Nutritionists and America's Problem With Obesity

There are a lot of overweight people in the United States of America. Not only overweight, but obese as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), obesity in the US during 2008 was above 33 percent, roughly 32 percent for men and nearly 36 percent for women. Overall, the overweight plus obesity rate, meaning all those that are obese, plus those that are clinically overweight according to a standard body mass index (BMI), is over 68 percent. That is nearly seven of ten people in America!

And one can't even go to the store without seeing a diet book or magazine, lose weight fast drug or diet pill, or turn on the TV without seeing some sort of commercial or reality show about losing weight. So what are Americans thinking? Why are we so fat? Why is it that almost anywhere I travel, I do not see fat people? Now, I live in Hawaii, and I am excluding most Polynesians. I'm no expert, but I don't think the whole world is supposed to look like Polynesians. I most definitely do NOT think that over 80 percent of the Midwestern and Southern US is supposed to look like a Polynesian. These are not big people we have in the US. Rather, these are fat people.
So, what are we doing about it, besides inventing a bunch of phony diet pills and profiting off of television shows watching fat people miserably trying to lose weight? We have doctors and medications for just about every problem or ailment a human could have. Some of my favorites include: erectile dysfunction, heartburn medicine with more warnings than attributes and even one for restless leg syndrome, or RLS. But do you know any nutritionists? Do you know any dietitians? Have you seen one? Is this covered under your insurance? Has anyone told us, "This is a healthy way of living" the same way our doctor tells us to take depression medicine or an anti-aging cream for our skin?
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Nutritionists and Dietitians duties include the following areas: "Plan food and nutrition programs, supervise meal preparation, and oversee the serving of meals. They prevent and treat illnesses by promoting healthy eating habits and recommending dietary modifications." Many of these professionals work in hospitals, clinics, long and short-term care facilities, food processing industries, government agencies, education and research. They commonly treat diseases and illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, obesity and routine operations and hospital stays due to any number of illnesses or injuries.
Nutritionists work closely with physicians, nurses and many other medical professionals to treat patients, yet they are still hard to come by. Many doctors do not have many nutritionists to recommend, and many nutritionists are not readily available. This can be for two reasons.
The first is the lack of regulations for nutritionists. Presently, in the US and Canada, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. This can hurt the general public requiring nutritional care as nutrition science is a very complex subject, with different results for every person. A nutritional counselor of any kind must be knowledgeable in a wide variety of information, both traditional as well as have a deep understanding of the latest research. Techniques are constantly being improved, and nutrition professionals must be able to keep up. Without oversight and regulation, nutritionists are not guaranteed to know what they may need to know, and patients will suffer. For this reason, those who are unsure of either what they need or who they are being counseled by should look only for Registered Dietitians, or those nutrition professionals who are certified by the American Dietetic Association and the affiliate association in their state.
The second problem is that these regulations are not uniform, and may differ between state lines and around the world. For that reason, anyone who wishes to see a nutritionist or dietitian in their area should become familiar with the accrediting agencies in their country and their state, to be sure they are getting care from a fully accredited and qualified individual.