Jacque Janssen, arts/features editor
University Daily Kansan / Thursday, March 24.1988
Health
11
Healthy health Foods? They may not be as good as you think
"We have had people in the clinic who looked like they have had liver disease, but it was toxic amounts of vitamins or minerals and herbal preparations that they had been taking." he said.
tion than they really do.
"They may be substances people have been taking at their own volition; but very often, they've been recommended by someone selling vitamins, minerals and various herbal and root concoctions.
"Very often, these things are done to replace legitimate therapies or in addition to prescribed therapies. And very often, there is nothing wrong with the individual."
Some people assume that they know enough about health and nutrition and give absurd advice, he said.
"I would no more tell or advis. people to treat whatever disease or condition they have without seeing them." It is idiotic, and it is dangerous."
Byers said the manner in which consumers were misled about health food was often subtle.
-Ann Kohl
I don't think there are products that have health benefits above and beyond the comparable product you would buy at the grocery store.
Dietician at Watkins Hospital
He said, for example, that it was not uncommon to see advertising in health food stores claiming how wonderful a mineral, such as selenium, was for the body. Because it is unlawful to make false claims on bottle labels, the strong advertising most likely would be found on fliers in the vicinity of the product.
in the reality of the practice. He said the information on the advertising was not necessarily false, just misleading.
"All of those claims are reasonably true, things that selenium does every day in you and me," he said. "But it did not say that most people have enough selenium and that selenium deficiency is extremely rare in this country.
"It isn't exactly fraud, but it sure is misrepresentation. The other thing they don't tell you is that there is a rather narrow margin of safety between deficiency and toxicity."
He said that everyone was susceptible to the ploys and lines that health food store nutritionists used to sell their products.
"It is not unusual that the polished-looking, very well educated individuals are sold information that may sound very sophisticated," he said. "It may have some scientific merit, but it is twisted and distorted in some way."
Because of concerns about some of the advice about health food from unqualified people, the Kansas Legislature has begun to take action that would require individuals to be before they could practice dietetics.
The bill would not prohibit the sale of health foods but would prevent individuals working in health food stores from presenting themselves as dietitians and from making dietetic assessments.
because some thought that today's consumer has relatively few protections.
Licensing would be based on minimum education requirements, successful completion of a competency examination and completion of regular continuing education.
The House has passed the bill, which is now being discussed by the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.
The Legislature began the action
Currently in Kansas, the terms "registered dietitian" and "R.D." are legally protected trademarks. But there is little enforcement behind those credentials, according to the Topeka law firm serving as the legislative counsel for the Kansas Dietetic Association.
Moreover, anyone can legally call himself a nutritionist and give dietary advice, without meeting the qualifications of a registered dietitian. To add to the misinformation, diplomas declaring people to be anything from an assistant nutritionist on up to professional nutritionist can be purchased from national and even regional companies, even if course work is not completed.
Kohl said, "Right now, anybody could hang a shingle up and call themselves a nutritionist in this state. You would not have to show proof of any kind of any formalized training in the field. And people could come to you, and you could charge for your services and do nutritional counseling. It's happening all the time."
Byers said that because being a nutritionist required no credentials, the level of competency could vary greatly among those giving the advice.
"They may have written a paper on the subject," he said. "You could read some stuff, or you wouldn't have to read anything at all."
Dick Powers, a worker at the Community Mercantile Food Coop, a health food store at 700 Maine St., said that workers at that store sometimes advised customers about using health food products. He also said the store employed a vitamin expert, Steve Wilson.
"People have a lot of questions about our vitamins," he said. "Some people have been trained in health. We all are going through nutrition programs. Steve has been doing vitamins for years and has read lots. Mainly, we all have done a lot of reading up on it."
Linda Gwalтат, a co-manager at the store, said her interest in nutrition began several years ago when she became interested in her own personal nutrition. She said the advice she gave at the store depended largely on the knowledge she had gained since then.
"It's hard to find formal training in the kind of food that we have because lots of it is not recognized," she said. "Traditional medicines that use herbal remedies, for instance, are still not recognized by the AMA, although they've been proven for centuries."
Gwalattne said that the store, a cooperative with more than 1,500 members, did not carry a lot of food with outrageous claims but that it emphasized organically grown foods.
"For me, it's more of an idea of how it feels, but sometimes we are very important to us," she said.
Byers agreed that some health food was beneficial and that some health food store employees were dependable. He said products that were unsalted, high in fiber and with no sulfates were a few of the beneficial products in health food stores.
"If dietitians felt more comfortable with what went on in there, we would probably recommend that some people go there more often," he said.
He does, on occasion, send people to health food stores to get certain foods required by a special diet.
but we always have to warn them not to pick up more than they need or to be careful with what the clerks tell them so they don't get sold on a bunch of specialty products they can't use," he said.
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