Dietician

While a dietitian’s work does center on food and its role in helping people lose weight, they aren’t in the business of suggesting name-brand weight-loss diets such as Atkins, Paleo or South Beach Diet.

They are credentialed health professionals who have obtained a bachelor’s degree, completed a supervised internship and passed a national exam honoring them with the title of registered dietitian, or RD for short. Then, every five years, they must complete 75 hours of continuing education credits to keep up with the ever-evolving nature of science’s understanding of nutrition and the human body.

Also, while dietitians are by nature nutritionists, the inverse is not necessarily true, since there’s no licensing required to call yourself a nutritionist. In some states, the title of nutritionist may convey no special education, training or experience.