Posts in Response: Pete Evans

On June 18, 2014, a boy called Pete Evans made a post on his FB page which started with his highlighting of the corporate partners of the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA). The "DAAs corporate sponsors" is publicly available information, and there is further detail in the DAAs Annual Report, also publicly available.

Now, I had no idea who Pete was until his post was posted on the Dietitian Connection Student's FB Page, and even then...Master Chef Schmaster Chef.....but what I did notice is this: whoever this Pete boy is, the Australian public follow him, like him, probably love to the point of commitment, and appear to hang on his every word. And that. is. amazing!

This "public like of Pete" made me look differently at my dietitian colleagues' social media stuff, and at the DAAs social media follows and likes. Disclaimer: I have not done a proper "data-mining" or "cross-sectional survey" to make this observation....I simply make this statement about my preliminary observation: it is mostly dietitians liking and following dietitians, and not "the public" as is the case for Pete. :(

If I had the time to start another PhD I would say this observation would be the kicker to a very important scientific research question: why has Pete got more likes than my professional association?

Pete has more "likes" :(

Pete: likes=202,380, DAA: likes=9,878[as at 7:02pm 30-06-14]

[eeek 7:10pm Pete: l=202,420, DAA: l=9,879]

What's that? I am not a member of the DAA so why do I keep referring to it as "my" professional association? Because I am a dietitian. I always will be. And whether the DAA embrace me as part of their team or not, I am "on the team" - I am with and for every single dietitian in the Universe. It is because of this, I want the best for all dietitians, and for the profession.

Here below is what I posted on the Dietitian Connection Student FB Page in response to the post on Pete's post that day. (In the meantime, I watched Pete's FB page and the comments coming through from the general public and dietitians).

....................................................
So i am TOTALLY FOR US (dietitians). I do also care that the body who represents dietitians, DAA, sees the post by Pete as a kind of "wake up call" about how the public views DAA, and therefore, views dietitians. We can do better. Read on....

1. Scientific studies have flaws, interpreting scientific evidence has flaws, translating scientific evidence to the individual has flaws.

2. A health advocacy organisation who relies on corporate funds is no longer in the business of health & advocacy, it is in the business of making money and will defend that position strongly. Who cares what "Pete" does in the corporate/health arena, "Pete" is a brand. "Dietitians" is our brand. The difference between the "Pete" and "Dietitians" as a brand is that we need to take a higher level of expectations of self - if we want to be taken seriously we need to take the higher moral ground so-to-speak - did you read my professional integrity post? Well it says stuff in there about this.

3. When it comes to "what to eat to be healthy" dietitians really do not OWN this - and we certainly do not have all the absolute answers - the mediterranean diet comes to mind, populations with years of culinary knowledge and skills and total health - usually ruined by the manufactured demand of the food industry away from health.... just an example .....

4. Focus on what we (dietitians) are good at - supporting the individual in front of us to navigate their way to health, their health, their choices as best we can. Blatant plug - this is the kind of iterative exchange between dietitian-client i am trying to build a system to capture so you have this immediate data exchange and reporting of what works for this person at this time.

5. To me, when you look across social media - it is dietitians talking to dietitians [for the most part] and not dietitians engaging the public, the people we are here to serve - clearly there is a gap between what we think of ourselves and what the public thinks of us. What is it about Pete that he has such a massive public following?? and please don't answer with "eat more F&V is not sexy enough". Lets damn well make it sexy!

6. Whenever we openly criticise other views with "we are the experts trust us" it might actually be damaging our profile - totally my hypothesis - but printing "please trust us" on a t-shirt does not = better health outcomes. If it does, i will get one.

7. Pete, in his post, not necessarily across his entire philosophy, has valid points. We would do well to listen with an open mind and leverage this as a first step to closing the gap between what we want the public to think, and what the public actually think.

8. Bring on the celebrity dietitian - and please give them space to make mistakes occasionally - if you are concerned about something - email them, and email them a clear argument with evidence and be open to discussion - PLEASE these are your colleagues, use the complaints process ONLY where there is a SERIOUS and TRUE risk to a person/people. If you really are concerned past emailing the person directly - email me and I will look over your argument critically. Once you put someone through that complaints process, you are effectively crushing the potential of one. If we keep crushing each other, HOW are we EVER going to get ahead in this game??

9. Keep at it. Change is exciting. Not scary. Ever.

Other blogs by me