(BALA) What's a Dietitian?

(BALA) What's a Dietitian?

BEING ALIVE: February 1995
Jennifer Jensen, MS, RD

The dietitian qualifier has more reliability. The American Dietetic Association (ADA) is the only recognized and accepted national nutrition credentialing agency. The ADA administers the RD (Registered Dietitian) certification. There are minimum standards: education, at least a bachelor's degree; training, often a hospital internship; and knowledge, passing a nationally-administered exam. Many dietitians have also earned advanced degrees-M.S., M.P.H., Ph.D., or professional credentials like CNSD, CDE and CNS. We dietitians always display the "R.D." behind our names-it's all we have in California and we did earn it.

As to "higher" education, it is perfectly legal (except in New York) to boast unearned academic credentials like a phoney Ph.D. from a diploma mill. It costs from $1,000 to $2,000 to get a mail-order Ph.D. I could spend the money and be "Doctor Jennifer!" How special.

So, a dietitian is a nutritionist; and a nutritionist may be one. Some non-dietitian nutritionists may really know their stuff, but it's definitely a "buyer-beware" situation. As with hair cutters, some dietitians are quite good at what we do, and some are not. For simplicity, I'll just use the term "dietitian" here though I don't disregard any knowledgeable non-dietitian nutritionists in so doing.

For HIV/AIDS nutrition healthcare, specialized experience is necessary-read on. So specialized are we LA-area HIV/AIDS dietitians that we even have our own "support group" thanks to Laura Vasso, M.Ed., R.D. at Harbor-UCLA. We meet regularly to share information and experiences, so particular, specialized, and current (up-to-date) with the latest science and research developments we must know to handle special HIV/AIDS needs for nutritional healthcare.

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This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1995. AEGIS.