• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Dietitians for Professional Integrity

  • Home
  • Our Team
  • Resources
    • Advocacy & Action Toolkit
    • Conflict-Free CEUs
    • Distinguished Dietitians
    • Ethical Sponsorship
    • FNCE Guides & Reports
    • Like-Minded Organizations
    • RD Resource Toolkit
    • Statements of Concern
    • Understand The Issues
  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Search

Mar 01, 2013 Leave a Comment

Statement of Concern from Nancy Bennett, RD

Today’s statement of concern comes from Nancy Bennett, RD:

“I joined the Dietitians for Professional Integrity Facebook group because I realized that dietitians’ brand is in serious jeopardy.

Our brand — that is, the value we bring to the medical community and marketplace — is in question in part because of the affiliations AND has created with food industry giants. It is baffling to me that our organization, which touts itself as THE expert in healthy nutrition, would form alliances with the likes of Mars & Hershey’s.

Recently, the California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (CAND) sent all RDs in California its annual meeting agenda & registration in a newsletter. Their conference, entitled “Dietitians on a Mission for Balance”, will be held in April. Guess who is one of their corporate sponsors? Does “I’m Loving It” ring a bell?

I was so disturbed by this that I brought their newsletter into work & asked my professional colleagues (social workers, RN’s, MFT’s) what they thought of McDonald’s advertising in the CDA newsletter. Some of their responses included “Why would they do that to themselves?” “They are opening themselves up to mockery…” “Looks like they have sold out for the highest bidder.”

I would very much like to ask CAND AND why they are shooting themselves in the proverbial foot with these types of corporate sponsors. Don’t they understand that this tarnishes our brand?

My wake-up call regarding the quality of our brand came when Medicare made the decision to grant MDs, NPs (Nurse Practitioners) & PAs (Physician Assistants) the ability to bill for obesity counseling, but not RDs. This decision spoke volumes to me regarding our brand within the medical community.

I have been a RD now for +36 years and I doubt I will renew my AND membership. They need to hear the wake-up call from their membership before they are crushed by the stampede of RD’s leaving their organization.”

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Categories: Statements of Concern Tags: California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Hershey's, Mars, McDonald's

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

sidebar

Blog Sidebar

Social Media

FacebookTwitter

Subscribe to receive our quarterly newsletter and other breaking news!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Browse by Topic

  • Academic Research
  • Advocacy
  • Distinguished Dietitians
  • Ethical Sponsorship
  • Industry Spin
  • Industry-Funded Research
  • Interviews
  • Photos
  • Problematic Sponsorship
  • Recommended Reads
  • Reports
  • Statements of Concern
  • Uncategorized

Tags

Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics American Beverage Association Andy Bellatti Big Tobacco California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Center for Science in the Public Interest CEUs Civil Eats Coca-Cola ConAgra conflicts of interest Corn Refiners Association FNCE front groups General Mills Global Energy Balance Network Hershey's industry-funded research junk food Kellogg Kids Eat Right Kraft Kraft Singles lobbying Marion Nestle marketing marketing to children Mars McDonald's meat industry Michele Simon moderation National Dairy Council Nestlé New York Times PepsiCo policy soda soda tax soda taxes sugar The Sugar Association Unilever World Health Organization Yoni Freedhoff

Footer

Subscribe to receive our quarterly newsletter and other breaking news!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Recent Posts

Farewell to Our Supporters

Dear DFPI Supporters, Since February of 2013, we at Dietitians For Professional Integrity have been a voice for uplifting the registered dietitian credential at a time when corporate influences - both overt and covert Read More

Highly Processed Foods Can Negatively Impact Health

Good read from New York Times on how highly processed foods (and the ingredients in many of them) can negatively impact health by creating an imbalance in the gut microbiome. This is the future of nutrition. The fact Read More

Social Media

FacebookTwitter

RSS

  • RSS - Posts

© 2021 Dietitians for Professional Integrity