Nutritionist

Job Description:

Nutritionists use their scientific knowledge of food to give information and advice about the effects of diet and nutrition on health and wellbeing.

Job Category:
Food & Drink

What you will do:

You’ll work closely with dieticians and other health professionals, like pharmacists, GPs, and hospital or community diet and nutrition teams.

Your day-to-day duties might include:

  • practical nutrition research projects
  • recruiting volunteers to take part in trials
  • processing and analysing biological samples
  • raising awareness and educating colleagues in the health field
  • aiming healthy eating campaigns at particular groups

Nutritionists don’t give dietary advice to individual patients or work directly with patients without supervision. This is done by a state registered dietitian.

Skills:

You’ll need:

  • knowledge of biology
  • knowledge of training and educating
  • to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

As well as:

  • sensitivity and understanding
  • to be thorough and pay attention to detail
  • the ability to work well with others (teamwork skills)
  • the ability to work on your own (drive)
  • thinking and reasoning skills
  • patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
Illustration of employee looking at workspace

Entry Requirements:

Most nutritionists in the UK are registered with the Association for Nutrition (AfN).

To register, you’ll usually need one of the following:

  • an AfN-approved degree or postgraduate qualification in nutrition or public health nutrition
  • 7 years’ professional experience in nutrition

 

Working Hours and Environment:

You’ll usually work Monday to Friday. You could work in hospitals, local health clinics or GP surgeries.

Career Path & Progression:

You could specialise in sports nutrition by taking a further relevant postgraduate degree and joining the voluntary Sport and Exercise Nutrition Register (SENr).

With experience, you could progress into management and policy development.