Earlier this week, The Conversation ran a great article about the value of GPs providing nutrition education and information.

It’s a discussion worth having. For many people, their main HCP contact is a GP, so in the broader scheme of things, having GPs able to provide general health and wellbeing information (which includes nutrition information) is a sound idea.

Whilst most people I know with type 1 diabetes have a network of diabetes healthcare professionals – often including a dietitian – this isn’t the case for everyone. And for many people with type 2 diabetes their GP is the only HCP they see about their diabetes.

This discussion, however, is far broader than people with diabetes. Information about how to eat well and make food choices to enhance our health is a great idea and would be great if it were available to all.

But for this to work, we need to have confidence that our HCPs are equipped with up-to-date and sound information. As well as being across evidence-based nutrition guidelines, they need to be able to respond to queries about fad diets and ‘teatoxes’. (It’s a thing. Really.)

I can still remember the first dietitian I saw. It was within days of my diabetes diagnosis and it wasn’t a good experience at all. In fact, I walked out and vowed never to see another dietitian because, in the hour-long consultation, all I could envision was angst and stress about food thanks to diabetes. I didn’t want that at all. I certainly didn’t want the healthy way I looked at food to be compromised by someone who was extolling the idea of ‘bad foods’ and ‘good foods’, and expecting me to live with a diet that included the same things every single day.

So I never went back and spent the first three years with diabetes muddling along as best I could, adapting what I needed to and trying to keep enjoying food the way I always had.

When I started to consider using a pump, I decided to find another dietitian – one more in line with my attitudes to food. I didn’t have an understanding of carb counting (that wasn’t explained to me because it wasn’t the nutrition ‘in-thing’ in April 1998). Once again, I was disappointed to discover that the restrictive and dictatorial advice she was delivering wasn’t in line with my food philosophy which, I thought then (and still do now) to be quite sensible.

These two experiences have somewhat clouded my opinion of dietitians, despite having met with some amazingly balanced and well-informed dietitians since – including one I saw a few times who was just brilliant and never made me feel guilty because I like Nutella, but really am not a fan of lentils.

Nutrition advice needs to be about a lot more than what the best choices look like for breakfast foods.

There needs to be some acknowledgement of people’s relationship to food – how we view food in our overall life; where it fits in our family; if we enjoy preparing and knowing about food or if we just care about food as fuel; if we have any issues with certain foods. Plus there needs to be the ability to address the different levels of knowledge people have (and want to have) when it comes to food.  Not everyone wants to prepare food from scratch, make fresh pasta each week or mill their own flour. And that’s perfectly okay.

And there needs to be openness about the choices – a willingness to understand that some people may want to try something slightly (or very!) outside the guidelines. For example, the low carb movement at the moment is of great interest to a lot of people with insulin-requiring diabetes. I have heard some people say that when they have raised this as a discussion point with their HCP, the topic has been dismissed as irresponsible, not in line with the recommended guidelines and not something people with diabetes should be considering.

And yet, many people with diabetes do manage to eat a lower-than-recommended carb diet and are far happier with the results they see – whether those results be numbers on a meter or how they feel.

With the huge array of food and nutrition and health advice available to people now – frequently by people less than qualified to be providing it – having a respected healthcare professional help cut through definitely, in theory, sounds like a valuable plan.

But because of the very nature of discussions about food, whoever is charged with providing information and assistance – whether that be a GP or a dietitian, or any other HCP – needs to check their judgement at the door, be well informed, sensitive, and open to ensuring that the person they are working with is comfortable with the discussion and feels open to choice.

I remember the first time I ever heard Cassandra Wilson. I was blown away by her beautiful voice and have loved her ever since. She has a gorgeous new album – a tribute to Billie Holiday – which we’ve been listening to this week. But today’s Friday song is from the first album of hers that I listened to, New Moon Daughter.  This is Solomon Sang.