Who Can You Trust for Nutrition Advice?
Wellness influencers, health coaches, dietitians, and doctors—different messages about nutrition and health from all sides can be extremely confusing, and even false. Almost anyone can have some degree of knowledge pertaining to eating disorders, whether they have personal experience with one or know someone who has struggled. However, to have accurate, evidence-based nutrition knowledge, one must go through rigorous training, such as becoming a registered dietitian.
Dani Roberts is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and CEDS (Certified Eating Disorder Specialist), in the St. Louis area. She graduated with a degree in dietetics from Purdue University and has worked with the eating disorder population in various levels of treatment since 2013. With that being said, she has also navigated her own relationship with food and stresses the importance of seeking out a dietitian for nutrition advice.
People often underestimate the training it takes to become a dietitian, in comparison to someone who can call themselves a “health coach” or nutritionist, as a result of taking a one-hour online course. Roberts says, “To become an RD, you have to go to an accredited bachelors degree, obtain a masters, and then you have to complete a dietetic internship. You have to have supervised hours, different rotations, school-assignments, then sit for an exam, and get licensed in certain states.” Aside from that, dietitians must practice evidence-based work that aligns with the Academy of Dietetics and Nutrition, and keep up with continuing education hours.
A common misconception within nutrition is that medical doctors have the highest knowledge; while they are especially needed and respected, they often only take a couple of nutrition courses. Roberts says, “What I notice and what a lot of my clients experience, is that the doctor doesn’t sit down and ask you ‘tell me about everything: family history, financial situation, eating disorder history, etc’–they just look at a number and say you need to lose weight.” Unfortunately, Roberts shares that it is a common experience for doctors to give nutrition advice that is actually very harmful.
Similarly, even dietitians can be harmful to those struggling with an eating disorder if they are not ED-informed or have substantial experience. To become a specialist, you must complete a course through the IAEDP (International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals Foundation), complete hours of training, take an exam, a case-study, undergo supervised hours, etc. Roberts, CEDS, says, “I worked in the ED field for years until I was even able to have the amount of hours to complete the coursework to do all of those things.” She adds that this is not a requirement, and many dietitians have a great deal of experience, through working with various populations, genders, and ages, to be well-informed about eating disorders.
Additionally, the media plays a large role in ideas shaped around eating disorders and how they are perceived, often resulting in false stereotypes that cause more harm and lead to less accessibility to support. Roberts says, “The only way it’s usually portrayed in the media is white, thin, teenage women, and anorexia. The reality is the majority of people with eating disorders are not underweight and binge eating disorder is the most prevalent. A lot of people don’t get help because they don’t believe they have an eating disorder, due to how it's portrayed in the media.”
Social media in particular draws a blurry line between what is helpful and harmful, which can vary from person to person. At times, people such as influencers, “recovery” and advocacy accounts, and people with lived experiences can be beneficial, especially when it comes to feeling alone in one’s struggles. Particularly accounts labeled as “recovery” accounts, can be triggering when “they see a video of someone supposedly in recovery and it is a really small amount,” says Roberts. She suggests unfollowing or blocking these accounts as they can be especially triggering.
Along with this, another important point to highlight is that many factors go into determining weight and body size, and using social media as a tool for comparison is damaging. “What I eat in a day” videos reinforce the idea that if two people eat the same thing, they will look the same, which, according to Roberts, is false. “Weight is impacted by hormones, stress, DNA, genetics, and so much more; it is not something meant to be controlled.”
A large part of social media currently circles around the wellness industry and current obsession with health. People now try to say it's not about the number, it's about health, but it’s the same thing simply being disguised. “Wellness influencers are often extremely wealthy, have the funds to buy all this food, maybe have people cook it for them, flexible schedules, work at home, and go to 60 dollar pilates classes every day—that is a very unrealistic representation of health because everyone’s circumstances are different,” says Roberts.
Refocusing what the word “health” means to each of us can help lead to a more authentic and brighter way of attaining health. “Health is way more than just the foods we eat or the amount we exercise; it's sleep, friendship, financial health, emotional health, and so much more.” says Roberts.
In a world where anyone can call themselves an expert at something online, it is more important than ever to put health first and seek out support and knowledge from a credible source, such as a registered dietitian. Seeking accurate information from professionals dismantles beliefs surrounding fad diets and false nutrition information, allowing people to find their own definition of health and wellbeing.
Dani Roberts is a registered dietitian who specializes in eating disorders.
Her website: https://stleddietitian.com/
