What truly makes a NUTRITIONAL expert and the tragedy/ challenges of our current medical/FOOD system:

The longer you research nutrition, the more you learn how misguided many of us have been and how long it takes for new studies to show through in guidelines; especially in education materials.

“Today, most medical schools in the United States teach less than 25 hours of nutrition over four years. The fact that less than 20 percent of medical schools have a single required course in nutrition, it’s a scandal. It’s outrageous. It’s obscene,” Eisenberg told NewsHour. From Harvard Education page. (Source: Doctors need more nutrition education | News | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)

The fact that Doctors get little-no training in nutrition, unless they take a particular interest in it, is scary! Especially when the top chronic diseases in the US today are largely treatable or reversible by diet and exercise alone; such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Also scary, is considering how much false information is being presented in the mainstream media and educational systems and used to make recommendations by many professionals. Much of the historical nutritional information has been based off of little-no good research or is Largely Outdated. Many nutritional trends have been based off of historical norms, industry, animal, in-vitro, and/or poorly designed research. Which we know, does not often translate into to human studies when they Are completed. Also, when they Are dis-proven, we don’t hear about it for up to a decade unless the research is looked up specifically. This makes it Very confusing for us all! This is why I believe that schooling or a degree alone does not necessarily determine greatness and expertise nutritionally and generally. You have to dig deep to see past the facade. It is the time put in, passion, interest, and desire for truth. It’s also widely known that a doctor cannot cure you of an illness in the “10 minutes” that they have to examine you. Our system is largely treating symptoms with medication masking disease while it gets worse overtime rather than digging and finding the root cause to truly help heal their patients. They also see so many patients a day that many Have become numb to their own patient’s Humanness. I have seen this time and time again in the dental field unfortunately. When it comes to my health, I want someone who’s spent hundreds if not thousands of hours researching nutrition, had great attention to detail, has been meticulously observant, are constantly building on their education, and constantly learning. Nutritional information is never ending and ever changing. Nutritional research doubles every about 74 days, so it makes sense, how can anyone keep up with that unless their only focus is nutrition and have the passion to keep up to date? As I’ve learned through my own credentials and schooling is that a degree teaches you the bare minimum, it makes you functional, it is not what makes me great; both in the dental and nutritional field. What makes professionals great is passion, dedication, true care, and empathy for the people that they help. Great is spending hundreds to thousands of hours of your free time learning, digging through research, pondering, taking notes, creating, and finding ways to help people more effectively. Great is having so much passion for a field that you literally enjoy every minute, even if it is exhausting at times, and get lost in the research for hours upon end while getting unbelievably excited to share it to help others. Great is empathy, compassion, and honest motives to only do good in this world and for others. No MD, PhD, RD can teach you that. These are all the reasons why I am great; I live and breathe this stuff. I’ve tried it all through true experience. I research for fun. I have a passion for this field and helping others like no one else I’ve ever known. I will never stop learning and I will never stop doing my very best to help others get the health that they deserve.