13 Reasons Why I Ditched My Title of DIETITIAN by Megan Pennington

Becoming a Dietitian made me fat, stressed, and miserable.

Before I explain further, let me be clear that I have NOTHING against Dietitians. What I am about to say is in no way meant as a discredit or disrespect to those Dietitians who are out in the world helping others and doing a great job.

That being said, the Dietetics profession was not for me.

As young as 13 years old I became enthralled with nutrition and health. I began doing my own research, read all the different diet theories at the time, and encountered an enormous amount of conflicting information. I decided to learn the “truth” about nutrition, and pursued it as a career.

When I started my degree in Dietetics and Human Nutrition at McGill, I was ecstatic. I wanted to help others (and myself) feel alive and well and to live a long and healthy life.

I was eager to learn and it felt pretty amazing to be studying my passion at one of the best schools in North America.

However, things didn’t quite work out the way I had planned.

I gained 30 pounds.

I became obsessed with food and eating “healthy”.

I was constantly thinking and stressing about my next meal, trying to get all the nutrients I needed without consuming too many calories.

I implemented the low fat, low calorie eating plan I learned for weight loss, which only resulted in major food cravings, mood swings, fatigue, and a very poor relationship with food. I didn’t even lose weight!

Food became my enemy – something that was causing stress in my life and making me feel awful about my body. The more control I tried to have over my food intake, the worse things got.

In a nutshell: it sucked. And worse, I felt there was nothing I could do about it. I mean, I was following the guidelines set out for me by experienced Dietitians! My teachers! If this wasn’t working, then I guessed nothing else would….

After a few years I decided to take a completely different approach. I went on a 4 month backpacking trip across Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and came back with an interesting revelation:

When I threw everything out the window, everything I “thought” I knew about nutrition and healthy eating; when I stopped counting calories and stressing about my diet, I felt 100% better and lost all the added weight, effortlessly!

After my trip, I worked as a Clinical Dietitian in long term care for about 5 years. During this time I performed nutritional assessments, devised meal plans, provided advice in the management of various diseases, yet never felt that I was having a very big impact on my clients’ wellbeing. There was something lacking; something important.

I tend to view the Dietetics profession as I view the western medicine profession. Everything is broken down into parts, which is great for detail, but often makes it difficult to see the big picture.

For example: let’s say you have body pains. A doctor may give you painkillers, or refer you to a specialist. If the specialist can’t find anything wrong with you, then what? When you have no one looking at you as a WHOLE, things get missed. Such as the stress, sugar abuse, depression and food intolerances all contributing to that body pain!!

Sure, there are exceptions. Some doctors are amazing at taking a full assessment and considering all the potentially relevant factors. But generally, they will focus on treating your symptoms and not necessarily address the underlying cause.

Similarly, a Dietitian will often focus on managing your symptoms with a diet, because this is what they are trained to do. For example, someone with heart disease will likely be shown how to decrease their salt and cholesterol intake, and will be encouraged to lose weight and exercise. HOWEVER, it is well known in the scientific community that inflammation plays a huge role in heart disease, so what’s causing the inflammation?

Diet can only go so far when there are other underlying factors contributing significantly to your current state of health.

I have found much more success in taking a holistic approach, which does NOT focus on a single area such as food or nutrition. This approach allows for a broader view of what’s going on, and the opportunity to bring everything together to create a truly effective action plan. One that also looks at root causes and contributing factors unrelated to food.

SO HERE ARE THE 13 REASONS I CHOSE TO DITCH MY TITLE OF DIETITIAN:

(Note that these are generalizations – certainly there are exceptions, but this was my experience…)

1) A Dietitian’s main role is to create a diet for a patient. I personally found that regimented diet plans don’t usually work over the long term, and can result in eating disorders, poor body image, and control issues.

2) As I touched on before, Dietetics offers a very limited approach to health. No amount of organic broccoli is going to help someone who is depressed. We need to look beyond salt, fats, calories and portion sizes.

3) Dietitians are generally advised to follow the US and Canadian Food Guides. While these have dramatically improved in recent years, they are still influenced by lobbying food industries. These guides are still a balancing act of science and politics.

4) And yet, Dietitians are held to a standard of practice which includes best practice guidelines based solely on scientific literature. Interesting

5) A Dietitian’s recommendations are based solely on current guidelines based on the scientific literature. The problem with this is, there are limitations in terms of what HAS BEEN and what CAN BE studied and proven, thus the Dietitian is in turn limited by these same boundaries. This is to protect the public, but to think that one century of science should be the sole basis for our treatment plans, at the exclusion of thousands of years of traditional, alternative, or anecdotal evidence, seems a bit ludicrous to me.

6) Formal training in Dietetics concentrates primarily on calories, macronutrients, and micronutrient quantities in isolation. This is highly beneficial for tube feeds and IV calculations, in addition to some other clinical situations, but makes it difficult to translate into practical information for the general public.

7) Since so much emphasis is placed on nutrient quantities, there tends to be a focus on specific intake levels according to the Recommended Daily Intakes. This can be problematic because we don’t eat nutrients; we eat food. Too much of a single nutrient, for example calcium, can cause more harm than good.

8) Dietetics offers minimal training in food sensitivities, allergies, and the laundry list of symptoms that so many people are suffering from (headaches, indigestion, bloating, weight gain, body pains, autoimmune disease). If Dietitians, traditionally THE nutrition experts, aren’t trained in these food related issues, who is?

9) Dietetics offered minimal training in the psychology of eating (I remember only receiving one class in general psychology). Yet psychology is a HUGE driving factor in many dietary issues and general eating habits.

10)  Dietetics offered minimal training in counselling. For example, how to be a good listener, show compassion, build rapport and trust, provide a safe space for the client to share their struggles, and how to guide them in such a way that feels supportive and will encourage change.

11) Dietetics focuses minimally (if at all) on the mind-body connection in relation to food and overall health. Even the impact of the microbiome was not widely discussed when I was in school.

12) Dietetics trainings are infiltrated by politics. I attended several annual meetings and workshops for continuing education provided by the association, and these were often funded by the Canadian Sugar Institute and PepsiCo. As attendees we received little gifts with the logos of such companies.

13) The Dietetics profession seeks to monopolize the skillset. As a student my teachers would regularly preach “YOU are the trained professionals. YOU are the only nutrition experts. Everyone else lacks proper training”. There are laws and regulations to back this sentiment. My question is: why is a newly graduated Dietitian with NO experience automatically “better” than a nutrition coach with 30 years of independent study and practical knowledge? Were soldiers who learned surgery in the field less competent or worthy than those who studied in a lab? I believe it is extremely close-minded to teach students that they know best and are the most qualified in their field, while disregarding the competence of other modalities and practitioners.

So that has been my experience in the Dietetics world.

Again, I know MANY Dietitians who are FANTASTIC and do an amazing job. They are open-minded, compassionate, and extremely supportive. The above 13 reasons are generalizations from my own personal experience.

I feel that the Dietetics model as a whole is lacking in some very important areas, and thus I have chosen to move away from that modality and approach. Currently I am a Certified Holistic Health Coach and LEAP Therapist (Lifestyle Eating And Performance), specializing in food sensitivity reactions, inflammatory conditions, weight management, and disease prevention.

I work with the body mind connection and energetic field. I have learned that there is much to be discovered about the human body and I will never discredit any healing technique or modality that brings my clients relief or improved wellbeing.

I would like to encourage others to search out a health practitioner with whom you resonate with and feel supported by. And NEVER give up on your path to health. Don’t let anyone tell you “there is no cure for that” or “there is nothing else you can do”. There is so much waiting for you J

Megan Pennington is a Certified LEAP Therapist and Holistic Health Coach with a BSc in Dietetics and Human Nutrition.