Dietician

With the increase in education levels and income, awareness towards health of self and family members has also increased. Along with treatment, people are increasingly getting more conscious of their eating habits. This is where a dietitian comes into picture. Randomly taken food is the cause of most illnesses. A dietician can play a significant role in saving you from such diseases.

Work
Dieticians help in developing healthy eating habits, thereby making you healthier. According to age group, they help in determining the ideal quantity, quality and time of your food intake. In addition, dieticians also take care of your diseases, allergies and daily routine, and give you proper advice based on these.

Eligibility
For doing graduation in subjects related to dietician, students should have cleared 10+2 with any two subjects out of home Science, biology, physics and science. For one-year diploma, graduation degree is required in any of the following subjects, food science, Home Science, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Hotel Management and Catering Technology and Medicine. Obviously, a good dietician or nutritionist should personally be interested in food.

Scope
Nutritionists or dieticians are in demand in hospitals, health reform systems, research and development and in the fields of Public Health departments and Public Health communities that are being run by Government for the purpose of social welfare. In addition, skilled dieticians are always in demand in NGOs and other private institutions that are involved in health care development. Nowadays, the practice of keeping personal health adviser is gaining momentum in cities.

Earning
Trainee nutritionists can earn 2500 rupees per month in private hospitals, while with a year's experience they can get 4500 rupees or more per month. People working in government hospitals or in government aided research or educational institutions get remuneration as per government regulations, it comes to roughly 8 to 15 thousand per month. With experience, good salary and allowances can be garnered in private sector hotels, restaurants and with food manufacturers. Besides, jobs can also be found in food technology and food service departments. Here, the salary per month could be rupees 20000-25000.

Courses
For making a career as dietician, one should do graduation or post graduation in subjects such as Home Science, and Food Science. In addition, courses such as Food Science and Technology, medicine, hotel management and catering technology, etc are also available. Duration of this course at postgraduate level is two years. Admission can also be taken in one-year diploma in die tics and Public Health Nutrition. In this course, three months internship under any dietician is mandatory for students.

Institutes
 1. Institute of Home Economics, Delhi
 2. Delhi University, Delhi
 3. All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata
 4. Vikram University, Ujjain
 5. Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
 6. Punjab University, Chandigarh
 7. National Institute of Nutrition, Jamia Osmania, Hyderabad
 8. Nagpur University
 9. Mumbai University
 10. Chhatrapati Sahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur
 11. M.S. University of Baroda
 12. Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati University, Ajmer