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: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
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.