What does a dietitian do?

Dietitian services and specializations

Dieticians provide medical treatment using food and nutrition that covers a range of services and specializations. Dietitian services include:

• Medical nutrition therapy for chronic diseases like diabetes or eating disorders
• Nutrition and meal planning
• Addressing food intolerances and allergies
• General nutrition counseling
• Nutritional assessments and screenings
• Sports nutrition, pediatric nutrition
• Nutrition during a weight loss process.

Dieticians can work in hospitals, outpatient clinics, schools and other community organizations. Dieticians can also become a board-certified specialist in an area like sports dietetics or obesity and weight management, both of which require additional training.

Certified Specialists in Sports Dietetics (CCSD) must hold a current RD or RDN license and complete an additional 2,000 hours of sports dietetics practice, though this can be offset by completing a graduate degree in a field like exercise physiology, kinesiology or sports nutrition. A Certified Specialist in Obesity and Weight Management (CSOWM) must hold a current certification in a related healthcare field like an RD, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN), or Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and complete 2,000 hours of practice experience in obesity and weight management.

There’s also a need for dieticians in the public health field. Here, they can help shape public policy, educate the public about nutrition and disease prevention, create nutritional guidelines, design meal plans and menus for public facilities like schools and research food and nutrition trends in larger communities.

Creating personalized meal plans

Personalized nutrition can play a large role in healthy living, and dietitians can help by making customized meal plans. These plans are based on an individual's preferences, their dietary needs and their overall health goals.

Creating a meal plan is more than just putting recipes together, and a dietician will take several factors into account. These factors include:

• Considering drug-nutrient interactions
• Allergies and food intolerances
• Food preferences
• Budgetary limitations
• Religious or cultural restrictions.

Another component of meal planning is educating the individual about the nutrients in certain foods and how tailored meals will help them achieve their health goals.

Meal planning is also useful in managing diseases, and this is where the expertise of a dietician is especially important. Many chronic health conditions can make it hard to get the nutrients a body needs and a dietician can create meal plans and strategies to mitigate this.

For example, a patient with diabetes will need to control their blood sugar levels, a patient undergoing cancer treatment may lose their appetite or experience nausea, and a stroke patient may suffer from dysphagia, a condition that makes it difficult to swallow food and liquids. Dieticians can address issues like these by planning smaller meals, recommending nutritional supplements, or helping the patient avoid certain foods that make their symptoms worse.

Managing specific health conditions

Dieticians play a critical role in helping patients manage their ongoing health conditions, and one way they do this is by using medical nutrition therapy (MNT). MNT can help treat chronic conditions like:

• Kidney disease
• COPD
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Obesity

Only an RD or RDN can provide MNT, which includes

• Performing a complete health assessment
• Determining a nutrition diagnosis
• Forming a plan to address nutrition-related issues
• Coordinating care with other healthcare providers
• Evaluating and modifying the plan as needed

Another service dieticians provide is helping patients with allergies and food intolerances. Those with allergies to foods like peanuts, tree nuts, soy or shellfish or intolerances to lactose, gluten, histamines and salicylate must take particular care with their nutrition.

These individuals often need alternative sources of nutrients to avoid allergens and a dietician will help ensure they get what they need. A dietician can also help these patients better understand how certain foods affect their health, teach them how to read food labels, help them with grocery shopping, plan meals and make ongoing adjustments to their diet.

Dieticians also support people trying to lose weight in a healthy and safe way. By considering the patient’s health needs and eating habits, a dietician can help plan meals and advise how many calories they should get every day to fulfill their nutritional needs while also effecting weight loss. They can also help track progress and make adjustments as needed.

The difference between nutritionists and dietitians

A dietician is a health professional who’s completed a training program that’s been approved by The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and is credentialed through the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND).

The designations of RD (registered dietician) and RDN (registered dietitian nutritionist) are interchangeable, and both credentials indicate the same title and level of training. The “N” for nutritionist in RDN was included as an option in 2013 to highlight the expanding role of dieticians. Dieticians may also require licensure at the state level, and you’ll often see the letters “LD” (licensed dietitian) in addition to RD or RDN.

A nutritionist is a broader title, and doesn’t indicate a specific educational track or licensure requirement. However, there are programs to become a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) that require a master’s or doctoral degree, supervised experience and completion of the CNS exam, as well as a Certified Clinical Nutritionist (CCN) that requires postgraduate courses and passing an exam.

Both nutritionists and dieticians work in a variety of settings. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2023 around 28% of dietitians found jobs in hospitals, 11% with the government, 9% in nursing facilities and 8% in outpatient care centers.

Seeing a nutritionist vs a dietician

Insurance plans typically cover dieticians if they’re treating a specific health concern like diabetes, celiac disease or obesity, but this is not often the case for nutritionists. So, if you aren’t suffering from a chronic health concern and only want general guidance on improving your health and nutrition, you may wish to visit a nutritionist instead of a dietician. If your insurance plan doesn’t cover nutritionists, it may be a less expensive alternative to a dietician.

Qualifications and education of a dietitian

Because there are no widely agreed-upon training standards for nutritionists, there’s no way to accurately gauge their qualifications, and in many states anyone can call themselves a nutritionist.

A dietician, on the other hand, must complete master’s level coursework, do an internship, pass a national exam and take continuing education courses. The requirement that a dietician must have at least a master’s degree was added in 2024.

Registered dieticians must complete the following requirements:

• Earn a graduate degree from an ACEND-approved dietetics program
• Complete a supervised dietetic internship (DI)
• Pass the National Commission of Dietetic Registration (CDR) exam
• Take continuing professional development courses

There’s also an option to become a Dietetics Technician (DTR), which is an accredited position, but only requires completing an approved program, earning a two-year college degree, engaging in supervised practice and passing a national exam.

Professional development and career opportunities

According to the BLS, jobs for dieticians and nutritionists are projected to grow at a rate of 7% over the next 10 years faster than the national average of 4% for all occupations. Dieticians are required to take continuing education courses, but these can also help them stay up-to-date on new research and findings in the field and grow their careers.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics offers these courses as in-person conferences, prerecorded sessions, online training programs, self-study programs and webinars.

Dieticians can also choose to advance their careers into in-demand areas like public health and food science. One particularly strong area of job growth in this field is in the agricultural sector, which shows a projected 8% growth rate for jobs like food scientists and technologists. Dietitians can also pursue accreditation in specialty areas like:

• Gerontological nutrition (CSG)
• Sports dietetics (CSSD)
• Pediatric nutrition (CSP)
• Renal nutrition (CSR)
• Oncology nutrition (CSO)

As the field of dietetics continues to grow, it responds to emerging trends like understanding how diet and nutrition can help reduce the risk of diseases like colorectal cancer and dementia, how smartphone apps and artificial intelligence can help people manage their nutrition, and how to promote sustainable food practices to reduce waste.

Bottom line

Dietitians perform an integral function in individual and community health management by educating and advising patients about nutrition and food. With their expertise in nutrition, they can help prevent and manage chronic health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, support weight management, promote healthy living through personalized nutrition advice and meal planning, and shape policy and guidelines in the public and private sector.

When you meet with a dietician, you’re not working with somebody who simply counts calories or helps you lose weight. Instead, you’re working with a licensed professional who has a comprehensive understanding of diet and nutrition and will work with other medical providers to support your healthcare needs.