A dark cloud has been hovering over the labor market since the financial collapse, but there has been one consistent bright spot for job seekers: health care. Add to that rising obesity rates and soaring health-care costs, and the industry shows no signs of slowing. Over the next eight years, employment of dieticians and nutritionists is expected to grow 20% faster than the average for all other occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Experts say that such rapid growth in the field will lead to more demand and higher salaries for workers in the nutrition space.

The perfect storm has been brewing for a while, says Ann Kulze, nutrition expert, family physician, and author of Dr. Anns Eat Right for Life. There has been this flood of dazzling science telling us that diet and great health and diet and disease are inextricably linked.

In addition to increased interest on the clinical level, theres also more demand from consumers interested in improving their health, she says. Record numbers of people now have diet-related diseases, and we know that one of the most powerful triggers to change eating behavior is getting a diagnosis. If your doctor tells you that you had a heart attack or have diabetes as a result of your diet, its a very powerful motivator.

But motivation is one thing, execution is another, and many consumers are unsure of how to maintain a healthy diet. It doesnt help that the foods and products that are heavily marketed tend to be heavily processed and not the healthiest option, making it difficult for consumers to separate food commercialism from healthy eating.

According to the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundations2012Food & Health Survey, 52% of Americans say that doing their own income taxes would be easier than knowing how to eat healthy. Of those surveyed, 76% report changing nutritional guidelines have made it harder to know how to eat right.

Ten years ago, we were told to eat margarine. Today, we are told its horrible for us, says Kulze. The food pyramid used to tell us we needed 11 servings of grains a day. Are you kidding me? Were looking at a situation where most people want to eat better, but they simply dont know how to do it.

The increase in jobs in the nutrition and dietetics space is a direct result of more schools, corporations and health insurance companies hiring health professionals to educate students, employees and clients, says Chad Oakley, president and chief operating officer at human resources consultancy Charles Aris.

The demand for nutrition talent is growing dramatically on a global scale, he says. Nutrition has not been an oversubscribed career path so you have a low supply base of professionals for something that is suddenly experiencing a high demand.

Today, nutritionists are becoming a very regular part of most health care companies portfolios, according to Oakley. They are hired to design menus for people with dietary restrictions and help manage diets for people who have certain chronic conditions.

Some health care companies have a huge team of nutritionists that do nothing besides think of menus for people and breakdown the ingredients in every product you can think of, Oakley says.

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