What is the difference between what dietitians do and what nutritionists do?
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I’ll throw another question, why is it that in the US the licensed profession is called dietitian, while here in Brazil, there is only nutritionists(europe too, i think ?). The term dietitian here is quite shunned among professonals(nutritionists)…
This is all very interesting to me. I am a licensed social worker and in most US states now “social worker” is title-protected and you cannot call yourself one without an accredited degree and passing a certification (bachelors level) or licensing exam (most masters). Other “human services (totally unregulated curricula) or criminal justice folks get very upset when social workers point out these are not all the same. But I’ve supervised teams with certified social workers alongside somewhat adjacent professions (all doing the same job), and there is a difference. Of course there is variability and overlap w/skills and professional framework, but in general there are obvious differences.
So I think after reading this I can get where it’s coming from.
Nothing, except the dietician completed a degree in nutrition to be able to give good nutrition advice. The nutrititionist *might* be giving good nutrition advice … but you lack any way of judging their reliability.
It’s like if you wanted to hire a mechanical engineer. You’d probably try to find one with a degree, because that degree means they studied the relevant coursework, and also demonstrated their knowledge of that coursework to hold the degree. That’s pretty much the point of a degree. Of course, you could hire someone without a degree who claims to have engineering knowledge – but you lack any way of determining whether they’re competent.
And, notably, because mechanical engineering degrees *do* exist, then if someone has a working knowledge of mechanical engineering, but doesn’t have any certification of that knowledge, it’d be reasonable to ask why that person did not pursue certification of some sort to demonstrate the knowledge they claim to have. So too, you have to wonder why a nutritionist does not pursue a degree in nutrition if they know about nutrition – it’d let them list themselves as a dietician, and not be confused with all the pseudo-scientists who call themselves “nutritionists”.
Whenever this question comes up it’s a chance for folks to vent on their feelings and ideas about alternative nutrition.
I just want to vent on the licensed dietician thing. My wife didn’t understand her major well enough when she was steered there as an 18yo fresh out of high school. Studied nutrition and wound up taking a very demanding pre-med BS from one of the best schools. Only to find out the job opportunities in 1989 were lab assistant or registered dietician at a hospital, both paying about $12/hr. Wound up working for a weight-loss company for a while but that was more like therapy than dietician work, and she had no training in that, was very emotionally stressful. So she went back to waiting tables and became a massage therapist, both more fun jobs that payed a lot better. A hospital dietician is in charge of making sure you get a bowl of jello on your tray of yummy yummy hospital food.
The key difference besides the licensure of RD that everyone else has mentioned is that Dietitians are legally allowed to provide medical nutrition therapy, which essentially consists of nutritional prescriptions for chronic/acute conditions while a nutritionist can only provide much more broad advice and would need to defer to an RD for something like that
The former is a protected term, meaning only a person with the correct credentials can call them selves one.
The latter is not a protected term, meaning you can call your self one.
🤯 I ever knew that Chiropractors are not a based on real science, until I followed the comments in this thread 🤯🫢
As the younger folks say “ I was TODAY years old, when I found out….”
As a former cancer patient I just want to say that the dietician on my medical team played an equal part in keeping me alive as anyone else. Thank you Cheryl! Every cancer treatment team should include a dietician.
Dietitians have qualifications and are certified. They have to stay in the field else they will lose their certification.
Nutritionists are anyone who gives advice.
Bunch of dopes in here. It depends on the state. Some states do protect the ‘nutritionist’ title, others do not. They almost all protect the ‘dietitian’ title, because it’s older and more established (and practices a very traditional view of nutrition). With that said, Certified Nutrition Specialists have to obtain a master’s degree and complete over 1000 hours of supervised clinical hours, while dietitians just need a bachelor’s. You asked what they *do* however, and they mostly *do* the same things.
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