How To Become A Diet Aide: What It Is and Career Path

What is a diet aide and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Helping people get the food they need is what a diet aide is all about. Diet aides are responsible for assisting with food preparation and ensuing that the meals adhere to an individual's specific diet plans. As a result, diet aides must know how to follow instructions for meal orders, nutritional needs, and recipes so that they can ensure residents and patients receive appropriate.

Diet aides typically work in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, and other health care institutions, working alongside registered dieticians. The main task of a diet aide is to serve meals to client and patients, ensuring food safety and hygiene procedures are followed at all times.

In addition to preparing meals, they also work with the dieticians to create meal plans and monitor patient eating habits. The diet aide may also be asked to provide nutrition education and counseling to patients and families. Typically, all that is needed to work as a diet aide is a high school diploma or its equivalent.

ScoreDiet AideUS Average

Salary

2.4

Avg. Salary $30,373

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

4.8

Growth Rate 2%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.02%

Asian 6.91%

Black or African American 10.46%

Hispanic or Latino 19.33%

Unknown 5.08%

White 57.20%

Gender

female 74.74%

male 25.26%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress Level

4.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.2

Complexity Level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.6

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a diet aide

Explore diet aide education requirements

Most common diet aide degrees

Bachelor's

33.8 %

High School Diploma

29.2 %

Associate

20.2 %

Start to develop specific diet aide skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	16.51%
Food Service	9.65%
Customer Service	8.40%
Dishes	8.04%
Tray Line	7.18%

Complete relevant diet aide training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New diet aides learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a diet aide based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real diet aide resumes.

Research diet aide duties and responsibilities

Assist in conducting comprehensive interviews with family members and doctors of patients to get accurate dietary information.
Develop personalized meal plans to encourage optimal nutrition and intake in diabetic, cardiac and oncology patients.
Ensure proper preparation and delivery of appropriate meals to residents of a long term and rehabilitation facility.
Prepare different meals for specific allergies, diets and preferences.

Prepare your diet aide resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your diet aide resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a diet aide resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Diet Aide Resume templates

Build a professional Diet Aide resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Diet Aide resume.

Apply for diet aide jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a diet aide job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do diet aides rate their job?

-/5

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1 Star

Diet Aide reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2020

Pros

It’s an honest day’s work. Lots of lifting and walking around. Pots and pans to scrub, pantries to organize. You won’t be bored for a second, there’s always something to do.

Cons

At the end of the day, you’re body is so tired. From doing this much heavy work you’d expect a decent pay check. You won’t make enough to rent an apartment with this job.