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.
We wouldn’t be so likely to point out the politics of every issue if the left didn’t try to make everything a matter of the government forcing us to comply with the left’s opinions on every issue.
i lost 60 - no longer diabetic, low blood BP - first ever - great cholesterol
Adkins is ok short term but like any fad diet they are harmful in the long term. Your brain needs quit a bit of good carbs to function properly.
A good rule of thumb is 40% protein, 40% good carbs and 20% good fats per day.
More specifically, it's their denial of the existence of Free Will.
All ya gotta do is include the disclaimer that you're not advising anyone else to follow your plan - that you're merely sharing what worked/works for you. and write in a first person way - no 'you should' no "do this' - and you are covered.
Look at the generic disclaimers in any such articles/books.
As a writer of home/folk/natural remedies for over a quarter century, I have followed the simple rule on the disclaimer. Yes, we have - still - free speech, but there are limits, like - you can't yell FIRE in a theater if there is none." Just take the disclaimer in the book "The Paleo Diet" itself. Even though written by a doctor, he includes: "The information contained in this book is not intended to serve as a replacement for professional medical advice. Any use of the information in this book is at the reader's discretion. The author and the publisher specifically disclaim...A health care professional should be consulted regarding your specific situation."
Really simple. folks. Just follow the rule. Not everything is Machiavellian...although we can't be blamed these days for being suspicious.
Try going to the druggist without a scrip. 70 years ago you could get cocaine, or heroin, and no one got shot.
That's becoming popular but I have never tried it yet. I do feel pretty good when I eat 200-300 less calories per day than my maintenace calories but only do this for cutting purposes as I don't want to lose lean muscle mass.
They tormented Dr. Atkins all his life and now they are making billions off the same idea.
This is actually a good question. Are all those diet book authors licensed by the state? Are bookstores liable for bring such books into the state? In which state is the blog hosted?
Actually, I believe this is correct decision, and a generally held principle not just at the state, but also the federal level.
Don’t think of it in terms of nutrition, but of “practicing medicine without a license.” Which puts a whole new spin on this.
Granted, nutritionists are not doctors, but this man is, in effect, giving medical advice to people without knowing any of their medical background. This is a very dangerous thing to do, and is strictly prohibited to the *entire* supplement and alternative medicine business in the US.
The FDA regularly wipes out businesses that do this. You do *not* offer personal medical advice. With diets it is always, “ask your doctor if this is right for you”, or “check with your doctor before trying this.” Lots of other disclaimers.
The actual content of his diet is not really important. I rather like diets similar to the Paleo diet, like Atkins, which do work, yet are not approved of by many nutritionists. But while I might recommend that they work, I will not tell an unknown person that it is right for them.
It is not really a fine line, here. But this guy has crossed that line.
I eliminate carbs from my diet on January 3, 2012. So far I have lost 30 pounds. Nuff said.
That isn’t just “leftists” - it’s authoritarians of all stripes.
My personal experience is that I can go on a high protein diet and lose weight or I can go on a high carb diet with no meat, poultry or fish and I can eat all kinds of vegetables including white potatoes and include corn bread and I can lose weight. When I combine the protein and carbs I have to stay hungry and eat very small amounts or I gain weight.
Under socialized medicine, I promise, control over everything you want to ingest will get much, much worse. This article is about a newly assertive medical regime on power trip taking controlling over what they will permit you say on the internet about diets that worked for you. This is a very agressive move.
I get the pre WWII comment. I was born during the war but I well remember how much smaller people were in the fifties compared to today. A 180 lb. man was considered a big guy back then, now he is considered small. Anyone too young to know about how it was can just watch some movies made prior to 1970 or read some comments made back then. I was looking up some information on “Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs” for our grandsons once and ran across an article written about them back in the sixties, the writer remarked that “Sam” had a short career as a boxer and actually talked about how BIG he was, six foot one and 165 lbs! That would mean that if he hit you it would really hurt! That is almost exactly the size my father was in those days, he was considered a big man, today he would be ignored as a skinny, scrawny looking man of slightly above average height. I myself am six four and just over 250, muscular, not fat. I am considered a very big man now but back in the fifties or sixties I would literally have stopped traffic. I had an uncle who was born in 1899 and was even bigger than I am and back in those days people were actually awestruck at the sight of him. Now when I go to the gym it is common to see one or more men who are taller and bigger than I am.
So nutrition is medicine? You really want to go down that road?
Of course that would mean that Michelle 0bama can’t tell you to, “eat your peas,” anymore.
I see this as more of the same along the lines of the kids turkey and cheese sandwich that was taken away.
The guy has disclaimers on every page of his site. Plus if he was selling his advice, but closing with a disclaimer ???
If I tell you an Apple a day will keep the doctor away...I am practicing medicine? If I advise you to eat from the 4 food groups for a healthy diet, I am practicing medicine?
Look at all the FReepers who are huge Vitamin D pushers...are they practicing medicine when they share their knowledge and experience here?
Naw...hard pressed to accept your premise.
Granted, what he did probably didn’t cross the line for federal rules, but his state has stricter rules. It is kind of a novel situation, though, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
Sounds familiar :) Now both my DH and I LOVE Good food, but neither of us were ever real every morning breakfast sorts, and then a few years back while on vacation we realized that we really were in no hurry for dinner if we had a big lunch... In our regular home routines, he may still pick up a light lunch while at work, but I generally just hold off until he gets home, (whatever time that ends up being), and then we have a late yummy dinner.
What is really is amazing how little food our bodies actually need! I was kinda worried when I started to fully move over to a one meal a day routine, since when I was much younger I would get shaky if I didn’t eat
for too long, but over the years that happened less and less, and I finally
realized why - that it was a blood sugar issue. When I ate/eat too many
simple carbs with not enough fat or protein to slow it down, my
metabolism just blows right through it and I end up left hanging by a very
jangly thread : o
Nowadays, I try to stick to proteins, good fats, veggies and feel great, with some occasional complex carbs thrown in, although grains, as much as I love them, sure don’t seem to love me : /
Back on the thread topic ; )This whole push with various governmental agencies moving to control what food I want to eat, and shutting down sources of information REALLY steams my shorts..... because how I
choose to take care of myself and my family, and what food we want to
put into our bodies to me is the ultimate in personal freedom, and is
NONE of their business.
Grrrrrr.
May God give us strength.
Tatt
May God
As an old Jesuit priest once told me, “you cannot have any favorite sin.” Though we are all sinners, what sets a liberal apart is the adherence and defense of his or his neighbors’ favorite sins.
On the other hand, it was the hippies who gave us awareness of organically produced versus factory farms, pesticides, and genetically modified foods.
It is strange that we now have to think of “food freedom” as something we have to defend.
Hippies did what now? Organic food is a scam. The fears over pesticides were not based in hard science nor is there a documented case of "genetically modified" foods harming anyone. For that matter anything humans raise or grow for consumption has been genetically modified. This is all a ploy for power over the food supply and/or a marketing ploy.
As the bumper sticker says "green is the new red".
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