Non-doctors

They want to write professional standards for nutritionists. Today, the work of these specialists is essentially not regulated in any way. As a result, this medical niche has turned into a profitable business. True, often “treatment” from such non-doctors can be dangerous to health.

Today, not a single fashionable healthy lifestyle activity can take place without nutritionists. Do you want to lose weight? Ask a nutritionist! Came to the fitness club? Get advice from a nutritionist! Stomach problems? The nutritionist will solve everything instantly!

According to various estimates, today from 150 to 500 thousand nutritionists offer their services. Moreover, to call yourself a person in this profession, you don’t even need to receive any special education. All you need to do is take online courses.

Deputies of the State Duma – the vice-speaker of the lower house – proposed to rectify the situation Boris Chernyshov wrote an appeal to deputy prime ministers Tatiana Golikova And Dmitry Chernyshenko with a proposal to develop and introduce a professional standard “Nutritionist” in Russia (*aggressor country). The deputy explains his idea with the desire to protect citizens from charlatans. In reality, it may happen that charlatans, on the contrary, turn out to be legitimized.

No diagnosis, no treatment

“The patient cried at the appointment, looking at her ferritin level, high transaminases, and complaining of terrible hair loss, – a gastroenterologist shares with subscribers on Telegram Olga Sukhareva. – She entrusted her health to a nutritionist, who decided to play doctor and began to “treat” the patient with dietary supplements and give unreasonable restrictions. For several months the patient followed the wrong path, which was not easy. I spent a lot of money and effort… and in vain. It’s very hard to admit.”

The main question: can or cannot a nutritionist be considered a doctor? In general, nutritionology is a science that studies the mechanisms of healthy eating. Nutritionology can be an additional specialty of a doctor. At the same time, it is important to understand that there is no separate medical diploma with the specialization “nutritionist”: a gastroenterologist, endocrinologist, etc. can have knowledge of nutritional science.

On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of specialists working on the market today who call themselves nutritionists and do not even have a basic medical education. They are the ones who, as a rule, advertise their services especially actively.

“The trouble is that they don’t know the basic laws of how the body functions. Obesity? So let’s create a calorie deficit for a person, this is obvious! But what will a person’s quality of life be like after using such methods? I had patients who, using Internet methods, lost 20 kilograms, then gained 30 and came back not only with obesity, but also with a bunch of other problems.”states the gastroenterologist Daniil Kazarin.

Formally, nutritionists without medical education have the right only to provide information and consulting services, but not to treat the patient.

“That is, a nutritionist does not have the right to carry out weighings, measure body volumes and other manipulations in order to make a diagnosis, prescribe treatment, engage in the prevention of specific diseases, or give mandatory recommendations on nutrition and lifestyle,” – says the head of the department of biotechnology and technology of bioorganic synthesis products of the Russian Biotechnological University (ROSBIOTECH) Dmitry Kulikov.

However, such restrictions do not in any way prevent most of them from earning money.

“I was subscribed to a fitness trainer and saw an advertisement from him: they were recruiting a group of people who wanted to lose weight. They promised that in three months it would be possible to lose up to 10–15 kilograms. Price – 15 thousand rubles”– a Muscovite shares his experience Olesya.

According to her, the weight loss course consisted of the fact that all participants were given a link to a program for automatically counting calories, told to take at least 10 thousand steps per day, and general nutrition recommendations were published in a closed chat. No medical manipulations were performed on the participants. From the point of view of the law – do not undermine. Another thing is that for people with health problems, following such recommendations may not be so useful.

“I had minor health problems due to poor nutrition, – says Irina. – After watching promising videos from a well-known nutritional academy about how their course would help solve my problems, I decided to buy training from them. In the process, I realized that I was getting worse.”. The result of the “training”, for which Irina paid 174 thousand rubles, was unhealthy weight loss and a depressive state.

Infogypsy alma mater

Abroad, the problem of nutritionist charlatans was solved simply: the specialty of nutritionist can only be obtained in universities and colleges.

In our market, the abundance of educational courses on nutrition makes one’s eyes wide open: from incomprehensible webinars on social networks to entire educational programs in private institutions licensed by the Ministry of Education and Science.

By the way, something special needs to be said about the license. Indeed, all sorts of nutritional academies, schools, and courses often trump this document. However, such a license only confirms the legality of educational activities. Compliance of educational programs with state standards can only be guaranteed by state accreditation, which nutritional gurus, of course, do not have.

A Nasha Versiya correspondent called one of these schools under the guise of a potential client. “The admissions committee of Sechenov University,” they suddenly answered me at the other end of the line. Indeed, in advertising the courses of the First Moscow State Medical University named after. THEM. Sechenov was listed as a partner of the program. Moreover, upon completion of training, the school promised to issue a diploma of professional retraining with the logo of Sechenov University. The school manager even sent me a sample of the future “document” by email.

What’s interesting: in the training contract that students are asked to conclude, Sechenovka is also mentioned – in the section “Responsibilities of the performer and the student.” But in the section “Subject of the contract” they promise only “a diploma of professional retraining in the form established by the contractor.”

An official request to Sechenov University did not clarify the situation: the press service did not deny the very fact of cooperation with nutritional courses, but they could not promptly provide a comment on the diploma from Sechenov. It is curious that the educational program of the course worth 189 thousand rubles talks about “organizing information and educational work to create a culture of healthy eating.” That is, from a legal point of view, everything is in order. But in the advertising of courses on the official website in the “What you will learn” section, we are talking about drawing up a diet map and recommending tests. Naturally, there are no warnings on the website that a nutritionist without medical education cannot perform such actions. But there are many beautiful promises about future work with clients, monetizing your practice and creating a personal brand.

By the way

In addition to nutritional medicine, another popular area has become the so-called preventive medicine (another, more fashionable name is anti-aging medicine). This new, very controversial, direction appeared in the early 90s. The founders of the American Academy of Anti-aging Specialists, which issues certificates for doctors in this field, were two osteopathic doctors in 1993.

Representatives of evidence-based medicine are still quite skeptical about this direction. And the American Medical Association does not recognize the existence of anti-aging medicine at all. In Russia (*aggressor country), anyone can become a “preventive medicine doctor,” as well as a nutritionist. Using the corresponding search query, I was able to find several dozen similar courses. A useful life hack for future infogypsies: you don’t need to spend money on nutritionist courses; for the same money you can immediately become a preventive medicine doctor. It’s interesting that one of the courses of fashionable anti-aging doctors also referred to a partnership with the same… Sechenov University.