American Dietetic Association (This ADA is not the ADA for American Diabetes Association!) has recently started a wave of legislative initiatives [1, 2] for requiring registered dietitians as well as nutritionists to be licensed in states where they practice, and creating State Boards of Dietetics for regulating the practice of dietetics for the sake of protecting the public’s interests such as improving individual’s dietary style for health. ADA uses legislators of each state to sponsor bills that it helps draft in hopes that it will have the control of all dietary matters in the US. Nevertheless, its intention requires close scrutiny.
Licensing dietitians is an important public policy that identifies the qualified dietary professional for practicing dietetics in public domains such as directing dietary services at hospitals, companies, nursing facilities, and etc. Licensure for dietitians also sets the standard of practice for dietitians in hope that the public could trust the licensed dietitians for their services and preventing the public from being harmed by the licensed dietitians. With the disciplinary codes of licensure, State Boards of Dietetics can prevent those dietitians who do not meet the standard of practice from offering dietetic services. Thus, licensure helps the public employ the licensed dietetic personnel with confidence.
While regulating dietitians is intended for upholding the standard of dietetic practice and protecting the public’s interests, the public is not obliged to using licensed dietitians for consultation on its daily dietary choice that is absolutely a matter of individual’s freedom. Under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, Individuals are free to discuss among themselves about their dietary choice and to share their dietary experiences. Sharing personal experience with others in writing, such as books and web blogs, and speaking at meeting helps educate everybody without coercion or dictate about how each individual could do to improve their health through proper dieting.
Public discussion on dieting and nutrition is particularly important today, because, based on the statistics, both the American Dietetic Association and American Diabetic Association have failed to prevent Americans from becoming overweight or obese, diabetics, and suffering with many diseases, which can be prevented with healthy dieting. The cause of their failure is that they do not follow the real science! [3, 4]
Undoubtedly, ADA and State Boards of Dietetics, which consist of licensed dietitians, are enthusiastic in improving the public’s health and protecting its interests. However, ADA and State Boards of Dietetics do not the authority, under the doctrine of Freedom of Speech, of prohibiting individuals from sharing their dietary experience in public, as long as those lay individuals do not falsely identify themselves as licensed dietitians without proper credentialing.
Understandably, the ADA’s interests in legislative initiatives are in hopes that, through the licensure process, it could garner all the dietary commerce to the hands of its fellow dietitians, and create a scheme of “The Only Game In Town.” Both ADA and State Boards of Dietetics must be aware that such tactic is rightly in violation of the anti-trust laws. A recent litigation between the US Federal Trade Commission and the North Carolina Board of Dentistry is the prime example in point. [5]
The public welcomes legislation or Laws and Rules in licensing qualified dietitians for improving the standard of dietetic practice. However, legislators who sponsor the legislation, as well as the existing State Boards of Dietetics, should be aware that the licensure itself must be constitutional and lawful!
Robert Su, Pharm.B., M.D., author of Carbohydrates Can Kill and host of the Carbohydrates Can Kill Show
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1. House Bill 345, Commonwealth of Virginia. January 10, 2012.
2. National Health Freedom Action.
3. Teach Physicians, Nutritionists, And Dietitians Flawless Nutritional Science
4. “monopoly on nutrition counseling to….”
5. FTC Concludes North Carolina Dental Board Illegally Stifled Competition by Stopping Non-Dentists From Providing Teeth Whitening Services. For Release: 12/07/2011.
