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What is a nutitionist?

Many people market themselves as nutritionists and it is sometimes difficult to establish the qualifications and credentials of individuals and organizations. The team here at nutriffic are all qualified and registered nutritionists, but in order to examine our credentials it is important to define what a nutritionist is.

Firstly, it is important to appreciate that nutrition is a recognized discipline allied to medicine rather than a complementary/alternative medicine. Nutrition is a very broad discipline and covers areas including molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, botany, food science, physiology, sports medicine, psychology, sociology AND dietetics. Whereas dieticians have a very defined role, primarily working within the NHS and hospital setting, the term "nutritionist" encompasses experts from many disciplines who undertake nutrition work or research and includes dieticians. In practice, many qualified nutritionists have a more detailed and/or more specialist knowledge and experience in a specific area of nutrition over and above the basic nutritional science gained merely through dietetic training.

Recognising the “wheat from the chaff”

Unfortunately at present, any individual can offer advice and knowledge on nutrition despite little or no formal qualifications or experience. Many practitioners in the private sector practice nutrition as a complementary/alternative medicine (akin to aromatherapy, homeopathy and acupuncture). Whilst there is no doubt these individuals are helpful for people, it is likely that their knowledge of nutrition may be limited or may stray from evidence based knowledge.

There are various governing bodies in the UK policing nutrition. The governing body of dieticians is the BDA (British Dietetic Association) and details of this organization can be found on their website. More encompassing, The Nutrition Society was founded to provide a learned society for nutrition as a discipline allied to medicine (similar to physiotherapy and psychotherapy), and has the UK’s most renowned nutritionists and dieticians amongst its membership, in addition to a highly respected international membership. This must be distinguished from the British Association of Nutritional Therapists (BANT), which is an association for nutrition as an alternative medicine (i.e. similar to acupuncture and aromatherapy).

All members of Nutriffic are either registered nutritionists or dieticians

Dieticians are registered with the BDA and recognized by the letters RD. Similarly the Nutrition Society governs a register of nutritionists that identifies an appropriate standard of qualification and experience in nutrition. In order to become registered, an individual needs to possess a recognized undergraduate degree in nutrition or closely related discipline coupled with either 3 years experience of working in nutrition and/or a PhD in nutrition and must adhere to the codes of conduct (code of ethics) Similar to the RD for dieticians, members of the register can be recognized by the letters RNutr (registered nutritionist) or RPHNutr (registered public health nutrition).