Since 1984, The American Dietetic Association (ADA) has been sponsoring legislation that excludes all but ADA- approved nutritionists from professional practice. They have succeeded in passing various forms of their legislation in more than 40 states.
In some of these states, nutritionists can still practice but any non-ADA approved professionals are prohibited from using the words ‘nutritionist’ and ‘nutritional care’—even if the individual holds a Masters or a PhD in nutrition and is not claiming to be certified, licensed or registered. Keep in mind that most ADA-approved dieticians have undergraduate degrees, not advanced degrees. So in effect the ADA wants a monopoly that would exclude the most educationally qualified nutritionists.
Do you like the kind of food offered in today’s hospitals? Or, in schools? As you might expect, the ADA controls these programs. And who by the way contributes large amounts of money to the ADA? As you might also expect, it is large food companies, many of which sell billions of dollars worth of what we might charitably describe as less than nutritious processed food.
These companies want to have a close relationship with the ADA. The ADA wants to have a monopoly on professional nutrition in each state and of course big food companies have a lot of influence in state legislatures. It’s a very cozy arrangement for the ADA, the food companies, and the state legislators.
Those of us who appreciate the role of nutrition for natural health and preventive medicine have a duty to stand up and try to stop this kind of corporate sponsored and government-enforced monopoly.
The Wisconsin state government recently took up a bill that would have threatened non-ADA licensed practitioners. Although the measure’s sponsor said that the bill does not regulate the term “nutritionist,” opponents vehemently disagreed and in the end the controversial bill was stopped from coming to the floor for a vote.
Of course it might come back again in the future. We will be watching and let you know.
5 comments
Comments are closed.
The last thing we want is the government or a private agency to dictate what foods are healthy. The government already got it wrong with the current food pyramid and the low-fat, high-carb recommendations. And agencies like the ADA exist only to protect their financial interests, never to protect the American people. Good for Wisconsin.
I think they dont want to make us well just sick, so they make more money. Its always about the money what about the people. It just sounds insane not to have organically grown food no pesticides and hormones antibiotics. I heard in denmark they past a law no hormones ,pesticdes, and antibiotics given to animals and everyone is alot healthier. Why cant we pass that here? It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out whats going on here. It sounds like our freedom is slowly being taken away why? This is pretty scary. Our bodies are natural and knows how to handle organic food not genetically modified foods. Thats why were all sick and over weight come on people wake up. Ihope you post this thanx Rita
Rita,
You have caught on.
our freedom is slowly being taken away – well, not so slowly anymore.
I’m really sick and tired of all this nonsense of regulating what Mother Nature has being doing
beautifully for millions of years…and all of a sudden we have a bunch of money-grabbing
big corporations orchestrating a worldwide genocide monopoly with the help of Federal
Government and their respective lobbyist in a combined effort to destroy Planet Earth for good…
Frank Cansella,
a very concerned consumer and citizen of the free world.