Legal Implications of Being a Nutritional Consultant

Nutritional consulting is a very responsible occupation and professionals employed in this field should be conscious of their legal liability since they are responsible for the impact of their consulting on the health of their clients. At the same time, it does not necessarily mean that nutritional consultants should avoid introducing innovations in their work out of risk of violating some legal norms, but they should be aware of existing legal norms and put the health of their clients above all. On the other hand, they should inform their clients about potential risks they may face if they follow recommendations developed by a nutritional consultant.

Obviously, nutritional consultant should work in accordance with existing legal norms. In this respect, the US Constitution contains the fundamental legal norms and principles which are superior to all other legislative acts and norms implemented in the USA on all levels, from the federal level to the local level. At the same time, nutritional consultants should take into consideration recommendations and norms developed by the FDA in regard to the use of food and medicaments as well as other nutritional elements which nutrition consultants can recommend their clients to use. Nutrition consultants cannot take any decision until they clear out what effects their decision will have on their client. Nutritional consultant should find out whether their clients are vulnerable to some allergic reactions to nutrition or medicaments, whether they have some chronic disease, and so on. In other words, nutritional consultants should have possibly larger information about health and health problems of their clients and avoid professional negligence. Otherwise, they will be liable to legal prosecution and their clients can file a lawsuit in case of dangerous effects of nutritional consultants’ recommendations on their health.

In this respect, it is necessary to underline the fact that the work of a nutritional consultant is accompanied by certain risk related to the negative influence of the treatment defined by a nutritional consultant on the health of a client. However, the deterioration of the health of the client may be provoked not only by incompetence of the nutrition consultant or by his or her professional negligence but also by numerous factors which are not dependent on the nutrition consultant. This is why the nutrition consultant should ensure that the client has understood all his or her recommendations properly and that he or she will follow these recommendations strictly. It is very important to have records of all these recommendations and consultations in order to prove innocence of the nutritional consultant, if the client files a lawsuit against him or her, for instance.  Some nutritional consultants can make a serious error if they fail to keep such records properly because gaps in the records can become a reason for allegations in competence or professional negligence.
Thus, it is possible to conclude that nutritional consultants should primarily focus on health of their clients. If they do not expose clients to any risk and fully inform them about potential threats or side effects, nutritional consultants will not face any legal problems.

References:
Tettenborn, A.M. et al. (2003). Professional Negligence and Liability Reports. London: Sweet & Maxwell
Wilson, L. (2008). Legal Guidelines for Unlicensed Practitioners. New York: Random House.