nutritionist or dietician?

Most of the time I see people referring to their nutritionist, or nut, rather than their dietician.   Do you know if your nut is a registerred dietician?  Do you know the difference?

A dietician has to complete a college degree in nutrition.  Then she has to pass a exam in order to be a registered dietician.  It's kinda like a nurse.  A nurse has to earn a degree in nursing, but then she has to pass the exam in order to become a registered nurse (or a licensed practical nurse) before she can legally work as a nurse.

A nutritionist, on the other hand, does not have to have a degree.  Is not licensed or regulated in any way.  Would you like to be a nutritionist?  You can!  You don't need any kind of qualifications at all.  Print yourself up some business cards and get yourself listed in the yellow pages and you'll be all set.

See why it's a good idea to find out if you've been seeing a nutritionist or a registered dietician?

And yeah, someone could be a registered dietician but introduce themselves as a nutritionist if she wanted to.  But I don't know why she would.  That would be like a doctor introducing himself as "Hi, I'm Mark and I take care of sick people" instead of "Hi, I'm Dr. Smith."

Very enlightening.  I never knew there was a difference but will be checking!

Kelly, I love your posts.  You crack me up!  You have a way with words,
you're a bit of a pragmatist, and you're a good teacher to boot.
Lots of pluses in my book.  Well said!