Is Your Nutritionist Too Fat To Fish?
I try not to read the email in the morning because sometimes, the stories are too good, and I lose track of time. This morning was a perfect example, because I got a letter from someone I know, who was recently diagnosed as a Type II diabetic.
This guy John is about 20-25 pounds over his ideal weight and is in his mid-fifties. So he’s not what you would call really fat, but he’s definitely not thin. Part of his problem is he just loves his food and beer a bit too much, and with the Type II Diabetes, he is going to have to cut back, if he wants to stay well.
He sent me a note about being sent to a nutritionist by his family practioner, after she diagnosed him with diabetes. John is about 6’1″ and weighs about 225-230. I don’t think it would take but about 90 days to have him in really good shape.
He took the appointment with the nutritionist, and showed up for his appointment at the prescribed time. He checked in with the receptionist, who weighed in about 250, and couldn’t have been a hair over 5’5″. What we used to call “as wide as they were tall,” behind closed doors.
John was surprised to see someone of that weight manning the front desk at a nutrition clinic, but he thought that maybe it was an anti-discrimination thing.
John waited in the waiting room and after about 20 minutes they called him in. When the nutritionist arrived, he was just flabbergasted. She was tall, but she could not have weighed less than 300 pounds, according to John.
She started to talk to John about what might help him with his diabetes, but John really had a hard time focusing. This thought kept going through his mind: “Why is this nutritionist and the woman who works for her so grossly overweight?”
The nutritionist was showing him plastic food, made to approximate just how much food he should be eating. Finally, when he couldn’t stand it anymore, he asked, “If you know all the rules about dieting, why are you so fat?”
The nutritionist stopped talking and looked stunned. Finally she said, as if she had not heard him, “What did you just say?”
So he repeated what he said, “If you know all the rules about dieting, why are you so fat?”
After John repeated his question, the nutritionist flew into a tirade, yelling at John and telling him to leave her office, right this minute. John did as he was told, but he really didn’t think that his question should have brought on all that verbal abuse. The receptionist stopped him as he was leaving and asked if there was anything wrong, and John told her that it seemed as though her boss could not follow her own advice.
He went back to his family practitioner and told her the story. She kept a straight face on for a minute or two, and then couldn’t stop her own laughter.
What followed were some rules that John knew he had to stick to.
Like John’s doctor, I am a proponent of pharmaceutical grade fish oil for Type II diabetes patients, mainly because the disease raises the risk for heart problems. John does not have cardiac issues at the present time, but like I said, he is at high risk for developing them, so taking the pharmaceutical-grade fish oil can go a long way towards lowering lipid levels, which often spike in those with diabetes, especially triglyceride levels.
Not only that, but pharmaceutical grade fish oil has been linked to wide range of other health benefits, including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and certain cancers, improved joint health, and improved behavior and mood.
This last benefit is particularly helpful to Type II diabetics, who often suffer from depression caused by the disease.
I think John was absolutely within his rights to ask that question of his nutritionist. How is his situation different from taking health advice from a pulmonologist who thought nothing of smoking?
Nutritionists need to listen to themselves and follow through on what they are talking about, not just hand out diet advice with one hand and eat junk food with the other.
John had mentioned to me that the nutritionist had cases of Diet Coke in her office. Did you know that more fat people drink Diet Coke than any other form of beverage?
The lesson here is, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and don’t be afraid to ask for a second opinion, especially when you have reason to doubt the advice of the practitioner you are seeing, because of his or her personal habits.
