Career Avenues In Integrative Nutrition And Dietetics

Integrative nutrition is based on the four pillars of lifestyle which are balanced nutrition, quality sleep, adequate exercise, and emotional detox.

These four pillars are akin to the four tyres of a car; if anyone is damaged or disturbed, the car fails to move ahead smoothly. One can have the best diet plan to follow, but if there is no physical movement, compromised sleep, or chronic stress - these meal plans won't be effective because the body is unable to utilize nutrients from the food you eat. With increasing awareness on health and lifestyle, more and more people are keen to adopt these lifestyle changes today. 

If you want to work as a professional nutritionist or lifestyle coach, you might be wondering what job opportunities are available to you. To assist you in your endeavour, we've compiled a list of exciting employment opportunities that you can pursue after completing a UG or PG course in Integrative Nutrition & Dietetics.

Sports and fitness nutritionist

As a sports and fitness nutritionist, you will work with athletes to help them manage their nutrition and lifestyle for optimum performance and health. With so many sports leagues coming up in the industry, sports is truly a lucrative industry to work in. You may also be hired as a private nutritionist by fitness enthusiasts.

Clinical dietician

A clinical dietician works towards helping patients incorporate the right nutrition required for good health. In particular, clinical dieticians work with patients receiving treatment for common diseases such as heart disease and diabetes as well as a variety of thyroid, autoimmune, cardiovascular, and metabolic conditions that require lifelong maintenance of proper food intake. You may start a private practice as a dietician or work in a hospital.

Nutrition researcher

A career as a nutrition researcher is not too well-known but it offers a lot of scope as food science is a constantly growing and evolving subject of extreme importance. Should you take up a job as a nutrition researcher, your work will include inspection of agriculture practices and food packaging. You will also be called upon to analyze samples of food, check for food safety practices, and contribute to food research. 

Food safety and quality auditor

A food auditor conducts inspections to ensure that food is prepared, stored, and transported as per established protocols of safety and hygiene. As a safety auditor, you will find high demand for your skills at food processing units that want to establish their compliance when manufacturing and processing food products.

Lifestyle wellness coach

If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, you might want to consider a career as a health coach. A health coach works with their clients to help them make the necessary lifestyle and food habit changes for overall wellness apart from also empowering them to lead a better lifestyle. As a health coach, the sky is truly the limit in terms of what you can achieve professionally. Establish a name for yourself and you will find celebrities flocking to you for guidance on holistic living.

Does the thought of pursuing one of these careers excite you?

If your answer is yes then, do make sure to pursue a course in Integrative Nutrition & Dietetics from a reputed institute that will truly help you put the right foot forward.

Recognizing this industry need, there are courses for aspiring food, lifestyle, and nutrition professionals.

Luke Coutinho

Guest Author The author is is a globally renowned and celebrated Holistic Nutritionist, who practices in the field of Integrative and Lifestyle medicine across India, Europe and the U.S. He encourages and helps people steer away from conventional medicine and use natural foods and a change in lifestyle to help alleviate medical conditions