What you put into your mouth makes a difference. When we do not eat the right foods, like fruits and vegetables, we become deficient in vitamins or minerals. Our bodies react negatively when we put substances into our body that disrupt normal health functions.

Preservatives Cause Harm
Chemicals and unnatural foods can cause health problems. These substances seem to be found in many processed foods. For example, partially hydrogenated fats (trans fatty acids) are used as preservatives. They help to keep foods on the shelves much longer then any food should last.

Unnatural Fats Poison your Body
These partially hydrogenated fats start out as a good natural plant derived oils. Hydrogen gas is bubbled through the oil, connecting itself to the oil molecules changing the molecule to an unnatural form, now a chemical. This is where the problem begins. When we eat this unnatural fat, this unnatural chemical tries to get into our cells from the blood stream. However, it can’t get across the membrane without, in many cases, getting stuck. This changes the normal configuration of these very delicate cellular structures.

The definition of a Poison is :

“Any substance which, when relatively small amounts are ingested…creates a chemical action that may cause damage to a structure or disturbance of a function, producing symptomatology, illness, or death.” Knowing that trans fatty acids do just that, we need to look at the big picture ask just how they will affect our long term health.

Trans Fatty Acids Affect your Long-term Health
A few of the risks that we are taking by ingesting trans fatty acids are an increased chance of: heart attacks, strokes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, inflammatory conditions and autoimmune diseases! Some every day symptoms that eating trans fatty acids may cause are: headaches, joint pain and back pain, arthritis, asthma, skin problems, hot flashes, premenstrual syndrome and menstrual cramps.

There is a Solution!
After looking in your kitchen you will find you have a lot of work to do. If you are ready, throw away all of the products in your kitchen that have partially hydrogenated oils. If you need to start off slow, finish the foods in your kitchen. Then, replace the chemically altered foods with products without chemicals. Eat organic foods whenever possible. A hint: Whole Foods Grocery Stores have done the work for you. They no longer sell products that contain partially hydrogenated oils. Other health food stores will be helpful as well.

A nutritionist is a person who advises people on dietary matters relating to health, well-being and optimal nutrition. It should be noted that anyone (whether with or without formal specialized education) can refer to themselves as a nutritionist. There is no regulatory body for nutritionists.

Nutritionists should not be confused with dietitians (although the latter may sometimes describe themselves as nutritionists). Dietitians are health care professionals who have received specialized formal accredited tertiary education and training, and undertake internship in hospitals, and who are required to adhere to their regulatory body's code of conduct. They are also the only non-medically-trained healthcare professionals permitted to practice clinically in hospitals or healthcare facilities. A dietitian would almost never refer to himself or herself as a 'nutritionist'.

Many nutritionists appear on television, in newspapers and magazines, and write bestselling nutritional books, often attaching themselves to assorted media celebrities.

High school students interested in becoming a dietitian should take courses in biology, chemistry, mathematics, health, and communications.

Dietitians need at least a bachelor’s degree in dietetics, foods and nutrition, food service systems management, or a related area. College students in these majors take courses in foods, nutrition, institution management, chemistry, biochemistry, biology, microbiology, and physiology. Other suggested courses include business, mathematics, statistics, computer science, psychology, sociology, and economics.

Nutritionists, by comparison, have varying levels of education, and can be anything from a well intended but undereducated individual who has worked as a shelf stocker in a health food store all the way up to someone who may have the equivalent of a master's degree in Physiology or Biology, and as a result the opinions by a self-described 'Nutritionist' can indeed be backed by science, along with others which cannot. It is also not uncommon to find that some nutritionists are quite willing to express a political agenda, often very anti-food industry, especially against the larger, more established food manufacturers and distributors.

See Dietitian#Qualification for more information on different academic routes to becoming a dietician.