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.
John loves to eat and loves to drink beer. He is in his mid-fifties and weighs about 20-25 pounds more than he should, so he’s not exactly fat, but he’s certainly not thin either. With this new diagnosis of Type II Diabetes, he is going to have to make some lifestyle changes, if he knows what’s good for him.
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.
When John arrived for his appointment with the nutritionist he was greeted by a receptionist who was probably 250 pounds and certainly did not have the height to carry off anything near that weight.
You would think that a nutritionist would not want to have an obese person be the first thing a patient sees when they walk through the door, but John thought that maybe they had to hire her because she was qualified and they didn’t want to break any discrimination laws.
When they finally called John in after a 20 minute wait, he was ushered into a large office. A few minutes later the nutritionist walked in, and John’s jaw almost hit the floor. According to him, this woman could not have weighed less than 300 pounds — he swears on it.
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?”
At this point the nutritionist flew off the handle, and started screaming at him, telling him to get out of her office immediately. He obliged, but didn’t think his question was out of line. The receptionist asked him if there was a problem, on his way out, and he said that someone apparently couldn’t handle 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.
Between the two of us, he got some rules to follow.
I recommend, as John’s doctor does, supplementation with pharmaceutical grade fish oil, especially for patients with Type II diabetes. Diabetes really ups the risk for cardiac issues, and although John does not have heart problems right now, his risk level is high. The pharmaceutical-grade fish oil is useful in the treatment of diabetes because it can help control lipid levels, particularly triglyceride levels. These levels are often elevated in patients with diabetes.
And diabetes is not the only thing the pharmaceutical grade fish oil is good for. This type of fish oil has been shown to have a positive effect on reducing the risk of some cancers and cardiovascular disease, and also has been linked to better joint health and improvement in mood and behavior.
It’s really important for people with Type II diabetes to do what they can to elevate their mood, because many of them suffer from depression that is brought on 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 practice what they preach, not just preach during office hours where they practice.
John told me she had two cases of Diet Coke on a shelf behind her, too (more fat people drink Diet Coke, than any other beverage.)
Don’t hesitate to get another opinion, especially in a situation like this, where you have reason to doubt the validity of what your practitioner is telling you, based on his or her own habits.