I often get asked what a nutritional therapy practitioner does so here is a short summary with links below if you’d like to read further.
What is a BANT registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and Nutritionist?
BANT registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners (NTPs) work alongside clients supporting them with their health goals using nutrition and lifestyle changes to improve their physical and mental wellbeing. Food, nutrient status, our environment, sleep quality, stress and activity levels all impact our health and wellbeing. Many chronic conditions as well as fluctuations in health are linked to nutrition and lifestyle factors which an NTP can help you with.
BANT registered NTPs working outside of a clinical setting also call themselves registered Nutritionists (NTs).
What is BANT?
BANT is the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine and the professional body for BANT Registered NTPs and NTs and oversees the activities, training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of its members.
How do BANT Nutritional Therapy Practitioners work?
BANT NTPs use the latest nutrition and lifestyle medicine science on food, health and disease and provide personalised and practical advice tailored to your unique health history, goals or concerns and dietary preferences. They typically carry out a health and lifestyle check for each client and may recommend functional testing to assess your nutritional status, metabolic or gut health which may be contributing to symptoms. NTPs use this information based on your unique biology to inform and personalise the recommendations they make.
NTPs usually work privately and may specialise in a specific field so they can focus their research and clinical expertise in that area. As nutrition consultations are not a replacement for medical advice nutritional therapy practitioners frequently work alongside medical professionals to support an individual’s health and wellbeing.
How do I find a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner?
The title Nutritional Therapy Practitioner is not protected by law and anyone can use it. So to ensure your practitioner has a good level of training check they are registered with an accrediting body such as BANT.
BANT NTPs are trained and qualified in clinical practice to meet national standards and work in a one-to-one clinical setting and are also accredited by the Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), an independent regulator for holistic healthcare practitioners that was set up with government support and has been approved by the Professional Standard Authority for Health & Social Care (PSA).
BANT members may have completed different levels of training. As of 1st September 2020, new BANT members are required to have a Bachelor’s (Hons) degree or higher from a recognised university and NTEC accreditation for nutritional therapy practice. My training has included subjects such as physiology, cell biology, biochemistry, evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine, supervised clinical practice, as well as research approaches and methods, all completed as part of an MSc programme.
Doctors can make referrals to CNHC-registered nutritional therapy practitioners as the CNHC is a register accredited by the PSA.
If you’d like a free no-obligation call to discuss if nutritional therapy is right for you please get in touch.
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