Dietitian thoughts on the new WaPo article

are we/they/big food inappropriately pushing "anti-diet advice?"

At first reading it, I called last week’s Washington Post article, “As obesity rises, Big Food and dietitians push ‘anti-diet’ advice,” a dietitian hit piece, but now I have a lot more thoughts than that.

For reference, this is the second article from WaPo that is somewhat bashing influencer (and all?) dietitians, both written by Anahad O’Connor (my thoughts on that article are here).

First thought: does Anahad O’Connor hate dietitians? Why? And what does he have against Cara Harbstreet in particular, who is mentioned in both articles? (she is perfectly lovely).

General advice is… general. Sponsored posts are… sponsored
I mentioned this in my last post, but we as individuals are in charge of how much weight (pun not intended) we put into advice received on the internet. That includes advice from dietitians, physicians, health coaches, “hormone experts”, Joe Schmoe off the street, personal trainers, etc. who are not giving advice to you as an individual but to the general population. Is it irresponsible to give more specific health advice to the masses? Also yes. But that’s the challenge with social media. When it comes to sponsored content, once has to assume at least a little bias from the influencer. I know for me, I take any sponsored content with a grain of salt. Like, is the fashion influencer with a closet full of Chanel, Bottega, Celine, etc. really wearing her favorite Amazon finds? I think not. Will they make money if you click on said Amazon finds and buy them after seeing them wear the items in a post? Yes.

Dietitians are the lowest hanging fruit to pick on
I know I’ve talked about how little money dietitians make, but it begs repeating here. Although it’s quite expensive to become a dietitian, the ROI is abysmal. In fact, I’d dissuade anyone thinking of a career in dietetics at this point in time. The “influencer” dietitians featured in the WaPo article have figured out a new revenue stream in a career that is extremely difficult to make a living at. Good for them. This is no different than physicians who consult for pharmaceutical or healthcare companies, functional medicine practitioners who work with food sensitivity, GI mapping, etc. testing companies, aestheticians who partner with skincare companies on sponsored content, physical therapists who promote certain PT tools on their pages, etc. As long as the content is correctly labeled as #sponosored or #ad, we as consumers then have to have the wherewithal as to whether we consume that content or skip it. If dietitians are picked apart for these types of posts, everyone else should be too. The same goes for misinformation, which literally comes from every orifice on the internet, not just from some dietitians.

The Anti-Diet of it all
Here’s where things get tricky, in that the whole “anti-diet” movement is being characterized as “eat anything you want, whenever, health does not matter!” I do think these big food companies seem to be taking advantage of a philosophy meant to help people to sell their questionably “healthy” products. And that is unfortunate. Didn’t Weight Watchers do something similar with their “GLP-1" Program”? Can we talk about that critically to?

While the anti-diet movement, or mindset, is definitely subjective, I think a lot of dietitians see it a bit differently than the article characterizes. As someone who has worked with hundreds or women with challenging relationships with food, decades long histories of diets and weight cycling, who have been weight shamed, food shamed, struggled with disordered eating, etc., I know there is plenty of evidence that diets in fact do not work. And I’ve seen just how strong these factors impact quality of life. Do I subscribe to the “eat anything you want, whenever you want” philosophy? Also no. It’s entirely possible to have a positive relationship with all foods, and to want to be healthy and feel good in your body (whatever that means to you!).

Access to proper care
Something the article didn’t touch on when talking about the woman featured in the article, who gained a significant amount of weight after taking in more “Health at Every Size", “anti-diet” content: access to good, affordable healthcare and support, especially when you are living in a larger body. There is plenty of research showing that folks in larger bodies may delay seeking medical care, put off routine physicals, etc. because they have shame about their size and/or have been shamed by medical professionals in the past. This. Is. The. Real. Problem.

One last note
As a dietitian who has questioned my nutrition philosophy and how I’ve done things in the past a lot lately, I do think it’s a problem that the majority of “food freedom” or “anti-diet” dietitian influencers are thin (yes, I know I am too!). Not having experience living in a larger body and giving certain nutrition and body image advice to those in larger bodies should not be taken lightly (and it some cases, not done at all). I have many more thoughts on this topic, which I’ll probably save for another post.

Thanks for reading!