How to become a nutritionist or dietitian: My career journey and honest advice

So you want to become a nutritionist or a dietitian? Awesome.

Being a nutritionist/dietitian is a wonderful career. I love it.

But I don’t think it’s quite what I expected it to be… Some things were harder and other things turned out to be even more delightful.

(Insider tip 1: Despite what your spellcheck tells you – in Australia, we spell it dietitian – not dietician!)

If you’re wanting to study or start a career as a nutritionist or dietitian, here is some of my honest advice for your career path.

MY CAREER AS A DIETITIAN AND NUTRITIONIST SO FAR…

Where I studied, my qualifications and what my career path looked like

What high school subjects do you need to study to become a nutritionist?

I didn’t study chemistry for year 12 but I did do PDHPE, which was a big help. My university allowed me to do a bridging course before I started my bachelor degree. If you want to study nutrition, you might need to do specific subjects.

Do some research on which university or school you want to go to and check the pre-requisites.

So, do you need to study science at school to study nutrition or become a dietitian? No, but it does help.

What are my (Lyndi Cohen’s) qualifications?

I studied at the University of Newcastle and received a Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (graduating in 2011).

This means I’m an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) and an Accredited Nutritionist (AN).

My first job out of University

Since graduating in 2011, I’ve gained experience in lots of different areas of nutrition.

My first job was a part-time role with a small start-up food company. I found out about the role through my uncle’s friend (so when it comes to getting a job, it’s good to ask around because many opportunities aren’t advertised)..

In my first job, I was employed part-time as a marketing/communications role (not as a dietitian or nutritionist) but as jobs were scarce, I wasn’t picky and took what I could get!

Getting a foot in the door…

In this role, I worked 2-3 days a week earning ~$30/hour. I dealt with customer complaints (not fun), sent the mail, photocopy things, create flyers, organise meetings, take notes, write copy for marketing, run the company’s social media…

I didn’t realise how much these ‘soft’ skills would be crucial to running my own business. While it wasn’t a nutrition role, I learned what happens behind the scenes in the food industry and in developing new product recipes. This turned out to be crucial.

Starting my own nutrition business – The Nude Nutritionist

By 2013 I had worked my way to being the company dietitian and did more straight nutrition work like reviewing nutrition information panels, reviewing nutrient and health claims etc.

When I wasn’t at this job, I’d spend the other 2-3 days, volunteering with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, Cancer Council’s nutrition division and the Dietitians Association of Australia’s Mental Health/nutrition advocacy group. I got lots of experience from volunteer work.

In 2013, I also started building my business, The Nude Nutritionist.

(Insider tip 2: There is no such thing as a nutritionalist. It’s simply ‘nutritionist’).

Starting The Nude Nutritionist

• I registered my business name (The Nude Nutritionist!), bought a URL, and taught myself how to build a website. It was a very average website but ‘done is better than perfect’!
• I started sharing photos of my food and ideas on social media – even if my photographing was average and my spelling was terrible (Thank goodness for Grammarly, which I now rely on).
• I taught myself how to write a press release, blog posts and articles. I practiced photographing food, cooking and developing recipes… and slowly got better.
• I learned about SEO, hashtags and integration of lots of software that I use to run my business (even though I don’t consider myself particularly ‘tecchy’).

 

How I became a media nutritionist and dietitian on TV

I slowly began doing local media interviews using things like SourceBottle. Sometimes I pitch in ideas to blogs or local newspapers or websites.

As a media nutritionist, I started by doing guest posts on friends’ blogs and grew my confidence and skills moving to bigger and bigger publications.

No publication was too insignificant for me!

If a nutrition student asked for an interview or someone at a cocktail party asked me a nutrition question, I’d use it as an opportunity to practice my media skills.

Slowly, the opportunities got bigger and bigger… Until three years later, I got a call from TV land to come audition.

How did I become a TV nutritionist in Australia?

Growing up, I LOVED speech and drama classes. I spent many school holidays at musical theatre or drama camps. As an adult, I did a 2-day course on speaking in front of the camera / on TV.

Now, it’s all about practice. It’s a hard skill – talking on live TV – but it’s a ‘hard’ I’m willing to work at.

(Insider tip 3: Nutritionist media work is NOT something you do for money. It’s something you do for passion).

I didn’t get paid for media work for a long time – and now – it’s not even close to enough to pay my bills.

So if you want to work as a media nutritionist, you need to have a strong business that supports your passion for media work.

What’s the difference between a nutritionist and a dietitian?

A dietitian and nutritionist are not the same thing.

Dietitians have gone through additional study and are qualified to provide medical nutrition therapy to help people. That means dietitians can work in hospitals and might help people with cancer or diabetes or CVD to feel better with nutrition.

In Australia, dietitians are recognised by Medicare. This means patients can be referred by their doctors for a care plan. Patients can go see a dietitian for medical nutrition therapy and then get a rebate from Medicare for some or all of the fees (depending on what the dietitian charges)!

Someone who sees a nutritionist can still see clients one on one but can’t get government rebates.

Be careful because anyone can call themselves a nutritionist as it’s not regulated… That’s why you get dodgy people dishing out dodgy advice.

Should you become a dietitian?

For me, I wanted to have that higher level of education but it’s a personal choice based on your career goals. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do so I thought becoming a dietitian would give me more choices. And it does.

Whether the additional study is worth it for you is your own choice to make.

Do you need to be an APD to be a dietitian?

As a dietitian, I’m a member of the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) and have been since I graduated. To keep up my status as an APD, I have to continue to develop my skillset and adhere to a strict set of ethical guidelines. As an APD, I always need to stay committed to scientific evidence and best practice.

You have to be an APD to be recognised by Medicare, so your patients can get rebates. Technically, if you don’t see Medicare patients, you might not need APD status though I do recommend having it.

My first ever, proper media coverage. It was in the local newspaper in 2013! Image: Lyndi Cohen

How did I start my nutrition private practice?

In 2013, I also started seeing private clients in my ‘clinic’.

By ‘clinic’ I mean that I drove to clients’ homes, carrying all my notes and the nutrition resources I had created. I tried hiring a room in an office but it was too expensive for my new business to manage so I ended it after 3 months.

Eventually (by 2015), clients would come to meet me in my home office as I kept expenses low. Thankfully, I was building business sense.

How I built up my nutrition private practice and got new clients

I started small by helping family friends and friends of friends. When they had a good experience, they told their friends and it grew and grew by word of mouth. I encouraged word of mouth support.

I also started writing for the local paper about issues I knew my clients came to me wanting help with.

My website helped me get more clients and I refined my skills, found my speciality and grew confidence. I worked on SEO and building connections with doctors for referrals.

My website started to bring in clients, and so did my social media. By 2015, I was full time in private practice seeing clients 6 days a week.

How I built my nutrition business

At some point, I got too busy to keep up and wanted to reach more people, around the world – not just those who could make appointments!

That’s why I do what I do now. I run Keep It Real Program which has been so successful and allows me to help thousands of people around the world. I guess I started small… and learned a lot, worked very, very hard and grew my business.

What does my day job look like now?

No day is the same for me.

I might be doing a segment on TV for Channel 9’s TODAY show in the morning, coming back home to write a blog post, filming a recipe at lunch, doing consulting work for a client or helping Keep It Real participants by afternoon and creating another recipe at dinner time.

I also wrote my lovely book, The Nude Nutritionist which launched in January 2019 and is now a bestseller, and sold around the world.

I’m not going to lie. I work a lot.

My trouble is switching off!

If you don’t already, let’s hang out on social media! I’m on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and I’m slowly getting involved on YouTube. 

Should you study nutrition at a college or university? Should you become a dietitian or nutritionist?

This is really up to you. Obviously, I chose to study at a University but a lot has changed since I graduated.

If you do study at a college, make sure it’s a serious nutrition degree that you’ll learn a lot from.

Do your research. Who are the lecturers? What are the subjects? Does it make sense logistically? Based on the curriculum, will you feel confident once you graduate? Can you afford it? Decide if you want to be a dietitian or nutritionist and then work from there.

Should you become a nutritionist or a dietitian?

It was really important for me to become a dietitian so that’s why I did the dietitian degree. Dietitians have the opportunity to work in hospitals and help give people complex dietary advice. They get Medicare rebates, which is really important when you work in private practice is less affluent areas. Dietitians also tend to be ferociously evidence-based so they won’t tell people to cut out gluten for no reason or avoid lactose for fun.  I think that’s a really good thing.

That said, there are some great dietitians, and then there are some that are stuck in the dark ages, giving outdated advice. And there are some brilliant, balanced nutritionists and then there are those who ignore science completely and are just trying to make money.

Whether you do become a nutritionist or a dietitian, become a professional with integrity. Become a great practitioner and don’t just follow everyone else. That’s how misinformation spreads.

Check the nutrition evidence. Keep up to date with the science as it changes. Stay true to your philosophy and never work with a brand that doesn’t 100% align with you.