Why Nutrition Professionals Should Get Along
Did you read that title? It’s an interesting title to see coming from a nutrition company right?
But it’s also a topic I’ve been stewing on for what seems like months now, and simply never knew how to put it into words. This idea that so many nutrition coaches, dietitians, and companies don’t get along when in reality — they should. We live in a society that is, largely, less healthy than it should be. One ripe with obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and so much more.
I suppose you could say that everything that is happening in the world amidst the COVID-19 pandemic has coaxed me into feeling like now, if any, is a great time to stand on my “soap box” and get poetic about working together. So here goes nothing…
A quick disclaimer; many dietitians, nutrition coaches, companies, and general professionals work together on a regular basis. This post in no way ignores that fact, and should serve as a reminder for those who already do why it’s so important to do so.
Obesity & Overweight Statistics Continue to Grow
“The results showed that by 2030, several states will have obesity prevalence close to 60 percent, while the lowest states will be approaching 40 percent.”
Harvard University’s newsletter, the Harvard Gazette, published an article (which can be found here) back in December with the title - “Close to half of US population projected to have obesity by 2030.” In the article they explore what obesity is now, and what it could look like by the end of the next decade, and that outlook is less than ideal.
While those statistics might sound kind of high, they aren’t a far cry from how things have progressed over previous years. According to the most recent data available from the CDC — “The prevalence of obesity was 42.4% in 2017~2018. From 1999–2000 through 2017–2018, the prevalence of obesity increased from 30.5% to 42.4%, and the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%”
When we look at the global impact of obesity, provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), things are still pretty mind boggling — “In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults aged 18 years and older were overweight. Of these over 650 million adults were obese.” They concluded that roughly 39% of the global population over the age of 18 were overweight, 13% of the worlds population was obese, and that obesity rates tripled from 1975-2016 when the data was sampled.
One of the heart breaking statistics fell on adolescents however — “Over 340 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 were overweight or obese in 2016.”
What do all of these numbers mean?
Going by the Harvard Gazette article - over 150 million people in the US will be obese by 2030, meaning the overweight population will be substantially higher.
If we look at numbers by the WHO - over 1.9 billion adults and 340 million children (more than 2.24 billion people) were overweight or obese in 2016 globally, which has no doubt risen by 2020.
Whether we look at the US specifically or global trends - it’s very clear that obesity and overweight statistics continue to rise rather than decrease, showing that the current ability (rate) doesn’t meet our dire need to address the growing issue.
The Problem In Our Industry
This graphic is a snapshot from the State of Childhood Obesity showcasing obesity rates by state from the 1990s through 2018. The consistent rise from 1990 to 2018 is astounding across the board, from state to state, and year to year.
Competition, competition, competition - that’s the name of the game and the root of most issues. Beyond competition, we have scope of practice concerns (i.e. non-dietitians working within a dietitians scope). Both of these together cause a bit of a stir within an industry who, for the most part, operate around the same goal of wanting to help other people.
For the sake of keeping things relatively simple, and focusing in on nutrition specifically, I’m going to take a look at two different groups; registered dietitians and Precision Nutrition certification holders.
Another quick disclaimer; there are obviously more personal trainers and nutrition certification groups than those accounted for within this blog.
As of right now, according to the Commission on Dietetic Registration, there are 104,235 registered dietitians (RD) and registered dietitian nutritionists (RDN) alongside 4,982 dietetic technician registered (DTR) in the US. After speaking with Jason Crowe of Precision Nutrition, we can add in an additional ~35,000 North American graduates of their Level 1 (PNL1) certification course, a non-dietitian/collegiate nutrition certification. In total, that brings us to right around ~145,000 people who have in some way made it their goal to help people via nutrition education or coaching.
Now - for the sake of discussion here I’m not going to get into the “only X people can give Y advice,” and leave it at “respect your scope of practice and don’t be a knuckle head who thinks they know more than they know.”
So what do these numbers mean at a glance compared to the total obese population in the US that Harvard is predicting by 2030? Well, it would look a little something like this:
If only RD’s and DTR’s worked with this demographic, each person would need to work with right around ~1,300 people at any given point in time.
If only PNL1 certificate holders were to work with that same demographic, they would have to work with closer to 4,200 people at any given point in time.
If we combined the two groups, we’d still be looking at a case load of ~1,000 people per dietitian or coach.
When we start to take overweight populations into account, all of these numbers increase dramatically.
Why am I talking about people working with X amount of people at any given point in time? Because the rate of obesity and overweight individuals is currently increasing drastically year over year at the current rate of treatment, so to really put a dent in things and to paint a vivid picture, I decided to talk about how many people each person would have to work with to “cover all bases.” The reality? That will never happen.
To add to that - it’s not unreasonable to say that a lot of dietitians and coaches will begin to struggle substantially with managing people around the ~100 clients per person point or even lower (most likely being lower). This means that, between these two bodies, you’d have to increase the total registered or certified individuals ten fold to decrease the “per client” load to a manageable number.
So What We Should Be Doing?
Working together - period.
The harsh reality that a lot of us need to face is actually pretty simple (at least to an extent):
The number of people who are reaching the point of being overweight or obese year over year far exceeds our current ability to handle it.
For every individual dietitian or coach, there are over ~1,000 individuals that need our help in the US alone.
Even if we start to take into account numerous other certification or education bodies, we’d still be looking at well over 100 potential clients per person, when most people are handling less than 50 people at a time (or have the desire to handle more).
The metaphorical pie that everyone in the health and wellness industry is trying to get a piece of is so large, that every single person can have a serving for themselves and take a few extra pieces to go.
None of these points take into account those who don’t fall into an overweight or obese demographic who, in one way or another, are also seeking help.
So what does that mean? That’s a great question, and not one that’s very easy to answer, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do.
For starters…
Many businesses and individuals can stop operating with a scarcity mindset. Just a quick glance at the numbers provided above, no matter how you cut it or how you divide it up, the market for people who need services like those we provide is anything but scarce. In fact - the market is ripe with abundance, which is great for business but not so great for our societies health.
Different professions and practices should get along…
One of the things we take pride in as a team through Xplore is a happy, healthy, beneficial relationship between the dietitians and non-dietitians on our team that sparks growth and learning from both sides of the coin. An idea, or I suppose a pseudo ecosystem of which would benefit more people if it were more broadly accepted and pursued. Now I know that’s easier said than done — requiring some work, checks and balances, open conversations, and respect for ones scope of practice (I’m looking at you non-dietitians) to work…but it CAN work. That’s important.
A “help first” industry mentality…
To which I mean helping others from within our own industry thrive, and not just our own clients.
“But that puts my company at risk!” I mean…not really, but it might if you resort to that scarcity mindset I mentioned earlier. When we look back at the sheer size of the pie however, we see that there is enough pie to go around, and more than enough for us to help one another serve each other a piece or two.
Besides - a pill that may be hard to swallow for some is that the majority of the nutrition information many of us talk about is the same as what everyone else is talking about. We are just saying it in a different way, to different people, at a different time. Helping each other learn how to share that information to more people, in an easily digestible way, is nothing but beneficial to everyone involved in the end.
Treat each other with respect…
That specific statement may read as a very “duh” thing to say, but it’s also one that isn’t practiced at all times, by all people.
Nutrition is a very personal thing — not just for the clients we all work with, but for the professionals who are working with them in the first place. Some of us are plant based, while others aren’t. Another group loves keto, while the other loves carbs. We are different people, with different beliefs, and a different way of thinking.
So long as someone’s personal beliefs are shared in a way that encourages a genuinely healthy life, with a nod to scope of practice? Let people do their thing, and accept that someone else might have different beliefs than you. There will always be a mix of hard science that we know is factual and personal values that are more or less so in wellness, no matter what field we are discussing.
Being the person who bashes everyone else for wanting to follow a different diet, eat different foods, or live a different lifestyle doesn’t help anyone — including yourself.
So What’s the Takeaway?
Excellent question! It’s also one that has a myriad of answers, some of which I’ve discussed above, and others that could drag this post on for pages upon pages (as much as I love a good rant).
The general jest is pretty simple — help each other, learn from each other, be there for each other.
If you’re successfully helping people, don’t shy away from helping others in the industry do the same (this also doesn’t have to be a “sell” all the time - think “guru” vs a friend or mentor). If you have a niche market, with friends serving other niche markets that are different from your own, talk about collaborating somehow or establishing referral networks for one another. If you are a someone who didn’t go to school for nutrition (the non-RD folks out there), respect the scope of practice for those who have, and reach out to those who may be willing to work together to serve a broader audience.
In the end, with the most classic cliche saying ever; teamwork makes the dreamwork.
The metaphorical pie that needs our help is pretty damn big — so don’t be afraid to take a slice, share a slice, and make some friends that want to make the world a healthier place just like you and I.
This blog was created by Xplore Nutrition founder - Sam Karoll.