5 ways my nutrition degree changed the way I eat

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I thought I knew all about food. That was before my degree.

A nutrition degree is intense. It’s packed with science, anatomy, stats, nutrition and food.  You don’t need a degree to learn how to eat healthy.

What changed for me? One, learning the foundations of healthy eating from uni. Two, learning from other health professionals who know how to sensibly think about food. I’m not a perfect eater (and won’t be). But I’ve definitely changed a few ways I eat since my nutrition and dietetics degree.

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Why the elderly can eat anything they want

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This article was originally published on The Nutrition Press.

Over 75? Forget counting calories, and make sure you take a second slice of cake!

This probably contradicts what you’ve been taught your whole life—to focus on eating a variety of fruit, veg, dairy, protein and whole grains, and to eat ‘sometimes foods’ sometimes. We know that too many sweets and snacks can be bad for our health over the long term. Is this just another case of health professionals changing their minds? And more importantly, why can grandma have twice as much cake as me?

Let’s compare a newborn baby to a fourteen-year-old boy. Both need to eat to survive, but it would be ridiculous to impose one way of eating upon both of them. Imagine how ridiculous it would be telling a teenage boy to drink six bottles of baby formula a day, and then imagine trying to fit everything a teenage boy eats into a three-week old child’s stomach! Everyone has different dietary requirements—there is no ‘one size fits all’ eating style.

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7 simple pictures to master healthy eating

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The supermarket aisles are full of bright colours and confusing labels. High protein! Low-carb! Sugar-free! 

You could spend hours comparing products, and deciding what’s for dinner. What do you buy? What’s a portion? Do you focus on salt or sugar? Carbs or fat? 

It’s exhausting and to be honest, more complicated than what it needs to be.

aintnobodygottimeforthat

So to make it easier, here are my favourite pictures and hacks (because who doesn’t love a good picture!).

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Essential resources for student dietitians

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Your final year of dietetics will be intense. Five months of placement, research, finally applying everything you learnt 3 years before and learning a whole lot more.

To make it easier, here are my top resources (in no particular order). These are essential for helping you to be the best dietitian you can be. I’ve mentioned some resources that I love earlier, but here are some others that I find are just as essential.

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Two quick tips for Christmas eating

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If your Christmas is anything like mine, it starts with many hugs and kisses as you greet loved ones. The table quickly fills with food and before you know it, your plastic plate has a bit of everything on it.

This will most likely end with pants unbuttoned and the sloth-like state that accompanies a finished Christmas meal.

To make things worse, it’s only a week till the New Year. If ‘getting healthy’ wasn’t already apart of your New Years Resolutions, chances are your loved ones are talking about it.

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Vegetarians: what nutrients could you be missing out on?

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When you remove any food from your diet, you’re at risk of nutrient deficiency. When you remove meat from your diet, you may not only be low in protein, but many other nutrients too.

Ethical reasons aside, there are many health benefits to the vegetarian diet – but I’ve always wondered what exactly makes a vegetarian diet healthy. There are different vegetarians but overall there are key nutrients to pay attention to. These include iron, B12 and a few others.

It’s possible to be a vegetarian (and do it well). Continue reading…