Health blogger threatened with jail time for advocating Paleo diet that cured his diabetes Learn

Health blogger threatened with jail time for advocating Paleo diet that cured his diabetes Learn more: www.naturalnews.com...

www.naturalnews.com

Internet free speech is under assault in America, and a dangerous new trend has surfaced that threatens to throw nutritional bloggers in jail for advocating healthy diets on their blogs or websites.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The blogger, who was advocating the Paleo diet because he says it cured him of diabetes was being charged. Now you see this internet censorship at a local level.
North Carolina, pay attention if this if your state and you blog, makes it a misdemeanor to "practice dietetics or nutrition." Apparently under that it applies to the internet as well.


Yes this is Natural News however, we should be concerned as user generated blog style site. I am sure we have bloggers on ATS as well.
With the passing of CISPA news of similar events may appear.

www.naturalnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by dreamingawake


This is where this kind of non sense could lead ...(quoted in the article you mentioned)

"If a person can be criminalized for advocating a specific diet or nutritional approach on a website, then couldn't the same warped logic be used to criminalize anyone offering relationship advice? Or mental health advice? Financial advice? Political advice? Pet care advice? Advice for raising children?"

The wedge really isn't very thin anymore ...

Learn more: www.naturalnews.com...

here's the face book page
www.facebook.com...

And other links for more info on the story:
Carolina Journal
www.carolinajournal.com...
Tom Woods (Best Selling Author- Harvard Graduate)
www.tomwoods.com...

Originally posted by dreamingawake
Health blogger threatened with jail time for advocating Paleo diet...

Which is of course not true at all.
Reading further, Steve Cooksey is perfectly allowed to advocate that diet, or any other diet he chooses.

Charla Burill, Director of the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition...

“Anyone can talk about anything they want,” Burill said. “That’s a First Amendment right, so to speak.”
For example, a person could write a blog advocating vegetarianism, she said.

Where he is falling foul of the law, is a related, but different matter.

But in any case, what I've typed wont matter, ATS readers will be shouting OUTRAGE as loud as they can.

Originally posted by dreamingawake
The blooger... is being charged.

No, no he is not.
He was never charged, and as you see HERE, the matter is completely closed.

Like all headlines of "XXXXXX charged for YYYYYYY", it was simply not true.

Steve Cooksey wasnt just a blogger, he had set up a business where he would charge for a dietary advice service online.
- Intermediate support = $149 per month
- Change your life plan = $197 per month

He was, in every sense of the word, acting as a proffesional.

Now the pay service has been removed, he is now no longer under any investigation at all.

reply to post by alfa1


Yes he was very bad, he had type 2 diabetes and he encouraged others with type 2 diabetes to try the diet he tried which meant that he doesn't need to take insulin meds. The same advice my Mom got in South Africa from her Doctor..so she wouldn't need to take meds.

His advice is different from their's which would keep you on the meds .. .but ho hum....

"The nutritional advice Cooksey provides on the site amounts to “practicing nutrition,” the board’s director says, and in North Carolina that’s something you need a license to do."
“If people are writing you with diabetic specific questions and you are responding, you are no longer just providing information — you are counseling,” she wrote. “You need a license to provide this service."

he does have the following disclaimers on every page on his blog :

“I am not a doctor, dietitian, nor nutritionist … in fact I have no medical training of any kind.”

Just a warning, the source is not very reputable. Take from it what you will, but understand that it's coming from a scam website. It could be a fabricated story to generate buzz about a scam treatment and get people to buy into it, though it's well known that a healthy diet coupled with regular exercise leads to a healthy life.

ETA:
I mean naturalnews, I don't know much about the actual blogger's website.

reply to post by alfa1


he does mention he is not a doctor or nutritionist, only a person that researched and found a diet that meant he didn't need to take insulin any more for type 2 diabetes, other Doctor's in other countries recommed. So obviously he must not charge anyone for helping them, as he's not licenced.

I wonder when people who do other people's taxes, that do not have their CPA and are not current licenced members will be going to jail ....

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


so what scams has natural news run ? just interested ...

The Carolina on-line journal looks to be reputable source .....

Originally posted by alfa1

Originally posted by dreamingawake
Health blogger threatened with jail time for advocating Paleo diet...

Which is of course not true at all.
Reading further, Steve Cooksey is perfectly allowed to advocate that diet, or any other diet he chooses.

Charla Burill, Director of the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition...

“Anyone can talk about anything they want,” Burill said. “That’s a First Amendment right, so to speak.”
For example, a person could write a blog advocating vegetarianism, she said.

Where he is falling foul of the law, is a related, but different matter.

But in any case, what I've typed wont matter, ATS readers will be shouting OUTRAGE as loud as they can.

I'm here, listening and corrected it. Thanks for the info. Outrage? People should be aware of sites....blogs....online comments being questioned, investigated.

Originally posted by AliceBlackman
reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy

 

so what scams has natural news run ? just interested ...

The Carolina on-line journal looks to be reputable source .....

Natural News is not always a trusted source for legit reasons. One being that it is a paid user content site encouraging sensational topics.
I'd don't mind what others have to say. Share more detail.

However, the story did happen.

More into on the journal mentioned not sure yet.

reply to post by dreamingawake


and the corporate propaganda media like WSJ,yahoo,FT is trustworthy? Natural news is million times better than the corporate propaganda our media spews.

Originally posted by ludwigvonmises003
reply to post by dreamingawake

 

and the corporate propaganda media like WSJ,yahoo,FT is trustworthy? Natural news is million times better than the corporate propaganda our media spews.

I agree in a sense. They can offer more than the "tell you what to think" MSM. Then again what ever the source may be if you do not question it by further research how will it be validated(on the conclusion that it is offered). All big name MSM and some alternative net news have a sale agenda to meet. Weather it be for a corporation or editors offering members what to pick to write on so they can be paid through AdSense. Though, frequently when someone on ATS posts even a non MSM site, known in alternative news, they receive replies about how the source is not valid. As you see in the above replies, the article is already claimed fully sensational. See what I mean?

Western medicine (allopathic) is the only way according to those most willing to crumble health and well being. Our trauma and critical care system is second to none; if I had a broken bone, heart attack, or ruptured spleen the hospital is my best bet.

However when dealing with illness especially chronic illness (not cured with antibiotics) or true health (nutrition - making your body strong) western medicine is clueless. One look at cancer statistics will make that quite apparent.

The FDA and Big Pharma are in bed together and has been in bed together since at least the 40's. The fact of the matter they do not want you to educate yourself on the subject because if you did that would mean hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue. Anything that purports to cure any chronic disease that isn't patentable or profitable in the long run is labeled quackery. You are then threatened with jail time, fines and litigation.

In a world were universities teach ignorance, medicine promotes toxicity and death, establishment science teaches faith, EPA promotes environmental destruction and democracy produces lack of involvement and true choice - what can you expect.

Up is down in this world my friends.

While I have no desire to interfere with the discussion; I must renew my perennial advisory note about the source of this OP.

For reasons that elude me, the purveyors of naturalnews seem completely dedicated towards garnering attention by inflicting nearly every story they break with intense hyperbole and mischaracterization.

One cannot charge people for a service unless one can prove that they are competent to do so. Or at the very least, expect to be challenged.

Hence, the bloggers "advocacy" was NOT the cause of the regulatory problem; it was his presumption that he could relay the information (freeley available for serious reserch hounds) at a profit.

Were he the naturalist promoter he portrays himself to be; he wouldn't be charging for the knowledge.... but then... that is the kind of behavior we see frequently spawned from those sites where hyperbole, populist rhetoric, alarmist headlines, and stories that we "must read" because of the "threat" implied in their content.... Need I name examples?... nah... I knew I wouldn't have to.

reply to post by alfa1


I read the article, and the article from where you pulled the "free speech" quote, and browsed through his blog. He states that he isn't a dietitian. He is being threatened with imprisonment for giving advice. How many books and pamphlets are written a year with the same type of advice from people with no license to practice dietetics? Where are the lawsuits and jail time there?

State Threatens to Shut Down Nutrition Blogger

McCullagh pointed to a sentence in Cooksey’s blog the board didn’t approve of: “I do suggest that your friend eat as I do and exercise the best they can.”

“If that language appeared in a book or a magazine article, do you think the board would complain?” McCullagh asked. “How about if someone said that to a friend over dinner at a restaurant? Of course not. But because it's on the Web, they seem to think that the First Amendment no longer applies.”

McCullagh said the board may be on more solid ground in its complaint about the telephone support packages Cooksey offers. “But … if customers are paying $97 or $149 or $197 a month to have someone listen, that sounds a lot like life coaching, which doesn't require a license.”

/TOA

Originally posted by alfa1

Originally posted by dreamingawake
The blooger... is being charged.

No, no he is not.
He was never charged, and as you see HERE, the matter is completely closed.

Like all headlines of "XXXXXX charged for YYYYYYY", it was simply not true.

Steve Cooksey wasnt just a blogger, he had set up a business where he would charge for a dietary advice service online.
- Intermediate support = $149 per month
- Change your life plan = $197 per month

He was, in every sense of the word, acting as a proffesional.

Now the pay service has been removed, he is now no longer under any investigation at all.

Interesting. Your above link was reporting that there were no complaints on file, at least as of April 9:

After further review, on April 9, 2012 Mr. Cooksey was sent a certified letter, stating that the NCBDN was satisfied that he had come into substantial compliance with the requirements of the law and that the NCBDN was closing the complaint it received against him. Mr. Cooksey signed for this letter. Currently, there is no active complaint or action against Mr. Cooksey on file with the NCBDN.

However, the quote you pulled from Charla Burill (but didn't post the url to...shame shame!) in your earlier post where she talks about the guy's right to free speech looks to be from an article written April 23 of this year (and linked to in the naturalnews.com article), two weeks later than the above. This is from that article:

Charla Burill, the board’s director, told Carolina Journal she could not discuss the details of Cooksey’s case because his website is still under investigation, but agreed to talk about the law in the hypothetical.

State Threatens to Shut Down Nutrition Blogger

Emphasis mine. So which is it? He's not under investigation as of April 9, but is under investigation as of April 23? Latest information says he is. He's hasn't been charged, apparently, and neither article suggests he has been. But "under investigation" does equate to "threatened with jail time".

/TOA

Absolute rubbish. There are websites and individuals online making hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, from their endorsement of paleo diets.

Originally posted by JailTales
Absolute rubbish. There are websites and individuals online making hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, from their endorsement of paleo diets.

I agree, now I wonder why this particular one is so "visible?" Perhaps a media show? Creating a judicial precedent to establish grounds for a wider "movement" by the establishment to minimize dissemination of profit-threatening information? The 'conspiratorial' possibilities are numerous.