My Response to The Wall Street Journal Commentary


First of all, I want to thank Ms. Del Castillo's husband for his military service to our country. He sacrifices for our safety and freedom.

It is important to note, however, that food is medicine. When getting dietary advice, it is best to speak with a specialist who has:

  • Completed a minimum of a bachelor's degree with coursework through an Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) or Coordinated Program in Dietetics (CP)
  • Completed 1,200 hours of supervised practice through an ACEND accredited Dietetic Internship
  • Passed a national examination administered by the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR)
  • Completed continuing professional educational requirements to maintain registration

Many registered dietitians, like myself, are Certified Nutrition Support Clinicians (CNSC), and hold additional certifications in specialized areas of practice.

I question the qualification of Ms. Del Castillo to provide any dietary recommendations which was not provided in the whole article. Did she go to nutrition school? Did she complete a dietetic internship?

Every registered dietitian is a nutritionist, but not all nutritionists are registered dietitians.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fiber Mania

Image
On the day that I came back from a conference, I got a consult from a nurse practitioner. He said patient AB was status post allogenic stem cell transplant but with poor food intake, therefore he was newly initiated on enteral nutrition (tube feed) but experiencing diarrhea. The nurse practitioner asked me if there was any other formula that we could switch to to improve AB's diarrhea. During our conversation, I found out AB was ordered on a fiber-containing enteral nutrition formula. Instead of recommending a much more expensive semi-elemental enteral nutrition formula, I recommended that the nurse practitioner switch AB to a fiber-free formula and AB's diarrhea was resolved overnight. The question is: Is fiber good you? The answer is: It depends. According to the Institute of Medicine's Dietary Reference Intake (DRI), an average adult needs about 25 to 38 grams of dietary fiber a day. But most Americans struggle to eat an adequate amount of fiber which is only an...
Read more

No Stomach For Cancer

Image
You may probably have heard of prophylactic mastectomy and hysterectomy in women with BRCA mutations, thanks to Angelina Jolie for bringing us the awareness. This article caught my eye because of this prophylactic surgery: total gastrectomy, complete removal of the stomach of people carrying CDH1 gene mutation. The stomach is one of the main organs of the gastrointestinal tract that breaks down and digests food to extract necessary nutrients you need. The protein, carbohydrates and fat are broken down in small enough amounts to be absorbed into the bloodstream through the wall of the intestine. When gastric cancer strikes, it is difficult to treat because of the rapid growth of the tumor and malnutrition is also not uncommon among patients with gastric cancer because the stomach is a key player of the digestive system. After a gastrectomy, prophylactic or not, the person has less room to hold food in the remaining part of the stomach. Cramping, diarrhea, bloating, nausea, vo...
Read more

The Myth of Artificial Nutrition in End of Life Care

Image
As a cancer survivor and a registered dietitian, it is difficult for me to see my oncology patients not able to tolerate food. One of my patients with incurable cancer was admitted with bowel obstruction and therefore unable to tolerate any liquid, not to say solid food. After numerous unsuccessful trials of liquid, this patient decided to get a venting gastrostomy for palliative care and go home with hospice service. However, because of guilt of seeing their loved one suffer from starvation, one of the family members brought up the idea of parenteral nutrition to go home with, which contradicts with the medical team's recommendation. Parenteral nutrition is a form of artificial nutrition and hydration in which nutrition and fluid are delivered via an intravenous catheter to provide partial or total nutrition support. However, artificial nutrition and hydration require the patient to undergo uncomfortable procedures for the nutrition support to be started. It has known s...
Read more