Dietitian vs. nutritionist: credentials explained

In this episode of the Digital Health Heavyweights podcast, host Norm Volsky interviews Noah Kotlove, Founder and CEO of Berry Street, a virtual nutrition therapy platform connecting patients with dietitians for one-on-one personalized nutrition care across more than 25 conditions, and  leveraging AI to empower providers and patients . Noah shares his patient-first journey how working with a dietitian helped him lose weight and why nutrition counseling remains one of the most underutilized benefits in U.S. healthcare despite broad commercial coverage that is often $0 out of pocket. The conversation explores Berry Street’s rapid growth since January 2023, its $50M raise in 2025, the difference between dietitians vs. “nutritionists,” and how Berry Street supports patients navigating the GLP-1 era with sustainable nutrition and behavior change.

Takeaways

 🥗 Nutrition therapy is widely covered by commercial insurance, yet remains deeply underutilized.
 🧠 Dietitians support behavior change beyond “eat this / don’t eat that,” including relationship-with-food work.
 ⚖️ “Food freedom” helps patients avoid guilt spirals and build sustainable habits.
 🍿 Small guardrails (like portioning snacks into a bowl) can compound into major outcomes over time.
 🏢 Large enterprises often struggle with zero-to-one innovation—startups thrive because they’re built for it.
 🚀 Berry Street scaled rapidly after launching in January 2023, reaching tens of millions in annualized revenue (as shared on-air).
💰 Berry Street raised $50M in 2025, driven by growth, a massive market tailwind, and strong provider/patient experience.
🩺 Dietitians are credentialed clinicians who can bill insurance; “nutritionist” is not a standardized credential term.
💉 GLP-1s are a powerful tool, but dietitian support helps protect nutrient intake, adherence, and long-term sustainability.
🍌 A simple daily habit: pairing fruit (banana) with protein/fats (peanut butter) can improve satiety and energy stability.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Noah Kotlove and Berry Street
 01:35 Noah’s Path into Healthcare: A Patient-First Story
 04:10 How Dietitian Care Drives Sustainable Behavior Change
 07:24 Principles Behind Noah’s 60–65 lb Weight-Loss Journey
 11:41 Founding Sobriety Soft: Early Entrepreneurship in Health Tech
 15:25 Lessons Learned Building a Product for a Sensitive Community
 18:25 Accenture to Startup CEO: Lessons from Enterprise Innovation
 21:11 The Origin and Meaning Behind the Name “Berry Street”
 23:19 Why Nutrition Therapy Is Massively Underutilized
 24:34 Fundraising Advice: Authenticity in a Tough Capital Market
 26:20 What Drove Berry Street’s $50M Raise and Growth Strategy
 28:35 Dietitian vs. Nutritionist: Credentials, Training, and Trust
 31:00 Inside the Berry Street Patient Experience
 33:26 Insurance Coverage Explained: Preventive vs. Medical Nutrition Care
 35:11 Go-to-Market Strategy: From DTC Growth to Health Plans
 35:58 Becoming In-Network: Scaling Provider Contracts Nationally
 37:20 Clinical Outcomes and the GLP-1 Nutrition Pathway
 39:13 The Role of Nutrition in a GLP-1-Driven Future
 48:45 Managing Stress and Staying Centered as a Founder
 50:12 Healthy Habits and Simple Nutrition Wins
 53:01 Closing Thoughts and Final Reflections

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