Registered dietitian

A dietitian (or dietician) is an expert in dietetics; that is, human nutrition and the regulation of diet. A dietitian alters their patient's nutrition based upon their medical condition and individual needs. Dietitians are regulated healthcare professionals licensed to assess, diagnose, and treat nutritional problems.The correct or preferable spelling of the term 'dietitian' has been debated for a long time by dietitians. In the early 1960s dietetic associations, under the auspices of the International Committee of Dietetic Associations (ICDA), worked together to standardize information about dietitians under the International Standard Classification of Occupations. When the International Labour Office confirmed the dietetic profession's classification in 1967, it also adopted the spelling 'dietitian' at the request of the international dietetic community. This information can be found in the documentation held by ICDA and by the International Labour Office (ILO). A dietitian (or dietician) is an expert in dietetics; that is, human nutrition and the regulation of diet. A dietitian alters their patient's nutrition based upon their medical condition and individual needs. Dietitians are regulated healthcare professionals licensed to assess, diagnose, and treat nutritional problems. A registered dietitian (RD) or registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) is a dietitian who meets all of a set of special academic and professional requirements, including the completion of a bachelor's degree with an accredited nutrition curriculum, an internship at an approved health-care facility, foodservice organization, or community agency, and satisfactory performance on a registration exam. Roughly half of all RDNs hold graduate degrees and many have certifications in specialized fields such as sports, pediatrics, renal, oncological, food-allergy, or gerontological nutrition. After learning about a patient's health history, favorite foods, eating and exercise habits, the RD helps the person to set goals and to prioritize. Follow-up visits often focus on maintenance and monitoring progress. Most RDs work in the treatment and prevention of disease (administering medical nutrition therapy, as part of medical teams), often in hospitals, health-maintenance organizations, private practices, or other health-care facilities. In addition, a large number of registered dietitians work in community and public-health settings, and/or in academia and research. A growing number of dietitians work in the food industry, journalism, sports nutrition, corporate wellness programs, and other non-traditional dietetics settings. As explained by the American Heritage and Merriam-Webster's dictionaries, the cause of the confusion is that the spelling with '-tian' is an irregular alteration of the ending '-cian', which is otherwise exclusively used to refer to specialists and practitioners of other professions. These and other American dictionaries also list the spelling with 'c' but list the spelling with 't' first because this spelling is more common in the United States. Nevertheless, the American publisher McGraw-Hill exclusively uses the spelling with 'c' in the 2003 edition of the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms and the 2002 edition of the McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. The spelling with 't' is the one preferred by the profession itself internationally, but the spelling with 'c' is used often enough in texts not written by members of the profession to be considered a valid variant by both American and British dictionaries. In fact, British dictionaries list the spelling with 'c' first and list the spelling with 't' as a variant. American dictionaries list the spelling with 't' first and the spelling with 'c' as a variant. As explained in a 2010 newsletter of the International Confederation of Dietetic Associations: Recently the ILO has however issued new documents using the spelling 'dietician'. Dietitians supervise the preparation and service of food, develop modified diets, participate in research, and educate individuals and groups on good nutritional habits. The goals of dietitians are to provide medical nutritional intervention, and to obtain, safely prepare, serve and advise on flavorsome, attractive, and nutritious food for patients, groups and communities. Dietary modification to address medical issues involving dietary intake is a major part of dietetics (the study of nutrition as it relates to health). For example, working in consultation with physicians and other health care providers, a dietitian may provide specific artificial nutritional needs to patients unable to consume food normally. Professional dietitians may also provide specialist services such as in diabetes, obesity, oncology, osteoporosis, pediatrics, renal disease, and micronutrient research.