Health Care Providers: Registered Dietitians (RDs)

What Is a Registered Dietitian (RD)?

A registered dietitian (dye-uh-TIH-shin) is a medical professional who works with patients and families to create specific diets, teach about nutrition, and talk about healthy lifestyle choices.

Why Would Someone Need One?

Registered dietitians (RDs) offer support to people with a variety of conditions, such as:

• obesity
• cystic fibrosis
• cerebral palsy
• failure to thrive
• diabetes
• eating disorders
• food allergies
• celiac disease
• cancer and/or undergoing chemotherapy
• seizures
• inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)

They can help patients with:

• education and emotional support
• nutrition assessment and therapy
• feeding tubes
• neonatal nutrition

What Is Their Training?

Registered dietitians have training that includes:

• 4 years of undergraduate education at a college or university
• an internship with at least 1,200 hours of supervised practice

They also will be:

• nationally certified as a registered dietitian
• licensed in the state where they practice

Good to Know

Some RDs are called registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) because they focus on the nutrition aspects of their training.