RDN Day: Gratitude, Frustration, & the Fight For A Seat At the Table
Today is RDN Day — a day to celebrate the work and dedication of registered dietitians. And honestly? I have complicated feelings about it. Because while I am deeply grateful for the life and freedom this credential has given me, I’m also frustrated. Frustrated by the lack of recognition, the systemic barriers to providing care, and the growing wave of nutrition misinformation that’s being amplified by people who have no business giving nutrition advice.
Becoming a dietitian changed my life. My background in psychology and my own complicated history with food gave me a deep understanding of how emotional and behavioral patterns shape eating. Early in my career, I helped build a nutrition program at an outpatient mental health facility, which eventually led to creating an eating disorder intensive program. The work was hard, but it was also meaningful. We saw patients get better — truly better — some of them after decades of treatment.
This profession gave me the freedom to build a career on my terms. It provided a safety blanket when my professional world crumbled last December. It gave me the opportunity to help people at their most vulnerable. It gave me financial security and a path to a life I’m proud of. For that, I’m profoundly grateful.
But here's the hard truth: we are fighting an uphill battle — not because of a lack of skill or care, but because the healthcare system is working against us.
Insurance companies decide how much care we can provide and how long clients can stay in treatment — regardless of what they actually need. Nutrition counseling gets treated like a luxury, not essential care. The very care that could prevent chronic diseases — heart disease, diabetes, eating disorders — is undervalued and underfunded. It’s infuriating to know we have the tools to improve outcomes, but the system is set up to make that nearly impossible.
And then there’s the lack of respect within the healthcare system itself. We’ve all been there — sitting across from a doctor who suggests keto to someone recovering from an eating disorder or recommends intermittent fasting to someone with binge eating disorder. We try to explain why that’s dangerous, and we get dismissed. Dietitians are the nutrition experts in the healthcare system — but we’re rarely treated that way.
To make it worse, we’re now battling an entirely different wave of misinformation — one that’s coming from people who have no business talking about nutrition in the first place. Influencers with no formal education in nutrition are gaining massive platforms, offering advice that directly contradicts evidence-based guidelines, and making a fortune doing it. (I am leaving the current political landscape out of this post for time and sanity.)
These aren’t harmless misunderstandings — this misinformation is actively hurting people:
The rise of “doing a little keto” often translates to eating more saturated fat and ignoring fiber and nutrient diversity.
People taking Ozempic without medical guidance are being told to just “eat less” — reinforcing restrictive patterns that can trigger disordered eating.
The carnivore diet is leading people to cut out entire food groups — including fruits and vegetables — under the false promise of “clean eating” and “gut health.”
Meanwhile, dietitians are the ones picking up the pieces — trying to undo the damage of these fad diets and unsupported health claims. But we’re expected to work within a system that undermines us at every turn.
It’s discouraging. It’s exhausting. It feels like theft — theft of our labor, our expertise, and our emotional energy. And on top of that, maintaining this credential isn’t easy. It requires continuing education, annual fees, and constant professional development. We’ve sacrificed time, money, and energy to earn and maintain this credential — only to be treated like an afterthought in healthcare.
But despite all of that — I’m still here. Because the work itself matters. The quiet victories matter. The moment when a client eats without fear for the first time in years — that matters. The trust that grows when a client realizes that food is not the enemy — that matters. The resilience it takes to keep showing up when the system makes it harder than it should be — that matters.
To my fellow RDs: I see you. I know how hard this work is. I know the frustration of being treated as “optional” while influencers with no qualifications are viewed as experts. I know the exhaustion of working within a healthcare system that seems designed to minimize us.
But I also know the strength it takes to keep going. The courage to speak up when doctors or therapists get it wrong. The perseverance it takes to keep advocating for your clients even when insurance companies refuse to pay for your care. The quiet satisfaction of seeing a client heal — not because of the system, but in spite of it.
On this RDN Day, I’m holding both gratitude and frustration. I’m deeply thankful for the life this credential has given me — and I’m equally committed to pushing for change. We deserve better. Our clients deserve better.
Dietitians are not optional. Nutrition care is not secondary. We are essential — and it’s time the healthcare system and the culture at large treated us that way.
Happy RDN Day. You've earned it.