where did it all start?

When I was little I wanted to be a medical doctor. I loved science and maths and still do. Queensland University accepted me into Med school. One day during an exam in the anatomy lab, it dawned on me that handling blood and guts was not for me I didn’t like cutting into human flesh. I also don’t like blood (not that there’s blood in the anatomy lab). Somehow my childhood vision of helping people get healthy and stay well didn’t factor in these medical basics.

I switched across to study Science.

After grueling studies in biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and microbiology and in my final year of Science, I had no firm direction or purpose. What was I going to do with a Science degree? By chance, I stumbled across the field of human nutrition and dietetics. It offered the perfect combination of science, maths and helping people to get well and stay well.

Medicine without the blood. Medicine through food.

Why hadn’t I heard of nutrition and dietetics earlier?

At 20, I didn’t even know that human nutrition was a field of study. I knew down to the cellular level about how food was used. I knew oodles about chemical structures and enzymatic pathways within the human body but somehow, I didn’t join the dots with food. Food was nothing more than something I ate.

I was not a foodie. Super foods didn’t claim titles back then. I couldn’t afford to eat out or buy fancy foods. At night, I worked as a night-filler stacking shelves at the local supermarket (the shops were not open 24 hrs) and during holidays I trimmed fresh pineapples at the pineapple canning factory.

I graduated from dietetics in 1979. My experiences span medical nutrition therapies for adults and kids, weight and health management, nutrition research, university teaching, food services, public health nutrition, corporate and industry consultancy, nutrition communications, and private clinics.

Well, that’s such a long time ago now.

Fast forward to today. What do I do now?

I help people around the globe to become happier with their weight and size, and enjoy better health. I do this through my books, speaking and writing engagements, mentoring agreements, and recipe review and analyses.

I am an award-winning dietitian and my books are award-winning as well.

I have seen a lot of fad diets come and go, diets recycled with different names. I have seen diets promoted by celebrities and nutrition coaches who claim authority and expertise after taking brief on-line pseudo-science nutrition courses but who don’t have either the genuine qualifications or bonus knowledge that experience brings.

I hope you are more aware of who to trust your body’s nutrition to now that you have read my story and background.

With all this experience under the belt, my attention turned nutrition communications. Through this, I reached many more people than I could ever help in private one-on-one clinics.

Now I have retired.