Why I'm Not an RD.
I’ve had a lot of family, friends, and even Nutritional Foundations clients ask why I decided on the Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (FNTP) route over becoming a Registered Dietitian (RD). I realize those words are a mouthful. Read it again if needed.
Beyond the myriad of reasons why I fell in love with nutritional therapy all on its own, I also knew how simultaneously not in love with dietetics I was.
The decision was a no-brainer for me, having spent the last eight years immersed in the ancestral health and real food movement, and knowing what I know about RD programs. However, because of this long-term immersion, I often forget what kinds of information the general public (with normal, cooler hobbies) receives.
Being a dork makes me blind sometimes.
Allow me to elaborate on the few big reasons why I didn’t want to be formally trained and licensed as a Registered Dietitian.
Most RD programs refuse to adapt their recommendations to the emerging science.
For how many years have you or someone you know and love tried to eat low-fat, high-carb meals (think: that old food pyramid whose base was six to ELEVEN servings of grains per day), while watching your total calories because “calories in = calories out,” and spent 60 minutes on the treadmill three times a week, only to end up 20 pounds heavier with digestive issues and difficulty sleeping?
What science now knows: six to eleven servings of grains per day is asinine, especially because most grains require extreme processing, removal of nutrients, and subsequent “fortification” of the same in order to fall anywhere on a “healthy” spectrum. (Unless you’re soaking and/or sprouting your grains and utilizing them in homemade foods or meals, chances are the grains you consume are empty carbohydrates that turn to sugar immediately and cause rapid blood sugar spikes and crashes. More on this in future posts.)
Not to mention the fact that gluten can trigger intestinal permeability in many people, leading to chronic health challenges like autoimmunity.
None of this is fake news, people. It’s becoming widely recognized.
So you’d think the governing bodies helping our population navigate the world of food would help bring this to the public’s attention, but instead, they ignorantly fight against it… and STILL promote low-fat, high-carb diets. This has yet to work, and why might that be?
Because the supposed ties between dietary fat and heart disease are not valid, never have been valid, and never will be… that’s why. (This is, of course, because the HEALTHY dietary fats come in natural forms such as animal fats and plant oils like olives, coconuts, and avocados.) The low-fat diets that our population has blindly trusted and followed for the last 50 years has led to exponential obesity and chronic disease. (Seriously… order that book I just linked to if you want your mind blown.)
Look around you. Look at yourself, even. Where has a low-fat paradigm truly gotten us?
If only the dietitians would admit it.
So RDs are stuck in the past. What is different about my work as an FNTP?:
FNTPs, on the other hand, recognize and adapt to science as we learn more. We know and accept that the human body is designed to take in all three macronutrients (fats, proteins, and carbohydrates), and what the healthiest versions of each are. We can help our clients find the unique balance that works for them. The only foods we demonize are the processed, sugar- and rancid-oil-laden concoctions brought to you by the major food manufacturers in our nation… which brings me to my next point.
Big Food has a Big Say in the programs affiliated with government-approved licensure.
No matter what you've been told, all calories are absolutely NOT created equal.
Consuming a 12-ounce can of Coke provides 140 calories, 39g of sugar (which is astronomical, by the way), 45mg of sodium, and no nutrients. A cup of sweet potato has 180 calories, 13g of sugar (with almost 7g of fiber), 4g of protein, 72mg of sodium, along with the presence of calcium, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and iron.
I repeat: all calories are absolutely not created equal.
But the buzzworthy phrases “a calorie is a calorie” and “calories in = calories out” have allowed the processed food industry (AKA Big Food) to get away with — what is quite literal in my opinion — murder.
Big Food is basically a term given to the large food companies who, because of their size, have the money and therefore influence over a lot in this world — and they unsurprisingly choose to wield it over the governing bodies that determine food recommendations. And why wouldn’t they? Those groups can directly ensure their profits continue to increase.
How do they achieve this influence on our government, you ask? They fund a lot of the nutritional research that the dietetics boards and programs conduct and base their educational credentials on. They fund conferences that are put on by the American Dietetics Association who, in turn, acts as the accreditation body for most standard nutrition programs. Big Food donates the money, puts the pressure on the associations to follow their guidelines and promote their fake foods, and here we are.
Many people would say this kind of influence is inevitable, and maybe that’s true: nobody can resist or hide from large sums of money being thrown around like that. And frankly, Big Food has all the rights and freedoms to do so in this country. That's our way of life, and also not where I take issue with things.
I do take issue with those businesses (Big Food) who knowingly try to make a profit by conditionally forcing their products on and shortening the lifespan of others. Luckily, we consumers are also just as free — free to choose what foods to consume — and we are free to choose better.
So RDs are forced to promote processed food by default. What is different about my work as an FNTP?:
FNTPs adopt a holistic view of nutrition and health and are not forced to practice nutrition in any specific way. There is no overarching governing body telling us what’s healthy and what isn’t — because we know that our bodies are innately wise to what healthy foods are. We embrace bio-individuality, acknowledging that each human being is going to require a different approach and overall lifestyle.
If Big Food has the ability and opportunity to fund whatever they want (including, indirectly, the licensure of RDs), they also have the freedom to make sure you support their efforts. Or else.
This kind of circles back around to my original point. Most traditional RDs don’t dabble in ancestral health and one reason might be because they’re literally not allowed to. Cassie Bjork, a prominent ancestral-health-loving RD, had her licensure removed (or close to it — she eventually let them have it back and wanted nothing to do with an organization like that) due to promoting a real-food, “Paleo” template.
She literally promoted vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts, and seeds over processed foods to her clients... but this apparently went against "the rules."
She recommended real food and this made her unqualified to be a licensed dietitian. Let that sink in for a minute.
Anyway, all these things considered…
So RDs are not allowed to stray from conventional nutrition advice promoted by the government. What is different about my work as an FNTP?:
I knew where I wanted to begin, because I knew what was right and what was wrong. Promoting a diet full of refined carbs, industrial seed oils, and nutrient-poor Franken-foods was not the ticket to health, and being trapped to do so went against my heart, the science, and the good of all my future clients.
I wanted the freedom to practice nutrition from the perspective of whole, real, nutrient-dense foods that are cooked and prepared like nature designed them to be, and if my clients wanted to eat processed foods, I would at least be able to educate them about the better processed options and real food alternatives. There’s room for everything and everyone in the food world, but apparently not in all circles… (you know, like the ones advising the government and the masses about how to eat).
As you can see I’m super passionate about my work as an FNTP in my Nutritional Foundations business, and my passion truly does lie in the notion that there is no one-size-fits-all diet. Each one of us has different sets of genes, different sets of genes that are actually expressed, different daily and chronic stressors, varied percentages of lean mass, different levels of chemical exposures, myriad sleep patterns… you name it. These factors, and many others, all play a role in how food affects us. I love helping every single one of my clients find what works best for them, because it’s always something different and keeps my heart in this work.
Evolutionarily speaking, most humans aren’t equipped to successfully consume man-made foods, but I don’t turn people away because of their choice to do so. No board at the NTA is mandating that we only see clients willing to give these up.
So neither should the dietitian programs turn away the students who worked so hard to graduate and earn that degree... simply because they promote actual food from the Earth.
There’s a clear who’s-in-whose-pocket situation here, and that doesn’t sit well with me. I choose to practice food freedom and nutrient density… and above all else, I practice inclusion.
What are your thoughts? Drop a comment, or an email, or reach out on any of my social media platforms:
Instagram: @paleogirlmodernworld_
Twitter: @EliseOnWellness
Facebook: Elise Doppel or at Nutritional Foundations
Email: elisedoppel@gmail.com
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