If you’ve recently completed a nutrition science degree or are contemplating starting one, you may be interested to learn more about jobs available in nutrition science. With a background in this area, you could work as a nutritionist or dietician in a variety of settings. Where you end up working, and the precise nature of your role, will depend on your areas of specialization and interest.
Different Types of Dietitians
Within nutrition science, there are at least three areas of specialization which you might pursue, each of which would have you using your skills in a different environment and way. These three different specialty roles are clinical dietitian, community dietitian, and management dietitian. While each of those roles will involve the use of your knowledge of nutrition in meal planning and providing nutritional advice, the types of clients or patients you work with will differ, and the parameters of the roles also differ, according to Explore Health Careers. A clinical dietician will mostly work to create nutritional programs for patients in hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities, taking diverse health needs into consideration. Community dieticians are more likely to work in public health roles, educating different populations about health and nutrition topics. For example, a community dietician might work specifically with family and children or with pregnant women. Management dieticians generally work in cafeterias or hospitals, but would have more management responsibilities in addition to meal planning. Those responsibilities might include managing staff and making food purchases.
Some Other Roles and Jobs
Other roles in which you might use a nutrition science background include sports nutritionist, home health aide or product developer. Sports nutritionists work specifically with athletes to help them maximize their physical performance. They have to be specially trained to understand nutritional needs in terms of athletic performance, including issues like calorie intake and muscle building. Home health aides generally work with patients in their home, often elderly or in otherwise in need of assistance. Providing nutritional guidance and shopping help may be an important part of that role. A nutrition or food science background could also be highly useful if you decided to work as a product developer for a manufacturing company. They often need people with such backgrounds to develop foods, sometimes from an initial concept to its completion. This will involve determining important things about a food product such as its texture and consistency, its color and its taste.
Among other jobs available in nutrition science is the important job of cancer nutritionist. In this role, you would work with cancer patients to provide nutrition that would support their treatments. Since many of the more aggressive treatments make it difficult to patients to eat well, wise nutritional guidance can become a very important part of their ongoing battle against the disease.
Related Resource: Pharmaceutical Researcher
The diversity of roles and settings makes the nutritional science field a particularly interesting one. If you have an interest in food and in helping individuals and communities toward healthier eating practices, this might be a field worth pursuing. Given the needs of many different types of groups, there are plenty of jobs available in nutrition science.
