Food and nutrition advice is everywhere. It seems like everywhere you look, someone is offering their opinion about the best and worst things to eat. You’ve probably seen some version of this before:
“If I can do it, so can you.”
“This worked for me — you just have to try harder.”
“Why don’t you just try (insert nutrition fad here) to lose weight or get healthy?”
“Carbs are bad — eat more animal protein.”
“Don’t eat too much saturated fat (aka the fat in animal proteins).”
“Make everything with coconut oil because it is so healthy.”(Fun fact: Coconut oil is also a saturated fat.)
It’s no wonder people feel confused.
Part of the problem is that nutrition science is complicated, and headlines often oversimplify research findings. One study gets published, a catchy headline spreads across the internet, and suddenly, it feels like the rules have completely changed overnight. Eggs are bad for you one minute, and good for you the next — am I right? I think that recommendation has changed at least a dozen (see what I did there?) times since I first started paying attention to nutrition.
The truth is that there isn’t one single way of eating that works for everyone. Foods aren’t “good” or “bad” — they don’t have moral value. Carbs aren’t criminals robbing banks. And despite what you might hear online, the Keto diet isn’t the magic pill for weight loss.
By the way — can we please stop focusing on weight as a determinant of health and worth? Yes, I know, I’m a bariatric dietitian and I help people lose weight… but even I tell my patients that the number on the scale isn’t as important as it’s made to seem.
Anyway, back to keto. What most people call “keto” today is really just another version of the low-carb, high-fat diet trends that have come and gone over the years. A true ketogenic diet is actually a complex type of medical nutrition therapy used for specific medical conditions like epilepsy or seizure disorders — not simply a weight-loss diet.
What Dietitians Actually Do
This is what differentiates registered dietitians from influencers and even other health professionals. We are trained to provide medical nutrition therapy — helping people navigate nutrition information and turn complicated science into practical advice.
Despite what you might see on social media, dietitians aren’t here to make everyone gain weight or ignore health. We’re not all secretly working for the food industry, and we’re definitely not the food police. We’re nutrition experts. Dietitians complete years of education, earn a master’s degree, and log more than 1,000 hours of supervised (usually unpaid) practice during our dietetic internships.
We’re also human — just like you. I’ve heard people say dietitians don’t practice what they preach. The truth is, I don’t really do any preaching in the first place. Everyone’s health is different, so what I offer is individualized nutrition education and counseling. Since we’re all different, it’s also true that I might not “practice what I preach,” because the advice I give someone else might not apply to me.
For example, when I work with patients who have kidney failure and are on dialysis, I often help them limit foods high in phosphorus and potassium. My kidneys are healthy, which means they filter excess nutrients out of my blood so they don’t build up to toxic levels — so I don’t need to follow those same restrictions.
Providing Individualized Nutrition Advice
This is where working with a dietitian can make a big difference. When someone receives personalized nutrition guidance, one of the first things I often see is relief.
“You mean I don’t have to stop eating [insert food here they thought was bad] for the rest of my life?”
The guilt around food starts to fade, and nutrition begins to feel more manageable. Instead of chasing perfection, the focus shifts toward consistency. And small changes really do add up.
In my work with bariatric patients, I often use a concept called “harm reduction”. An example of what harm reduction might look like actually comes from my own lived experience. There was a time in my life when I was eating almost every meal, almost every day, from fast food restaurants. I didn’t really enjoy the food — I did it because it was mindless, and at the time so much else in my life was using up my brain power. Simply saying, “You can’t eat fast food” wouldn’t have been helpful in that situation because it wouldn’t have addressed the root cause.
When I eventually figured out the why behind that behavior, I was able to start making small changes that were an improvement — not necessarily perfection. I started buying frozen meals. Still mindless. Still simple. Still quick and convenient. But slightly less harmful — lower in calories and saturated fat, and a lot more cost effective.
Sure, eliminating fast food entirely might have been the ideal nutrition recommendation. But drastic changes like that often aren’t realistic — and when something isn’t realistic, it usually doesn’t last. Meeting people where they are and helping them make realistic changes is far more effective than expecting perfection.
Nutrition doesn’t have to be perfect to improve your health — it just has to work for your life.
RD on the Run 