Nutritional therapists are providing expensive dietary advice that could seriously harm patients’ health, an investigation by the consumers’ champion Which has found.

Undercover investigators posing as patients with a range of health problems had 15 consultations with nutritional therapists charging £50 to £80 per visit and most received inappropriate advice. In some cases they received advice which could have put patients with real health problems at risk.

Six of the 15 of the visits were rated as ‘dangerous fails’, eight were rated as ‘fails’, and only one was deemed a ‘borderline pass’.

In one case, a researcher, posing as a breast cancer sufferer, was told by her therapist to delay radiotherapy treatment recommended by her oncologist saying they could rid the body of cancer through diet. The nutritional therapist advised her to follow a no-sugar diet for three to six months saying “cancer feeds off sugar. By cutting out sugar we have a better chance of the cancer going away”.

Another researcher was told by a therapist that if the course of treatment they prescribed for his severe tiredness started to make him feel unwell, it showed the “treatment was working” and he shouldn’t contact his GP as they “wouldn’t understand what was happening”.

The investigation found that some therapists were recommending unnecessary supplements costing up to £70 a month. More worryingly, some of these could have bad side effects, such as stomach pain and diarrhoea, due to the high doses prescribed.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which, said: “We found some shocking examples of irresponsible advice given by nutritional therapists. Our research shows that not only were they a waste of money, but some of their recommendations could seriously harm people’s health.”

Most of the therapists were registered with the industry body, the British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy, although membership is not compulsory in order to practice. “Our findings show that it is failing to police these practitioners effectively,” Mr Lloyd said and urged the government to ensure the sector is regulated properly

BY: Ingrid Torjesen