As a CORU Registered dietitian who will be qualified thirty years this June, I have recently taken a step back from my HSE role to allow a better work life balance and to do some private practice work. This step along with my qualification in counselling and psychotherapy has allowed me time to go back to my health promotion and disease prevent roots. The science and evidence base has vastly changed since I last worked in nutrition health promotion and disease prevention over ten years ago and the saying ‘you are what you eat’ has never been more true.

Where do people go to get their nutritional advice?

 At the moment everyone it seems has written a book and is an expert on nutrition. Since I graduated food has become ‘sexy’ everyone is talking about it, every TV show has a cooking segment and welcomes on nutrition experts. The book shops are full of books on all aspects of food and nutrition from recipes books to diet books etc. Everyone it seems is trained as a nutritionist. On Instagram nutrition is everywhere with all sorts of people commenting, educating, advising on everything under the sun to do with nutrition.

‘So what?’ you might ask – is it not great to have so many  nutrition experts?

As a dietitian I have often sat in clinic with clients who attended unregulated ‘nutrition experts’. Often they will  have been put on an exclusion diet as they were told that they had an ‘allergy’ to a lot of different foods.  The exclusion diet invariable involves the exclusion of multiple foods groups with no reference made to what foods to including and how to manage nutritional deficiencies. These diets are at best not followed and at worst followed with resulting nutritional deficiencies and poor quality of life and huge inconvenience.

So who is qualified to give nutritional advice?

In Ireland the only recognized healthcare professional qualified to provide nutritional advice are CORU Registered Dietitians. CORU Registered Dietitians complete a minimum of a four year degree course in Human Nutrition & Dietetics at University level. Part of this degree includes up to a  year’s clinic placement. Before seeing clients trainee dietitians will shadow qualified dietitians and then be supervised before they can see any clients without supervision. Once qualified dietitians have to go through a rigorous process to get their qualification recognized by CORU. CORU are the regulatory body in the Republic of Ireland for all health care professionals. All dietitians have to abide by a code of professional practice and standards. All dietitians have to complete a minimum of 30 hours of continuous professional development (CPD) annually

Why is it is important that health care professionals are regulated?

The science of nutrition is complex and complicated. It is a fast evolving science. The messages have changed and are constantly changing. It’s easy to get confused. It is also big business and a million pound industry when you consider the weight loss industry, the supplement industry and the food industry. Everyone is trying to make money . That is why it is important now more than ever that the public is aware of who the experts are and who to trust to provide impartial, unbiased nutrition advice.

Buyer be ware

Whoever you go to and whatever you read and whatever you hear about nutrition and nutritional science check out your sources as it’s so easy to be sold snake oil! I have a degree in nutrition and have worked as a Registered Dietitian for thirty years and I can get confused at times! That is why Registered Dietitians have to work tirelessly to keep up with the latest nutritional science and research. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Ask what qualifications people have? Where did they get the qualification from? What client/clinical experience they have? What professional bodies are they registered with? How do they maintain their qualifications?

What about food allergy?

True food allergy only affects 2 % of the population. It rare and it needs to be properly diagnosed by a medical doctor. No one else is qualified to diagnose food allergy. Food intolerance is different to food allergy. CORU Registered Dietitians can work with individuals to support them to identify and manage food intolerance. It is not a simple process and one that needs to be expertedly managed . As failure to do so can result in misdiagnoses and nutritional deficiencies. Beware of individuals selling food intolerance testing. There is no scientific test to diagnose food intolerance. So my advice is to not to waste your money on bogus, non-evidence based testing. To manage suspected food intolerances you are best advised to talk to your GP and to see a CORU Registered Dietitian who can advise you on how best to proceed.

So how do CORU Registered Dietitians work?

Dietitians complete a full and rigorous nutrition assessment on all clients seen in clinic. Questions are asked to gather information on past medical history, family history, medications, blood tests, gut health, skin health, supplement use, diet history, and weight history. Weight and height and other anthropometrical measurements are also collated.  It is only when all this data is gathered that dietitians proceed to advice clients on an appropriate, personalized diet which best meets their individual needs. All dietitians are trained in counselling skills and behavioral change. I am a trained psychotherapist. These skills and this training is used in clinic to help clients make the changes they want to make to support their health and wellbeing. The process is client centered, facilitated by the dietitian. All the health insurance companies recognize the qualifications of CORU Registered Dietitians and offer customers up to 50% back on consultations.

Use a Registered Dietitian in the same way you are encouraged to use a properly qualified registered person from any professional

In the same way that the current ad on RTE encourages people to use a registered electrical contractor to get any electrical work completed on their property. People need to choose a CORU Registered Dietitian to work with to help them choose how best to feed and nourish their bodies. Surely how and what we eat needs to be given the full and whole respect that it deserves. Because put simply ‘You are what you eat’. It is time that we took nutrition seriously and considered getting proper and regulated advice from proper and regulated health care professionals.