How-to choose the Right Nutritionist: Comprehensive 5-Step Check list
Find the right Nutritionist with our professional guide.
Before signing up to work with your Nutrition or functional medicine practitioner, it’s important to be sure you’re working with the right person to meet your needs. Ensure they have the right qualifications, the right expertise and the right approach to help you solve your health issues. Here are your 5 key steps of what you need to consider before choosing your Nutritionist.
5 Step Check List to Choosing the Right Nutritionist
First, identify your number 1 health goal, linked to the symptom you’re seeking help with. How would you like to feel instead?
Then consider 3-5 other symptoms. What else is going on with your health that you feel unhappy with? Score these between 1-10 in terms of the impact they’re having on your life. Now you have a short list of what the practitioner needs to be able to help with.
Now it’s time to think about approach. Do you want an expert approach, considering health tests and supplements (Functional Medicine trained Nutritionist)? Or do you need a doctor who can give a diagnosis or review medication (Functional Medicine Trained Doctor)? Or do you simply find it hard to stick to things and you need to learn how to overcome ‘will power’ challenges (a health coach). Now you have a clearer idea of what to search for.
Next, look for areas of speciality: Some health topics are huge. To ensure your practitioner has plenty of clinical experience and science research under their belt, you can look for practitioners who specialise in your condition. nutritionist-resource.org.uk holds a huge list of BANT qualified nutritionist with a range of varying specialisations.
Check you have the right rapport. You need to feel understood, safe to share personal information, and feel met where you where you are. Proceeding at a speed and with the right amount of detail that works for you is more likely to have a long-lasting effect.
What IS a nutritionist?
How do i know if a Nutritionist is properly trained and qualified?
The title Nutritionist is not regulated, meaning you’ll need to do some more digging to establish if the Nutritionist is what you’re looking for. Having established your needs above, here is a short list of the types of qualifications and titles that exists, that may all call themselves Nutritionists.
Nutritional Therapist
What is it: What we usually mean when we say Nutritionist (UK). The application and adjustment of nutrition and the use of natural remedies to alleviate health concerns or optimise wellbeing. Trained in recommending supplements (nutraceuticals), understanding the cause mechanisms of common health concerns, nutrition science (if degree level trained), and interpreting test results (within remit). Some also have health coaching training and behavioural change method training.
Perfect for: if you’re looking for an alternative option to work on your health concerns with deeper testing, and a way to apply what the latest in science tells us about lifestyle medicine. Preventative healthcare, and nutrition science.
Watch out for: Poorly trained practitioners, and low level of Functional Medicine understanding. Look for a BANT qualification to ensure the person has undergone thorough training and adheres to industry standards. Ideally trained at degree level with research skills and additional functional medicine training.
Health Coach
Trained in behavioural change techniques, empowering and inspiring change. Lifestyle practices.
NOT trained in: Supplements, nutrition advice of any kind included removing food groups, functional testing, functional medicine.
Perfect for: Behavioural change. If you know you would feel better if you could just stick to eating healthier but struggle to get healthy habits to stick, coaching will be great for you.
Watch out for: claiming to have nutritional therapy or functional medicine training / working outside of scope (interpreting health tests/nutrition). Claiming to be able to help conditions.
AfN/Registered Nutritionists
Usually have a masters in Human Nutrition and sometimes work for food companies, developing products. Have training in vitamins for children, pregnancy, blood sugar balance.
Perfect for: If you’re concerned about following robust and recognised science (as oppose to emerging) and want a less ‘fluffy’ approach. You don’t want to exclude food groups and want a really balanced diet that focuses on a healthy lifestyle overall. You may be concerned about fads, and don’t’ have very poorly understood health concerns.
Watch out for: Not nutritional therapy / natural remedies based. Working outside of scope or training, in helping with less common conditions or from a disease-aspect (nutrition therapy).
Functional Medicine Doctor
May be trained in functional medicine and lifestyle medicine if undertaken additional training in these areas. Some may have learned to understand nutrigenomics (nutrition to match your genes).
Do not have nutrition science training so will be limited in recommending food. Also tend to be a little stuck in the linear ‘doctor-thinking’, similarly to how pharmaceuticals work. As oppose of how it’s all connected and what the root cause of your health issues. This may leave you with rather a long list of supplements to take.
Perfect for: if you are on many medications that requires consideration alongside, or need review of current medication. Any diagnosis or medical concerns.
Watch out for over-prescribing (pharmaceuticals or natural supplements).
Nutritional Therapists
What is it: The application and adjustment of nutrition and the use of natural remedies to alleviate health concerns.
Watch out for: poorly qualified practitioners claiming to have scientific understanding. Short-course training. Ensure BANT qualified and ideally to degree level.
What’s the difference between a dietician and a Nutritionist?
Dieticians tend to work in hospital settings, but can also work privately. They are heavily science based, and tend to be limited to working under GP/Government guidelines (which can be slow to change with the fluctuating landscape of science) and with more standard protocols such as the FodMap diet for IBS. Whilst Dieticians can be critical of some of the nutritional therapy approaches (which are geared towards being ‘natural’ and more holistic), we note that they have updated their working scope somewhat to include more modern approaches. You can see more about what they do here:
They do not, to our knowledge, apply ‘system biology’ (how the body and symptoms interlink - root cause) thinking which forms the basis of functional medicine.
What does a Nutritionist do?
A nutritionist often work privately with clients to improve health. See above
How to become a Nutritionist? What qualifications do you need to become a nutritionist?
We would recommend a degree such as CNELM’s Masters degrees or other BANT recognised degree courses if you’re looking to become a Nutritional Therapist and want a solid qualification with longevity.
Can you see a Nutritionist on the NHS?
Currently you cannot. You may receive a referral to a dietician if there is a strong justified need, but their scope may be limited in helping depending on your health issue. See here for accurate information.
Is it worth paying for a Nutritionist?
Yes! Just like we have a personal dentist, doctor and perhaps osteopath, in our view, everyone should have regular check-in’s with their nutritionists Basic genetics, nutritional MOT’s, and stress and sex hormones.
If you want to try and avoid the need for pharmaceuticals where possible, and you want to improve your energy levels, mood and maintain your weight more easily, this is the right investment to make.
Whilst the NHS can look after our emergency care and acute care, for long term chronic day to day health issues, this medicine model is not always a great fit.
Are we Nutritional Therapists at Advanced Nutrition?
Yes we are! But some of our team also holds Masters degrees in Personalised Nutrition, degree’s in Nutritional Science and Functional Medicine training at degree level. All our practitioners also have health coaching training. So we span four fields: Nutrition Science, Nutritional Therapy, Functional Medicine - AND coaching.