This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Read more.
Sophie Medlin
Digestive Health UK
Why should I see a dietitian over a nutritionist?
Sophie Medlin explains that it’s important to remember that dietitians are the medical nutrition people. They’ve done a degree in nutrition and learned how to apply it to medical conditions. Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, while only people who have done a degree in dietetics can call themselves a dietitian.
Transcript
The key thing to remember about the difference between dieticians and nutritionists, is that dieticians are the medical nutrition people. So we have done a degree in nutrition, but also learned how to apply that to medicine. Dietetics is the application of nutrition to medical conditions. And that means that we've done placements in hospitals alongside consultants and nurses, and all of the team will have worked in the NHS in order to make sure that they've really honed those skills and have a lot of practise in working with patients before they're put in front of you and you're parting with your money. What's really important to remember is that anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. Is not a regulated title, whereas only dieticians who've done a specific degree in dietetics can call themselves a dietician, so you know you are in safe hands with a dietician. There are also people called nutritional therapists, which is much more like alternative medicine. So they don't generally practise in a particularly evidence-based way. And that's great for some people, but if you have a medical condition, again, it's very important that you see a registered dietician.