Posted on 04/26/2012 5:09:53 AM PDT by EBH
The state of North Carolina has its own "Board of Dietetics and Nutrition"--of course it does--and it has decided that one bloggers right to free speech ends where the North Carolina Board of Dietetics and Nutrition's officious overbearingness begins, as I think Oliver Wendell Holmes (or was it Oliver Wendell Douglas?) once wrote.
Here's the naughty bits, as reported in Carolina Journal:
[When] Steve Cooksey...was hospitalized with diabetes in February 2009, he decided to avoid the fate of his grandmother, who eventually died of the disease. He embraced the low-carb, high-protein Paleo diet, also known as the “caveman” or “hunter-gatherer” diet. The diet, he said, made him drug- and insulin-free within 30 days. By May of that year, he had lost 45 pounds and decided to start a blog about his success.
But this past January the state diatetics and nutrition board decided Cooksey’s blog — Diabetes-Warrior.net — violated state law. The nutritional advice Cooksey provides on the site amounts to “practicing nutrition,” the board’s director says, and in North Carolina that’s something you need a license to do.
Unless Cooksey completely rewrites his 3-year-old blog, he could be sued by the licensing board. If he loses the lawsuit and refuses to take down the blog, he could face up to 120 days in jail.
The board’s director says Cooksey has a First Amendment right to blog about his diet, but he can’t encourage others to adopt it unless the state has certified him as a dietitian or nutritionist.
Seems he came to their attention after contradicting a local hospital's director of diabetes services at a local meeting, and handing out cards about his site. What did the Board find objectionable about Cooksey's site?
Cooksey posted a link (6.3 MB PDF download) to the board’s review of his website. The document shows several Web pages the board took issue with, including a question-and-answer page, which the director had marked in red ink noting the places he was “assessing and counseling” readers of his blog.
“If people are writing you with diabetic specific questions and you are responding, you are no longer just providing information — you are counseling,” she wrote. “You need a license to provide this service."
The board also found fault with a page titled “My Meal Plan,” where Cooksey details what he eats daily.
In red, [Dietetics and Nutrition Board director] Burril writes, “It is acceptable to provide just this information [his meal plan], but when you start recommending it directly to people you speak to or who write you, you are now providing diabetic counseling, which requires a license.”
The board also directed Cooksey to remove a link offering one-on-one support, a personal-training type of service he offered for a small fee.
Cooksey posts the following disclaimer at the bottom of every page on his website:
“I am not a doctor, dietitian, nor nutritionist … in fact I have no medical training of any kind.”
The bureaucrat speaks!
Charla Burill, the board’s director, told Carolina Journal she could not discuss the details of Cooksey’s case because his website is still under investigation, but agreed to talk about the law in the hypothetical....
Burill said [Cooksey's] disclaimer may not protect a nutrition blogger from the law.
“If I’ve given you reason to not worry that I don’t have a license because I have all these other reasons I’m an expert, you could still harm the public,” she said. “At least you’re not trying to mislead the public, but you’re trying to get the public to trust you.”....
Burill said if Cooksey refuses to come into compliance with the law, the board could file for an injunction.
The paleo diet--a passionate fad and/or lifestyle change of an enormous number of folk I know concentrated in the world's of libertarianism, futurism, space, and your basic "new digital economy" (does that still exist?) and the places where all those interests intersect--may or may not save you from diabetes, give you the pep you need, or revert you back down the evolutionary chain, or whatever it's supposed to do.
But that someone should be able to describe his experiences with it and advocate for his own good results should go without saying, though my saying that may well contradict a directive of the California Board of Going Without Saying.
The board's review of Cooksey's site. in remarkably official-looking pen scrawls in margins of a printout of the site.
Read Cooksey's site if you care to--it ain't illegal (yet).
In a previous century, I wrote about the Federal Trade Commission's power to essentially censor speech when it comes to claims about chiropraxy.
Bumpo
hmmm... where did THAT idea come from...
oh yeah... “you will be as gods, knowing good and evil”
Well, if you’re in NC, you can talk about it, you just can’t recommend it.
I would like to think this is yet another result of the encroaching socialism in NC brought about by transplanted northerners, but it’s likely this board has been around for quite a long time. NC is VERY into regulation and government. For example (and people tend not to believe me, but it’s true), it’s easier to get a concealed-carry permit in WA (I’m talking Pierce Country—Tacoma, Olympia area) than in Raleigh, NC. Hell, it was easier to get my permit in WA than it was in Augusta, GA.
Oh I do recall that as I wrote during one of the open comment periods against just such a law/rule. The last time Sen. John McCain was one of the supporters and sponsors of taking suppliments away!
Just last year in fact:
The FDA is Taking Action to Ban Natural Supplements
and there is always the power of the Executive Order
Obama signs legislation to make supplements and alternative health remedies illegal and that was in 2010.
"Seems he came to their attention after contradicting a local hospital's director of diabetes services at a local meeting, and handing out cards about his site."
There ya go. Publicly contradicting a bureaucrat, and making clear it wasn't a one-time event.
The drug companies etc just want to sell more medications, needles, etc. What a racket.
That’s exactly what it is. I am convinced that God provided us with everything we need to maintain a healthy body and I don’t think pharmaceuticals are part of the program.
It is not about the blogging, it is the fact that he is soliciting monies to be paid as a consultant which has him up for problems. Nothing ever happens without credentials anymore.
Because it works and is 180 degrees opposite of what doctors recommend.
The big-government/big-corporate medical monopoly does not tolerate competition.
Think about it. Doctors and dieticians make MONEY from fat, sick people. ADKINS cures so many ills. I personally know a diabetic in complete remission by using it.
The only people I know who hate it are employed by exploiting illness. One dietician gave me about 35 pages of anti Adkins propaganda when I just mentioned it!
I also mentioned that I had lost 30 pounds in one month...
Sad to say but it looks like North Carolina is trying to become the Californicate of the east coast.
That's an interesting take. I've come to the conclusion that the root cause of leftism (a word I don't like) is sin.
People that allow sin to control them still understand on some level that God's word is what fulfills us in life and His rules are what helps guide us to be the healthiest and happiest that is possible in our circumstances. Regardless some still embrace sin and when the fruit of their behavior is revealed they lash out like spoiled children who want to continue to sin but don't want to reap what they have sown.
The more they embrace their lifestyle of sin the more they hate Christians and Christ. Homosexuals, Drug addicts, the promiscuous, Adulterers, serial monogamists, megalomaniacs, and the majority of Politicians (but I repeat myself) fill their lives with sin. They wallow in it, take pride in it, and when it doesn't fulfill them or makes them ill or sick or incarcerated, they lash out at Christianity.
We are all sinners of course and it is only by the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we are saved.
But this past January the state diatetics and nutrition board decided Cooksey’s blog — Diabetes-Warrior.net — violated state law. The nutritional advice Cooksey provides on the site amounts to “practicing nutrition,” the board’s director says, and in North Carolina that’s something you need a license to do.
Unless Cooksey completely rewrites his 3-year-old blog, he could be sued by the licensing board. If he loses the lawsuit and refuses to take down the blog, he could face up to 120 days in jail.
ALWAYS include a disclaimer...you'll see it on 99% of such blogs, columns, books. Its pretty generic -
One column I used to write that was almost exclusively about home remedies was even titled “IT works for Me” - and I would write about what I, personally did, in regards to ‘formulas’ or ‘treatment.” I didn't advise anyone else to follow suit, “just sharing what I do and what works for me.You're on your own. Read, research and decide for yourself.”
Never had a problem with the long, nosy arm of the establishment.
As far as feline diabetes heck no, with the others it all depends on how it’s presented I guess. It is an interesting case, personally I do think some sites will go too far in what they do or say as far as health issues go if money is involved.
Advise is one thing, opinions are like belly buttons, but actively coaching it for money from someone who he has no knowledge of their overall health except what they tell him - Just over the line imho.
As a registered dietitian who faithfully lives by the Atkins Diet, I find this disturbing. My goodness, where does all of this “Big Brother” stuff end. Sure, I worked five long years to earn my nutrition credentials but if someone wants to give nutrition advice based on their experiences and do not claim to bt a nutrition professional, go for it. 95% of the dietitians I know think Atkins was whacked, I personally think he was one of he best nutritional minds out there!
I am a off, on again vegetarian.
Nothing to do with liberalism or politics. Actually feel pretty good when I am eating vegetarian but go back to meat(chicken/fish and lean red meats) just because I like eating meat.
I post on several fitness sites and nothing is ever brought up by the posters about politics or liberalism causes why they eat vegetarian. It's a fitness thing.
My gf has the same lifestyle and we both lift 4 days a week and do marathons/triathalons
MrB, Don't throw in politics in everything in life.
bfl
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