When is a sponsor not a sponsor? When it causes public embarrassment, apparently.
A letter to its members from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, formerly the American Dietetic Association (AND/ADA), took us to task for our article last week. It accused us of making “erroneous accusations” and spreading “false information,” noted that the professional dietitian who had called them to account in Israel was not a Registered Dietician, a term AND/ADA has trademarked and controls, and denied that their affiliate, the American Overseas Dietetic Association, had had a hand in organizing or getting sponsors for the conference supported by McDonald’s.
AND/ADA is right about one thing. Tamar Schriger, the woman we profiled in our article, is not a Registered Dietitian, though she is indeed a dietitian working in Israel with over 27 years of experience in the field of dietetics and nutrition. She has a degree in Biology and has studied nutrition sciences. When we learned of this, we immediately corrected our article and indicated the correction in a footnote.
It is also true, of course, that Registered Dietician is a term trademarked by the AND/ADA. Nor is it the only term that AND/ADA wants to trademark. In the organization’s zeal to create, as we see it, a monopoly in the nutrition advice field, it is also currently trying to bar anyone other than themselves from using a variety of common terms in conjunction with the term “nutritionist.” They not only want legal control over “certified nutrition professional,” they even want sole control over “certified nutrition coach!”
AND’s email also states that “neither AND/ADA nor its overseas affiliate is in any way involved with the planning, execution or securing of sponsors for the event in question.” If so, that will need a lot more explaining. The first page of the conference’s Sponsorship Prospectus says, “The Conference is going to be a unique collaboration with the American Overseas Dietetic Association (AODA) and the Israeli Ministry of Health. AODA is the international affiliate of the American Dietetic Association (ADA).” In fact, the full name of the conference is the “10th Israel Nutrition Week & the AODA Regional Conference”—so it has AODA right in the name.
AND/ADA Past President Sylvia Escott-Stump even invited Israeli dietitians to attend the conference and is one of the keynote speakers. The conference’s “AODA Advisor,” AODA Past President Camella Rising, is not only an RD but a Licensed Dietitian/Nutritionist who sits on the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition—the same board that threatened a Paleo diet blogger with jail time because they claim that his advocating a diet which cured his diabetes is equivalent to “practicing nutrition without a license.”
So how can AND/ADA say they’re in no way involved when they are featured in all the conference’s materials? In addition, we’re not even sure why AND/ADA is trying to distance themselves from this McDonald’s–sponsored conference, considering their own most recent conference was sponsored in part by Pepsi Co. and Mars.
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More informqation is always better for our health.
The diabetes diet recommended (high carbs, low protein) would have put me 6 feet under by now if I had been fool enough to believe it. AND/ADA is on the same power-grab trip the rest of the agencies are–and does that have anything to do with federal funding getting its belt tightened? One must wonder.
My point is–yes, they may all be corrupt, or just some at some time or other, but still–what can we do to rein them in? I tried contacting my House and Senate representatives. Much good that did. The House one’s local office lady who answered the phone, said the congresswoman had no connection to that issue, and pointed me toward a committee that in this phone lady’s opinion did have oversight on FDA issues. She even gave me the URL. I went to that site–and found zero about FDA, and not even any provision to contact that supposed oversight committee. Not by email, phone, or postal mail. I feel more and more like a peaant in France–prior to the Revolution. We can howl all we like–freedom of speech–but they don’t have to listen. There’s no money or power in listening to peasants. So–tell me what WILL make a difference!
They can’t say they aren’t involved and they are just trying their luck. They are hoping that the sleeping congress critters just roll over in every state. Still it’s illegal and unconstitutional just because she probably didn’t take a couple of courses that they require.
Who would ever have thought, that we can not get the truth about our food. It is long overdue, that those involved in our food will have to answer to YAHVEH(GOD), we created the food for us. What a shame, what a shame!!!
My granddaughter has a degree in Nutrition from Florida State University. During her undergrad years, she said her instructors knew little about health maintenance and nothing about the benefit of vitamins and mineral supplementation. She believes Nutrition study is 50 years behind the times, and her degree worthless in today’s society.
A stark contrast, and perhaps a mild over simplification between RD’s and CNS’ is that RD’s abhor supplements while Nutritionists find a place for them in varying, case-specific degrees.
Well, gee, talk about a bunch of spoil-sports! I guess any discussion of 1st. Amendment freedom of speech rights is out of the question with these unhappy folks.
Free speech is one thing, Denying others free speech, with the might of a gun (government) pointed at ones head, is another issue entirely.
You can bet that legislators (DC & statehouses) get/got paid plenty by beneficiaries of laws passed.
Another organization gone Rogue. This is not what the founders had in mind
as i understand the law, if a registered trademark comes to be “in common use” (an example was the old Frigidaire trademark coming to be synonymous with refrigerator), then the trademark rights become null and void.
SO, how can an organization take a term that has been use for decades register it?
The AND and their monopolistic agenda has to be stopped. What can we/I do?
Please visit http://www.reallyeatright.org, share the information far and wide to shine light on their activities, and keep following the Pulse of Natural Health so we can alert you if the AND introduces a bill in your state!
Another thing we can ALL do (if you are old enough to vote) REGISTER and VOTE!! Make your voice heard to your state and federal representatives… and tell them we WILL VOTE your A$$E$ out of office if you don’t take care of OUR INTERESTS!!
If you are not old enough to vote… urge your parents, your teachers, older siblings who CAN vote, and other relatives to write and vote in support of what is important to you!!
Aloha! The Paleo blogger should have stated that he happend to adjust his diet and noticed it had helped his situation. As you know you can say things differently and still end up saying the truth.
More corporate hypocrisy. When is the government going to stop corporations from selling unhealthy products? Oh, I forgot, because congress gets wealthy thanks to the billions of dollars spent on lobbying.
Funny… I thought we all “practiced nutrition without a license” simply by the food choices we make. These organizations need to get a grip and legislatures need to get us the truth, then leave us alone.
It should be pointed out that a trademark legally does not prevent non-owners from using it. All it gives the owner is the right to claim the mark as their own as related to their own cause and giving them the right to legally prosecute against anyone who is using that same mark in order to cause confusion in the mind of the consumer (or potential clientelle of the original owner). Most registered trademarks are frivolous in this manner. If for example I registered “dietician”, and managed somehow to get it through (though that would be a travesty on it’s own) it would still be a more-less useless and wasted effort on my part as it would not hold up in court should I persue the effort to litigate against anyone who uses that term to identify themself.
Trademarking like that falls under the title of baseless bullying, and it really means very little. “Registered dietician” is a term that has been used for many years by dieticians who have registered with dozens of different agencies and thus has no legal claim that would stand up in court. Don’t let them bully you. If you’ve used that term justifiably in the past you have no reason to fear – that said, I do think measures to strip them from the right to bully are well founded. Just don’t get your panties too much in a bunch and think you can no longer use the term because you can and should and there is nothing they can do to stop you (though they can make your life a living hell). Same thing for “certified dietician”, etc. ad nauseum.
“and it really means very little” should read: “and it really means very little legally”
This ‘nutritional’ situation is appalling! They sound more and more like an arm of our very own, beloved FDA. They too, do not recognize vitamins and minerals as essential to health. Horrifyingly, the AMA also, is moving in lockstep with FDA and the AND/ADA and its affiliates.
I believe that actions by the right-wing of the Supreme Court, are steadily moving our country in a new direction, which will abridge the rights of ordinary citizens to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are being held hostage to the monied interests. Talk about an axis of evil!
Idiots! They don’t even realize their own blasphemy – they are sticking their big feet in their mouths. Liars galore, and they actually believe this nonsense. The filthy rotten greedy crooks. No honor or integrity, whatsoever. Not a problem. They are sociopaths.
I have a degree in Dietetics but by my senior year I realized that the ADA was taking money from junk food companies and the “education” I was getting had been bought and paid for by the big food giants. I knew about nutrition than most of my professors. I REFUSED to go on to become Registered with the ADA like everyone else in the program because I wanted nothing to do with them. Even though it meant I had to earn a different degree since the one I had now gave me no creditials, it was worth it!
If you do a google search for “ADA sponsors,” you will find this page http://www.eatright.org/corporatesponsors/
The sponsors there include Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Mars, Hershey’s, Kellog’s, General Mills, etc.
If you go to their home page from there and try to find that page in their navigation, it’s almost impossible because it’s been buried on the site.
Having architected many pharma web sites in the past, I can tell you this is done on purpose. It is common practice to bury content deliberately when it has to be on there to pass regulatory, yet you don’t really want it out in the public.
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