasis on influencers) and experienced health decline as a result. While this is of note, the post effectively groups in RDNs with influencers on social media that are not credentialed with a thorough understanding of the negative consequences of obesity.
The Post fails to understand the role of anti-diet language and education particularly in the treatment of eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors. The anti-diet movement within RDN groups as whole is not promoting obesity, but rather that all foods fit amongst a healthful diet- and that there should not be shame associated with eating foods that otherwise are deemed “unhealthy” sometimes.
Big Food & Nutrition
It seems that most disdain The Post holds for RDNs is for some practitioners' involvement in the food industry, receiving sponsorships for products to promote on social media. They also point the finger at large food companies that attended the Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Denver this past year.
Notably, The Post mentioned that at FNCE 2023, General Mills reportedly “fielded a question from the audience about proposed Food and Drug Administration rules to label foods high in sugar, salt and fat…We’re doing everything we can to prevent that from happening…Shaming is what I call it”. There was no mention of the reaction of present RDNs to this proposal, but I’d go out on a limb to say RDNs would be opposed to decreasing the public’s awareness of food components. It’s not like the FDA is slapping “this food will make you fat” on the front of the box, I’d say THEN there’d be opposition.
Overall, The Washington Post seems to lack understanding of the RDN’s role in healthcare and other settings, and views RDNs as corrupted by Big Food as a result of the companies present at FNCE. On the flipside, The Post brings a good discussion to the table regarding the intentions of Big Food and their potential misuse of anti-diet language to take advantage of the public and make more $.
References:
Wright, L. (2024, April 3). Message from Academy President Re: Anti-Diet Article [Press release].
-LL
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