About Us

Our mission is to ensure the sustainable prosperity of the sports nutrition profession.

Currently operating in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Asia and Europe, we are the only non dietetic professional body responsible for establishing and standardising best practices in Sports Nutrition.

We also provide education and Certification for Personal Trainers, Exercise Physiologists, Online Coaches & Exercise/Sports Scientists, and Clinical Nutritionists looking to add Sports Nutrition service provision to their insured scope of practice.

Our advisory board of leading researchers, practitioners, insurers and global underwriting firms review and update our content every year based on the latest research and insurance.

What Is Sports Nutrition?

Sports Nutrition is the practice (non medical) in nutrition of improving or changing body composition, managing and changing weight gain or loss, and improving performance. A sports nutritionist develops personalised nutrition plans that take into account their individual needs, training goals and personal goals.

The Problem We Are Solving

We help prevent the unregistered practice of nutrition. In turn, this reduces the amount of people who can get hurt by incorrect nutrition advice, as well as reducing the number or professionals that get sued.

Who We Are

We are the first (and currently the only) professional body to standardise the practice in Sports Nutrition globally in an all-inclusive manner. You can see our advisory board here.

All of our assessors and career advisors are Openly Accredited – degree qualified (ranging from exercise scientists/physiologists, registered dietitians and sports dietitians) members, who are permanent part time employees for the association.

Our board maintains a substantial part-time client load in private practice. We structure these roles intentionally so that we can guarantee the information you are being provided for your career advice, or feedback on your assessment is coming from someone who has achieved at a very high level what you are wanting to achieve, and has their finger very much on the pulse in private practice & client work..

What We Do

We establish a minimum standard of education, experience requirements that coincide with levels of Accreditation as a Sports Nutritionist

As a result of these established standards, we have provided a framework where the public & insurers + underwriters can be (and are) comfortable endorsing and working with our professional members.
We have Trademarked – & are in the process of attaining Certification marks of quality assurance in each country/region we operate in – the title Accredited Sports Nutritionist to ensure the standards associated with the title we have worked hard to establish are not tarnished or diluted in any manner that may result in the public being mislead in the quality and assurances of a service provider in this space.
We conduct annual audits of everyone of our members to ensure that these standards and practices are being maintained
We conduct annual reviews of our standards & academic curriculum requirements, in conjunction with our insurance partners, lawyers, regional government health commissions, & advisory board to ensure that the standards are both meeting the needs of the industry & reflecting the organisation’s vision for industry impact & improvement

Why We Do It

To improve the quality and experience of the public, athletes and sporting teams with their nutrition, as well as improving the standard of the fitness and nutrition industries. Prior to our establishment, there were no standards in Sports Nutrition (outside of the small exclusive Sports Dietetic fields).

Our Vision

To improve the nutrition experience of the world through education, regulation and the ongoing maintenance and improvement of standards.

We want to have an industry and world where people receive sound and safe advice from nutrition professionals, and the public are equipped with the knowledge to know who and where to turn to for this information.

Values To The Public & Members

We are committed to an ongoing process of innovation, responsibility, integrity and collaboration.

Innovation:

We strive for continual improvement – aiming for excellence in what we do
We understand that the industry needs to improve & that we provide a unique solution to it
We understand that no process or system is perfect
We understand and appreciate that the things that we do today are not what we will be doing in 5, 10, and 15 years time
We understand and appreciate just how important feedback is to continue to innovate and improve

Responsibility:

To act in integrity, honour your word, and respond with ability
It is important that we act responsibly with how we serve our members, and the public. And most importantly how our members act with each other and to the public.
It is important that we facilitate and maintain at all times (in a meritocratic manner) the rules and regulations associated with the insurers, underwriters, government commissions & 3rd party agencies in every region we operate in, in their bespoke manner required.

Integrity:

In how we operate, honouring our word, leading by example
Operating based on fact & merit before personal preference & opinion
Being honest and having strong moral principles
Embodying a transparent, honest and conscientious approach to all things we do
Embracing our duty of care to the public, to the industry as a whole and to ourselves

Collaboration:

With our professional members, ensuring they are supported.
With members of the public ensuring they are protected
With the 3rd party compliance, government commissions & insurers we work with to maintain the ecosystem of Sports Nutrition standardisation
And how our professional members interact with the public

Establish Standards

Prior to our formation, no ‘minimum standard’ for a Sports Nutritionist existed. The Association’s founders worked with underwriters to establish a framework that ensures a minimum standard is met for Sports Nutrition education, practice and insurance.

Educate Effectively

Access to legitimate undergraduate Sports Nutrition education is uncommon, and as a result there are a number of professionals who have not completed all the relevant subjects and relevant degree programs required to register without further study.

These professionals and those who have not studied the subject matter before can enrol in the Certificate in Applied Sports Nutrition. The Certificate has been engineered to meet the minimum requirements for competence in Sports Nutrition practice with 12 core subjects/units of competence being assessed.

Regulate Diligently

Once education standards have been met we focus on the regulation of the professional members via annual audits, ongoing education with 6 month refresher programs and annual CPD.

The Association has undertaken trademarks and Certification Marks for the term Accredited Sports Nutritionist, allowing the public and industry alike to measure to trust that high quality standards have been set out for all its members.

Why This Is Important

Legitimate registration with a relevant scope of practice that enables professionals to practice while being covered by insurance ensures that both the registered professionals and their clients are covered in the event of a worst-case scenario.

While the standards the body sets out ensure these scenarios are reducing significantly. If you are a fitness professional, exercise or sports scientist, exercise physiologist, clinical nutritionist, clinical dietician or a non-accredited sports nutritionist, you actually don’t have the registration or access to insurance that covers your practice.

As a personal trainer or exercise physiologist, many short course providers will only cover you for 'advice' which is not prescriptive and sets you up for legal risks.

For clinical nutritionists and dietitians who are not dually registered as a sports dietitian, your registration and cover is only for medical nutrition interventions.

Sports performance, body composition manipulation are typically not included and for good reason — exercise physiology, exercise biochemistry, adaptive thermogenesis and energy availability is not required to complete these programs.