A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of cancer cachexia. Many dietitians work in hospitals and usually see specific patients where a nutritional assessment and intervention has been requested by a doctor or nurse, for example if a patient has lost their ability to swallow or requires artificial nutrition due to intestinal failure. Dietitians are regulated healthcare professionals licensed to assess, diagnose, and treat such problems. In the United Kingdom, dietitian is a 'protected title', meaning identifying yourself as a dietitian without appropriate education and registration is prohibited by law.
A nutritionist is a person who advises others on matters of food and nutrition and their impacts on health. Some people specialize in particular areas, such as sports nutrition, public health, or animal nutrition, among other disciplines. In many countries, a person can claim to be a nutritionist even without any training, education, or professional license, in contrast to a dietitian, who has a university degree, professional license, and certification for professional practice.
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is a 501(c)(6) trade association in the United States. With over 112,000 members, the association claims to be the largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. It has registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs), nutrition and dietetics technicians registered (NDTRs), and other dietetics professionals as members. Founded in 1917 as the American Dietetic Association, the organization officially changed its name to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2012. According to the group's website, about 65% of its members are RDNs, and another 2% are NDTRs. The group's primary activities include providing testimony at hearings, lobbying the United States Congress and other governmental bodies, commenting on proposed regulations, and publishing statements on various topics pertaining to food and nutrition.
Vesanto Melina is a Canadian Registered Dietitian and co-author of books that have become classics in the field of vegetarian, vegan, and raw foods nutrition, have sold almost a million copies in English and are in nine additional languages. She has presented talks and workshops on various aspects of vegetarian, vegan and raw foods and nutrition for dietitians, health professionals, and vegetarian associations in 17 American states and 9 Canadian provinces, and in 10 countries.
The Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics published by Elsevier. It covers research in nutritional science, medical nutrition therapy, public health nutrition, food science and biotechnology, foodservice systems, leadership and management, and dietetics education.
The PubMed Dietary Supplement Subset (PMDSS) is a joint project between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS). PMDSS is designed to help people search for academic journal articles related to dietary supplement literature. The subset was created using a search strategy that includes terms provided by the Office of Dietary Supplements, and selected journals indexed for PubMed that include significant dietary supplement related content. It succeeds the International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) database, 1999–2010, which was a collaboration between the Office of Dietary Supplements and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library.
Vivian Winona Pinn is an American physician-scientist and pathologist known for her advocacy of women's health issues and concerns, particularly for ensuring that federally funded medical studies include female patients, and well as encouraging women to follow medical and scientific careers. She served as associate director for research on women's health at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), concurrently was the inaugural director of NIH's Office of Research on Women's Health. Pinn previously taught at Harvard University, Tufts University, and Howard University College of Medicine. Since retiring from NIH in 2011, Pinn has continued working as a senior scientist emerita at the Fogarty International Center.
Alice Hinda Lichtenstein is an American professor and researcher in nutrition and heart disease. In 2006, Shape magazine named Lichtenstein one of ten "Women Who Shaped the World". In 2019, Tamar Haspel called her a "grande dame of nutrition."
Rosemary Alison Stanton is an Australian nutritionist and dietician, known for her media appearances.
Yasmin Ahmed Almubarak Altwaijri is a Senior Scientist and the Head of Epidemiology Research at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As the Head of Epidemiology Research, she studies the causes and effects of diseases and illnesses within a specific country, in her case Saudi Arabia. She studies the prevalence of conditions such as obesity and mental illness in Saudi society, and is active in advocating for social and political changes to promote better health.
Jamie Sue Stang is an American dietitian and nutritionist. She is an associate professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
Lenna Frances Cooper was an American dietitian and co-founder of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She has been called “a pioneer in vegetarian nutrition and dietetics.”
Jerold Robert Mande is an American nutritionist, public policy expert, and civil servant who served as Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety at the US Department of Agriculture, in charge of the Food Safety and Inspection Service, from 2009 to 2011. He has held numerous other senior positions in executive branch agencies and universities.
Penny Margaret Kris-Etherton is an American dietitian. She is the Evan Pugh University Professor of Nutritional Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at Pennsylvania State University.
Rachael Zoe Stolzenberg-Solomon is an American epidemiologist and dietitian. She is a senior investigator and head of the metabolic epidemiology branch at the National Cancer Institute.
Abby Gwen Ershow is an American nutritionist specialized in iodine nutrition, lipid metabolism, atherogenesis, and cardiovascular nutrition. She was a health science administrator at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute from 1982 to 1989 and a senior nutrition scientist at the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements from 2014 to 2021.
Regina Gale Ziegler is an American biochemist and nutritional epidemiologist who researched dietary, nutritional, anthropometric, and hormonal determinants of cancer risk. She was a senior investigator in the National Cancer Institute's epidemiology and biostatistics program.
Susan Marie Levin was an American registered dietitian, advocate of plant-based nutrition and veganism activist. She was one of the authors of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics position on vegetarian diets in 2016.
Suzanne Marie Babich, formerly Suzanne Havala Hobbs is an American public health scientist, food writer, registered dietitian and vegetarianism activist. She was the primary author for the American Dietetic Association's 1988 and 1993 vegetarian position papers.
Nancy Ann Potischman is an American nutritional epidemiologist known for her research at the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS). She was director of the ODS population studies program from 2016 to 2023.
