Centre Nutrition, Santé et Société (NUTRISS)-Institut sur la nutrition et les aliments fonctionnels (INAF) and School of Nutrition, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC.
Can J Diet Pract Res. 2022 Jun 1;83(2):75-80. doi: 10.3148/cjdpr-2021-033. Epub 2022 Jan 11.
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.
已经提出了各种定义来描述医学营养治疗 (MNT)。广义而言，MNT 包括提供营养信息和建议，旨在预防、治疗和/或管理健康状况。在加拿大，此类信息和建议的提供不受监管，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风险，例如提供不安全和/或无效的营养建议以及延迟基于证据的治疗。加拿大的研究进一步表明，公众无法正确区分受监管的、基于证据的营养提供者（注册营养师）和不受监管的提供者。因此，公众处于危险之中。为了减少营养错误信息，最终改善公众的健康和福祉，本文的目的首先是在加拿大范围内提出 MNT 的标准化定义，其次是提出针对整个国家的省级和地区特定的立法修正案，以规范 MNT。我们还提出了对拟议观点的反对意见。最终，在我们期望向公众传达的营养信息和建议可能始终基于证据之前，需要对全国的医疗保健监管进行全面改革。
