Florida cautions against unlicensed diet advice !!

From: BillK (bill@wkidston.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Wed May 07 2003 - 09:18:26 MDT

  • Next message: spike66: "Re: Hunting"

    The National Council Against Health Fraud
    http://www.ncahf.org/index.html
    in their latest newsletter,
    http://www.ncahf.org/digest03/03-18.html
    have just noted:
    ----------------------------------
    The state of Florida has started an active campaign to help protect the
    public from unlicensed nutrition practitioners.
    Billboards are going up around the state saying:
    "Are you losing more than weight? Unlicensed diet and nutrition advice
    is dangerous. Follow the advice of a licensed dietitian/nutritionist or
    nutrition counselor."
    This campaign is financed from licensure fees. The Florida Dietetics and
    Nutrition Practice Council
    http://www9.myflorida.com/mqa/dietetics/nd_home.html oversees the
    licensure of about 3,000 dietitian/nutritionists (who have accredited
    degrees and at least 900 hours of supervised training) and 280 nutrition
    counselors (less qualified individuals who were grandfathered when the
    law was passed). As of January 2003, 42 states, Washington DC, and
    Puerto Rico have some level of licensure or certification for nutrition
    professionals, but Florida appears to be the first to warn against using
    unlicensed practitioners.
    -----------------------------------

    Perhaps we should stop discussing diet advice? A lot of the so-called
    diet advice on the net comes from people or companies with their own
    business interests at heart. i.e. Buy my book(s), buy my training
    courses, buy my special supplements, buy my special diet food, buy, buy,
    buy, buy ......

    For every site advocating lean meat, there is another advocating fatty
    meat and another advocating no meat at all. Every variation of diet
    under the sun has a site on the net with some sort of analysis or
    reports seeming to justify their particular opinion.

    One important point all advocates of particular diet regimes should
    remember is that everyone's metabolism is different. And people of
    different ages and lifestyles have different requirements. What works
    for gts might bring me out in spots or make Mike's hair fall out.
    Remember the politician that turned blue from the silver supplement he
    was taking? Or the anorexia nervosa girls dying because they are
    frightened of all foods?

    Going for self medication is starting down a pretty risky path without
    doing very detailed analysis of yourself. Blood tests, allergies,
    cholesterol levels and so on. A professional can do all these tests
    before discussing his recommendations with you.

    Please tread carefully if you go the DIY route.

    BillK

    __________________________________________________________________________
    Join Freeserve http://www.freeserve.com/time/

    Winner of the 2003 Internet Service Providers' Association awards for Best Unmetered ISP and Best Consumer Application.



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed May 07 2003 - 09:29:30 MDT