Advising on diet and lifestyle: naturopathy’s role?

CMAJ is to be commended for its openness in publishing research on alternative medicine, provided the studies are appropriately designed and discussed, which is the case with the article by Seely and colleagues. ¹

Our comment on the CMAJ editorial by Stanbrook ² is that naturopaths are not formal members of health teams that provide nutrition guidance; this is the role of dietitians. That physicians usually partner with dietitians, whether in the hospital or community setting, seems to have been totally overlooked in Stanbrook’s ² editorial. Similar results could have been achieved had dietitians provided preventive eating and lifestyle guidance.

Naturopaths can certainly provide evidence-based dietary advice, as shown in Seely and colleagues’ ¹ intervention in their study. However, naturopaths also tend to be heavy prescribers of natural health products, as evidenced by the 7 food supplements listed in the menu of interventions in the study. Such supplements may be unnecessary and evidence of their efficacy is limited.

Referring to naturopathic practice as “complementary preventive medicine” ¹ increases the confusion between naturopathy and dietetics. One wonders what the rationale is for delegating diet and lifestyle advice to naturopaths when there are dietitians to provide advice regarding healthy eating.