Unlike dietitian, the title of nutritionist isn’t protected. However, the easiest (but not only) way to determine if a nutrition professional has evidence-based training and follows an evidence-based practice is by looking for the letters RNutr or ANutr after their name. These letters signify that the person is registered with the Association for Nutrition, who have very strict codes of ethics.
Becoming a registered nutritionist isn’t easy. I should know – I submitted my application to them 11 weeks ago and am still waiting to hear if I’m in! You need a university-level qualification (undergraduate or postgraduate, or both) in nutrition to reach ANutr status, then another 3 years of working as a nutritionist, with regular CPD (continuous professional development) to reach RNutr status.
With this in mind, I’ve been interviewing registered nutritionists (RNutr) about the wide variety of jobs they hold and roles they play, to show that being a nutritionist isn’t always seeing 1-1 clients, there’s so many different directions to take with it: working in industry, with government initiatives (e.g. Action on Sugar), consulting for brands, consulting for restaurants, media nutritionists, research, and so on.
Side note: these videos are in no way intended to hate on nutrition professionals who aren’t registered with AfN, but as someone who values evidence-based nutrition above everything, they were the logical choice for me, and as such I want to big up other AfN nutritionists doing awesome things!
I’m always on the lookout for more registered nutritionists to talk to, so if you have any recommendations or you yourself want to come chat on my sofa then let me know!