Find Dietitians and Nutritional Therapists - overcome digestive probems

Dietitians & Nutritional Therapists and Nutritionists

Trying to adjust or live with a food allergy / intolerance or special medical diet can be incredibly confusing, worrying and all consuming. Thoughts of food and how eat safely within the restrictions of an enforced diet, can take over your life and erode quality of life if it becomes a struggle.

We here at Special Diets Directory are busy creating awareness and trying to improve general availablity and choice for special dietary foods, as well as promoting the use of less allergenic ingredients to the food industry, but in the meantime anyone on a special diet has to get to grips with their own specific eating needs - safely and enjoyably and without compromising nutrition and health.

Trying to go it alone on a special diet can be a struggle and cause stress and anxiety.

We have a huge Special Diets Directory database of gorgeous speciality foods to offer you (which is infinately more comprehensive than is currently visible from our website) in our Personal Shopper packages, BUT we're not qualified to give individual medical and dietary advice and so always encourage the invovement of a dietitian or nutritional therapise with the relevant expertise to help formulate a nutritious and safe personal eating plan for you.

Your GP will be able to refer you to a dietitian if you have a diagnosed condition but if undiagnosed - as with food intolerances, candida and gastro instestinal problems for instance - you may still get an NHS referral, but some GPs will advise you to seek a private consultation. So where do you start, and how to you decide who to consult? Dietitian or Nutritional Therapist?

Choosing between a Nutritionist, a Dietitian and a Nutritional Therapist can be confusing so we have endeavoured to differenciate below with some information which may assist with making the right choice for you!

Nutritionists aren't really in the frame in this situation as they're normally non clinical and so not normally qualified to advise on individual diets. They train differently, normally to work within the food industry in either the public or private sectors in an advisory capacity.

This leaves the choice of either a Dietitian or a Nutritional Therapist for individual consulations.

The British Dietetic Society (BDA) British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BANT) give their own explanations of the differences between the two disciplines in the following links:

Dietitians http://www.bda.uk.com/hot_topics_dietitian_nutritionist.html
Nutritional Therapists http://www.bant.org.uk/bant/jsp/nutritionTitles.faces

As a rule of thumb normally only dietitians can register with the Health Professionals Council (HPC) and be included on their list. The HPC is a regulator, set up to protect the public. They keep a register of health professionals who meet their standards in training, professional skills, behaviour and health. They currently register over 200,000 professionals from 14 professions including dietitians. You can browse the list on http://www.hpc-uk.org/ . If your search brings up no results - which sometimes happens - you may want to call them and ask them to check for you (their tel number is on their website).

Some people prefer to consult a dietitian as they are more stringently monitored by nature of their HPC registration and normally more clincally qualified.

However not all dietitians have a private clinic and without a referral some people say that it can be difficult to find a dietitian in their geographic area or if so that availability can be limited.

Some people, especially those who favour a more alternative approach prefer to consult a Nutritional Therapist who may be more holistic in approach and open to exploring a wider diversity of complimentary/alternative options and supplements than some dietitians may offer.

With many success stories claimed by both it is really down to personal choice, availability, and practical issues.

Either way, check to ensure that your dietitian or nutritional therapist is registered with the relevant body, has full professional indemnity insurance - and also don’t be afraid to ask for CRB checks and follow up professional and personal references.

We aim to give honest and accurate information as part of this resource and believe the above information to be from reliable sources and to be accurate and correct at the time of posting. We cannot be responsible for inaccuracies and so rely upon and appreciate factual updates of any changes or inaccuracies from the organisations or their members.

Dietitians & Nutrititional Therapists