What Is Nutritional Therapy? What Nutritional Therapists Do & Who They Can Help
Probably the most common question I get aksed is “What is nutritional therapy? “. I too had no idea what nutritional therapy was before I got food poisoning in Bali and struggled for years with IBS.
Hopefully this post helps clarify what nutritional therapy is, what nutritional therapists actually do, who we can support, and how our role differs from (and can complement) that of a dietitian.
What is nutritional therapy?
Nutritional therapy is a personalised, evidence-informed approach to health. Rather than giving everyone the same diet, supplements and testing recommendations, each health plan is unique. A nutritional therapist considers the individual including: their medical history, symptoms, diet, lifestyle, and goals, to develop personalised nutrition, lifestyle and functional testing recommendations.
Registered nutritional therapists may use functional testing to gain a more detailed picture of how your body is functioning. Depending on your individual needs, this might include advanced stool testing, comprehensive hormone testing or assessing nutrient status. Testing helps remove the guesswork.
What does a nutritional therapist do?
Nutritional therapists tend to work in private practice 1 on 1 with clients, though they may also do group work, academic work or corporate work. Nutritional therapy is not a replacement for medical healthcare, it’s complementary.
Typically, an initial consultation with a nutritional therapist is around 1 hour and follow up appointment as 30 to 45 minutes. This allows time for clients to share their story, feel heard and supported.
A nutritional therapist might:
- Take a detail medical and health history
- Ask about symptoms
- Ask about diet, lifestyle, supplements and medication
- Consider antecedents (predisposing factors like genetics), triggers (specific events that provoke symptoms like food poisoning or entering perimenopause) and mediators (ongoing biochemical imbalances like nutrient deficiencies, blood sugar imbalance, gut dysbiosis, stress that perpetuate a health condition)
- Identify areas where nutrition may be contributing to someone’s health concerns
- Provide personalised dietary, lifestyle, supplement and testing recommendations
- Review progress or challenges and adapt recommendations
- Work alongside a person’s GP or other healthcare professionals
- Refer a client back to their GP when symptoms require medical investigation
For me, nutritional therapy isn’t about handing you a meal plan or restricting food groups unnecessarily. It’s about looking at the details and the bigger picture to figure out why you’re experiencing gut or skin symptoms, in order to provide recommendations that are right for you.
Is a nutritional therapist the same as a dietitian?
Neither profession is simply “better” than the other. They have different training, roles and scopes of practice, so the right professional depends on what you need help with.
Nutritional Therapist
Main focus
Personalised nutrition and lifestyle support
Regulation
Voluntary – BANT (British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine) and CNHC (Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council)
Protected title?
No. Ensure the practitioner is registered.
Qualification
Bachelor’s (Hons) degree or equivalent graduate diploma in nutritional therapy
Typical setting
Often private practice or complementary healthcare
Work with health conditions?
Yes, within scope of practice and alongside medical care.
Dietitian
Main focus
Dietary management of health conditions
Regulation
Statutory – BDA (British Dietetic Association) and regulated by HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council)
Protected title?
Yes.
Qualification
Bachelor’s (Hons) degree in dietetics (undergraduate or postgraduate)
Typical setting
NHS, hospitals, community and private healthcare
Work with health conditions?
Yes, including complex health conditions such as advanced kidney disease and conditions requiring tube feeding.
Nutritional therapist
Dietitian
Main focus
Personalised nutrition and lifestyle support
Nutrition and dietary management of health conditions
Regulation
Voluntary – BANT (British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine) and CNHC (Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council)
Statutory – BDA (British Dietetic Association) and regulated by HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council)
Protected title
No.
Ensure the practitioner is registered.
Yes
Qualifications
Bachelor’s (Hons) degree or equivalent graduate diploma in nutritional therapy
Bachelor’s (Hons) degree in dietetics (undergraduate or postgraduate)
Typical setting
Private practice, complementary healthcare
NHS, hospitals, private healthcare, and community settings
Can work with health conditions?
Yes, within scope and alongside medical care.
Yes, including complex clinical conditions such as advanced kidney disease and conditions requiring tube feeding.
What can a dietitian do that a nutritional therapist can't?
Dietitians can assess, diagnose and treat diet and nutrition-related health problems. A nutritional therapist cannot diagnose or claim to treat health conditions.
Dietitians are able to provide specialist advice and care for conditions including food allergies, gastrointestinal disease, liver disease, kidney disease and conditions that require tube feeding.
A dietitian may be particularly appropriate where someone needs:
- Management of a diagnosed medical condition as part of multidisciplinary healthcare
- Nutritional management within hospital care (such as tube feeding)
- Support with complex clinical conditions (such as kidney disease, an IBD flare up, active eating disorders)
Nutritional therapists work differently. We provide personalised nutrition and lifestyle support within our scope of practice and refer or work alongside medical professionals where appropriate.
What qualifications do you need to be a nutritional therapist?
As of September 2020, BANT (the professional association for nutritional therapists) requires nutritional therpapists to have a “BSc (Hons) degree or higher from a recognised university and qualifications from a NTEC accredited Nutritional Therapy course” in order to be a member.
I completed a BSc (Hons) in nutritional therapy with the Institute for Optimal Nutrition (ION), validated by the University if Portstmouth. I am also a registered nutritional therapy practitioner, with BANT membership and registration with the CNHC.
Accredited training courses can be found here.
Can a nutritional therapist help with IBS?
Nutritional can help if you are experiencing IBS by looking into things such as:
- Understanding which foods may be influencing your symptoms
- Fibre intake and tolerance
- Gut microbiome and digestive health
- Meal timings
- Hydration
- Stress and the gut-brain connection
- Lifestyle factors
It’s important to note that nutritional therapy isn’t a replacement for seeking appropriate medical investigation. If IBS is suspected, it is important to speak to your GP to rule out conditions that can cause similar symptoms, such as coeliac disease or inflammatory bowel disease.
Can a nutritional therapist help with acne?
Nutritional therapy can help acne by supporting skin health from the inside out. This may include looking at:
- Overall dietary pattern
- Nutritional gaps or deficiencies
- Blood sugar regulation
- Gut microbiome and digestive health
- Hormonal health including sex hormones, cortisol and thyroid health
- Lifestyle factors
Acne isn’t simply a skin problem to be fixed by cutting out a long list of foods. Nutritional therapy can delve deeper to find why your skin is breaking out and identify what nutritional or lifestyle factors are worth exploring. Nutritional therapy can work alongside appropriate medical or dermatological care.
Who can benefit from nutritional therapy?
Nutritional therapy may be suitable for people who:
- Want personalised nutrition support rather than generic advice
- Have ongoing digestive symptoms such as bloating, constipation or IBS
- Are struggling with acne or other skin concerns
- Want to understand how their diet may be affecting their symptoms
- Feel overwhelmed by conflicting nutrition advice
- Want help making sustainable dietary changes
- Want help transition to dairy or gluten free diet, for example if they’re lactose intolerance, have a milk allergy, coeliac disease or non-coeliac gluten sensitivity
My clinic focuses primarily on gut and skin health, including IBS and acne.
Free resources
Two practical guides.
Zero cost.
A great place to start.
Two practical guides. Zero cost. A great place to start.
Nutritional Therapy FAQs
