Why You Shouldn’t Listen To Anything I Say About Food

By Carly Jacobs

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retract that: You should listen to what I have to say about food but you should also question everything I’m saying and ask me where I got my information from. For the record, everything I say about food is based on science and personal experience. The science is applicable to you, the personal experience not so much. This is something I feel very passionately about because I’ve seen so many people waste heaps of money on food and wellness fads that are a total waste of time. I’ve seen people chug back several bottles of $5 Aldi plonk on a Saturday night only to refuse to drink the water at the cafe the next day because it’s not ‘alkaline’. All that stuff just drives me batty so here’s a few reasons why you shouldn’t listen to me when it comes to food.

1. I’m not a nutritionist

The main role of a nutritionist is to help people achieve good health by providing information and advice about health and food choices. Nutritionists are not qualified to provide medical nutrition advice. Lots of nutritionists are bloody good at what they do but they’re different to dieticians. The word ‘nutritionist’ is often misused and isn’t well regulated which is a shame for all the qualified and very excellent nutritionists out there.

2. I’m not a doctor

GPs are medically trained but most have very little experience in nutrition. Most GPs will tell you they’ve done around 8 hours of basic nutrition. This isn’t to say that your local GP won’t be helpful but unless they’ve studied dietetics, they should refer you to someone else.

3. I’m not a dietician

Dieticians are tertiary qualified in food, nutrition and dietetics. They provide expert nutrition advice and are legally allowed to prescribe dietary treatments for medical conditions. You can only operate as a dietician in Australia if you hold the necessary qualifications and are registered with Dieticians Australia.

Other people you shouldn’t be listening to

1. People on the internet with zero qualifications in anything

I always like to research people before I buy anything from them and there are some serious whack jobs selling stuff on the internet. Just do a little bit of research before you trust them. It’s not hard – if they claim to have a qualification, click through and check that it’s legit. After that, you’re good to go.

2. People trying to sell you something

If someone is trying to sell you $150 sea kelp tablets, back away from the computer. I’m not totally against natural therapies – olive leaf extract has been proven to be very effective and probiotics are also great – but most qualified doctors refer to vitamins as ‘expensive wee’ because if you OD on most supplements, you just wee out the excess making zero change to your body or health. So it’s kind of like burning $150, which is super not cool.

3. That friend of yours who lost a lot of weight recently using a popular weight loss treatment

Always talk to a dietician before you start any kind of weight loss plan. There are millions of weightless plans available and they do all kinds of different things and deal with different issues. Don’t rock up to your chemist to do a DIY shake diet without talking to a qualified professional first. Tip: The lady who works at the bank is not a qualified professional.

This week on Straight and Curly, Kelly and I talking about diet myths and food fads – who you should be talking to and who you should be ignoring.

Also there’s a brand spanking new episode of Sweet Teen Club out this week. Stacey and I talking all about Impulse body spray, glitter hair gel, nude lipstick and brown lipstick. It’s the 90s beauty products edition and it’s HILARIOUS!!!!

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What about you? Do you find it hard to find decent information on health and wellness? Are you confused about it a lot?

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P.S Also you should totally sign up for my newsletter. It’s full of cool stuff.

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About Carly Jacobs

Carly is the founding editor of Smaggle which launched in 2007 back when blogging was weird. She has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Cosmopolitan and Cleo magazines. Hoop earrings are totally her thing and she almost got run over by Myf Warhurst while out jogging one day.

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