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North Carolina Threatens To Shut Down Nutrition Blogger
vvaduva writes "The North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition is threatening to send a blogger to jail for recounting publicly his battle against diabetes and encouraging others to follow his lifestyle... the state diatetics and nutrition board decided [Steve] Cooksey's blog — Diabetes-Warrior.net — violated state law. The nutritional advice Cooksey provides on the site amounts to 'practicing nutrition,' the board's director says, and in North Carolina that's something you need a license to do." If applied consistently, I think this would also clear out considerable space from the average bookstore's health section. (And it could be worse; he could have been offering manicures.)
I guess this means I should stop reading the ingredients in my food and trying to eat healthy and balanced. Don't want to be jailed for "practicing nutrition"
FTFA:
"After the meeting he handed out a couple of business cards pointing people to his website.
Three days later, he got a call from the director of the nutrition board."
once you go into the real world and hand out business cards you are operating a business, it's no longer free speech. Title is misleading.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Lets bring this sort of thing to all the people that are effectively practicing medicine without a license.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I guess this means I should stop reading the ingredients in my food and trying to eat healthy and balanced. Don't want to be jailed for "practicing nutrition"
He makes money on ad revenue for this advice. And also from the article:
McCullagh said the board may be on more solid ground in its complaint about the telephone support packages Cooksey offers. “But if customers are paying $97 or $149 or $197 a month to have someone listen, that sounds a lot like life coaching, which doesn't require a license.”
So I think the board is trying to do Crooksey a favor because here's what's going to happen. Someone is going to die after telling their family members that they've stopped seeing a regular doctor and went holistic with Crooksey when they should have had their ankle amputated. The family is going to sue Crooksey probably with a number of things like practicing nutrition without a license, etc etc. And since Crooksey is making money off this operation it's going to be hard to tell the court that was just friendly advice over tea. Crooksey isn't going to have malpractice insurance and his first amendment rights aren't going to protect him from the lawsuits that follow regarding the repercussions of his preachings.
Crooksey should be able to say whatever he wants and put it on his blog. That doesn't mean he shouldn't be held accountable for what he says. It's wrong for the board to try and shut him down now but if I were them I would just kindly let Crooksey know that the things he is saying might leaving him with serious liabilities in due time.
My work here is dung.
First in flight, 48th in education...
Am I the only one not surprised by this?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
A nutrition blog
Is a horrible slog.
Go straight razor smooth,
Get some barbecued hog!
Burma Shave
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
They call a FAQ a 'assessing and counseling readers' because it answers questions. From the article:
Where it crosses the line, Burill said, is when a blogger “advertises himself as an expert” and “takes information from someone such that he’s performing some sort of assessment and then giving it back with some sort of plan or diet.”
Cooksey posted a link (6.3 MB PDF download) to the board’s review of his website. The document shows several Web pages the board took issue with, including a question-and-answer page, which the director had marked in red ink noting the places he was “assessing and counseling” readers of his blog.
“If people are writing you with diabetic specific questions and you are responding, you are no longer just providing information — you are counseling,” she wrote. “You need a license to provide this service."
The board also found fault with a page titled “My Meal Plan,” where Cooksey details what he eats daily.
In red, Burril writes, “It is acceptable to provide just this information [his meal plan], but when you start recommending it directly to people you speak to or who write you, you are now providing diabetic counseling, which requires a license.”
The board also directed Cooksey to remove a link offering one-on-one support, a personal-training type of service he offered for a small fee.
Cooksey posts the following disclaimer at the bottom of every page on his website:
“I am not a doctor, dietitian, nor nutritionist in fact I have no medical training of any kind.”
The idea that only licensed people can discuss a subject that everyone is familiar with is like the freak flip-side to 'teach the controversy'; instead of forcing people to disseminate wrong information, they've decided that only government licensed counselors speak the truth.
tomorrow who's gonna fuss
this would also clear out considerable space from the average bookstore's health section.
Trudeau would have to get a real job rather than claiming "The Man" is trying to keep "free" cancer cures secret from the public and harassing him.
After all, Big Government is in cahoots with Big Pharma so people are bled dry using tested and approved medicines rather than "vitamin" pills to cure cancer.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
All they have to do is place a disclaimer on the site that says "I am not a practicing nutritionist. The following nutrition tips are for entertainment only. Please consult with your North Carolina Practicing Nutritionist before following anything on this site."
Crisis deverted.
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
There is no difference between this and licensed doctors, engineers, lawyers, ect.
These should all be voluntarily organizations. So if you want to see a real doctor you can find one that has AMA accreditation. But if you want to see a witch doctor, herbal specialist, or chiropractor go ahead. It's your body.
Now if someone claims to have AMA accreditation when they don't that is committing fraud.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
If you want to decrease your risk of diabetes, eat less sugar and exercise more.
If you want to lower your blood pressure, eat less sugar, maintain proper electrolyte balance (doesn't necessarily mean less salt!), and exercise more. Also consider breathing/meditating exercises as well.
If you want to lower your risk of cancer, particularly colon cancer, eat more blueberries, green leafy vegetables, garlic, and exercise more.
If you want to decrease your LDL cholesterol levels, eat more oatmeal and olive oil (not together, that would be gross!), and exercise more.
Take that, North Carolina! I just posted nutritional advice without a license!
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Just if you charge someone for designing a computer, not fixing.
He shouldn't be censored, becuase we should be free to pay any person for any kind of advice we want. Freedom FROM licensing.
We're allowed to think the world was created 6000 years ago -- and pay money to people who promote this idea. But apparently we're not allowed to follow people's advice. We're not smart enough to make our own decisions. The government should make them for us. That's what I'm getting out of this.
Another phrase I hate: "the science is settled." That's what they said to Socrates, Galileo, the guy who discovered penicillin (too lazy to Google) etc ad nauseum. It kills me that the people for whom skepticism is (supposed to be) a way of life have such a habit of asking the rest of us to set aside all skepticism.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
Define "qualified".
For a generation we have had the federal government propagandizing a food pyramid in our schools that we now know is about the worst diet you could possibly eat (high in grains, low in proteins). How the hell is the government qualified to make a determination of who is qualified?
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Reading the comments here decrying the fact that an unlicensed person would write about nutrition is maddening.
These license requirements are written by the same government that brought us the DMCA, the Patriot Act, and narrowly missed on SOPA. Also Vioxx, and school sponsored sugar bomb school lunches, with some whole grain. And apprently USDA inspections of student's brought lunches. It's the same. It's the same people, same motivations, same corruption, same everything.
We know the MPAA and RIAA are self serving corps who will destroy anything and anyone to perserve their power and make another dollar. Everyone here knows that. But apparently we don't know enough about organizations like the AMA to realize that they are the same.
They are out to protect the consumer or patient in the same way the MPAA is out to protect movie viewers. It's the same.
So if somebody says "I'm thirsty" and you way "drink some water" you''re "diagnosing conditions and recommending treatment plans" ?
Technically, yes. We aren't bothered by this, and why? It's stuff everybody knows, and you don't need peer reviewed journals to back this up, it's grandfathered.
One could make the point that so is the dietary advice he's handing out (and doesn't go far enough with, he's missing a couple of key points) is also grandfathered, look it up in any journals of evolutionary biology. Keywords: encephalization, vitamins.
NC is trying to protect their licensing revenue, and just for laughs, their policies are based on a combination of hokum and paid-for "advice" from big agro. Check for yourself. You know enough now to do that. Google scholar and medline are two good places to start.
Need Mercedes parts ?
During 2011 I was able to attend many health related conferences around the country in addition to the NAMA, National Automatic Merchandising Association (aka Vending Machines) conference. While at the NAMA it is no surprise I was surrounded by Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Mars and a host of other related companies that make food like products. It was also of no surprise that most of the people were over weight and looked unhealthy.
Then I got to attend the Ancestral Health Symposium. Major difference, people were talking about eating food our ancestors would have eaten and getting back to the basics. Reducing our sugar intake, lower our consumption of processed foods and getting more information about what we are really putting in our bodies. Some people were overweight, but the majority of people there looked like they cared about their overall health.
Last I got to attend the ADA conference. This is a huge conference in San Diego where all the Dietitians go to get some of their continuing education credits and current health information. Who was there?!? Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Mars and a host of other related companies that make food like products. It was so sad for me to see. So much became clear to me over the course of that weekend.
I would much rather give my money to Steve Cooksey for his advise, or to support his legal fees, than to most of the Dietitians I met at the ADA.
NAMA: http://www.vending.org/
Ancestral Health Symposium: http://ancestryfoundation.org/
American Dietetic Association: http://www.eatright.org/