Nutritionist
Nutritionists teach patients and clients about the effects of food on their health, motivating them to make positive changes to their diet.
Typical Salary
£30,000 – £53,000
per year
Working Hours
37–40
hours per week
Day-to-day tasks
Your exact day to day tasks will vary depending on where you work.
Generally, as a nutritionist you might:
- complete research to learn more about a certain area of nutrition
- recruit volunteers to take part in your research
- process and analyse biological samples
- provide scientific advice on healthy eating
- work with hospital patients, supported by doctors, dieticians and nurses
Skills needed
- sensitivity and understanding
- knowledge of biology
- knowledge of teaching and the ability to design courses
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- the ability to work well with others
- the ability to work on your own
- thinking and reasoning skills
- patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently
How to get into this role
You can get into this job through a university course,
Career progression
With experience or further training, you could:
- specialise in an area, such as sports nutrition, public health or animal nutrition
- supervise a team of nutritionists
- manage whole projects or policies
- find your own clients and become self employed