Why Behaviour Change Is the Missing Link in Nutritional Therapy, and Why Zest4life Is Investing £250,000 to Help Practitioners Lead the Future

Nutritional therapy is a highly skilled and impactful profession, grounded in science and driven by practitioners who care deeply about improving client health. Training as a Nutritional Therapist equips practitioners with a strong foundation in science, clinical thinking, and client support, and many Nutritional Therapists already integrate behaviour change effectively into their work. However, as the profession evolves and client expectations change, there is growing recognition that behaviour change skills can play an even more central role in improving outcomes and expanding professional opportunities.

This article is intended to support and strengthen the nutritional therapy profession by exploring how a deeper focus on behaviour change can complement existing training and help practitioners build more sustainable, impactful practices.

A Changing Professional Landscape

The nutritional therapy profession has always been rooted in change.

From its early days when nutritional therapy was considered ‘alternative’ to its growing influence in personalised, preventative, and lifestyle medicine, Nutritional Therapists have continually adapted - often ahead of the system itself.

Over the last three years, that pace of change has accelerated. Not because the profession is lacking, but because the wider healthcare, regulatory, and technological landscape is shifting rapidly around it. New opportunities are emerging alongside new pressures - and how we respond together will shape the future of nutritional therapy for decades to come.

At Zest4life, we see this moment not as a threat, but as an invitation: to strengthen what already makes Nutritional Therapy distinctive, impactful, and deeply human.

As part of this evolution, Zest4life has committed £250,000 to support Nutritional Therapists with behaviour-change training and is offering a £500 bursary for eligible practitioners. This is not just an investment in a new training course; it is a direct investment in you, your practice, and your long-term professional future.

The £250,000 Health Coaching Training Fund Is Now Open

👉 Apply now for £500 Bursary for the Coaching Certificate for Nutrition and Healthcare Professionals.

Part-funded places are limited and allocated on a first-come basis.

To understand why this matters now more than ever, we need to look clearly at what is changing around us.

1. A shifting regulatory environment

The professional landscape surrounding nutrition is evolving quickly. In 2020, the Association for Nutrition (AfN) had around 2,500 members and 59 accredited degree programmes. Today, it has 4,600 members and more than 100 accredited programmes (AfN Annual Report 2023–2024).

By contrast, BANT represents approximately 3,000 members and recognises a smaller number of accredited training routes. 

AfN continues to lobby for a Royal Charter for the protected use of the title nutritionist. Though BANT is a self-regulator for BANT Registered Nutritionists / Registered Nutritionists MBANT. for which they have a TradeMark. 

For Nutritional Therapists, this creates some uncertainty — not about the value of our work, but about how titles, pathways, and recognition may evolve. What remains clear, however, is that the core strengths of Nutritional Therapy cannot be regulated away: the ability to build meaningful client relationships, to work with complexity and root causes, and to support people through real-life behaviour change.

These are the skills that have always defined the profession -  and they are becoming more important, not less.

2. The rapid growth of Health Coaching

Alongside these regulatory shifts, the healthcare system itself is changing how it supports long-term conditions and lifestyle-related illness.

In 2020, the NHS employed around 60 health coaches.

Today, it employs 1,000—an 18-fold increase in five years (source Financial Times May 2023) And NHS England forecasts that number will rise to 6,000 by 2035.

This reflects a broader global trend, as health coaching is one of the fastest-growing areas in healthcare, with the global market projected to increase from $20.1 billion in 2025 to reach $41.2 billion by 2034 (Source: Dimension Market Research). Importantly, this movement aligns closely with what Nutritional Therapists already do well. By combining deep nutritional expertise with structured behaviour-change and coaching skills, NTs are uniquely positioned to lead in this space  - whether within, private practice, the NHS, corporate wellbeing, or digital roles that didn’t exist a decade ago.

By adding coaching skills to their existing highly valuable skills set, NTs are uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of this movement.

If you want to be part of this, applications for Zest4life’s £500 coaching bursary are now open.

👉 Apply for funding and integrate valuable coaching skills into your NT practice.

3. AI, information overload and the empathy gap

Clients now have instant access to nutrition facts, supplement protocols, meal plans, and even AI-generated interpretations of their test results.

But as many NTs have observed, this hasn’t solved the lifestyle disease crisis. If anything, clients are more overwhelmed, less consistent, and still searching for real support.

AI can produce lists and plans. It cannot deliver the nuance, empathy, context, or accountability required for genuine, long-term behaviour change and new sustainable healthy habits.

This is where Nutritional Therapists remain essential. skilled practitioners who help people translate knowledge into sustainable action.

4. A fast growing profession full of opportunity

Health Coaching is one of the fastest-growing professions of the decade and is projected to expand by a further 75% by 2030. By adding coaching skills to your existing nutritional therapy skill set, you’ll be uniquely positioned to be part this vital movement toward behaviour change, and to create new, sustainable income streams including: 

✅ Working as a Health Coach, including roles within the NHS

✅ Partnering with Primary Care Networks (PCNs) to deliver diabetes prevention and lifestyle programmes

✅ Corporate Wellness, where health coaches are in high demand

✅ Stronger NT businesses, because coaching enables practitioners to:

• build deeper rapport on discovery calls

• improve enquiry-to-client conversion rates

• deliver longer, more profitable programmes incorporating both nutritional therapy and health coaching sessions.

• increased retention, as clients who make changes and experience real health transformation are more likely to come back for more.

Coaching doesn’t replace NT expertise—it amplifies it, increases income potential, and unlocks opportunities beyond the traditional clinic model.

Why Zest4life Is Evolving to Focus More on Behaviour Change

Zest4life has been at the forefront of behaviour change since 2007. Over 600 Nutritional Therapists have completed our popular six-week Introduction to Health Coaching training course and thousands more have benefited from our business training and mentoring .

This evolution is not about leaving business mentoring behind. It’s about focussing on what we know makes the BIGGEST difference to Nutritional Therapists for the reality of practice today, and the future of the profession tomorrow.

Across thousands of client cases, one truth stands out:

Information alone doesn’t change lives. Behaviour change does.

Clients don’t need more knowledge.

They need help turning knowledge into action—and sustaining it.

That is the work of a Coach.

The Zest4life Health Coaching Training Fund is Now Open for Applications

To support Nutritional Therapists at this pivotal moment,  Zest4life is making its largest investment ever in the profession.

We are establishing a £250,000 Health Coaching Training fund to help practitioners further develop coaching and behaviour-change expertise.

How it works:

• 500 Nutritional Therapists can apply

• Each receives a £500 bursary

• To put toward the HCA Coaching Certificate for Healthcare Professionals. This 12-week course is professionally recognised by the Association for Coaching and the NHS Personalised Care Institute 

• Reducing certification for Nutritional Therapists from £1500 → £1000

• Once qualified as a coach, you'll also receive 2 complimentary group mentoring sessions showing how to blend your new coaching skills with Nutritional Therapy (value £150)

This is not simply a discount. It is an investment in the future of nutritional therapy, and the NTs who will lead it.

Apply Today

Applications are now open for the £250,000 Health Coaching Training Fund.

Eligible Nutritional Therapists and final-year students can apply for a £500 bursary toward the HCA Coaching Certificate for Healthcare Professionals.

To apply, you'll need:

• Your name and email address

• Your nutrition college (or where you trained)

• Your year of graduation (or expected graduation year)

Apply now to secure your part-funded place.

Why This Matters for Practitioners

As the profession evolves, NTs who can facilitate behaviour change will stand out as the practitioners who: 

✅ deliver deeper, more sustainable results 

✅ stay in demand even as AI accelerates 

✅ take advantage of growing NHS, digital healthtech and corporate wellness opportunities 

✅ build a practice rooted in health transformation, not information

Coaching is not a departure from nutritional therapy.

It is its natural evolution.

An Invitation to Lead the Future

This manifesto is more than an announcement. It is a call to the profession to step confidently into the next chapter, one defined by connection, behaviour change, and professional resilience.

When we embrace coaching, we embrace the part of our work that AI can’t replicate, regulation can’t restrict, and clients can’t find elsewhere.

We invite you to join us in this evolution:

 not because the world is changing,

 but because you deserve to be leading that change

Apply for the £250,000 training fund today.