Everybody's a Nutritionist...Why You Need a Registered Dietitian

Have you noticed everyone is a nutritionist these days? Between the media, personal trainers, physicians, product salespeople and well-meaning friends, there are a lot of differing messages on healthy eating and weight loss.  Every week there seems to be some new diet, food or supplement trending in the media.  A Registered Dietitian can help you sift through all of the mixed messages and offer you sound and safe nutrition advice.

Registered Dietitians (RD and RDN) are health professionals with a bachelor’s degree of science in nutrition from an accredited college and have completed a rigorous 1 year practical internship.  We must pass a national exam administered by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and complete 75 hours of continuing education every 5 years.  The Registered Dietitian is an expert in nutrition and is trained to give you science backed answers to your nutrition questions and evidence based guidance in all things nutrition.

The Registered Dietitian is truly the only nutrition professional qualified to give you nutrition advice.  Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, but that does not always mean they have the experience or education to give you correct and safe guidance.  Their are many types of nutrition helpers that may be trained to give you a very small amount of guidance, but they often do not understand the science behind such guidance and how food or supplements interact in the body.  They may even give you potentially dangerous advice. 

While your physician is there for many of your health care needs, many lack time to effectively address your nutrition needs and specialized training  in nutrition and counseling.  Unless you are seeing a physician that specializes in nutrition and weight management, they have most likely had very basic nutrition training and may not have the time or resources to meet all of your needs.  

Registered dietitians have one focus.  That is to help clients meet their nutrition health goals.  We can spend as much time as needed to help develop healthy eating strategies.  The registered dietitian has learned effective counseling skills to assist clients in breaking barriers to meeting their personal goals.

Every single client has different dietary needs based on their health and stage of life. An RD can tailor unique and safe advice for every individual based on nutrition requirements, lifestyle, weight related goals, health and food preferences.   RD or RDN will use creative and out-of-the-box strategies to help with meal planning, grocery shopping, food journaling and mindful eating.