We’re in the grip of a podcast plague. I’m serious – everyone has one. Have you checked the children?! Not to ensure they’re safe in bed but to be certain they’re not broadcasting from there 🙃😆 And podcasts have now gone AV! We’re able to watch people speak!! It’s almost like IRL but better because they’re wearing massive headphones. Being able to watch, what was previously, an audio-only offering, caters to our microattention span issues & is also the only assurance (though not for long of course!) that this is an actual conversation between two or more real humans, rather than an AI bot exchange 😥 But when they’re good they’re great!

Recently I’ve been interviewed by athletes & performance coaches, a nutritionist who’s an expert in weight management, along with some great GPNs (general practice nats).

And what a delight it’s been to dine out on these kind of conversations!
When two minds meet in the middle- our shared curiosity for critical thinking in nutrition – & the hosts, themselves, bring so much to the table, by way of their own expertise.

Given my slowed pace & ipso facto increased sense of space I’m now able to accept these invites & I am eager to unflinchingly unpack the evidence with other experts and spread the word! Not of the New Testament or any other holy text but rather of the extraordinary lessons I’ve learned, particularly in the last few years. Because, generally speaking, the longer anyone works in nutrition, the less interested they become in simplistic answers. Not because simplicity is bad but because the innumerable exchanges between our bodies & the nutrients that fuel them, rarely behave as neatly as entry-level education suggests. After 20+ years in practice, I spent an entire year revisiting the latest research (the actual research not the premasticated and often adulterated AI abridged version of it).

I expected updates.
What I found instead fundamentally changed how I interpret assessment, prescribing and almost every aspect of clinical decision-making regarding nutrition.

I’ve spoken many times about my foundational undergrad nutrition as being phenomenal and also incomplete & incorrect. Two issues are at play here – firstly science doesn’t stand still (thankfully) so what may have been correct at the time the content was created (no matter how many years ago that was for each of us…) is often no longer and secondly, because, entry-level education has to be simplified. That’s normal. simplification is a pedagogical necessity but dangerous when mistaken for the full picture. An organisation contacted me recently asking if I would deliver nutrition training to their new intake of heath professionals, as I’ve done many times before but it became clear they wanted to stay with the ‘old songbook’ & an overly simplified and outdated script.

I can do simple.
But I can’t & won’t make the mistake of making out that Nutrition is simple.
There’s a difference.

So I had to say no but how many of us already out there working with nutrition, still sing from the old songbook? Plagued by questions about why our nutritional prescriptions don’t always work? Or work in some and not in others? Or left feeling a little lost because the markers we’re using to measure individual nutrients aren’t responding to repletion the way we’d anticipated. Or even, ask ourselves, ‘Is this the best way to address my patients needs using these sources and supplements?’ Entry-level education enables us to name the nutrients needed. A significantly more advanced understanding, however, is essential to answering all the other questions embodied in any prescription: What form? How much? How often & when? &, for how long for? Being across critical details, that have only emerged in the evidence more recently, changes all of these decisions and ultimately our patient outcomes.

These podcast conversations reflect an updated understanding of the science and in turn, far more nuanced nutritional prescribing.
Regarding iron, vitamin D, interpretation of nutritional markers, general prescribing principles and more!

Maybe you’re ready to join our Nutrient Prescriber’s Program Alumni? A group of practitioners who tell us repeatedly, they have undergone an extraordinary (& uncomfortable!) transformation. If that’s you, why wait? Because optimal outcomes begin where entry-level education ends.