I ran into an acquaintance recently and he told me he’d started seeing a new nutrition expert. “You know what?” he said, “It turns out I’m gluten intolerant.”
OK. Him and everyone else. I told him I was glad he found an expert who could help him.
A week later I saw him again. “I went back to the nutritionist,” he said. “I can’t have nightshades either.” That means no more potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, or eggplant.
The next time I saw him, he’d given up dairy, corn, black pepper, and sweet potatoes. I’m not really sure what exactly he is eating at this point, besides cabbage. He’s also taking a long list of supplements, all on this new nutritionist’s orders.
I suspected that this “nutritionist” has no license of any sort. She’s certainly not a registered dietitian.
I finally asked him how she tested him for allergies. She had him hold a glass vial of a particular food in one hand and, with the other hand, hold his thumb to the tip of his middle finger. Then she tried to pull his finger and thumb apart. If she could, then she proclaimed him allergic to whichever food was in the vial he was touching.
I’m not the confrontational sort. I kept a straight face and wished him luck with his diet.
Searching the Internet, I quickly discovered this bogus method of “allergy testing” is actually quite widespread. Practitioners call it “applied kinesiology.” And, no, it doesn’t work— unless it provides some sort of placebo effect.
Why are people falling for this? Funny you should ask.
The answer might lie in another disturbing trend. The very same week of my acquaintance’s revelations about his numerous food allergies, Mother Jones published a hilarious yet sad account of McDonald’s catering the annual conference of the California Dietetic Association.
That’s right. Mainstream registered dietitians attended a conference sponsored and catered by McDonald’s to earn continuing education credits to maintain their certification.
There, they listened to Walmart people claim that Walmart helps keep communities healthy. The Corn Refiners Association, the high fructose corn syrup industry’s lobby group, argued that high fructose corn syrup is just fine to serve kids in school lunches.
With the mainstream nutrition community under so much pressure from Big Food is it any wonder why people are looking for alternatives and vulnerable to flaky fads?
And who is worse off? The person who seeks help from a dietitian who takes nutrition advice from the corn syrup lobby or the one getting assistance from a quack who believes she can detect allergies using the “Pull My Finger” method.
In truth, there are excellent nutrition experts out there. Bestselling authors like Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle rank among them. Pollan’s advice is right on: “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”
Even some registered dietitians who belong to the corporate-sponsored Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly known as the American Dietetic Association) are fantastic sources of nutritional advice.
One registered dietitian told me she left the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics after it sold her contact information to McDonald’s. But others prefer to stay in the organization and work for reform from within.
Melinda Hemmelgarn is one such dietitian. On her blog and radio show, both named Food Sleuth, she interviews experts on every aspect of food, agriculture, and nutrition.
We need conscientious, honest experts like her influencing our national nutrition policy and health recommendations. And our registered dietitians don’t need any “education” from the fast food and junk food industries.
After all, if mainstream dietitians didn’t have to put up with that kind of pressure, fewer people would fall prey to quacks who want to pull their fingers.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.