Alert over dangerous nutrition advice by therapists

The consumer group said therapists are providing “expensive dietary advice that could seriously harm patients’ health”.

It sent undercover investigators posing as patients to 15 consultations with nutritional therapists. All the nutritionists charged between £50 and £80 per visit.

The “patients” included a 46-year-old woman and another aged 40 recently diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), the most common type of non-invasive breast cancer.

A 56-year-old male and a 52-year-old woman complained of suffering serious fatigue for the last three months.

The final patient, a woman, 31, told nutritionists she had been trying to conceive for more than a year.

From the 15 visits, six were rated as “dangerous fails” by a Which? expert panel, which includes a GP. A further eight were rated as “fails” and only one was deemed a “borderline pass”.

One of the breast cancer sufferers was told by the nutritional therapist to delay the radiotherapy treatment recommended by her oncologist, saying they could rid the body of cancer through diet.

The therapist advised her to follow a no-sugar diet for three to six months, saying “cancer feeds off sugar. She claimed: “By cutting out sugar we have a better chance of the cancer going away”.

The expert panel concluded this was “highly irresponsible” and incorrect advice.

In another consultation, the woman trying for a baby was subjected to an examination of her iris and told she had “a bit of bowel toxicity” and a “leathery bowel”.

The expert panel said these are both meaningless terms.

The male patient with serious fatigue was told that if the course of treatment prescribed by the nutritionist made him ill, it showed the “treatment was working” and he should not contact his GP as they “wouldn’t understand”.

Several therapists also used unscientific tests.

Some therapists recommended unnecessary high-dose supplements costing up to £70 a month, which the panel said could have side effects, such as stomach pain and diarrhoea.

Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said: “Our research shows that not only were they a waste of money, but some of their recommendations could seriously harm people’s health.”

“This is largely a self-regulated industry where anyone can set up and practice as a nutritional therapist, meaning there is no real protection for consumers.

“While the majority of the therapists Which? visited were registered with the industry body, the British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BANT, our findings show that it is failing to police these practitioners effectively.”

Sian Burton, British Dietetic Association (BDA) vice chairman said: “It’s time to start 2012 with a clean slate and make it absolutely clear what the difference is between a dietician and a nutrition therapist.

“In a nutshell, members of the public should be aware that anybody, overnight, can set up shop as a nutrition therapist, with no qualifications and no regulatory body to monitor how they work.

“Registered dieticians working in the UK are educated to degree level and must be registered with the Health Professions Council (HPC) to ensure public safety by adhering to standards of professional training, performance and conduct.”

A Department of Health spokesman warned anyone seeking independent to only use those registered with The Association for Nutrition, available on the association’s website, www.associationfornutrition.org, who have passed properly accredited courses. The Department warned: “We do not recognise BANT as a regulatory body for nutrition scientists.”

Bant said in a statement it was dedicated to the advancement of nutrition science and that its members were bound by a strict code of ethics designed to protect patient interests.

Thaw cancer diagnosis hope

A fluorescent “throat spray” that pinpoints abnormal cells could help doctors spot early oesophagus cancer.

The disease, which killed Morse star John Thaw, can easily be missed or wrongly diagnosed in its early stages.

The new technique involves a fluorescent dye that attaches to healthy cells but does not stick to cancer cells or those turning malignant.

Abnormal cells then glow green under special light and can then be seen by specialists and treated with radiofrequency ablation, a method of killing cancer cells using electrical current.

Oesophageal cancer is the ninth most common cancer in the UK. Each year around 8,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with the disease.