Michigan proposes eliminating dietetic and nutrition licensing, allowing freedom of health speech

Friday, May 04, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: dietetics, licensing, Michigan

(NaturalNews) Last summer, Michigan's Occupational Licensing Advisory Rules Committee (ARC) decided to evaluate every licensed occupation recognized by the state of Michigan to determine whether or not the current regulatory requirements for each one are appropriate. What the committee ended up finding was that current regulations regarding dietetic and nutrition licensing, which provision that only licensed professionals can give nutrition advice, does not serve the public interest and should be eliminated.

According to National Health Freedom Action (NHFA), Michigan's Office of Regulatory Reinvention (ORR) is taking the recommendations so seriously that it, too, is calling for the licensing requirements for dieticians and nutritionist to be abolished as well, as they fail to "provide a clear public health and safety benefit." The Michigan state legislature is reportedly next in line to evaluate the proposal and decide whether or not to craft legislation to enact it.

"The [committee members] carefully considered the public health and safety benefits of 87 different occupations [and] found that there were at least 18 occupations that did not require regulation," says the official report. "A closer examination of the practices of dietitians and nutritionists calls into question whether true public harm is prevented by licensing the occupations [...] it does not appear that licensing dieticians and nutritionists is necessary to protect the public."

You can view the entire ORR report here:
http://www.michigan.gov

The proposal is good news for health freedom, as individuals across Michigan who choose to share nutritional information and advice with their friends or neighbors will not have to worry about government bureaucrats suing them. This, of course, is what is currently happening in North Carolina to Steve Cooksey, an internet blogger who is the subject of a new lawsuit for sharing advice online about how the "Paleo" diet cured his diabetes (http://www.naturalnews.com).

Other occupations that ARC failed to see the need to regulate include the Board of Acupuncture, the Board of Occupational Therapy, the Board of Respiratory Care, the Board of Speech Language Pathology, and the Osteopathic Medicine Advisory Board.

According to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (DLRA), the Dietetics and Nutrition Board, which licenses dietitians and nutritionists, has only been in existence since 2007 (http://www.michigan.gov). So if the state legislature takes ARC and ORR's recommendations, this not-even five year old agency could be disbanded, setting a health freedom precedent for other restrictive states like North Carolina to follow.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.nationalhealthfreedom.org

http://www.naturalnews.com