Dieticians are monopolizing hospital nutrition through Medicare manipulation

Friday, March 08, 2013 by: PF Louis
Tags: dieticians, hospital nutrition, monopoly

(NaturalNews) The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), formerly known as the American Dietetic Association (ADA) has evidently managed to insert enough input into the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to ensure only registered dieticians with the ADA have ultimate power in hospital care diet prescriptions.

Apparently, a registered dietician (RD) has a BA and knows the difference between jello and peanut butter and accepts those ridiculously low RDAs (recommended daily allowances) of basic nutrients and the old food pyramid from 1950. They probably don't distinguish GMOs and conventionally grown from organic.

This harsh judgment is based on observing hospital food and reading RD commentaries.

AND attempts to garner all government insurance payments

Current Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CSM) language permits physicians, registered dieticians (RDs) and other nutritionists to be compensated by Medicare or Medicaid. The CMS reforms propose to restrict dietary care to RDs only. Physicians are usually nutrition ignorant and don't care. But cutting out nutritionists who are more qualified and holistic makes no sense.

Many nutritionists are more highly educated than registered dieticians, and some have up to date knowledge of micro-nutrients and understand the difference between real food, fake, dead foods, junk food, and GMOs.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) or Ayurveda practitioners are much better qualified at prescribing the proper nutritional guidance and dietary advice to help people recover from any medical situation than most of the others mentioned. But alas, they don't have a union with clout like AND.

Their clout is what probably got the CMS to word its latest reforms, ostensibly to reduce hospital costs, by creating exclusive dietary prescription rights to AND's registered dieticians.

Observing cancer patients eating ice cream and cookies while hooked up to IV chemo drugs is an outrageous example of the nutritional ignorance of clinical and hospital caretakers. Most Natural News readers know cancer cells thrive on sugar and artificial sweeteners are killers.

But it's doubtful that RDs know this. Let's face it, college level dietician training is light years behind current nutritional science and totally ignorant of ancient Asian medical practices that are based on nutrition.

AND, formerly ADA, has a shady past and tyrannical history

An inquiry into the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics pharmaceutical ties was headed by Senator Chuck Grassley amidst criticism of AND's connection to pharmaceutical companies a couple of years ago.

Nutrition expert Marion Nestle (sic) has openly criticized AND's relationship with the "who's who" of junk food manufacturers. AND receives funds from many of them, including Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Mars, McDonalds, Kellogs, Sara Lee, ConAgra, and the Sugar Association and others.

The AND also sells those companies' snacks and beverages at expos and fairs where they have a booth. Even most members of AND surveyed know enough to realize these partnerships reduce the organization's PR image of nutritional integrity.

Recently, the AND (as ADA) was exposed in a Natural News article of attempting to suppress free speech nationally after an episode in North Carolina where a blogger was prosecuted for providing information on the Paleo diet.

They even suggested and encouraged a system of spying and reporting similar incidents of non-AND members who dare discuss nutrition, which in most cases is far superior to anything most AND members could imagine. Read more here: http://www.naturalnews.com

As either ADA or AND, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is just as monopolistic, oppressive, and corrupt as those other alphabet soup medical groups, AMA, APA, and ADA (American Dental Association).

Use the first link (ANH) in the sources below to submit a prepared comment to the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) about this issue.

Sources for this article include:

(ANH) Alliance for Natural Health http://www.anh-usa.org

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Nutrition_and_Dietetics

http://www.anh-usa.org