Nutritionists in public health are professionals tasked with ensuring that the nutritional needs of the general public are met. Unlike a registered dietitian, who works with individuals, a public health nutritionist is concerned with ensuring that everyone living in a given area has access to sufficient vitamins and minerals to maintain a healthy standard of living. A municipal or other government agency, such as a public health department, is likely to employ a nutritionist of this type.
The typical public health nutritionist is concerned with identifying and resolving community problems. This entails creating and implementing a basic set of nutritional policies that serve as the foundation for the area’s public health programs. A public nutritionist, for example, may be involved in ensuring that salt consumed in the area is fortified with iodine to reduce the incidence of goiter among the population. Similarly, the nutritionist may be involved directly in nutrition programs aimed at ensuring that elderly citizens, shut-ins, and low-income families have access to basic foods that provide a foundation for good nutrition.
A qualified public health nutritionist may also consider careers in public health, such as teaching basic nutrition to a subset of the community. A nutritionist, for example, may offer diet and nutrition advice to people who have recently been diagnosed with diabetes. The public health nutritionist assists groups of diabetics in understanding what should and should not be consumed in order to optimize health through recurring classes. This includes teaching the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates, how to balance the body’s need for carbohydrate intake with blood glucose elevation, and how to identify substitutes for foods that should be eliminated or limited from the daily diet.
In terms of education, many employers demand that a public health nutritionist have a food and nutrition-related degree. This type of degree is frequently available through local vocational centers as well as many colleges and universities. Furthermore, most public health jobs of this nature will require that the applicant be registered and certified as a dietitian in their home state. Furthermore, before a public health nutritionist can be considered for a specific position, additional studies focused on a specific aspect of public nutrition may be required.
Interested parties are usually informed local governments about any public health jobs that are currently available in the area. Furthermore, there are now networking web sites that allow qualified candidates to find opportunities for public health nutritionist careers in a variety of cities and towns around the world.