The American Dietetic Association is making some changes.

No, unfortunately they’re not changing the practices that have helped make the group one of the most destructive forces in nutrition today.

They’re not getting rid of the generous financial arrangements they have with some of the biggest junk food manufacturers in the world — including Hershey’s, ConAgra, Coke, Pepsi, and Mars.

And they’re not altering the advice that has helped make Americans less healthy than ever before — advice that’s no doubt influenced by those financial arrangements.

Nope — they’re just changing the name.

American Dietetic Association is out, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is in. And along with the new name, they’ve launched a new initiative to take complete control over how nutritional advice is given — and who gets to give it.

The ADA — or AND, or whatever they call themselves next — is pushing for laws in at least five states that would give it the sole and exclusive right to license dietitians and nutritionists.

This isn’t some minor paperwork move, or just another certificate a practitioner can hang on the wall to impress visitors. Under these laws, qualified professionals wouldn’t be allowed to offer advice at all — or even call themselves nutritionists — without the ADA’s seal of approval.

You can bet that getting that approval would mean getting on board with the ADA’s message, crafted with no small amount of help from its deep-pocketed partners.

And if you want to know what that message looks like, just look at what happened when the ADA teamed up with Hershey’s: The two released a survey that found ADA dietitians overwhelmingly believe that chocolate candy can play a role in a healthy diet, even if eaten every single day.

Hershey even created something called the Hershey Center for Health & Nutrition to help promote myths about its candies — and it has “Collaboration With the American Dietetic Association” in big letters on its home page.

And this is the group that wants complete control over licensing nutritionists and dietitians?

That might be what Hershey’s wants — but it shouldn’t be what you want. Visit the website of the Alliance for Natural Health to find out what you can do to stop the ADA’s power grab.

People just like you have already defeated the ADA in at least two states. Make sure they get the same message in the other 48.

Chops, roast, ribs, sausage, bacon…

I’m getting hungry just thinking about all the great ways to eat pork. But there’s one form of pig that makes me lose my appetite every time — and it’s exactly what people eat the most of: pork from factory farms.

Factory farmed animals are raised and slaughtered in filthy conditions, which is one reason for all the contaminated meat scares in recent years. And, of course, the only reason the animals themselves don’t drop dead is because they’re pumped full of antibiotics — drugs that often end up in your meat.

But there’s one more reason to skip out on this stuff: Factory pork contains a drug so dangerous it’s been killing pigs like crazy.

Ractopamine hydrochloride is a beta agonist that mimics stress hormones. It leads to bigger pigs — but it also leads to deader pigs: Some 218,000 have been killed by the drug in a little more than a decade.

That number should be even higher, except plenty of pigs about to drop dead of ractopamine overdose — including pigs so sick they can’t even walk on their own — are quickly slaughtered first.

And then, they’re shipped off to your local supermarket…despite the fact that low doses of the drug can remain in the meat.

The feds aren’t too concerned. They claim a little ractopamine hydrochloride never hurt anyone. But in reality, there’s not a whole lot of data on what low-but-steady doses of the drug does to humans.

The only human study submitted by the drug’s maker involved just six people — and one found his heart racing so bad he dropped out.

Here’s the only thing you need to know about this drug: It’s banned around the world. It’s even banned in China, which doesn’t exactly have the best reputation when it comes to food safety.

Last year, Chinese officials arrested a bunch of farmers caught giving the drug to their pigs.

But here in the U.S., you can get your own dose of ractopamine tonight if Shake-n-Bake is on the menu, and you won’t even know it.

The answer here isn’t to avoid pork. Pork is delicious. The answer is to go organic — and while you’re at it, go organic with your beef and chicken too.

We waste a fortune on tests we don’t need for conditions we don’t have — conditions we often shouldn’t be worrying about in the first place.

All those unnecessary cancer screenings come to mind.

But there’s one disease you should worry about, especially if you’re getting up there in years — and now, there’s an easy test you can take that won’t cost a dime, eat up much time, or require even a drop of your blood.

It’s a simple quiz for Alzheimer’s disease. The only catch here is that you don’t take it yourself — someone you love takes it for you.

The 21 questions on memory and behavior range from the more minor issues, like forgetting what day it is, to the more troubling signs of serious memory loss — like mixing up family members and the inability to recognize friends.

You can see a whole version of the quiz on the website of the Daily Mail.

The questions are worth one or two points apiece, and anyone who scores more than 15 out of a possible 27 either has…or is at high risk for…Alzheimer’s. I don’t doubt that, either — you’d have to be missing out on quite a bit to reach 15 points on this test.

It’s a lot easier to hit the five points that supposedly indicate mild cognitive impairment — and if that’s you, don’t worry too much. Some of the questions hit on struggles that even many healthy people face — like problems calculating tips or operating the remote control.

I gave the quiz to a few friends, and most of them were at or near that five-point mark…so either everyone I know is suffering from cognitive impairment, or the bar for that one was set a little too low.

In any case, even hitting the high numbers isn’t a surefire sign of Alzheimer’s — because in too many cases, dementia-like symptoms can be caused by something else entirely: medication.

So before you add one more drug to the list — an Alzheimer’s drug — work with a naturopathic physician on getting off the pills you don’t need and onto natural alternatives for the ones you do.

For many people, simply reducing or eliminating meds will make a night-and-day difference.

In addition, be sure to add a B complex to your supplement regimen. B vitamins can stop or even reverse memory loss if you already have it — and, more importantly, keep it at bay if you don’t.

There’s an easy way to ease the constant pain of rheumatoid arthritis. It’s free, requires no visits to the doctor, and can be done just about anywhere.

All you have to do is get yourself moving again — but the latest research shows that four in 10 rheumatoid patients are almost completely inactive.

This isn’t by some exaggerated self-reported measurement, either. In this study, 176 RA patients wore accelerometers to measure their activity — and 42 percent of them never got even 10 minutes of sustained movement over an entire week.

Many of them said they didn’t move because they didn’t believe it would help… while others told researchers they just didn’t feel motivated.

Here’s some motivation that I hope will make a believer out of you: Moderate activity — and we’re not talking about pumping iron or training for a marathon, mind you — has proven time and again to help ease the pain of rheumatoid.

Now, I get why so many sufferers won’t try it — and if you’re among them, I can hear you shouting at the computer right now: “It hurts too much to move!!!!”

I get it.

But believe it or not, once you start moving that pain often goes away and then some — and it’s perfectly OK to keep it light, because even simple stretching exercises can bring real relief.

One study found that tai chi — the slow Chinese movements often practiced in parks in the morning — can decrease pain, increase function and give RA patients the confidence they need to keep moving.

Another study conducted by Johns Hopkins found that eight weeks of yoga can decrease swelling and tenderness in the joints of rheumatoid patients.

And if yoga and tai chi aren’t your thing, you can try any number of activities — from a brisk daily walk through your local park to gardening. Just pick something you enjoy and keep at it.

But while getting more movement can help ease the pain of RA, it won’t cure it. RA is an autoimmune disorder — and the only way to stop or reverse it is to find out why your immune system is attacking itself.

In many cases, it’s a food allergy — and simply finding the foods that trigger your arthritis and learning to avoid them can end the pain for good. A naturopathic physician can help you with that.

Dr. Jonathan Wright has also found that many RA patients suffer from low levels of hydrochloric acid and pepsin in the stomach. To find out how to check your levels — and boost them if you’re running low — read his free report on the unexpected culprits behind rheumatoid arthritis.