NJ Dietitians Attack Health Freedom

09/19/08 - UPDATE: NJ Assembly vote postponed until October (6th or 23rd). Maybe it was the 1,000 person parade permit requested from the Trenton PD! Return here for updates & new rally date.

Take Action in all States: tell your Legislators to oppose all restrictions on Nutritional Free Speech:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25929

--------------

Just Say NO to Restrictions on Nutritional Free Speech

Once again, dietitians are seeking a monopoly on speech about nutrition. Although then NJ Governor Christy Todd Whitman vetoed the nutritionist's certification bill in the late '90s, they are at it again, seeking to forbid anyone but themselves speaking about nutrition.

Remember, the US Supreme Court held as recently as 2002 (in Thompson v Western States) that "If the First Amendment means anything, it means that regulating speech must be a last - not first - resort. ... We have previously rejected the notion that the Government has an interest in preventing the dissemination of truthful commercial information in order to prevent members of the public from making bad decisions with the information."

Such a monopoly would be illegal if adopted, and no doubt result in litigation. So why is the State seriously considering this step? Read our guest blogger below,

From: Dian Freeman
Date: Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 6:38 PM
Subject: NJ Bill Alert- I went to the Assembly meeting-They called us quacks
To: ralph.fucetola@usa.net

Hi Ralph, I wanted to remind you about the bill proposed in the NJ Legislature. It is called A2933 in the Assembly and S1941 in the Senate. It will do for the pharmaceutical companies what codex is not doing. They will not need codex any more if they pass this bill. It will disallow all dialogue on natural products and health methods from any source but from dietitians who are not trained in any of them and who are nothing but the mouthpiece of the medical establishment. They receive millions each year from their sponsors from the fast food industry. Some of their sponsors are McDonalds, Taco Bell, Pepsico, Crisco, etc.

Lets stop it right here and right now. Please try to rally people join us and consider joining us for a freedom march on Trenton next week, Thursday at 8am…bring music. Lets party in front of the state house. This is my latest alert:

Hi all, I went to speak before the NJ Assembly committee yesterday, Monday, in opposition to their bill A2933 which would make dietitians the sole purveyors on all food and nutrition information. The committee was chaired by one of the sponsors of the bill, Dr. Herb Conaway. Under bill A2933, existing practitioners, even naturally trained doctors, will be banned from working in the field of food or nutrition.

It was passed in committee and next goes to the Assembly Floor for vote. They do not expect any opposition to it. In our testimonies to the committee yesterday it was plain that they did not see us as opposition. We were simply insignificant to their greater plan which appears to be to push this bill through for the benefit of their special interest, i.e., the medical and pharmaceutical industries..

THEY CALLED US ALL QUACKS

The head of the dietitians in NJ read from quackwatch.com and said that it is time to let the people of NJ know by licensure of RDs just who are legitimate nutritionists and who are quacks. Her definition of a quack is anyone not trained as a dietitian. She held a copy of and referred to the quack list from quackwatch.com, which must be "true," she said, as it was written by a MD. [Note from R Fucetola: for the real story about the quackwatch gang, take a look at Tim Bolen's www.bolenreport.net -- these people have an agenda that always supports Big Pharma and always denigrates Health Freedom.]

It says that anyone who sells or recommends supplements is a quack. The listing is written by one who is defensive and threatened. It is not a list of one with reason. But, to be fair, it is hard to be reasonable about the benefits of drugs and surgery over the benefits of proper food, holistic balance and effective supplementation.

If you are not familiar with quack watch then go and read the listing of who they will consider a quack. I am almost every one of them. And proud of it.

According to the head of NJ dietitians who spoke yesterday, in length (uninterrupted) if one is not trained in food science yet claims <> <> <> <> <> <> <> to know anything about food, then, they are a quack. I told them I am not trained in science and proud of it. Food is nature, not science. Besides, science is not doing so well in the health area today. Look at their stats. Attached are a few attachments I included with my testimony yesterday. Copy them and pass them out. You may <> <> delete my heading and put yours. I don't care, just remember them and use them.

The fact that we are such strong competition to their drugs and surgery is exhibited by the fact that they must license us into oblivion and off this earth. This attests to the fact that we are having a great positive affect on the health of America. Good for us. We are not seen as competition to dietitians, they are basically untrained and benign, it was clear yesterday that we are seen as competition to medicine. To doctors and their drugs.

My friends, they are running scared. I say, let's chase them!

Its time to make a stand, right here right now in New Jersey the home of big pharma and paramount in arrogance of those in the medical sciences who show a contempt for and disregard of the laws of nature..

The Assembly Committee with whom we met is hell-bent on making dietitians the sole source of information on food, food material, supplements, heath, diet, nutrition and weight-loss. They passed bill A2933 to be forwarded to the entire Assembly for final vote on Thursday, September 25th.

Towards us, they were dismissive, contentious and patronizing. We were interrupted, not permitted the time to complete a point we were making and many of the committee members even left the room while those of us who are opposed to this bill gave our testimony on record . They underestimate the numbers we represented. They underestimate the number of people who seek us out for help.

This bill would outlaw not only current practicing nutritionists and other natural practitioners but also will outlaw herbalists, acupuncturists, supplement representatives, yoga instructors, personal trainers, massage therapists, etc if they dare speak, teach, consult, practice or lecture about food, food products and nutrition...

It states in the bill, explicitly, that no one but a registered dietician can speak about food or food materials, nutrition, supplements, diet or weight-loss. It will be hard for a massage therapist or a personal trainer to do their job without speaking on food and energy supplements. It will be pretty hard for anyone, even weight-watchers, to do their job without speaking about food and weight-loss. The bill states that they will have to have all their claims and materials approved in writing from a dietitian before that can continue their business of weight loss.

This bill even would exclude existing nutritionists from practicing. Two such men also spoke in opposition to this bill yesterday. A PhD of Orthomolecular Nutrition was told that his credentials would not be good enough. A doctor who is a Board Certified Clinical Nutritionist who has been in practice for 18 years told the committee that this bill would put him out of business (as it would naturopathic doctors, Ayurvedic doctors and all such practitioners).

These men were told by the head of the New Jersey RD association that if they wanted to practice they could still do so just by taking the RD exam and by meeting all the other criteria including working a 900 hour residency supervised by a RD. This doctor was incensed and said he couldn't be out of work for six months to a year to meet that criteria of residency while being supervised by a RD and that there is nothing he could learn from an RD anyway. He said that an RD should be learning from him. And, from all of us, I might add. Anyway, he realized that he is in trouble if this bill passes. As is all America.

This is an issue of American freedom of speech and choice. Dr. Conaway and his committee would wish to legislate these from us.

WHAT I NEED FROM YOU IS:

1. For you to contact all your friends, clients, students and ex-students and contact all ancillary businesses you can think of that depends upon free flowing information about natural health (including massage therapists, herbalists, health shops, small farmers, organic stores and farmers, crystal practitioners, reiki practitioners, vaccine activists, moms for health, etc. ) to tell them that we are organizing and uniting those who believe in the freedom to be able to continue to choose natural health care and natural products. Ask them to contact me so we can coordinate who is doing what.

We stand now, in New Jersey, to unite for the first time. Once and for all…

I believe this is the time to assert our legitimacy and make ourselves known as a united group who believes in the American right to free speech, to be informed and to do business. I see this attempt by Trenton to favor medical science over natural health care as a positive. It is a great opportunity for the various natural health fields and industries to unite and make our presence and our vast numbers known. We have strength in the truth of nature, our constitutional rights, our God given rights and in reason. Now, we must show them our strength in numbers.

Ask all you think can help us in this cause to contact me if they will march on Trenton with us when this bill comes to a vote in the Assembly on the 25th. I will try today to get a permit for that day. I need names and numbers of those who will commit. We must have thousands of people. We will not plan a march unless we have the commitment of thousands. Send me your commitment.

2. Contact all your friends, clients, students and ancillary businesses that depend upon free flowing information about natural health to contact me as to the town/district they live in. I need access to their representatives and I need a person or as many persons I can get from each district who will be wiling to go with me to visit their assemblymen to lobby.

3. Contact all your friends, clients, students and ancillary businesses that depend upon free flowing information about natural health to contact me as to the town/district they live in. I need those who will write or take one of the many editorials I have written as their own to inundate the news media with them. Every soul living in NJ needs to be made aware of the fact that this bill will lead to a total ban of all natural health info. The businesses that depend upon free flowing health info will have a decrease in business until they fade away from lack of business. This appears to be the true intent of this effort by the medical/pharma industries. The sponsors of these bill are either MDs or work in the medical/pharma industries. Certainly that fact alone gives the bills the appearance of impropriety. Next, we will go district by district exposing these legislators to their voters. .

4. Contact all reps and manufacturers of supplements and ask them to contact me. I wish to ask them to contact their friend and client list to get on board with this movement and do what they can to help us with information, numbers of people who will march or volunteer and with donations. I wish to hire a professional lobbyist and sue the pants off that president of the dietitians association for slander. Her words are a matter of record in an assembly committee in the form of testimony. She lied in her testimony many times. She told "stories" about the people she knows who went to hospitals from taking supplements. And one who went into kidney failure from supplements. I would like to have her prove that case in court or issue a statement apologizing for her slander.

Dietitians will not be allowed to recommend supplements beyond those few they have training in. They have as much training in supplements as a medical doctor will allow. They will not recommend organic or fresh local foods. They are sponsored by Wendy's, McDonalds, PepsiCo, etc.

5. Make a list for me and ask those who will help us to make a list of all the businesses that support the natural health field and are dependent upon free flowing exchange of natural information for the continuation of their businesses. Ask all representatives of organizations to contact me, for example, personal trainers, yoga instructors, cooking schools, people who have food or supplement businesses in their homes, etc.

We need the big and small to unite right now. You small practitioners have rights too. You and supplement distributors need to be validated as having a right to exist, a right to speak, a right to share information and experiences and a right to choose your own health modalities, including supplements.

A dietitian, even if renamed by this bill as a nutritionist, will not be allowed to and will not have the training to recommend other natural health modalities. They, like doctors will teach the public that we are quacks. The president of the NJ Dietitians Association brought a copy of quack watch and read passages. Anyone who is not a dietitian will be designated, legally, as quacks - if they dare to speak about food, nutrition, etc.

Please contact your people by forwarding this email to as many as you can and by following the Emails up with a call. Call all those you know who do not have Email.

We also need ideas, we need volunteers, we need people to take off from work to march to Trenton with us (otherwise they may not have a job in the future), we need support in numbers and funds from foundations, organizations and manufacturers. We need all this quickly. The Assembly will vote on this bill, A2933, on the 25th of this month. The senate will be back in session October 2nd and we will not know until then the status of how they will handle their identical bill, S1941. I will keep you posted.

Thank you for your support….D.