Friday Foolery [1]: On Homeopathy, Nutritionists and Toothiologists

Widely referred to on twitter, shown on the blog of drShock, and already cited in 2008…

But for those who do not know the Irish standup comedian Dara Ó Briain or his “Homeopathy & Nutritionists vs Real Science!” here is the video:

Some great oneliners:

• (Hé but) “Science knows it doesn’t know anything, otherwise it would stop … That doesn’t mean you can fill in the gaps with whatever fairytales”
  
• “Homeopathy is water… You can’t overdose on us, but you can fucking drown in it”
• “A dietitian is to a nutritionist as a dentist is to a toothiologist”

What does Dara Ó Briain mean with the latter?

Holford Watch, a (naughty) blog against about the “media nutritionist” Patrick Holford explained a while ago:

A ‘dietitian’ is a protected title, they need to be educated to a high level, etc., while anyone can call themselves a ‘nutritionist’. Dara drew a comparison with dentists: you have to meet certain, fairly stringent, criteria to call yourself a dentist or dietitian; anyone, though, can call themselves a toothiologist or nutritionist.

However, that Nutrionist is not a protected term is not entirely true. The title “nutritionist” is protected in Quebec, Alberta and Nova Scotia, as I learned from Wikipedia and Weighty Matters, the blog of Yoni Freedhoff, a Canadian Family doc and founder of Ottawa’s Bariatric Medical Institute.

Yoni is also not very fond of Nutritionists either. At his blog I found the (Funny Friday) video below about this profession. Made by Mitchell and Webb.

I also came across a video about homeopathy made by the same British comedians. Awesome.

Have a great weekend and be sure to take some Bach Flower Therapy to prevent your hangover. And remember, to take cocktails shaken not stirred with 1 ppm alcohol!

References:

Image by el patojo via Flickr

• http://www.shockmd.com/2009/08/18/on-homeopathy/
• http://holfordwatch.info/2008/12/23/dara-o-briain-a-dietitian-is-to-a-nutritionist-as-a-dentist-is-to-a-toothiologist/
• http://bmimedical.blogspot.com/2009/07/trip-to-nutritionist.html

More Friday Foolery:

• http://eagledawg.blogspot.com/search/label/friday%20foolery
• http://en.wordpress.com/tag/the-friday-post/
  ( from http://creakysites.wordpress.com/)

Dara Ó Briain: a dietitian is to a nutritionist as a dentist is to a toothiologis