How contemporary nutrition education does more harm than good,
and how that can be changed Nutrition science reaches us in
large part through dietitians. If you have heard public health
messages around nutrition, you have been influenced by
dietitians. If you buy groceries, eat in schools, or patronize
restaurants, hospitals or cafeterias – well, if you eat – you
have been influenced by dietitians. That’s why the recruitment
and training of dietitians matters so much. And that is a
problem. And an opportunity. Nutrition education today woefully
misrepresents nutrition science. Its gospel reflects too well
the interests of industry and too little the views of
environmentalists, consumer, labor, and social justice
advocates, and others with a personal (rather than financial)
stake in the eating, making and selling of food. It rarely
considers the emotional and social dynamics that underlie how
food choices are made. It gives a misleading view of the science
of health by frequently misrepresenting the role of fo