You read so much from so many places and just when you think you might have cracked the code on the mystery that is 'healthy eating' you hear some new bit of research which tells you how wrong you have it.
I'm frustrated. I'm being honest.
For me, things are a little different as I have both crohns disease and celiac so of course I need to take those things into account. Yet as a nutritionist (the type without a degree - yet!) I find it's near on impossible to give the right advice to the entire audience.
A dietitian who I previously respected has published a rant about all the type of 'clean living' which is apparently a new fad. The BBC published this show about the dirty secrets of clean living. The blogger who hosted it was quite open about what she was trying and the advice she was getting from various fad diet gurus. After watching it, I had to agree with a lot of what she said, there is a lot of bad advice out there.
Yet something that makes me really cross is how they portray us poor old 'nutritionists'.
There seems to be a war between the quackary of being a nutritionist and a dietitian who is one to be obeyed.
In fact, to set the record straight, we take the same degree qualification and the only difference is that Registered Nutritionists do not have to undertake hospital placements. Generally, once qualified and Registered with the Association for Nutrition, a Nutritionist will need to practice with as much credibility as a dietitian.
I started out my degree to become a dietitian. I changed my mind after 4 months as I realised that I would be tied to a 'one rule fits all'. Sadly, I had a bad experience with a dietitian and I'm sure this was an isolated incident. When I was first diagnosed with Crohns and fighting to keep my bowel in tact and not have it removed with surgery, the dietitian I saw at my hospital knew nothing about adjusting my diet in accordance with inflammatory bowel disease, nor did my gasteroenterologist beleive I could make improvements in my health by changing my diet.
"you can't control your symptoms without medication or surgery, or both." He said as I cried.
The dietitian advised me to eat from the Eatwell plate which I am sure would have left me in a state of needing the surgery.
I proved them wrong.
I won't go into my advice to you in this blog post. I simply want to point out that if you believe one way works for you, then it's likely it will.
However, while we have spent two years studying hardcore science and about to get into the minefield of research to complete our degrees at university, I can't help but wonder if I'm trying to enter an industry that seems to love a bit of politics.
That worries me.
