Influencer Dietitians at Work
In a recent article by the Washington Post, dietitians are being called out for partnering with companies to promote products for money. We’re all familiar with social media influencers. From makeup to clothing and everything in between, social media influencers with enough followers can earn a living or at least get some free stuff by promoting on their sites. Thankfully, being as out of touch as I am, this is not a problem for me. Now excuse me while I yell at the street youths to “get off my lawn!”
What’s the Big Deal?
Just a few days before the article was published, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics sent out a mass email to dietitians, warning us what was coming. They pointed out that we do have a code of ethics where dietitians must report paid partnerships in any posts and that while the Academy receives money from companies such as Coke, these make up less than 7% of their revenue.
Is this a witch hunt with a few bad apples or an actual problem?
Probably a little of both. As a clinical dietitian, I know many of the dietitians in the surrounding area. We focus on educating patients with evidence-based recommendations to help manage diabetes, heart disease, and many other conditions. We work “in the trenches” and are often the only dietitian a person will actually see in their lifetime. While we don’t always have the time to discuss
every aspect of diet and nutrition with our patients, we focus on building a healthy understanding of diet that they can use outside of the hospital. Most of the patients I see are older and likely not getting nutrition advice on social media so these influencers aren’t a direct problem for my practice. Additionally, my patients are also trying to just live their lives. They’re not going to make a “keto-green-antioxidant” smoothie or start following an extreme diet. I hate to say it, but most of the people who follow the advice of these influencers are probably younger and have the time and financial resources to actually follow what is on these posts. I’ll eat my lab coat if I ever have a patient over the age of 60 tell me about a nutrition trend on social media.
So…Problem or Not?
That doesn’t mean that this article doesn’t point out a problem though. After all, dietitians do have a code of ethics. In only about half of the social media posts that reporters viewed did the dietitian disclose that it was a paid advertisement. More importantly though, are these posts following evidence-based guidelines in practice?
As a dietitian, we believe that you shouldn’t stigmatize any food and that all foods can be enjoyed as a part of a healthy diet. Even a person with heart disease could occasionally have high fat and high sodium bacon if that was a food he loved. Not everyday or every week even but demonizing food doesn’t usually lead to good results.
Some of the posts in the article are questionable when it comes to evidence-based practice though. With the recent warning on aspartame by the WHO, dietitians should be extremely cautious about recommending the public ignore these warnings. I haven’t read through all the studies but even if they are based on shaky science, it’s hard to get that information across via a short video. Instead, I’d recommend having a longer post where you could discuss the nuances of a study. That’s probably not going to be a crowd pleaser though. It’s amazing no one pays for my posts!
Other posts where dietitians appear to promote sugar-containing foods, dietary supplements, etc,
are cause for concern. I’m sure not every promotion is questionable but that the reporters could find enough to write this article is disappointing.
What About Standards?
The Academy does educate dietitians on paid advertising but isn’t as hands-on when it comes to enforcement. The FDA is a regulatory agency that doesn’t have the budget or staffing to monitor products on the market and usually only removes them once they’ve caused harm. Similarly, the Academy doesn’t investigate ethics violations unless they’ve been reported. Given the thousands of dietitians in the US today, it would be a monumental task to ensuring that each dietitian follows the ethical guidelines.
What’s Next?
For those of us who view the Academy with a fair (and warranted) amount of suspicion, this article may be positive. It may motivate greater transparency and encourage enforcement of our ethical guidelines. As for me, my social media posting will remain, as always, simply cat memes which are offensive to no one except for dogs.
