Not everyone appreciates what Dietitians or Registered Nutritionist do or how they gain their qualifications. This can lead to some misinformation about what dietitians actually do. This got me thinking about the funny things people say to us sometimes. I had a think and asked some of my fellow blogging dietitians on Facebook what is a dietitian’s top 10 pet hates about the world of nutrition and being a dietitian! Here are my top 10 favourites!

  1. Of course, number one is spelling our name with a ‘c’ instead if an ‘t’. Blooming spell check always coverts the spelling to ‘dietician’. Not that we get upset about this or anything!
  2. When you are discovered that you are a dietitian and the questions start coming. ‘Can you give me a diet?’ ‘What is the best food to eat?’ ‘I don’t know why I can’t lose weight as I hardly eat anything!’ Do you ignore or do you give the standard spiel? ‘There are no good or bad foods, everyone is different’, ‘sorry I can’t give you specific advice without knowing your full medical, social and drug history’!

3. When people don’t realise that we actually had to go to university and study nutrition and dietetics at degree or post-grad level. No, you can’t become a dietitian or registered nutritionist by doing a weekend course on the Internet. You can’t compare years of study and experience with an online course.

4. When people think all we do is weight management! There are so many specialities in dietetics with so many therapeutic diets for different diseases and disorders. Although it gets quite complicated when I try and explain to non-medical people what I do when I work with people with inherited metabolic disorders.

5. When working on the wards and doctors are still referring patients for advice for low albumin concentrations. How many times do we have to repeat ourselves, ‘the half-life of albumin is very long, so this is not an indicator of nutritional status’. Oh yeah, 4 times a year when the junior doctors rotate!

6. When the latest celebrity announces that they look fabulous because they are on a new diet that has cut most food groups out! Come on public, have we not learnt this by now?

7. When you expect a full busy day and then people don’t turn up to their clinic appointments. Yes sometimes is nice to have time to write up your notes, but seriously, you are wasting precious NHS time and money!

8. Companies that are still promoting detox and quick fix diets to the public. This annoys me, brands cashing in on the words ‘detox’ or ‘quick fix’ to sell their products when most of us have a perfectly capable liver and kidneys!

9. The word ‘clean’ eating. Trendy Instagram accounts increasing in momentum, labelling their way of eating ‘clean’. But what does this actually mean? To me, it sounds like we are labelling all other food as dirty! No, no just wrong! Labelling food as clean and dirty is just leading to disordered eating.

10. When the crisps and cakes get hidden when you enter the room. Come on guys, we like a treat too. We are just fitting it into our healthy balanced diet!

photo credit: https://photos.icons8.com/

Do you have any pet hates about being a dietitian or the world of nutrition?!?

let us know in the comments!!