What is a dietitian?

One of the things the Angry Chef (https://angry-chef.com) and I discussed last week was how to get people to understand what is a dietitian. So here are a few facts:

According to the UK British Dietetic Association,

‘Registered Dietitians (RDs) are the only qualified health professionals that assess, diagnose and treat dietary and nutritional problems at an individual and wider public health level. They work with both healthy and sick people. Uniquely, dietitians use the most up-to-date public health and scientific research on food, health and disease which they translate into practical guidance to enable people to make appropriate lifestyle and food choices.’

See this link here for more information about what dietitians do: https://www.bda.uk.com/improvinghealth/yourhealth/dietitian

So what is the difference between a nutritionist and a dietitian?

Here it starts to get confusing; the title of ‘dietitian’ is protected by law in the UK by the Health and Care Professions Council, similar to physiotherapists etc. Anyone who calls themselves a dietitian without being registered can be prosecuted (https://www.hcpc-uk.org/concerns/what-we-investigate/misuse-of-title/). To be a Registered Dietitian, you have to pass a recognised Dietetics course at a university, either at undergraduate (3-4 years full-time) or post-graduate (2 years full-time) level;(https://www.bda.uk.com/training/career/qualifyinghttps://www.bda.uk.com/training/career/qualifying). After qualifying at University, dietitians are registered by the HCPC, so that anyone can check that their dietitian is on the register (https://www.hcpc-uk.org/check-the-register/).

In contrast, anyone can call themselves a ‘nutritionist’, ‘diet therapist’ or ‘nutritional therapist’ and these titles are not protected by law. Although some nutritionists are registered with a different association called the Association for Nutrition, (http://www.associationfornutrition.org/).

More from the BDA; ‘anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, however only registrants with the UK Voluntary Register of Nutritionists (UKVRN) can call themselves a Registered Nutritionist (RNutrs). RNutrs are not permitted by law to call themselves dietitians.’ Here is a link to the difference; https://www.bda.uk.com/improvinghealth/yourhealth/dietitian_nutritionist

So a member of the public can check the appropriate register for both Registered Dietitians and Registered Nutritionists. Although this sounds confusing (even to me as I am typing), the underlying principle of all this regulation and registration is to ensure that standards of practice are achieved and maintained and that the public is protected. Hope this helps.