Are you confused when it comes to planning meals? It can get VERY confusing!....

Don’t eat fat, fat’s bad, don’t eat eggs, it’s bad for cholesterol levels, eat more grains, save time and eat processed foods… no wonder we’re confused – especially when the experts revealed they’d gotten things wrong – we need healthy fats to process foods, eggs are great – although processed foods are still in the bad boy camp.

One person who can help us navigate the modern-day food maze is our resident Accredited Practising Dietitian Caitlyn Henderson from ‘Healthy Lifestyles AU’ in Toowomba Qld  who was more than happy to explain what she and her fellow dieticians actually do.

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FULL Transcript

KAYE:
Now, are you confused when it comes to planning meals? I mean, it's hard enough when you're in a city, or a town let alone in a caravan and you've got limited space.

But waaayyy back, humans were grateful to eat whatever they could catch or grow.  Then post war, when there was more food and more food choices available, eating started to get tricky.  Don't eat fat, fat's bad! Don't eat eggs.  It's bad for cholesterol levels, eat more grains, save time and eat more processed foods.

No wonder we're all confused, especially when the experts actually revealed they'd gotten some of those things wrong.  We do actually need healthy fats to process foods.  Eggs really are great.
And although processed foods are still in the bad boy camp, there are some differences.

So one person who can help us navigate the modern day food maze, is our resident accredited dietitian and nutritionist, Caitlyn Henderson, who was more than happy to explain and what she and her fellow dieticians actually do.

BRIAN:
And on the phone, we have Caitlyn Henderson from Healthy Lifestyles Australia.
G'day Caitlyn.

CAITLYN:
Hi Brian & Kaye, thank you for having me on today.

BRIAN:
Now Kaye's going to be the one asking most of the hard questions, but I just want to ask the easy one!
What does a nutritionist and dietician do?

CAITLYN:
Yeah, good question.  That's a very broad question. But essentially a nutritionist or a dietician they're a little bit different the two terms. Nutritionist is a little bit more general, so you can do a lot of work in the public health sector. You can provide some advice and work to develop, I guess, nutrition plans, whereas a dietician can do a little bit more than that.

We kind of work a little bit more in the medical world. So we provide medical nutrition therapy to patients as well as individual dietary counselling. And we're also into food service management in hospitals and aged care facilities. So we can do a lot of different things… But me personally, I'm pretty well working mainly in a private practice sector, so consulting individually with clients.
 
KAYE:
Well with so many career options available nowadays, is there one special thing that prompted you to follow this path?

CAITLYN:
Yeah…. I grew up in Far North Queensland in Cairns, and I worked for a dietitian by the name of Tara Diversy who's the President of the Dieticians Australia, which is our professional body at the moment.
Essentially, I did some work for her during high school, and my younger sister also saw her as a patient for sports nutrition. So I guess she kind of gave me some insight into the dietitian world, and that made me want to become a dietitian. And here I am.

KAYE:
Is it everything you thought it would be or more?

CAITLYN:
Yeah. I think it's more. So when you first start figuring out what you want to do in a high school or when you're studying at University, you sort of have a rough idea of what dieticians do. But then as you start doing a bit more practical work and you're learning a lot more & theory. There's so much.

And there's so many wonderful, incredibly talented dieticians in Australia and in the world and do wonderful, amazing things. I think it's probably more than what I first imagined.

BRIAN:
So you're in the top five. (LAUGHS!).

CAITLYN:
 Yes. We'll say that for sure!

KAYE:
So dieticians obviously don't get as much publicity as they should, although there is increasing interest in diet and nutrition and health and lifestyles.

But have you got any particular examples that stand out to you where, you know, you've made a difference?

CAITLYN:
Yeah. It's interesting.  I guess feel that ‘poor ol' dietitians’ are given a bit of a hard time. There's a bit of a stigma around dieticians and coming to see a dietician and a lot of people come to me and they seem to think I'm going to take a lot of foods out of their diet and stop them from eating certain foods, which in actual fact is probably the opposite of what I'll be doing. I feel like it's not that we get bad publicity, but we just probably don't get portrayed in the right way.

KAYE:
I threw that one at you as an example! 😊 Yeah. A lot of fake information out there as a certain (ex) President in the USA would say.

CAITLYN:
Absolutely. I think the main thing I really enjoy doing for my clients is if they're coming to me and they're really stressed because they're trying all these diets to lose weight, tried everything and they feel like they've failed everything because of these ridiculous diets are cutting out certain food groups and all the foods that they know to be normal and love and want to be included they've been told they have to cut out.  So it's just unrealistic.

But then when they come and see me and we're able to include those foods in moderation and achieve a healthy diet , those are probably my favourite people because they start to relax a little bit around food.  And it's not such a stressful thing trying to plan what to eat and making decisions around food.
So it's not special example, but they're probably my favourites.

BRIAN:
Okay… Now before we get on to people travelling, that's why obviously, what Food, Wine, Pets, Travel is mostly about and the meals that we can do and whatever.  Say you got to a party… for instance Vets, when they go to a party and someone says,” Oh you're a Vet!” . … I've got this cat with a sore this that & the other & a dog with a blah blah blah.

So you go to a party and let them know who you are and what you do for a living…  "Oh I'm Caitlyn, I'm a dietician".  Well… look, I've just started this diet that I love but it’s not working….

KAYE:
What's your pet hate Is where we're both going!!

CAITLYN:
Well, I think you just have to kind of take that with the profession, as food and diets are a very popular topic of conversation.

BRIAN:
I thought you're going to say, "with a grain of salt there"!

CAITLYN:
I think I'm kind of used to it now, and I'm kind of.  I don't know. I'm open to taking on board small questions, but when it's asking for meal plans and advice.

BRIAN:
Yea …  here's my card, give me a call on Monday!

CAITLYN:
That's right! …

KAYE:
We get that, too.

BRIAN:
Well, thank you very much for your time, Caitlyn.
Caitlyn Henderson from Healthy Lifestyles Australia.
CAITLYN:
No worries. Thank you for having me.

BRIAN:
She's great, isn't she?

KAYE:
It's the first time I've actually heard a dietician or nutritionist actually find some joy in all the kind of weirdness that is all around food. I mean, food should be fun. It should be great. We should enjoy it.

And she's making sure that we are and putting a smile on their faces.

BRIAN:
Yep… anyway just go to to HealthyLifestylesAustralia.com.au And you can see all the people that are there. And you can do online consults as well as seeing people personally. So some great information there.  

KAYE:
Great. We'll get Caitlyn back again.

BRIAN:
Definitely! 😊

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