Do you enjoy reading and learning about nutrition? If you love all things to do with eating well, have you thought about making a career out of a topic you love? Nutrition is a diverse field, offering a huge variety of career options. From private practice to public education, jobs in nutrition span numerous industries. You can work in hands-on roles like food preparation, consulting, or educating people about improving their diet. Nutrition offers a rewarding career pathway, as you’ll have the satisfaction of supporting wellbeing and helping people manage their health. Learning about these 10 pathways could help you with your pursuing a future in the field.
Nutritional support roles such as a nutritional aide or nutrition assistant involve ensuring patients in healthcare settings receive the right food in correct portions. It can also see you assisting with special dietary needs. Preparation, distribution, and clearing away after meals can be part of your job. You could also work for a nutritionist by helping him/her with client-related tasks, such as preparing meals.
An interest in nutrition could propel you into a career in food preparation, in a role that requires you to have a background in healthful eating. Whether you’re working as a caterer or chef, you’ll be working with clients to prepare, transport, and serve food to their requirements. This could be for corporate functions, weddings, or other events. Alternatively, as a chef, you could be planning menus and preparing and serving food in a restaurant, aged care centre, school, or other settings.
Private companies employ nutritionists in food-sales roles. These can be businesses in the beverages, food, or supplements industries. You could work in a retail or customer-facing position. Alternatively, you may be working in marketing, product development, and account management roles that require knowledge of nutritional principles.
A passion for nutrition could see you succeeding in an education or coaching position. In this type of role, you’re promoting healthful eating to the general public or a specific target audience. You could share your knowledge as a commentator, media liaison, government department health promotion officer, or health coach to private clients.
Food technologists help with the research, manufacture, and production of food products. You’ll refine and improve products and ensure ingredients meet regulatory requirements. You might be responsible for testing new recipes, conducting research on the shelf-life of products, and guiding manufacturing staff on health and nutritional principles. Variations in this role include factory hygienist, product development technologist, and quality systems technologist.
As a nutritionist, you review clients’ current diet and make recommendations for improvements. It can be enormously rewarding to assist people with improving their health and in turn overall quality of life. This could be to lose weight, address health conditions, or for general wellbeing. You can work in non-clinical settings such as fitness centres, corporate settings, or private nutrition practices. Nutritionists can specialise in or branch out into other roles like an animal nutritionist, health coach, sports nutritionist, nutrition writer, or nutrition educator.
In Australia, Accredited Practising Dietitians have accredited professionals who have completed certain qualifications. Unlike nutritionists, dieticians can work in clinical settings such as medical centres and hospitals. You can specialise in providing dietary advice and meal plans to certain groups like the elderly, athletes, or diabetic patients. You could be working with people with food allergies, eating disorders, or other diet-related challenges.
If you love cooking and helping people eat well, why not become a recipe developer? Recipe developers spend their time experimenting with ingredients and coming up with tasty recipes. You may consult with nutritionists to create recipes for people with special dietary needs. This could include gluten-free, plant-based, or low-sugar diets. You could create cookbooks or have a recipe blog. Some recipe developers work directly with clients in the food production space to invent new dishes that feature the client’s products.
An interest in nutrition could set you up well in food safety and compliance. Typically this will have you working for food, beverage, or supplements businesses. You could be employed as a regulatory affairs specialist and be responsible for ensuring products are developed, produced, and delivered in line with laws. You could be a food labelling specialist and in charge of updating nutritional labels on food products that comply with regulatory requirements. You might be a food safety auditor who’s tasked with giving advice on food safety standards as well as checking and reviewing compliance with safety and sanitation standards.
Your passion for eating well could launch a thriving career as a wellness entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, you could focus on a specific niche to differentiate yourself. You could develop food products, run a wellness centre, or operate an organic cafe. Alternatively, you could publish an online health magazine, manufacture and sell supplements, or host a podcast on healthful eating.
Eating for good health is a universal priority and the nutritional field offers plenty of options in terms of career pathways. Being knowledgeable about healthful eating could see you working in a wide range of industries and work environments, from corporations and labs to hospitals and restaurants. You can work for a business, freelance as a solopreneur, or start your own health business with employees.
A qualification in nutrition can help you get started on a career pathway toward your ideal role in the nutrition field. International Career Institute’s Certificate of Natural Health (Nutrition) gives you a solid foundation in topics such as nutrition, weight loss, creating diet plans, and counselling and consultation skills. Contact us today for more information about how our course could help you get started in the nutrition field.
Gladys Mae serves as the General Manager and Head of Student Services at the International Career Institute. Gladys holds a degree in Mass Communication - Broadcast Media from the University of San Jose-Recoletos. She joined ICI in 2010 and has over the past 12 years been instrumental in providing leadership and guidance to staff and students alike. Prior to joining ICI Gladys led a multifaceted career with key roles in the banking and business process outsourcing industries.
Join our mailing list today and stay updated with the latest news and offers curated for you
