MANY of those claiming to be dieticians are nothing but frauds, endangering people’s health by advising inappropriate diets and drugs, the president of the Dieticians’ Association, Eleni Andreou, warned yesterday.
She said accusations had been filed to the Association against seven people practising the profession illegally.
Speaking at a news conference in Nicosia, Andreou said that, according to a 1988 law, dieticians could only practise in Cyprus if they had a BSc degree in Food and Nutrition / Dietetics and were an approved member of the Dieticians’ Council.
She said there were ways of telling a real dietician from a fraud: "A charlatan would not have a Council of Dieticians’ I.D. card, and tends to use unregistered methods to help his clients loose weight in a very short period of time. He would normally not sign his diets."
"We are against any method of losing weight abruptly, through the use of drugs or by practically starving oneself. A healthy diet should not result in a loss of more than a half to one kilo a week. That is also the only way to ensure lasting effects," Andreou said.
A lot of beauty centres which applied starvation methods and slimming instruments to help people lose dozens of kilos in a few months were also operating illegally, Andreou claimed.
"Unfortunately, there are a lot of nutrition specialists who appear to be dieticians and subscribe diets illegally. A nutrition specialist is someone who has an MSc or PhD in Nutrition and cannot become a member of the Council," Andreou said.
"But it is sometimes difficult to prove that an unqualified practitioner is putting people on diets, promising the world to them, because he simply does not sign his diets."
The Dieticians’ Association also touched on the issue of where a dietician fits into the medical society.
A dietician is not only the one to help people lose or gain weight. He is also someone who can contribute to the treatment of several diseases and their prevention.
One in five children are overweight, according to an Association study, some suffering from hypertension, while 30 per cent of the adult population is overweight.
"The importance of dietetics has been underestimated for a long time. The profession is a paramedical one and a person’s health can be immensely affected by his nutrition. A diabetic, a heart patient, or a nephropath’s diet has an impact on his condition," Andreou said.
The Association argues dieticians should become an integral part of the medical establishment, working side by side with doctors — "More dieticians should join hospitals and some should stick to a specialised area, each responsible for helping a specific group of patients," it argues.
"Dieticians should be involved in deciding children’s menus at schools and in the supervision of the food industry as well as in other government departments."
