The wild west of nutrition

Lack of national guidelines confuses people who need expertise

On Monday, Jillian Michaels was among a group of “experts” speaking at a congressional panel sponsored by Senator Ron Johnson entitled “American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion.” A pretty bold statement considering there were no actual nutrition experts included.

I’ll be covering the extensive pseudoscience spread during this four-and-a-half hour panel on tomorrow’s Conspirituality Brief, and we’ll be looking at the blood-and-soil and spiritualist themes on next Thursday’s episode.

Yesterday, I posted this on Threads:

A few astute commenters pointed out a problem with my last sentence, which I now want to unpack: there are no standardized national guidelines on what a “nutritionist” is. I should have said “registered dietitian,” which actually requires extensive training.

The sad truth is that in America, depending on what state you live in, you can call yourself a “nutritionist” or “nutrition coach” with no actual training whatsoever.

My broader point: Ron Johnson wasn’t actually concerned with nutrition when assembling this ideological panel. As I point out on tomorrow’s Conspirituality, Johnson has taken money from food and pharmaceutical companies—the main target of the panel’s ire—for decades. He’s on board with Project 2025, which wants to dismantle agencies that oversee food regulation and nutrition. And a number of the panelists raged against processed foods while selling processed foods via these businesses and downlines.

More on that with the podcast, as well as here in the coming weeks. For now, let’s look at how lax (and non-existent) credentialing guidelines are, and how wellness influencers exploit that fact to confuse the public.

Food confusion

In the US, the credentials needed to call yourself a nutritionist vary by state. Most states require at least a bachelor's degree in nutrition or a related field from an accredited institution, though that depends on the exact terminology you want to use. Some states may require a master’s degree for certain credentials.

This is how dizzying and confusing the standards are:

• Some states have strict licensing laws for nutritionists

• Other states allow anyone to practice as a nutritionist without specific credentials

• Many states require registration or certification

Common credentials include:

• Registered Dietitian (RD) or Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

• Licensed Dietitian/Nutritionist

• Certified Nutrition Specialist

• Certified Clinical Nutritionist

Let’s look at a few examples of how that plays out in reality.