How do you find a real Nutritionist to help you with your diet? It can be almost impossible these days where everyone claims to be a nutrition expert.

In a world where anyone with an online certificate or less can call themselves a nutrition or wellness coach, and Registered Dietitians are taught biased food guidelines dictated by the junk food companies who sponsor their organizations, it can be really hard to know who to trust with your nutrition. What you eat defines your health so choosing the right nutritionist is as important as choosing the right doctor. I will clear up this confusion here and help you to recognize truth from the myths and the lies.

If you were recently told you have pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, gallstones, or other diet-related conditions, or maybe you are not actually sick yet, but you are the person who is just doesn’t feel as good as you used to. You have been disciplined with your diet, you watch your calories and exercise regularly, but the scale keeps inching up and your energy continues to decline. You may hear that it’s just a normal part of aging. Energy loss, anxiety, depression, insomnia, memory issues, brain fog, aches & pains, and the spare tire around our stomach area are all just part of getting older. This is not the truth. Aging does not have to equal chronic illness or degenerative diseases.

Diet is the main variable in predicting who grows old gracefully and in good health and who descends into physical and cognitive decline.  Many would like to blame genetics for being overweight and for health issues that run through generations. But recent epigenetic studies suggest that an optimal diet is more predictive and even controls how genes are expressed. There is no excuse to believe that what you eat and your health are mutually exclusive. If your family tends to be overweight it’s very likely that the eating habits, beliefs, and behaviors around food are much more to blame than your actual genetics.

How do you find the best nutritionist for your issues? A healthy diet is very subjective and these days it is almost impossible to tell a real, reputable trustworthy Nutritionist from an unqualified coach, counselor, or self-proclaimed expert.

Everyone’s a Self-Proclaimed Nutrition Expert.

The first problem is that there are so many people all over the internet and the real world claiming to be nutritionists or nutrition experts. There is little to no regulation of the industry and even the verbiage can be confusing to the consumer.  For example, the definition of a dietitian (or dietician spelling is dependent on what country you are in) is an expert in dietetics. But some dietitians are calling themselves nutritionists or coaches now. Some people with no formal training except maybe an online coaching or personal training certificate call themselves Nutritionists or Nutrition Consultants. It is tough for the average healthcare consumer to tell who is a qualified Nutritionist these days.

Today the nutrition profession has blown up which is both good and bad. The good part is that with the internet and social media the idea of nutrition being the cornerstone of good health is a widely accepted premise. The bad news is with the increase in awareness of healthy eating and nutrition came an increase in people claiming to be a nutritionist or nutrition expert. Unfortunately, I see more people who are not qualified to be called a Nutritionist or nutrition expert than those who are. It is definitely a hard field to navigate. I will do my best to help you understand how to find a great nutritionist to work with.

Registered Dietitians the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics & U.S. Nutrition Guidelines – Bought & Paid For by Food Companies.

Part of the confusion was started decades ago with the creation of the Registered Dietitian or RD designation. When I became a Nutritionist (and not a Dietitian) it was absolutely by design. I did not want to learn dietetics. I did not believe in “diets” as in fad diets, calorie counting, or most of what the dietetics programs in US Universities were teaching at the time. The nutrition education they presented was highly regulated and based on outdated nutritional guidelines created by biased, food industry-sponsored studies. We now know as a fact that the principles they were teaching including the US RDAs (now called RDIs for reference daily intake) the Food Pyramid, and the ideas that low fat and high carbohydrate diets are keys to weight loss, and that fat caused all health issues and weight gain were patently wrong.

RDs are taught that “any food fits” which is a blatant marketing campaign created by the junk food companies to make us think that it is healthy to be eating things like Cheetos, candy, chips, cereals, and other highly processed, non-nutritious, health-destroying foods. They are taught that this “any food fits” attitude will prevent eating disorders by giving people permission to eat the foods they crave regardless of their nutritional value. But it’s real purpose is to encourage people to justify eating junk foods.  People wonder why some seem to be able to eat these junk foods and not gain weight or get sick, and why they can’t. It must be a lack of willpower or discipline right? Wrong!

That is what the food industry wants you to think but the truth is processed junk foods like these cause a surge of brain chemicals, blood sugar, and insulin dysregulation, and then excessive cravings and a false feeling of excessive hunger follow.

This is what food companies want. They want us to crave and buy more of their junk foods. Food companies pay food scientists handsomely to make the foods as addictive to us as possible so that we literally can not just eat one potato chip.

The Registered Dietitians are involved with this because they and their education are governed by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. This was called the American Dietetic Association when I was in school. The name was changed in 2013 as part of a public relations campaign to stop the damage done when the reality of food companies sponsoring them came out in the media. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has been funded since the start and still is by companies like the National Dairy Council, Splenda, and Campbells Soup. Around 2013 articles and books were popping up that took issue with the fact that McDonald’s (some of the most unhealthy food on the planet) was a food provider and sponsor at the yearly Dietitian convention (FNCE), Food and Nutrition Conference. Around this time Dietitians also began to call themselves Registered Dietitian Nutritionists as the public awareness and demand for nutritionists increased.

When I went to school to become a Nutritionist in the 90s Dietitians wanted nothing to do with the name Nutritionist. Most of them equated us with uneducated, new-age hippies who wanted everyone to be vegan and to take vitamins and herbs. They were taught that anyone who did not have their undergraduate education in dietetics was not fit to counsel people on food or diet.  At the time the ADA’s position on dietary supplements was that “we get all the nutrients we need from the foods we eat”. This was also propaganda forced on them by their sponsors the food companies and the AND propagated it to their Dietitians. These companies invest plenty to have the public believe things like the old TV ads for Wonder Bread that claimed it was important for a growing child’s body because it’s carefully enriched with 12 vitamins and minerals. The truth is those nutrients were legally mandated after people got deficiency diseases like Pellagra from eating too much processed white bread because it lacked certain B vitamins. My point here is that the most regulated nutrition or diet-related credential, the Registered Dietitians, and their organization are wrought with systemic bias, misinformation, and pseudoscience paid for by the very industry they are supposed to be regulating and are sponsored by. No wonder Americans have been getting sicker and fatter for decades. People do pay attention to dietary guidelines. Most people really do want to eat healthier and be healthier. The problem is those guidelines were wrong all this time. The food companies have been calling the shots in the nutrition policy field for decades and they still are.

There is an organization called Dietitians for Professional Integrity. I highly respect them and have no problem recommending an RD who belongs to this group because I think that they are at least aware that the nutritional concepts they have been taught are not all the truth. These RD members have acknowledged that the education they got and the current guidelines are based on studies that are biased and not legitimate. Many of these dietitians have gone on to train with a clinical nutritionist like myself or a functional medicine doctor who is educated in a more truthful and functional approach to nutrition and healthcare.

Functional nutrition basically means we look at the body as systems and as a whole and we look for root causes for illness and imbalance. We also know that nutritious food is paramount to good health. In this way, these RDs who are part of the DPI are far ahead of, or just much more honest than the RDs who are not members. I am not sure which is worse the RDs who realize the situation and the lies being told and shamelessly work for the food companies anyway, or the ones who don’t realize that any of this is going on yet.

I am sure all of these people got their degree in Dietetics to help others. I can’t imagine how upset I would have been had I gone that route and figured out it was a scam after rather than before as I did. I got lucky since I already had an undergraduate in psychology and worked in a hospital for years I was able to see it all first hand. The questions I was able to ask of the RDs I worked with and then of the school counselors before I picked a program for nutrition saved me so much time and money by not becoming an RD.

You can see why the denial runs deep. When you look at a Social Media page that shows a so-called Nutritionist  (RDN) endorsing sugary cereals as being healthy as long as you add skim milk or mix it with half a bowl of a not as sugary cereal that is 100 percent advertising. That is not different than the TV commercial for Wonder Bread.  Either the denial runs pathologically deep or these RDs are lying. These food companies pay ridiculously well. I have been offered jobs myself (even without the RD I guess that advisor was wrong). Dietitians pride themselves on being “science and evidenced-based” but when the science is bought and paid for by members of the industry you are setting national guidelines for it counts for less than zero. For more on this here is a link to the sponsorship page of the AND see for yourself. (link last updated 2017) https://www.eatrightpro.org/about-us/advertising-and-sponsorship/meet-our-sponsors 

Multi-Level Marketing Supplement Sales and Coaching Programs Are the MLMs and Ponzis of Today.

Most of us have that friend who was suckered into a multi-level marketing scam by another friend or acquaintance. This salesperson probably presented themselves as a “coach” or a “counselor” and along with the millions of dollars in marketing that companies like Herbalife, Juice Plus, and now even CBD MLM companies spend convincing us that we can be wealthy, find purpose and heal the world (with no real education or credentials) we believe it.

People we know tell us how this product and program changed their lives.  Apparently, it made them healthy, happy, and wealthy.  Of course, not everyone realizes that they are being paid to tell us this. The energy at the conferences can be contagious and you can see that big money is spent on marketing the idea of a business, and not on the quality of the products. The bottom line is these people have no real training and have no business calling themselves anything but salespeople. Similar to Avon or Amway regardless of the product or services they are selling.

Besides the MLMs that have been around for decades, we have the newer phenomenon of the health or wellness coach. This is where anyone can buy a certificate, or a program and usually these are online programs. Oftentimes with no educated instructors or human interaction provided. Just a workbook or online course. They also use former “graduates” to recruit others. Sound familiar? Spend a lot of money on something to make you healthy and rich and when that does not pay off, then focus on signing up others to recoup some of your losses.  If these wellness coaches are doing so well with their consulting businesses then why do they have so much time to sign up other people? Why do I get intrusive emails and phone calls constantly from these people trying to get me onboard?  How do they also have so much time to be on social media all day long if they are booked with clients? I have patients coming to me with food and supplement plans from some of these under-qualified coaches and I will say that most of them are a huge waste of time and money at best, and at worst they are dangerous.

I had one of these under-educated health coaches recently who put my new patient, who is a professional athlete, on a keto diet for “gut issues”. She told him he probably had Candida and recommended an expensive juice and herbal detox, way too many dietary supplements, including a poor quality calcium and mineral supplement to “fix his PH” and then what she called a keto diet as part of her “detox and reset program”. Her recommendations made his health much worse. Turns out that this patient had no candida. I know because I sent him for testing after he came to me, only 2 months after she tested him with some at-home, silly DIY spit/saliva test, and what he did have was gallstones. I also sent him to a GI doctor because I suspected a gallbladder issue just from his symptoms and basic labs that were run at his twice-yearly physical. With the keto diet and supplements she sold him, within 5 weeks, he wound up in the emergency room with a stone in the common biliary duct. He wound up losing his gallbladder and in a lot of pain. This could have become fatal. He said he told his health coach that he felt nauseous, dizzy, and was burping a lot on his “new keto diet”. He was losing some fat though on his off-season and could still train, so he did not really want to stop. She told him it was all part of the detox and to stay on it. She suggested that he was having a willpower issue. This is a professional athlete who has now worked with me for over 2 years with no more issues. I am sure he does not have any will power issue. This is where this health coach thing is going and it’s very dangerous. No wonder it’s hard to figure out who to trust with your health these days. Even more confusing is the fact that there are some health coaches who are legit and can be very helpful. I am able to confidently refer to some of them when my athletes, complicated illness people, and others need more help than I have time for with cooking, day to day hand-holding and support, and even shopping and meal planning. For many of the people I work with, once labs have been done and they are set up with a food and supplement plan with macros and targeted nutrients and an overall plan for optimizing I myself suggest they work with a health or wellness coach (that I know has the education, training and skills) as it’s less expensive than paying for my time to walk them through things that these others can do a great job of.

A quick search of Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest shows thousands of people who have quit their day jobs or aspire to and are doing online consults as health and wellness coaches, consultants, or advisors without as much as an Associates’ degree from a real university or college. On top of that, there is no training. No internships. No mentorship. No accountability.

There are different levels of these coaching schools but the lack of any regulatory bodies and the lack of prerequisite education for many of them is extremely concerning. Add that to the growing number of people reporting no benefit and even harm from working with these fake experts and it makes it a real threat to the entire field of clinical nutrition as well as functional medicine.

We will always have scams and scammers. There will always be people who don’t want to put their dues in, don’t want to do the real work, and just want to find the easier way to make the quick buck. However, when dishonest people, businesses, and online coaching schools are telling people they are qualified to manage health care it is hard to blame those people because they are paying for the courses and doing the program. It is also hard to blame the people who are harmed by believing that these people are qualified because we now live in a world where anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, a counselor, or even a naturopathic doctor and there are no legal repercussions until someone gets hurt.

People make big money off this lack of regulation in the Nutrition profession, and I predict a lot of litigation of the personal injury type down the road. This modern-day pyramid scheme called coaching has gotten so crazy that social media pages are filled with ads from people with no healthcare education or credentials selling programs to others to show them how to do what they do. How to make six figures creating and selling healthcare programs.

No matter that they themselves have never helped a single person with a health concern. One program literally says “You can do this and make a lot of money even if you have worked with less than 10 clients or have never done any real nutrition counseling”. WHAT?!!?

One person who says she got a certificate from a coaching school less than 2 years ago will sell you her roadmap to making 6 figures by creating and selling online nutrition programs. They claim you can make thousands a day while you sleep or travel the world. This is beyond ridiculous and we all need to be very wary of these people and products. This seems so obvious but I will say it again having a large number of social media followers does not mean someone is an expert or should be trusted. Followers can be purchased for about $10 for each thousand and many of these shady scam coaching or fake nutrition expert sites have thousands of fake followers. Even if someone does have millions of social media fans you should still go to their website and find their education and credentials.

When looking for an online coach, coaching school, Nutritionist or a nutrition school or any health or wellness coaching school or program always ask for training, credentials, education, and actual degrees of the people teaching and running the program. If it is not prominently posted ask them exactly what college they went to and when. Ask how many years they have been in practice and where. Look it up. See if it’s true. Ask what degree they have. What school are they certified by? What governing body do they answer to?  Ask who they interned under and for how long. I would also search for reviews and ask online if anyone else worked with this person and what their experience was. A lot of people have paid for an online system, software or platform and have great Facebook and Instagram ads. Guess what? They are willing to sign you up and give you all their knowledge on how they came from literally NOWHERE 5 years ago to now they supposedly made 6-7 figures as an online health coach and now they are going to help YOU become a health coach and make this much yourself. You need no other education or training but just pay them hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars and you too can work from Bali. Come on people think!

There are some health coaching schools that I do recommend as I know the people who run them and have worked with the graduates. These generally have a real practitioner at the helm. Chris Kresser’s coaching school comes to mind. I do believe these coaches have been properly trained on nutrition, food, health coaching, and more importantly how to know what they can and can’t be advising people on. One of the most important things I was taught by my functional medicine mentors was when to refer out to a doctor. As a nutritionist, it’s so important that I don’t overstep my boundaries. This is why I work so well with so many doctors from all over and why I’ve always had a full practice. The doctors who I refer to are more than happy to refer back to me as they know that I know to do my job (food, supplements, lifestyle, and certain labs) and that I refer people to them for suspected or actual medical issues, medication and diagnostic tests beyond my scope of work. I have had nutritionist interns who have gone to different health coaching or nutrition schools. Besides Chris Kresser’s program, Andrea Nakama and Julie Mathew’s programs also come to mind as some I would trust coaches trained by. Julie’s is more for parents of kids with autism, but she does teach coaches I think and I’ve seen the curriculum, I’ve worked with kids on the Autism spectrum for over 20 years, and many nutritionists out there could learn a lot from what she is teaching. I won’t list the programs I don’t approve of for obvious reasons, but I’ve given you some points of reference.

I don’t approve of any program that is associated with a multi-level marketing company that pushes supplements, oils, or any product or service. If the products & services are good the company should not need to use that model. They are either bad quality products or greedy. The multi-level marketing model is a scam where you are convinced that you will get what you need in life and make a lot of money helping others. You can do that but this is not the way. Selling CBD for 5 times what it costs someone to buy the same product online or in a store with a story about how superior it is, only benefits those at the top of that shady pyramid. Watch the Herbalife movie on Netflix called “Betting on Zero” and you will see why I feel so strongly that we not support these businesses who take advantage of people’s trust, desperation, and hope.

What Can We Do in this anything-goes climate to find a good nutritionist, dietician, or functional medicine practitioner?

Here are some steps to take.

1. Try asking for referrals from people you know and trust. You can even ask your primary care doctor but don’t get discouraged if they advise you against it. Many mainstream docs still don’t understand the importance or effectiveness of a real nutritionist. That said, many do and I get at least 75% of my referrals from physicians, physicians assistants, and nurse practitioners in the area.
2. If there is a specific company, vitamin supplement, service, or other product involved move on.  A real Nutritionist, Dietitian, or nutrition expert should not be allied with any brand, company, or corporation. One of the first signs that someone is working with an unqualified nutritionist, coach, or yes, even a doctor is that they put them on too many dietary supplements right away. Especially if they make money off them. This can be an ethical issue and in my opinion, it shows a lack of clinical skills. An inexperienced practitioner believes all of the free training they get from supplement companies that claim everyone needs many vitamin products to make them healthy. This is untrue. If the diet is clinically sound there should not be a need for more than a few supplements at once. There may be a few that are needed to get balanced after years of not eating nutritious foods, and maybe a few more to address certain issues, but you don’t want to be on too many supplements at once for too long as that can put a strain on the body. You also should not need to be on supplements forever. Most dietary supplements should be used selectively and for a specific amount of time. If you have been on the same exact supplements, and are on more than a few for years there is a problem. Sometimes people do need maybe a digestive enzyme, some fish oil caps, methylation support, or a specific mineral like zinc but no one needs 20+ supplements daily for years. A good nutritionist or ND will take you off when the issues have cleared up. Ask to revise your supplements often.
3. If you find someone you are considering hiring you first want to look for their exact education. It should be listed and shown on their website and easy to find.
4. As far as education, you want to see at the very least a bachelor’s degree in a biological science. These can include pre-med, health science, biochemistry, biology, nutrition, and dietetics (with more education after). Many dietitians realize that they are lacking education in using nutrition in a holistic way vs the food industry biased dietary guidelines they learn, and they seek out more education after their RD designations. Some of these RDs are among my well-respected friends and colleagues, and I refer patients to them often for their area of expertise or when I am overbooked.  After the science-based undergraduate credential, preferably is a two-year degree preferably a master’s or doctorate in Nutrition would be my first choice. I have had a handful of interns who got their Masters degrees from The University of Bridgeport and I have found that they have had an excellent education. I wish they had distance education programs for Nutritionists when I was in school. I’ve recommended this school often when I’m asked.
5. Ask prospective Nutritionists, RDs, and coaches where they did their training, when, and with whom if it’s not prominently on their website.
6. If you want to hire an RD, I suggest looking for one with training in functional medicine. Functional medicine is essentially the opposite of conventional medicine. While conventional medicine looks for medication to treat symptoms, functional medicine looks for the root causes of the symptoms and conditions and uses a foundational approach to fix the underlying health issues. Functional Nutrition is just like Functional medicine only we are Nutritionists, so we don’t practice medicine.
7. People like Dr. Jefferey Bland and Dr. Mark Hyman are great examples of Functional medicine practitioners and teachers who I have been learning with and from since the 90s. You can learn more about this field at the Institute for Functional Medicine website. Of course, you want their education to be from accredited schools and institutions.
8. There are some reputable health coaches. These are mainly people who were already college graduates and have experience working in the healthcare field. many are Registered Nurses, Nurse practitioners, or even pediatricians or primary care doctors who have gone back to school to become health coaches, I guess because that is where they can do the best job. Or maybe they just like the business model I am not sure. There are also some coaches who went to some of the more reputable coaching schools and also have done other programs but they do not have the credentials of a doctor, nurse practitioner, or similar. In that case ask for their training, mentorship, and who they interned with. I interned with a registered dietitian in Southbay in the 90s and with a local CN Nutritionist further away because there weren’t really many here in LA. I drove pretty far to learn how to help with labs and do general grunt work but I was happy to learn.
9. Before hiring anyone, I would search for reviews and ask to speak to people who have used their services.
10. When you are looking for a Nutritionist you should also look for someone with a good amount of training and clinical experience.                                                                                                                 These days anyone can write a book, and many use that as a way to prove they are an expert. This is often not true. They are not experts just because they wrote a book. Literally, anyone can write a book and self publish or just put it online. It’s not like it was in pre-internet days. I suggest you look at the book and see if it makes sense. Is it about one specific fad diet or way of eating? Is the book properly cited with references and studies? How many copies of their book have been sold?  How long has it been out? If it is on a bestseller list is it in a category that is relevant?  Is it in print or is it an e-book you can buy from their website? Is it less than 100 pages long? Are there any credible reviews on the book? I might even buy the book before I paid to see the person. It could save you time, money and possibly your health.
11. Does this person only seem to deal with a very narrow group of people with a specific health issue?  Is that your issue and did they pop up on your search due to keywords?  Or are they more of a generalist who can deal with and understand the bigger health picture and not try to make you fit in the box they know how to deal with? You want a healthcare professional and a generalist.
12. The very popular narrow niche marketing is also a marketing tactic. It works well with tracking cookies and targeted ads online. This is why health coach ads pop up after you google “weight loss” or “diet for hypothyroid”  they often use the exact same words you searched for. Like “help with polycystic ovarian syndrome, acne, and weight loss” This person deals with EXACTLY that! and women 18 to 38! Wow, coincidence! No. that’s the demographic that is looking for help with that issue. And it’s the thing they think they know how to fix. Maybe. There is a huge difference between a newer Naturopathic Doctor who is properly credentialed from a good school like Bastyr University or similar, is trained and has done a preceptorship and has picked a niche like helping women with new babies find optimal health and someone with no other healthcare credentials who did an online coaching program that we’ve never heard of them or the person teaching it and they say they will fix your Lyme Disease, acne, inability to lose weight, menopause, or I’ve even seen them claiming to help you cure your histamine illness. I would pick the educated naturopathic doctor (ND or NMD if they can prescribe) any day of the week. It may be more expensive and it may take longer to get in but it will be worth it. Also, I wish you get what you pay for was true but lately some of the people want a ridiculous amount of money for these silly programs. Recent ones are saying $3100 for 6 months of coaching. This person has no real education. No. Just No.
13. Another important question in finding a good nutritionist. How long has this person been in practice? You will probably have to pay more for a person who has been in practice for longer than 10 years but if you can afford it t is usually worth it. Generally, Nutritionists with more experience can help you solve your health problems in less time and with less overall money spent. You are much more likely to get results from someone who knows what they are doing. If you do decide to work with someone who has less experience the price should reflect this. Meaning it should not cost you as much to work with them. I do like to work with the newer Naturopathic Doctors myself (as a Nutritionist with a full practice) I will send the people I work with to them because sometimes they are more excited, compassionate, and patient than a doctor who is decades in. They usually are very willing to spend some time so that we can discuss our common patient and that benefits the people we work with. Also, they were trained more recently and training is getting better every year.
14. If you are on a budget and trying to find an affordable Nutritionist, I would look for someone who works under the supervision of a well-respected, more experienced Nutritionist. Usually, they charge less while they learn. As I did. This can be hard to find since apparently everyone is an “expert’ these days even with little experience, which makes me cringe, but don’t worry, there are some great nutritionists out there. I would not suggest paying top dollar for anyone with less than 8 to 10 years of experience and impeccable credentials.
15. Once you find a prospective nutritionist you should ask for a free (brief maybe 10 minute) phone call or email to ask any questions about how they work and what results you can expect to see. A good nutritionist will not read from a script and will not make outrageous claims or promises. I know that I can help most of the people who come to me, but I don’t guarantee it because people must do their part and that is never a given. Don’t fall for fake guarantees. And if you feel pressured or it sounds like a sales pitch then move on.
16. Don’t fall for a coach or nutritionist (or anyone including a personal trainer) telling you that you must sign up for a long contract or package to see any results.                                                       This is straight BS and it’s a big sign that you are talking to the wrong person. Many of these shady coaching schools and online programs teach coaches to convince the consumer that they must sign up for a certain amount of time. They use shaming techniques like saying “you didn’t get that sick and overweight overnight, it took you years of bad food choices and not exercising, and now you want me to make you healthy and thin in a few weeks”. This is specifically designed to make you feel like you owe them something if they are going to fix you. They know that you are already feeling very bad about yourself and maybe desperate, if you are contacting them, and they are taking full advantage of that. This is an emotionally abusive sales tactic at best. They justify it by saying they are helping you, but shaming helps no one lose weight ever. They tell you that your problem is a lack of commitment and that you will need to commit to at least 2- 3 months of coaching from them. They say this will be the answer to all your problems. Of course, it’s also your lucky day because it is a program worth $8,000 but for you, today only, for the next 10 minutes, they are willing to give it to you for the crazy low price of $1979. And, if you act now, you get a free month and you can pay it in payments, with a big deposit and autopay. Wait you get an email that says it’s still in your cart! Now it’s $949 dollars! No matter the price, this is ridiculous. Walk away.
17.  Do not sign up for any packages without first having an initial consultation. Ask yourself why this person wants you locked into working with them before you have even spent a paid hour together or seen any results. You can see progress after one visit. You should for sure have a PLAN and steps to get to your goals. I tell my patients that if they don’t see some positive results a week or two after the first consult they should fire me. That is given they followed my directions at least somewhat. I am not saying they will be cured of all issues overnight, but I am saying they will have a clear plan of action, be started on implementation, and making progress after our first hour together. You should expect results from the nutritionist you hire regardless of the amount of time you pay for upfront. If you feel pressured to rush into a purchase then walk away. A real nutritionist does not need to pressure anyone into hiring them. The only reason I offer any packages is to make consults a bit less expensive to those who we have agreed will need more work so that they have a break on the price it costs me to catch up with each person if it’s a one-off consultation or I haven’t seen them in years.
18. The next pointer is don’t fall for the big story. These coaches always have a story. This was made popular by the guys who brought you the SCD diet also not real practitioners btw, (they are internet marketing guys obviously) and while I like them and what they have done to raise awareness of good nutrition and gastrointestinal issues, I don’t like the widespread use of their internet advertising tactics by unqualified healthcare practitioners. Yes, the “story” is important, and it is true that many of us in the healthcare field have worked out our own issues. It does not mean that the person who healed their own (name your disease) with a bacon and cheese-filled keto diet & kombucha tea flavored fat bombs is qualified to be your “nutritionist” or ” holistic wellness coach”. Even if they lost a hundred pounds eating only butter & rice. Still not qualified. Sorry.  Find a real practitioner. With real credentials. Ignore the good story even if it sounds like your story (remember the tracking cookies and targeted online marketing like Facebook ads you see on your page?) You don’t need your Nutritionist to have a dramatic story or to have suffered from the same thing you are. You only need them to have the credentials, clinical skills, and experience to get you the results you want. If they have enough experience you will connect and relate to them, story or not. People forget that just because a certain diet helped someone to recover from a health issue it is not necessarily the diet for everyone.
19. Try to find someone local if you can but don’t rule out virtual consults. It is nice to see someone at least the first time in person. If you find someone who is out of your area, make sure that they use a real telemedicine site for video chat consults and not just Google Hangouts or Skype. The difference is your privacy. You can tell a professional Nutritionist in part because they will have liability insurance to see patients. And that insurance will dictate that they have methods for honoring your privacy as outlined in the Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act of 1996 aka HIPPA laws.
20. Another big issue related to your privacy is a Nutritionist, health coach, or even a Doctor who posts photos of celebrities, or those Instagram pages and websites that constantly show before and after weight loss photos. These all show a lack of concern for privacy and a focus on sales and money rather than healthcare. We do live in a world where social media is prominent, but we should wonder why a medical or healthcare professional would need to broadcast it any time they work with a famous person. I have been a Nutritionist in LA for over 20 years. I’ve worked with uber-famous people and I have never once posted online, or even mentioned any names of people I work with. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a “celebrity nutritionist”.  If a Nutritionist practices in Los Angeles or New York for any length of time and is really good he or she will have a celebrity clientele. It’s not a big deal and it should not be a selling point. And should not be the only selling point. It’s not a credential or an education. You will probably wind up paying more money for lower quality care if you count this as a main hiring point.

When I went to school the premise that we all deserve our privacy was non-negotiable. Violating it was a sure path to career suicide. Doctors can get sued or lose their medical licenses for violating privacy laws. Yet it happens constantly in this new nutrition world. I recommend avoiding any Nutritionist (or Doctor) who relies on this kind of advertising to build their practice.  A big difference between a Doctor or a Clinical Nutritionist and a workout trainer or a holistic health coach is access to labs and other private health information. Since your Nutritionist is part of your healthcare team. Respect for your privacy should be a given. I know I’m old school with this. It’s just my opinion.

20. Clinically speaking you want to work with a nutritionist who knows how to deal with a wide range of health issues and understands that one diet cannot be right for everybody. You want someone who has a working knowledge of traditional and specialty diagnostic labs, special diets, and food plans, medical issues, the emotional and physical aspects of eating, genetics, all the systems of the body, how they relate to diet.

21. You want a professional, someone who can talk to your doctors and other health care practitioners as part of a team. Working with a nutritionist is much more effective when you have a health care team working together. Everyone on your team should be willing to do this. Ask your prospective nutritionist how many physicians they currently work with and if they can recommend you to a great functional medicine doctor if needed.

22.  If you are looking for help with a more chronic or acute issue like natural hormone balance, moods or chronic GI issues you will need a Nutritionist who knows their scope of practice and limits. Your nutritionist should quickly refer you to a qualified physician for issues that require it.  If a coach or nutritionist says they will handle all your health issues, and that you never need medications or doctors I would pass on them.

23. Your ideal nutritionist should be personable, friendly, non-judgmental, down to earth, easy to trust, and relatable. This person should be able to show you the big picture of what you are working toward, while also helping you break it down into small actionable steps that can get you to your goals. You need to be able to trust this person in order to make any progress. If you don’t feel a connection, or you feel an aversion to your prospective nutritionist trust your intuition in this case and keep looking.

What Does a Good Nutritionist Cost in Los Angeles?

23.  The last factor to consider when choosing a nutritionist to work with is the price. What should it cost to see a nutritionist? That seems to vary based on a lot of things. I have seen real nutritionists charging anywhere from $195 to $950 for an Initial Consultation which runs anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours, and $175 to $750 for follow-up consults that range from 25 mins to an hour.  Of course, location plays a big part. The higher-end here is an integrative medicine doctor who calls herself a Nutritionist here in LA, so I guess she factors in her medical training. I see no reason that a nutritionist with real credentials should charge more than $600 for an Initial consult other than just because they can. Those who have written books and those who advertise working with celebrities, and or just have a huge social media following will typically charge more. Does this mean they are worth it? It’s hard to be sure. The only way we can know is to read reviews and hope they are genuine until we have paid for the service. That is why it is best to find someone who fits your budget and is qualified based on the points I’ve discussed in this article. Don’t assume that a nutritionist who charges $700 will get you better results than one who charges $300 but you should take education and years of experience into account. These are two factors that I will pay more money for. The more education and experience the quicker and easier it should be for you should see results.

24. I also advise that you only pay for the initial consult upfront, and if you don’t feel inspired, understood, hopeful and satisfied that you got your money’s worth after that first visit then do not buy a package thinking that it will change. It probably will not. What you see in the first consult is usually what you get. If you are not confident in this person after that, you can maybe try one follow up consult since you are invested, and then if you are not feeling that you have made any progress, I would find someone else. Of course, also look at whether you are just scared to make some of the changes that are being recommended, and if that’s the issue I suggest you discuss slowing your plan down with that person and let them know your concerns.

25.  Progress means: Do you have fewer sugar cravings? Are you less hungry or less tired? Do you feel any better than you did before working with this person?  You should expect to see some results from this first, most expensive initial consult. You should then also see some progress each subsequent consult. Many people ask me how many follow-ups they will need and it’s hard to say. It depends on what you are working on and your issues.

26. NOTE: Nutrition counseling is not therapy. Although many seem to mistake one for the other. If you find yourself going back to your nutritionist or coach week after week only to discuss your mental blocks with overeating or self-sabotaging eating behaviors, and if you have yet to see a decent amount of weight loss or do not feel any better this is a red flag. In my opinion, every consult should provide you with benefits and if they don’t you are working with the wrong person. I am not saying that change happens overnight, but I am saying if your nutritionist is not setting tangible goals for you to reach during each consult and action steps for you to get there, then move on. Many will let you believe that your lack of progress is due to something you are doing or not doing right. If you have done the items on your action list, you should be enjoying the benefits of reaching your goals. Even if they are mini-goals on the way to a larger goal like “eat more protein and healthy fats with each meal” or “wake up 30 minutes earlier and make a collagen drink before you exercise” or “be aware of why I am eating before I eat”. If you take the steps outlined, you should be seeing some real improvement toward your goals quickly. Reasonable goals could be things like “stop sugar cravings and overeating” or “learn portion control” or “stop obsessing over food and weight loss” and these are under the long-term goals of “get to my goal weight” “ heal from chronic fatigue without feeling constantly hungry” or “achieve and maintain permanent weight loss.”

To recap the main points to consider when picking a Nutritionist are; education, credentials, training, clinical skills, location or set up, philosophy, ethics, marketing tactics, personality, and character traits. Not in a specific order. The cost can be variable, but you should see some noticeable progress in the first few consultations and it does not have to be a major expense or time commitment. Your work with them is not open-ended like therapy. It should be goal-focused and you should walk away with tools and strategies to help you figure out how to make healthy food choices an effortless part of your everyday life. You do not want to hire a nutritionist to put you on the latest fad diet. You can just google “keto diets, “paleo diet”  or “the carnivore diet” if you want that or buy a diet book. It will save you some serious time and money. 

You are hiring a nutritionist so that you can find out exactly what your body needs for you to look and feel your best and how to incorporate that into your life You also are depending on them to tell you if your issue is not one that can be fixed by a nutritionist and to refer you in the right direction to get the help you need. If you can learn what your body needs and how to eat it at least 80% of the time you will be way ahead of most people.

Written by Juli Keene, BSc, CN September Rev 2018 All rights reserved. No copying, publishing or reposting without permission from Juli Keene, CN.