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 When health and nutrition blogger Steve Cooksey received a disturbing 19-page letter from the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition, complete with threats of arrest, he did what others are often afraid to do: made it public.

 It seems that his blog, which features nutrition principles based on the Paleo Diet, upset the dietetics board because they construed his online blog as a dispensing a type of “nutrition advising” or “nutrition counseling” without a license.

 The Board ordered that Cooksey take down the nutritional advice or face prosecution   and outrageously even said he could not offer such advice for free to friends over the phone!

 But there’s much more to this story than meets the eye, as the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition is a state chapter of the U.S. American Dietetic Association (ADA) (now formally known as the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics), and newly leaked internal documents show the affront against Steve Cooksey is only the beginning 

Does the ADA Intend to Silence Any and All Competition?

 That certainly appears to be the message in a leaked internal ADA document obtained by Forbes contributor Michael Ellsberg. In April Ellsberg wrote an article for Forbes detailing an internal ADA document that suggested the agency is moving full-steam ahead with a “strategy for gaining legal control over the term “nutritionist,” as a path to limit competition for its members, against competing types of nutrition counseling.” 1

 For instance, in December 2011 the ADA, which is typically associated with the professional license of “Registered Dietician (RD),” applied for patents on a variety of nutrition-related professional titles spanning from certified nutrition coach and nutrition professional to registered nutrition educator or nutrition associate.