My Eating Disorder Dietitian Saved My Life
This is a shout-out to all the dietitians on National RD (Registered Dietitian) day today! I’ve been talking more and more through the Running in Silence presentations about how little we’ve utilized them and how they’ve been undervalued/unappreciated. We need them in a time that diet culture is making many people feel inadequate and, more often than not, suffer from eating disorders/disordered eating.
We see a doctor for physical ailments and a counselor for mental struggles, yet many are not seeing a registered dietitian to improve their relationship with food and health. Instead, they fall back on various macronutrient-specific or “lifestyle” diets (think fruitarian, 80/10/10, Paleo, Whole30, etc). I was even told by someone that their doctor recommended they go on the Keto Diet (doctors, and coaches, by the way, are not registered dietitians–I wish they would refer anyone struggling with food/weight to an RD. This fantastic article clarifies all the certifications/courses RDs need to complete to do what they do.).