Vegans are any of you dietitians?!
Answers: I know a person who was a dietitian until she became vegan. Then because she could no longer tell her clients what her new beliefs about eating were she looked for another line of work! So out of being curious (and with no other motive than simply curious) I ask: Vegans are any of you dietitians? If not do you get mad at dietitians for encouraging dairy to certain groups of people?
I'm not a dietician, but I know 2 vegans who are. They post on theppk.com forums.
I'm a nurse, and while my patients' diets aren't by any streach the centre of my work, I am required to educate patients about health-related issues and diet is one of them. I don't push veganism on them, but when the subject of diet comes up, I DO encourage plant-based foods over animal foods.
To be honest, I am REALLY disappointed in health care professionals who don't advocate lifestyles that will improve the health of their patients. Take smoking for example... evidence exists that quitting smoking significantly reduces a person's risk of heart disease and cancer, and most doctors - even doctors who smoke - will advise patients to quit smoking. But look at meat- and dairy-centered diets... evidence exists that meat- and dairy-free diets significantly reduce a person's risk of diabetes, heart disease, osteoperosis, and some forms of cancer, and yet few doctors - if any - will advise patients to stop eating meat and dairy.
And it's not like we (by "we" I mean health care professionals) need to ask them to go vegan or even vegetarian. I don't think it's unreasonable to advise a patient to simply reduce their intake of foods that harm them... to eat 6 meatless breakfast meals per week, and one or two meatless dinners per week, for example... I think that's a reasonable goal for individuals who are truly concerned about their health.
I'm not a dietitian. But I do get a little frustrated that doctors and dietitians are often biased against vegan diets. I'm not saying all are, just a significant majority. I think we need more vegetarian and vegan diets in the dietetics profession. I think dietetics would have been my next choice of study, if I hadn't already complete half of my present degree.
No, but I am a biologist and read lots of the current literature on dietary studies. There is a lot of bullsh*t being published by meat lobby groups trying (for example) to counter the information regarding meat links to cancer.
To give you an example, the 64th edition of Nutrition and Dietetics was completely railroaded by the Australian meat industry lobby group Meat and Livestock Australia. The entire journal was filled with poorly conducted research, all mysteriously showing that meat was really good for you and doesn't cause cancer at all!!! There were also a number of dietary recommendations which claimed that vegetarianism caused increased weight gain, which was based on a study of a few pregnant women. They then use this information to imply that everybody should eat less vegetables and more meat through their media arm. Bastards...
So any group can hide behind publications which produce supposedly genuine scientific research, and as this journal claims to be the leading publication for dieticians in Australia, I would expect at least some of them to be complicit. It will be interesting to read letters and reviews in future volumes to see what criticisms were aimed at these studies, because I could see PLENTY of problems with their choices of models and variables.
I'm not a dietitian but I did take nutrition class health science in college. Dietians cannot force any kind of diet on a person all they can do is inform and educate people on healthier ways to eat.
Hi
I'm studying Nutrition at University and I'm vegetarian. In fact, in the future I will be a qualified nutritionist.
A nutritionist told me that a good, balanced vegetarian diet is amongst the healthiest diets you can get!!
So do not judge. :-)
I am not a vegan, nor a dietician, but I do have some education on nutrition.
I don't see why she would have to change careers, she could tell her clients that she is vegan, but she just should not discourage people from eating animal products. Eating animal products does not equal bad health, my cholesteol is good and so is my blood pressure and everything else.
If nothing else, she should stay in the career and specialize in vegan diets, I'm sure she would have lots of people coming to her to learn what they need to eat to get all of their nutrients and monitor them for deficiencies. That was a stupid move to get out of that career. It is possible to emphasize on getting nutrients through non-animal products without telling people they should never have them at all
I don't know any vegan dietitians, but I'm married to a vegetarian dietitian. She doesn't try to force any of her patients to be vegetarians.
There's no reason why the person you know couldn't have stayed in the same profession. That was her personal choice. But it was probably a good idea if she was unable to work as a dietitian without talking about her personal beliefs. That wouldn't be very professional to do that.