The following is a guest post by Isabel William.

Becoming a nutritionist or a health coach does not end when you get your certificate of course completion.

You constantly need to keep learning, staying on top of the latest trends and seeing what works for you and what you can recommend to your clients. Just sticking to what you know without keeping an open and inquisitive mind could cost you your career in this business.

Of course there are multiple way to work on improving your knowledge regarding healthy nutritional habits and practices.

Keep up with the industry

One of essential ways of improving on your current scope of knowledge is attending seminars and reading about the current trends and breakthroughs. You can be sure that your clients will be reading up on them as well so this way you will be able to answer their questions without any difficulty. In addition, the knowledge that you gain from your fellow health food professionals might improve your approach substantially and provide you and your clients with better results. In addition, also consider the benefits of networking and forming business partnerships. Frequenting seminars within your niche can boost your credibility and open up various new business opportunities.

Learn to debunk fad myths

As a nutritionist and a health food expert you can expect your clients to come to you daily with different ideas and trends they read about online and are very interested in trying. It is your job to explain to them why some of them are plausible and others can do them more harm than good. For example, one of the latest is a debate regarding the benefits of apple cider vinegar and before you dismiss this idea and tell your client to stick to the regimen you have prescribed, it would be advisable to read up on it. See what are actual tangible benefits and whether or not it is something you might consider implementing in their daily nutritional regimen. This is the sort of thing you need to be prepared for, and the explanation you give needs to be deeply rooted in science and medicine and not just based on your personal opinion.

Work on your communication skills

You might possess a vast knowledge from your area of expertise, but if you are not capable of transferring it on to your clients and peers you won’t be able to build your business. So obtaining knowledge in communication skills is equally important in the nutritionist profession. With people being bombarded by so much information regarding healthy nutrition, super foods and portion control, they won’t be looking at you to simply repeat what they have already read on, it is your job to interpret that plethora of ideas and recommendations so as they can comprehend what is the best course of action for them. At times this is not an easy task, so arming yourself with a lot of patience and understanding is essential to getting through to your clients.

Theoretical vs empirical knowledge

This last piece of advice regarding improvement on you nutritional knowledge has to do with distinguishing between what you have read about and what you have actually tried. Simply telling your clients that a certain approach has no effect because you have read at least ten studies debunking it at times has little effect considering they will tell you they know, have read, about at least twenty people who claim it worked. On the other hand if you are able to provide empirical based arguments in a sense that you have tried it with some of your clients or even on yourself and then give in detail the explanation why it won’t have the desired effect on them will in return carry a lot more weight (pun intended). So make sure you have empirically backed arguments for each course of treatment you choose or deny your clients.

There you have it, some of the most effective ways of boosting you nutritional knowledge. The one thing is for sure, you’ll have to accept the fact that your knowledge gaining journey will never be over, because the health food industry is constantly evolving and changing with each new scientific breakthrough, and the only way you can expect to remain on top is if you do the same.

getting, gro, learning

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