Specialist Dietician and Nutrition service

Elizabeth Diamond is our qualified Dietitian, registered with the Health Care Professions Council. She graduated from King's College, London in 2009 with a First Class Honours Degree and have worked in the NHS for the past 12 years in hospitals and the community. She is currently the Clinical Lead for a specialist NHS community team.

Elizabeth is able to provide a detailed assessment of your current diet and support you as an individual to help you achieve your nutritional goals, be that weight loss, weight gain or an improvement in health or performance.

As a dietitian, She has extensive skills in supporting clients who may also be suffering with other health challenges like Gastrointestinal conditions, Cancer, Diabetes, Menopause and other chronic conditions.

Elizabeth has special interest in sports nutrition and is currently studying a postgraduate qualification in this field at St. Marys' University, Twickenham.

We are often asked what is the difference between a Dietician and Nutritionist and following information may serve to give you an insight into the differences and similarities.

Dietitians are the only legally regulated profession qualified in clinical nutrition and diet. Dieticians are trained to a minimum of degree level (3-4 year programmes) and keep up to date with the latest evidence. We work with healthy and sick people to assess, diagnose and treat dietary and nutritional problems and take into account other health needs. Like Osteopaths and Physiotherapists, the dietician title is protected by law and are required to registered with the Health care professions council (HCPC).

The main difference with a nutritionist is that they do not have to legally register their profession. There is however a voluntary register for those who have done certain degrees/courses and they can then use the title - registered nutritionist . As there is no legal requirement to register, anyone is able to title themselves a nutritionist and it is difficult to ensure that the nutritional information that they are providing is safe, appropriate and evidence based. There are however extremely knowledgeable and qualified nutritionists working in all sectors.

Registered Nutritionists can provide information about food and healthy eating but not about special diets for medical conditions. So from that perspective is where a dietician specialties lie in that greater knowledge/depth and ability to support those with other medical conditions too (within their scope of practice).