Abstract:
Various definitions have been proposed to describe Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT). Broadly, MNT encompasses the provision of nutrition information and advice aimed to prevent, treat, and/or manage health conditions. In Canada, the provision of such information and advice is unregulated, thus allowing anyone to provide MNT services regardless of their education and training. This inevitably poses risks of harm such as the provision of unsafe and/or ineffective nutrition advice as well as delayed evidence-based treatment. Canadian research has further demonstrated that the general public is unable to properly differentiate between regulated, evidence-based nutrition providers (registered dietitians) and those who are unregulated. Therefore, the public is at risk. To reduce nutrition misinformation and ultimately improve the health and well-being of the public, the objective of this paper is, first, to propose a standardized definition of MNT for use across Canada and, second, to propose province- and territory-specific legislative amendments for the regulation of MNT throughout the country. We also present an opposing perspective to the proposed viewpoint. Ultimately, health care regulation across the country requires an overhaul before we expect that nutrition information and advice communicated to the public may be consistently evidence based.
摘要:
已经提出了各种定义来描述医学营养疗法(MNT)。广义上,MNT包括提供营养信息和建议,旨在预防,请客,和/或管理健康状况。在加拿大,提供此类信息和建议不受监管,因此,任何人都可以提供MNT服务,无论其教育和培训如何。这不可避免地会带来伤害风险,例如提供不安全和/或无效的营养建议以及延迟的循证治疗。加拿大的研究进一步表明,公众无法正确区分受监管的人,循证营养提供者(注册营养师)和不受监管的人。因此,公众处于危险之中。减少营养错误信息,最终改善公众的健康和福祉,本文的目的是,首先,提出MNT的标准化定义,供加拿大各地使用,第二,为全国MNT的监管提出省和地区特定的立法修正案。我们还提出了与提议观点相反的观点。最终,在我们期望向公众传达的营养信息和建议可能始终以证据为基础之前,全国各地的医疗保健法规需要进行全面改革。