07Jul 2018 by Aidan Muir
Bariatric Surgery Q&A Featuring Purva Gulyani

Bariatric Surgery Q&A Featuring Purva Gulyani

Health
Can you please tell us a little bit about your career so far? I started my career as a private practice Dietitian in 2004, and then we planned to move to Melbourne in 2009. That's when I cleared my APD status, but I had to head back to my home town of New Delhi, in 2010. In 2011 I joined the team of an esteemed Bariatric and GI Surgeon Dr Atul Peters, where I got hands on experience of Bariatric Nutritional Management. Every day was a new challenge; each patient comes up with some unique queries and issues. In March 2016 I finally ended up moving to Australia. It took almost 3-4 months to set up my own practice in Melbourne with help of my mentor and guide in this…
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26Jun 2018 by Aidan Muir
Shane Jeffrey Q&A

Shane Jeffrey Q&A

Other
Can you tell us a little bit about your career? My career had an interesting start I guess in that I didn’t complete my placement at university. I’ll share a little bit about how I got into eating disorders. I had two clinical placements: the first placement I did really well and the second placement I didn’t do really well with. I like to think it was a bit of a personality clash more than my clinical work. At the time, I wasn’t typical eating disorder dietitian. I ended up having to do an extra couple of weeks work at the Gold Coast Hospital to try and demonstrate my competencies, and out of that I passed the course and then I was offered a locum job—and out of that I…
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17Jun 2018 by Aidan Muir
Low-Fat vs Low-Carb Diets for Weight-Loss?

Low-Fat vs Low-Carb Diets for Weight-Loss?

Health
There is the age-old question of which is better for weight-loss: Low-Fat or Low-Carb diets? At the end of the day, it comes down to calories in and calories out. If calories and protein are matched, then the results should be equal. But that brings up a different question: What if one of the diets is easier to follow in the real world? Of course, you can show the results are the same if you account for all the variables in a strictly controlled study, but that doesn’t mean very much from a practical perspective for those looking to lose weight on their own. Due to this, I’m going to mainly focus this article on what I truly believe is one of the most interesting nutrition studies of the last…
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12Jun 2018 by Aidan Muir
Alicia Edge Q&A

Alicia Edge Q&A

Other
Can you please tell us a little bit about your career so far? I graduated in 2008, so I’m on the ten-year anniversary this year and I’m not even sure how that happened! I came out and, like everyone else, I struggled to find work—particularly in Newcastle where I graduated, because when you graduate in Newcastle those jobs are pretty few and far between and everybody wants to stay locally. I knew that I probably wouldn’t be able to stay if I wanted work. I’m from Taree originally which is two hours north of Newcastle, so I was lucky enough to get a job in community health and from there I ended up in a job in Taree in private practice. I was in employment there full-time for about a…
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09Jun 2018 by Aidan Muir
The Evidence-Based Dietary Treatment for Depression

The Evidence-Based Dietary Treatment for Depression

Health
For a long time, it has been known that there is some form of dietary link with depression. It doesn’t take a genius to look around and notice that people with depression often don’t have the best diets (although there are exceptions), but that brings up a chicken or the egg situation. Do they have poor diets because of the depression leading them to care less about their diets? Or is their poor diet one of the key factors in their depression? I believe it is likely a combination of both. Having worked with quite a lot of people with severe depression, I can clearly see that there are a lot of times where they throw any care in the world about good nutrition out the window, no matter how…
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28May 2018 by Aidan Muir
Andy The RD Q&A

Andy The RD Q&A

Other
1) Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I am a kale loving Canadian dietitian and nutrition blogger from Toronto, the place where I’ve lived my whole life and also home of worldwide rap phenomenon Drake. My life revolves around nutrition! I tell people what to eat in person, I write about what to eat on my blog and social media, and if I’m not doing one of those two things I am probably thinking about what I’m going to eat myself. I also happen to love playing and watching soccer. 2) Hypothetical situation: An overweight 30-year-old male with no cooking skills (and no interest in cooking) who gets takeout every night, comes to see you with a goal of weight-loss. What are the first options that you…
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12May 2018 by Aidan Muir
Lana Hirth Q&A

Lana Hirth Q&A

Other
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? My name is Lana Hirth. I’m a dietitian and nutritionist from Campbelltown (South West Sydney). I’ve lived in the South West all my life and there are some unique challenges living in this low-socioeconomic status (SES) area when it comes to nutrition. I work in a private practice clinic in the Campbelltown area and most people I see are referred from by their doctors under Medicare plans. What are some of the nutritional challenges faced by people living in low SES communities? There are many. High number of fast food outlets, long work hours, substance abuse and lower education levels are all factors that influence nutrition. One is summed up well by the ‘Red Rooster Line’ – the significant difference in…
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06May 2018 by Aidan Muir
Q & A with Brianna from The Ambitious Dietitian

Q & A with Brianna from The Ambitious Dietitian

Other
Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your career? Well I always knew I wanted to be a dietitian. I did work experience in year 10 with a community dietitian and from then on that was always going to be the path I was going to take. I started doing Health Science (public health) at uni as a means to transfer into the 4-year bachelor which was relatively at the time… I then moved to Wollongong to do my dietetics, then went back to Melbourne and completed my health science degree so after 7 long years, I got both bachelors! I always thought I would go into community work or public health however my first job was servicing nursing homes across Victoria as well as consulting…
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03May 2018 by Aidan Muir
Lyle McDonald Q&A on Nutrition and Training for Female Athletes

Lyle McDonald Q&A on Nutrition and Training for Female Athletes

Other, Sports
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I got interested in this field and industry back in high school in the 80's. I had grown up a relatively inactive video gaming kind of kid but started cycling, swimming and doing martial arts and it sort of just grabbed me. That led me to UCLA to get a degree in physiology/kinesiology and it was there I became most interested in the science of training, diet, supplementation, etc. Essentially I was trying to get make myself a better athlete and was lucky to turn it into a career. I got on the Internet when it was basically starting in 1993 and have been around ever since. I've published 13 or 14 books on varying topics in that time. What are…
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24Mar 2018 by Aidan Muir
Are Low-Carb Diets Underutilised for Type 2 Diabetes?

Are Low-Carb Diets Underutilised for Type 2 Diabetes?

Health
As a dietitian I have held back on talking publicly about a lot of things I strongly believe in. Deep down, I think this is based on being concerned with how other dietitians view me. I know that I am not alone in this and a lot of dietitians feel this way as well. My recent article on why I’m not a non-diet dietitian made that point clear to me. The inflow of private messages I got from people sharing their stories and why they weren’t speaking up on the topic was incredible. This is exactly why I am writing about low-carb diets for Type 2 Diabetes (referred to as diabetes for the rest of the post). It’s another topic that I personally have avoided to speaking up about. Maybe…
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