As a dietitian whose work title (and blog) includes not the word dietitian but nutritionist – I’m often asked the difference between these two terms. To give the quick answer, in Alberta where I work, these two terms are interchangeable and signal a registered health professional. If you are interested in the longer answer or don’t live in Alberta, read on!
In Alberta: Dietitian = Nutritionist
To start with the term dietitian, this is a protected title that means a similar thing in many countries. In the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries being a dietitian means that you have a university degree in nutrition and have also completed an internship training program supervised by other dietitians. Just like when you go to see a doctor or a lawyer and you trust that by them using those terms, they have the necessary training to be doing their job – the word dietitian signals a trusted nutrition professional.
During university we take courses in physiology, biochemistry, organic chemistry, biology, and lots of nutrition focused courses. While doctors and nurses may have a day or so in their training program where they learn about nutrition, dietitians in Canada have five years of nutrition schooling they use to inform their decisions.
Dietitians most often work in hospitals and clinics and are the only nutrition professionals who are legally qualified to provide medical nutritional therapy in these settings. Some dietitians (like myself) work more in public health roles creating resources, providing training for other health care professionals and trying to improve the food environment and advocating towards food security for all. Other dietitians may work in food service, management, or research positions.
As dietitians need to be registered with a regulatory body to practice as a dietitian, the term registered dietitian and its abbreviation RD are also commonly used. When newly trained dietitians are waiting for their registration exam results (yes, all dietitians in Canada write a nationally accredited exam to ensure they meet the requirements of the profession), they may use the term dietitian but not RD. Oh and if you really want to make a dietitian’s day, make sure you spell it with a ‘t’ and not a ‘c’!
So what about nutritionist? This is where it gets complicated. In Alberta, the term nutritionist recently became a protected title as well. This means that in the province, only dietitians may call themselves nutritionists. However, nutritionist is not a protected title in many areas of the world (including many other Canadian provinces). In many places, people may call themselves a nutritionist without having any nutrition background or education. You read that right, nutritionists may have zip, zilch, zero nutrition training depending on where they reside. Before you book an appointment with a nutritionist you can check with your local regulatory body (such as the College of Dietitians of Alberta) to see if that is synonymous with dietitian in your province, state or territory.
I hope this clears it up for you. You can trust dietitians are trained nutrition professionals. Be a bit more cautious with those who are nutritionists if you live in an area where the term isn’t regulated or if you are reading material online and they may be living in an area where it isn’t regulated!
You can rest assured that this (*points at self*) nutritionist is also a dietitian/registered dietitian/RD but sadly none of the latter rhyme nicely with minimalist.
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