Nutritionist vs. Dietician

[Museum-Mama 196]

I am curious, as I read through the posts on here....when speaking about your "food adviser", its always called a NUT or nutritionist. Knowing a few dieticians, personally, they are none to thrilled about nutritionists. Dieticians go through study, testing, and have to keep up with their education to keep their licensing. Part of their training is clinical. Nutritionists do not, and are not licensed.

I like my doctor I chose, because I will be working with an actual registered dietician. I have had experience with a nutritionist on another diet, and she was just whack. I knew more than she did.

SO...my questions is, are most of you using a nutritionist instead of a dietician, or are we just referring to dieticians as NUTs in the forums generically?

Completely random, I know....but like I said, I am just curious.

Thanks!

[diva1 29]

My Nut is a dietitian

[capeciw 18]

My nut is a registered dietician.

[bethxxx 304]

I have a dietician. I think most of them are dietitians but people refer to them as nutritionists

[missjenny 43]

I go to a registered dietician.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

I have no idea - I don't see her anymore, but she was amazing and a critical part of my success during the losing phase.

I called her a NUT but i don't know what her qualifications are. I just went where the good doc sent me!

[TES 858]

Thank you for posting this! I work with a registered/licensed dietitian (note the "tian" [not cian] at the end, which is the proper spelling--I don't normally correct spelling...in fact, I usually hate it when other people do--but here, I think it is relevant). I just posted about this yesterday. My RD/LD was laughing when I told her about the NUT terminology. She says "nutritionist" doesn't tell people anything and that it's important to work with an RD. She really is amazing and very knowledgeable.

[capeciw 18]

Being a language specialist I have to point out that "cian" is considered a variant spelling, although not used in research papers- it is a commonly accepted variation. One of the reasons why many spell checks don't flag it.

[TES 858]

Being a language specialist I have to point out that "cian" is considered a variant spelling, although not used in research papers- it is a commonly accepted variation. One of the reasons why many spell checks don't flag it.

Good point! I'm a medical editor so we tend to be black and white in using one preferred spelling consistently (lack of consistency is the editor's enemy). Members of the dietitian community--professional associations, etc.--always use the "tian" spelling. So that includes referring to themselves as registered/licensed dietitians (rather than dieticians). I actually learned this when I was a teenager working in the kitchen at a nursing home and the dietitian there was a family friend. It used to drive her crazy when people used the cian spelling--LOL! I think it just stuck in my head.

[Newme48 104]

I believe most hospital programs have a dietician as the nutritionist because they are so versatile. They already make rounds on patients when consulted for their diet in the hospital and have complex understanding of nutritional requirements for patients receiving nutrition via an IV. They make a superb nutritionist for any surgical program. My nutritionist (dietician) visited me to see how I was tolerating my fluids while in the hospital.

[iggychic 1,405]

Nutritionists are kind of like the interior decorator of the architecture world. Anyone can hang their hat on a shingle and be a decorator, but if you go to school and actually learn your craft you are a designer. No one knows the difference, until they try to use your skill set and find that the decorator likes pretty colors and the designer actually knows you can't install plumbing on an exterior wall in the arctic.

My son has had a feeding disorder all of his life. Some programs have nuts, some have higher degrees. Most are kind of useless when you deal with rare diseases (my son's issue) but you can tell which is which with just about 32 seconds conversation. In general, the higher the level of arrogance, the lower the level of their degree.

[Museum-Mama 196]

Thank you for posting this! I work with a registered/licensed dietitian (note the "tian" [not cian] at the end, which is the proper spelling--I don't normally correct spelling...in fact, I usually hate it when other people do--but here, I think it is relevant). I just posted about this yesterday. My RD/LD was laughing when I told her about the NUT terminology. She says "nutritionist" doesn't tell people anything and that it's important to work with an RD. She really is amazing and very knowledgeable.

LOL! thanks for the spelling clarification. My computer didn't like me using a c or a t...so I took a wild guess. Just as usual, I was wrong.

[Museum-Mama 196]

Being a language specialist I have to point out that "cian" is considered a variant spelling, although not used in research papers- it is a commonly accepted variation. One of the reasons why many spell checks don't flag it.

YEAH! I'm not wrong! Just...not technically correct. lol.