Leigha Messner is Lee Health’s Clinical Nutrition Manager. She said the main difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist boils down to education and licensure credentials. “Nutritionists can basically talk standard nutrition. Most of the times it’s not evidence-based, they are trained in that same way. Anyone can become a nutritionist if they have an interest,” said Messner. “A dietitian is required to have a four-year degree, a bachelor’s degree in nutrition science, then that’s going to be advanced to a masters degree in 2024. Then they have to do a supervised internship and then they are eligible to sit for the registration exam.”

One of the main reasons why someone would see a dietitian is to help with weight loss. “Each decade can kind of take on its own nutrition fad, and that is what dietitians are really trained to do is kind of sort through the noise of all of the trends, and the fads, and the media, and then take it into this is where the research is putting us to right now,” said Messner.

Messner said dietitians are also spread throughout the workforce in different ways. “Dietitians can help with menu planning for certain restaurants. We can look at energy and protein needs for the health and growth of babies. We can look up nutrition support for patients that are in an ICU setting. We can help look at food as a healer and almost take the role of medication and work together with that to help heal, treat, or even prevent disease states.”

Lee Health has teaching kitchens and offers community events for people of all ages. “Dietitians will offer teaching classes, hands-on, cooking classes, one on one education,” said Messner. You can find our schedule of events on Leehealth.org.



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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health - Caring People. Inspiring Care.


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