Nutritionist

A nutritionist is a person who advises on matters of food and nutrition impacts on health. Different professional terms are used in different countries, employment settings and contexts — some examples include: nutrition scientist, public health nutritionist, dietitian-nutritionist, clinical nutritionist, and sports nutritionist.

Some confuse the terms "dietitian" and "nutritionist," and this tends to be erroneous. However, in many countries and jurisdictions, the title "nutritionist" is not subject to professional regulation; any person may call themselves a nutrition expert even if they are wholly self-taught. In the United Kingdom, Australia, parts of Canada, and most US states, the term nutritionist is not legally protected, whereas the title of dietitian can be used only by those who have met specified professional requirements. One career counselor attempting to describe the difference between the two professions to Canadian students suggested "all dietitians are nutritionists, but not all nutritionists are dietitians."

The term nutritionist used to be associated with alternative medicine. Prominent examples include Gillian McKeith and Robert O. Young. However, there are a sufficiently large number of practising nutritionists without appropriate qualifications to be a potential danger to the general public. A demonstration of the ease in which it is possible to become an accredited nutritionist can be seen in Dr Ben Goldacre's successful application to have his dead cat Hettie accredited as a certified professional member of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants (the organisation by which Gillian McKeith is accredited). A key danger is that many of these unqualified nutritionists can be seen on the World Wide Web to contribute to online health discussions by advising a person to ignore their doctors' prescription (that opinion being the considered opinion of a qualified scientist) in favour of some "fad" foodstuff which they claim will cure all ills. Nutritionism, practiced in a responsible way by a qualified person could be a robust scientific discipline, which uses science to formulate guidelines if it were not for the overwhelming numbers of unqualified practitioners.

The title "nutritionist" is protected by provincial law in Quebec, and Nova Scotia. The term "Registered Nutritionist" is protected in Alberta. The term “Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist” is protected by law in New Brunswick.

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