Doctors For Nutrition

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  • Fast facts: the ins and outs of fasting

    Fast facts: the ins and outs of fasting

    Thinking about giving fasting a try? Here’s what you need to know beforehand. Spoiler alert: there is a way you can eat to enjoy the benefits typically achieved by fasting. Article first published in Nourish Magazine.

    Rewinding to just over a decade ago, I had the experience of completing a three-month medical school placement at TrueNorth Health Center in California, under the supervision of internationally renowned physician and nutrition expert Dr Michael Klaper. TrueNorth offers a residential program based on a wholefood, plant-based diet, free from refined salt, oil, and sugar. It is also one of the only places in the world that offers medically supervised water-only fasting. Before undertaking my training at the centre, I knew nothing about fasting and since then, there has been an explosion of interest in this area. If this is something you are considering, here’s what you need to know as a starting point.

    What you do eat matters more than any fast

    Let’s get something straight before we consider any type of fast. Dr Klaper says, “More important than the fast is the food you eat day after day, month after month, year after year.” And the eating pattern the doctors at TrueNorth recommend before, and especially after a fast, is unanimously a diet of whole plant foods.

    More important than the fast is the food you eat day after day, month after month, year after year

    In fact, virtually every benefit ascribed to fasting – better metabolic health (improved insulin sensitivity and lower cholesterol), weight loss, lowered risk of cancer, reduced inflammation, and increased longevity – is also a benefit demonstrably experienced by those consuming a plant-based diet with whole and unprocessed foods as the foundation. There are good reasons for this, including that wholefood, plant-based eating is already naturally lower in energy density while still being satiating and nutrient dense. Therefore, to some extent this can mimic the caloric restriction a fast may aim to achieve. This type of eating pattern also excludes animal protein, which we know increases insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). A reduction in IGF-1 is touted as one of the most important effects of fasting, and some findings even imply that it is the reduction of protein intake that is most important to achieve this effect.

    Invariably, people who participate in fasting studies do not all eat a healthy, low-fat, wholefood, plant-based diet. So, these studies don’t necessarily tell us whether fasting can add to the health benefits already gained when you eat this way. Longevity researcher Dr Valter Longo has become world-famous for his fasting trials and one of his most interesting findings is that the people who benefit most from his fasts are those who are the unhealthiest in the first place. While the effects of fasting will vary from individual to individual, you can be certain that any effect is ultimately less important than what you eat day to day on an ongoing basis. Just as you can’t out-exercise an unhealthy diet, you can’t out-fast one either.

    Is there any benefit to fasting?

    A fast is simply a period of abstaining from food and, in its purest form, would involve consuming only water for a specified time period. We carry fuel reserves that enable us to survive for significant periods of time between meals. About four to six hours after a meal, your body will have either used or stored the energy provided. In the absence of new glucose (energy) from food, your liver starts increasing production of substances called ketones to help keep your brain fuelled. As your body uses more of its stored glucose, it becomes more reliant on ketones, until at some point (usually around 16 hours after the last meal) it can be said to be in ketosis. This means your body is primarily operating on stored fat and ketone bodies.

    Ketones signal a switch in your body’s metabolism. While in the ‘fed’ state, your metabolism favours growth and flexibility, whereas a ‘fasted’ state is characterised by an increased defence against stressors and repair of damage. Therefore, temporary forays into the fasted state are thought to slow ageing and be beneficial for health through numerous mechanisms. For example, a cellular cleaning process known as autophagy ramps up, enabling the body to clean out damaged and old cells, ultimately replacing them with newer, healthier ones.

    However, there’s something important to understand about this process. It is the regular switching between the fed and fasted states that seems to be most natural and beneficial. Prolonged periods spent in either of these states at the exclusion of the other are likely to be suboptimal (and yes, this includes the keto diet).

    Types of fasts you might consider

    Because most of us live in an environment of calorie excess where food is available 24/7, we may only ever experience a fast when asleep. And many of the beneficial processes of fasting start up within hours, not days, of us going without food. In recent years, evidence has been mounting around the benefits of either intermittent fasting or an adaptation of periodic fasting that allows food. Let’s look at the most common variations:

    The 16/8 Method

    This form of intermittent fasting uses time-restricted feeding, where eating is limited to an 8-hour window during the day. For example, if the first meal is at 11 am, the last meal for the day would be finished by 7 pm. While most people achieve this by skipping breakfast, the optimal option metabolically would be to skip dinner instead.

    The 5:2 Diet

    In this variation of periodic fasting, calories are restricted on two non-adjacent days of the week, where only 800 calories are consumed. On the other five days, you eat as you normally would. This isn’t really an actual fast and is therefore presumably less likely to result in the benefits associated with fasting, depending somewhat on meal timing and composition.

    Eat Stop Eat Fasting
    This is a type of intermittent fasting that involves not eating for 24 hours, once or twice a week. During the 24-hour fasts, usually between dinner on one day to dinner on the next day, only water is consumed. This should result in at least six to eight hours of ketosis for most people. I would advise against anything more than gentle exercise during this period if you try this.

    Fasting Mimicking Diet
    This is a restricted-eating program where specific plant-based foods and supplements provided in a pack are consumed for five consecutive days, no more than once a month. On the first day, about 1,100 calories are consumed, dropping to 725 calories on days two through five. While some eating continues during the fasting period, the diet is designed to trick your cells into thinking they aren’t being fed.

    To fast or not to fast?

    Australian longevity guru Dr David Sinclair suggests “almost any periodic fasting diet that does not result in malnutrition is likely to put your longevity genes to work in ways that will result in a longer, healthier life.” While fasting may benefit many of us, it won’t be right for everyone, depending on personal and medical histories. Those with a history of disordered eating or other risk factors should be particularly cautious. Always consult a health professional who is trained and has experience with fasting if in any doubt. And, because fasting does place a strain upon the body, it is a practice that we are best to ease into – especially females, whose bodies can be more sensitive to changes in energy intake and timing of this.

    While fasting may benefit many of us, it won’t be right for everyone.

    However, some form of time-restricted eating can be possible and helpful for most of us. If the methods discussed previously seem too extreme for you, you can instead aim to eat within a 12-hour window each day – from ‘sun up to sun down’. Try to have a bigger breakfast and a smaller dinner. Our insulin sensitivity is greatest in the morning, and we are more likely to store calories consumed later in the day, which can also affect our sleep.

    For those who’d like to try something closer to a traditional fast, the fasting mimicking diet would be a better option than a water-only fast for most. If you have specific medical issues that you believe would be best addressed by a water-only fast, then medically supervised is the only way to go. Find a reputable and established clinic like the one I trained at, TrueNorth, to support you.

    Personally, I tend to keep my eating within a window of 10–12 hours each day. I regularly ‘fast’ one day a week, consuming only water. I might try Dr Longo’s fasting-mimicking diet once or twice a year, though I don’t particularly like the idea of stopping or restricting my exercise, work, and social life to complete it.

    After all, there’s something to be said for quality of life! And a whole food, plant-based eating pattern provides the best of both worlds – enjoying loads of healthful whole, plant foods while also reaping numerous benefits not dissimilar to those provided by fasting.

    This article is republished with permission from nourishmagazine.com.au.

  • Medical students lead the way by replacing sausages with a plant-based lunch

    Medical students lead the way by replacing sausages with a plant-based lunch

    Future doctors at the Adelaide Medical Students’ Society O’Week celebrations kicked off university life the healthy way.

    The Plant B Life and DFN team
    The Plant B Life and DFN team enjoying O’Week.

    Each year, the Adelaide Medical Students’ Society (AMSS) welcomes future doctors to the University of Adelaide with an orientation day (O’Day). Last week, this popular event was held at the Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences building where 150 new students were provided with sun, music and food in a festival atmosphere. The O’Day lunch in the past included a free sausage sizzle. However, this year the AMSS committee decided it was time to make a more sustainable change to the menu.

    Acknowledging that processed meats are classified by the World Health Organisation as group one carcinogens and that meat production contributes to climate change, AMSS approached Doctors For Nutrition in the lead-up to O’Week.

    We were delighted to support AMSS to offer the crowd a plant-based lunch from Plant B Life. The meal included a protein-packed quinoa salad of broccoli, chickpeas, pumpkin and kale with a tangy mustard dressing. The students were also treated to a delicious bliss ball! The students appreciated the change from another sausage sizzle and devoured the food. Also with sustainability in mind, all of the packaging used by Plant B Life was compostable.

    Quinoa salad provided by Plant B Life.
    Quinoa salad provided by Plant B Life.

    Our Advisory Council members, Dr Juliette Roex (GP Registrar) and Deeni Betar-Young (Accredited Practicing Dietitian), were at the event to engage with the students in discussions around the role of nutrition in healthcare. With poor nutrition being a leading cause of health loss and early death, attendees were interested to learn how they could one day support their patients by educating them on whole food plant-based nutrition. Deeni suggests: “a healthy eating pattern is fundamental for disease prevention and management, and this can be achieved through eating more plants, and focusing on whole foods”.

    Dr Juliette Roex and Deeni Betar-Young.
    Advisory Council members, Dr Juliette Roex and Deeni Betar-Young.

    When asked if they knew someone with a chronic health condition, many of the students indicated that they had a friend or family member with diabetes. This led to discussions around reversing diabetes, among other lifestyle diseases, with plant-based nutrition.

    “A plant-based diet can help to prevent, manage and even reverse type 2 diabetes. Doctors For Nutrition aims to provide GPs and dietitians with this knowledge so that they will begin prescribing nutrition for many chronic illnesses, including diabetes” said Juliette.

    “A plant-based diet can help to prevent, manage and even reverse type 2 diabetes.”

    All students who attended the O’Week event were given a Doctors For Nutrition ‘Plant-based nutrition and health guide’ as a part of their welcome bag and many collected a nutrition information pack from the stall. These guides and resources are available free to download via the Doctors For Nutrition website.

    Plant-based nutrition information
    Plant-based nutrition information provided to O’Week attendees.

    We look forward to continuing to support health organisations to show leadership in their events by promoting healthy, environmentally friendly, plant-based food.

    Photos by Jacqui Brogan.

  • A doctor’s advice to help kids enjoy more fruit and vegetables

    A doctor’s advice to help kids enjoy more fruit and vegetables

    Simple tips to help your kids develop a long-term healthy relationship with what’s on their plate.

    Child Eating Watermelon

    As a family medicine doctor, the more I read the latest evidence-based information about feeding our children, the more I realise the importance of giving them the best start in life with a nutrient dense whole food plant-based diet.

    Although as a mother of two young plant-powered boys, I also realise how disheartening it can be when you have spent precious time planning, buying and cooking a delicious healthy plant-based meal, only for it to be thrown on the floor.

    Doctor’s orders are to not give up, your effort is worthwhile!

    Plant-based diets have many advantages, including being lower in saturated fat and cholesterol, while also delivering more fibre, antioxidants, folic acid, vitamins C and E, carotenoids, and a host of other beneficial phytochemicals.

    Children eating a plant-based diet are much more likely to be in the healthy weight range. Evidence is clear that childhood obesity strongly correlates with being obese as an adult, illustrating just how important a healthy start in life is.

    I hope the following tips are helpful in the daily challenge of feeding fussy, stubborn small people, ultimately increasing your child’s intake of whole foods and developing a long-term healthy relationship with what’s on their plate.

    1. You only have control over the ‘when’ and ‘what’, don’t sweat the rest

    Meal times can be stressful. When I’m feeling frustrated that my kids won’t eat something I remind myself of the ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘which’ and ‘how much’ rules. As a parent I have control over ‘when’ my child eats and ‘what’ is served. The child’s role is to decide ‘which’ foods they will eat and ‘how much’. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink and toddlers can be more stubborn than any donkey.

    Build a plate for your child that incorporates some healthy foods you know they like and then also offer something new or yet to be liked. The trick is not to panic if they don’t eat much for a meal. They are likely to make up for the calories with healthier foods later in the day so try to avoid offering something else less nutritious.

    2. New food is alien and must be analysed

    For young children, new foods can be overwhelming. Children use all of their senses to explore foods; how it feels, what it looks like, how it smells, what it sounds like when you poke it. All of this enquiry must first be conducted before it will receive the ‘OK to be eaten’. Therefore it is important we repeatedly give the child the opportunity to analyse the food, often serving it in different forms, so they can become confident to eat it.

    3. It is ok to hate brussel sprouts

    My kids actually like brussel sprouts but it is ok if your child has some foods they dislike. Heck, we all have some foods we don’t fancy.

    4. Make it fun

    Look inside for your inner child when you serve food to kids. Remember to be enthusiastic, make food colourful and fun. Kids love choice, so giving them two options can be a winner at our house. I like to use cookie cutters to make vegetables (like cucumber) into fun shapes. Talking positively about food is important.

    Try to avoid statements like ‘eat your broccoli, it will make you big and strong’, no one likes to be told what to do especially kids. Instead use descriptive words, such as ‘can you hear how delicious and crunchy this apple sounds when you take a bite’. This makes food sound exciting and catches their curiosity. At our house we call broccoli baby trees and at times we are all dinosaurs eating our broccoli trees (all the while making dinosaur sounds).

    5. Which brings me to my next tip, role modeling

    Children’s brains are wired to observe and copy adult role models. We learnt this the hard way when our three year old started saying ‘crap!’ every time something upset him. It is super important for your kids to see you eating healthy foods, sit with them at meal times and show them how you eat and enjoy healthy meals. It’s really not fair to have rules for them that don’t apply to you.

    6. What you bring home (or order online) is what you and your kids will eat

    I often ask parents at my GP clinic what they had for dinner the night before and commonly I hear potato chips and chicken nuggets. Parents often shrug and tell me that’s all their child will eat. I have to remind people that if they are buying chicken nuggets then there is a high chance that their children will eat chicken nuggets. Their children are not the ones in charge of the weekly grocery shop.

    7. Make food a family affair

    Get kids involved in buying, preparing and cooking healthy foods and they will be much more likely to eat them. Cooking is an essential skill for a healthy life. Make meals a priority, turn off the TV and sit down together as a family at least once a day. For older kids, talk to them about your values and why you choose to eat this way, so they can be better informed to make healthy food choices of their own as they grow older.

    It takes a village to raise a child. What you do at home is super important but we also need to support each other and advocate for what is important to us. If this is something you are passionate about, talk to your local school or kindy about the benefits of whole plant foods, get involved in community events, write to your local council about ideas you have.

    I want to see our chronic health pandemic improve. I want to preserve our beautiful planet for my children to explore. Change happens from the bottom up, vote with your forks and trolleys and watch your children thrive.

    If you have any great whole food, plant based recipes I would love to hear about them, please reach out!

    Dr Taisia Cech

    Dr Taisia Cech is a GP who is board certified in lifestyle medicine and holds a certificate in plant-based nutrition. She has a lifestyle clinic, The Healthstyle Doctor, in Nelson, New Zealand, which offers individual and group lifestyle support, both locally and virtually.

    Find her at thehealthstyledoctor.com and on social media @thehealthstyledoctor. Taisia has recently contributed to the Doctors For Nutrition recipe collection, available for free.

  • The heart of the matter

    The heart of the matter

    Heart disease is an everyone disease. Thankfully, your lifestyle has the power to protect your lifelong health. First published in Nourish Magazine.

    Woman Running

    The heart is a magnificent pump made of very specialised tissue that, over an average lifetime, beats about 2.5 billion times. For long-term health, we need to look after this vital organ – and it’s never too early to start.

    Sadly, heart disease is the number one cause of death in Australia and New Zealand, with more than 50 people dying of this condition in our region every day. While the statistics are eye-watering, the good news is that positive lifestyle changes can help you avoid and, in some cases, even reverse coronary heart disease. Chief among them is adopting a dietary pattern centred on whole plant foods, with every step in this direction offering greater benefits for your heart health.

    But am I really at risk?

    The process that leads to the development of heart disease starts from a very young age in most of us. So, understanding the risk factors and ailments associated with the disease is an important step to take to prevent yourself, or your loved ones, from becoming a statistic.

    Major mechanisms in this process include the build-up of fatty cholesterol-laden plaques in our coronary arteries and the inflammation that develops in the lining of our blood vessels, known as endothelial dysfunction. Heart disease develops when plaque – made of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances in the blood – builds up inside the artery walls, limiting the supply of oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle.

    The plaque inside these inflamed blood vessels can rupture, causing a clot that interrupts blood flow to the heart, and without oxygen, the heart muscle dies leading to a heart attack or sudden cardiac death.

    Given modern lifestyles, most of us are at some risk. Who hasn’t had a chat with their doctor about cholesterol by the time our thirties are behind us?

    Doesn’t it come down to genetics?

    It has been said that we not only inherit our genetic makeup from our ancestors but also the family recipe books and habits. And, in many cases, the latter is more influential in determining our health trajectory than our genes. In fact, through good lifestyle choices, we can actually modify the expression of our genes. This is known as the science of epigenetics.

    In the case of heart disease, we can significantly decrease our risk by eating a healthy plant-based diet, which naturally helps us maintain a healthy weight, decrease our LDL (or ‘bad’) cholesterol, dampen endothelial inflammation, decrease our diabetes risk, and support a healthy gut microbiome.

    By eating this way, we are following the consistent advice of national health bodies: to eat a diet rich in nutrient-dense whole plant foods; naturally high in fibre, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds; and one that is low in unhealthy fats, salt, and added sugar.

    While we cannot change factors such as our age, sex, and genetics, a healthy lifestyle gives us the best chance at supporting our heart through all stages of life.

    Fresh produce

    Lifelong health is built with lifestyle

    A diet based on plentiful whole plant foods is the foundation of good heart health. It is also fundamentally important to keep active, develop good sleep patterns, cultivate healthy ways to manage stress, and nurture positive social connections. These lifestyle interventions not only offer protection against developing heart disease but can even halt and reverse the condition.

    By adopting a healthy lifestyle and a wholefood, plant-based diet, we are addressing the root causes of heart disease. The fact that common biological processes underpin virtually all chronic diseases means that your wholefood, plant-based way of eating doesn’t just reduce one risk factor – it has an influence on them all. This is different to using medications, which target specific conditions that are seen as risk factors for heart disease. For example, statins that are prescribed to lower cholesterol or anti-hypertensive medications that are prescribed to treat high blood pressure.

    Cultivating a healthy lifestyle helps to circumvent the causes of disease and illness, hopefully avoiding the need to treat the symptoms of disease later.

    Yes, there’s proof that plants work

    In fact, a low-fat, wholefood, plant-based diet is the only diet that has been shown to halt and reverse heart disease. For example, lifestyle medicine pioneer Dr Dean Ornish is famous for helping Bill Clinton use a vegan diet to reverse heart disease. Dr Ornish also conducted a randomised controlled trial in which patients adopted a low-fat, plant-based diet alongside regular walking, relaxation, and group support.

    The study group showed regression of atherosclerosis (arterial plaques) after one year, with further improvement after five years. The study group also experienced a 72 percent reduction in the frequency of chest pain (angina) compared to just 36 percent in the control group receiving standard care, of whom 60 percent needed cholesterol-lowering medication and 20 percent required the placement of a stent.

    These kinds of results have been demonstrated in both small and large groups of patients, using a wholefood, plant-based diet alone – even at a population level where we can observe the overwhelming relationship between plant-predominant dietary patterns and the virtual absence of heart disease.

    The wholefood approach

    It is important to appreciate that a plant-based diet cannot be automatically assumed to be a healthy one. Saturated fat, processed sugars, and excessive salt from any source can negatively affect your health. It’s best to limit or avoid processed or manufactured foods because there are often fats, salt, artificial flavourings, and sugars added to enhance palatability. We also want to limit sources of plant-based saturated fat, such as coconut oil, and calorie-dense foods, such as cakes, burgers, and pizzas.

    You can decrease your heart disease risk factors by emphasising simple wholefoods and minimising processed and packaged products. The enormous health benefits of a plant-based dietary pattern are all linked to this lower calorie density, higher nutrient density way of eating. This healthy eating pattern focuses on wholegrains, legumes, starchy and non-starchy vegetables, fruits, herbs, and spices – ingredients that lend themselves to a wide range of delicious dishes in flavours and styles from cuisines around the world.

    Obviously, the more that you lean in the plant-based direction, the more the beneficial effect. For people with existing markers of heart disease, it certainly pays to go ‘all in’, with the supervision of a knowledgeable health professional. However, if your aim is to maintain and optimise good health, you may prefer to start small and work towards a more committed wholefood approach as you feel the benefits for yourself.

    A healthy lifestyle helps to circumvent the causes of disease and illness

    Exercising outdoors

    But wait! There’s more

    When talking about heart disease here, we’ve been focusing on coronary artery disease, which is caused by narrowing or obstruction of the coronary arteries that supply the heart. However, the same processes that occur in the arteries of the heart also occur elsewhere in the body, manifested in many ways.

    For example, blockages and reduced blood supply to the brain are major causes of strokes, cognitive decline, and dementia. Peripheral vessels can also become narrowed or blocked, limiting blood supply elsewhere in the body. This, by the way, is why erectile dysfunction is commonly thought of as a ‘canary in the coal mine’ for heart disease.

    Shockingly, cardiovascular diseases as a whole cause nearly one in three deaths in Australia and New Zealand, and an enormous amount of suffering and disability. The powerful flipside is that the same lifestyle changes that prevent and treat coronary heart disease also offer protective and therapeutic benefits for all of these associated vascular diseases.

    These lifestyle measures are not only life-enhancing, but often more effective. And it keeps going. They also offer protection from a wide range of other diet-related diseases from diabetes to cancer – bringing only the very best of side effects, from maintaining a healthy weight naturally to enjoying clearer skin and more energy. Pass the plants, please!

    6 heart healthy foods

    Eating a rainbow of whole and minimally processed plants is a proven way to reduce risk factors for heart disease. Here are just some of our favourites.

    Blueberries – rich in antioxidants, helping to decrease inflammation in blood vessel walls.

    Tomatoes – rich in the potent antioxidant lycopene, shown to help lower cholesterol and decrease heart disease.

    Broccoli – loaded with fibre, antioxidants, and vitamins, helping to guard against calcification of blood vessels.

    Green leafy vegetables – provide a natural package of heart-healthy nutrients including vitamins A, C, E, and K.

    Beetroot – contains a high concentration of healthy plant-based nitrates that help dilate or open blood vessels, leading to lower blood pressure.

    Oats – help lower LDL and total cholesterol while improving insulin response to sugar and supporting a healthy gut microbiome.

    This article is republished with permission from nourishmagazine.com.au.

  • Doctors For Nutrition: 2021 in review and outlook for 2022

    Doctors For Nutrition: 2021 in review and outlook for 2022

    There is no doubt the last two years have left a profound mark on society. One benefit from this tumultuous period has been a wake-up call for health.

    Doctors For Nutrition have been enthused to see the importance of healthy nutrition elevated. Over the course of the year it has been well documented that what we eat can affect our body’s ability to prevent, fight and recover from infections. There has also been broad recognition that human diets are inextricably linked to environmental sustainability. These facts have made the urgency for a shift to healthy plant-based nutrition even more critical.

    Over the course of 2021 we have seen the ability for our global community to work together to solve problems. Doctors For Nutrition have seen the same response from our own passionate community who have connected with us at events, shared our educational material and supported us in our advocacy work.

    In 2021, we continued to place evidence-based knowledge at the finger-tips of people across the healthcare sector and wider community via educational, events, website resources, policy submissions, mainstream and social media.

    Our nutrition and health toolkit for clinicians has gained even more traction as a valuable resource. 4,000+ healthcare practitioners and their patients have downloaded it or received a complimentary copy via mail.

    We teamed up with a range of dietitians, doctors and other plant-powered people to curate a set of delicious recipes. To-date more than 21,000 people have perused our collection to find out what’s for dinner.

    2,200+ health professionals, students and members of the public took advantage of our exceptional line-up of expert presenters for our Food Vitals Webinar Series.

    As part of the inaugural United Nations Food System Summit, we were honored to be joined by 52 experts from a range of healthcare and food-related fields for our Independent Food Systems Dialogue. The conversation focused on national dietary guidelines as a lever to attain a healthier, more sustainable and equitable food system.

    Sadly, we farewelled 2 team members, including Catherine Laurence, who was integral to establishing our charity. We were, however, pleased to welcome 2 new team members and 2 new Advisory Council members. We enjoyed ongoing collaboration with our strategic partners and allies, and were grateful to be supported by 120 generous volunteers.

    See further details of the year’s achievements in the snapshots below, and read on to discover what’s in store for 2022.

    Growing our reach

    in 2021 we:

    • Built our e-list to over 6,000 subscribers, doubling it since last year.
    • Had 78,000 unique website page views, our new recipe collection proving extremely popular (see more below).
    • Increased our social following to 16,200 across our social channels (up 22% from last year).
    • Enjoyed providing our expert-opinion across a range of magazines, newspapers, radio, podcasts and websites.
    • Continued our regular contributions to Nourish Magazine and New Zealand Vegan and Plant-Based Living.
    2021 End of Year Infographic

    Educational events

    in 2021 we:

    • Ran 4 Food Vital Webinars, viewed more than 1,150 times. Each interactive session provided the opportunity to learn from our speakers’ extensive nutrition knowledge and clinical experience.

            I am a 64 year old GP practising medicine for 40 years. I only came across all the evidence for the benefits of WFPB this year thanks to DFN. I have completely changed my diet in the past 4 months and dropped my cholesterol back into the normal range. I promote WFPB to all my patients.

    • Reached thousands of healthcare professionals and students this year by collaborating, presenting and attending health conferences and webinars. This included:
      • The NZ General Practice Conference, Aotearoa’s largest GP conference
      • The Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) Global Health Conference
      • The AMSA National Convention
      • AMSA Rural Health Summit
      • The Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine Diabetes Summit
      • The General Pathology Conference
      • Greening the Healthcare Sector Forum
      • Hungry For Change, a special webinar for medical students on healthy, sustainable diets and how to talk to patients about it.
    • Held an ‘introduction to plant-based’ webinar as part of No Meat May and led a panel at the Vegan Festival Adelaide, both focused on driving awareness amongst the general public.
    • Planned to exhibit at the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ GP21 Conference, however this was unfortunately cancelled due to Covid-19.

    Nutrition resources

    in 2021 we:

    • Continued to share our nutrition and health toolkit. This year 77% of survey respondents who have used these educational resources with their patients reported an increase in the frequency with which they discuss plant-based nutrition, and 71% feel more confident to do so.
    • Collaborated with plant-based experts to provide 60 recipes with no added oil, very low to no added sodium, and no refined sweeteners. In less than 6 months they have been accessed by 20,000 people. The corresponding dietitian-designed meal plan and shopping list has been downloaded 1,000+ times. Our new eCookbook has been downloaded 350 times in just 5 weeks.

          My husband and I used the meal plan and shopping list to begin our whole food plant-based eating. It made the transition much easier and we found all the recipes to be very delicious.

    2021 End of Year Recipe Stats

    Health policy, guidelines and advocacy

    in 2021 we:

    • Leveraged the opportunity to participate in the Australian Dietary Guidelines review, commencing with the NHMRC scoping survey.
    • Continued to focus on the importance of the guidelines review by hosting an Independent Food Systems Dialogue. We assembled a group of experts from our region and beyond. They concluded that Australian diets need to significantly increase plant-based and minimally processed foods, with corresponding reductions in animal-sourced and highly processed foods. The detailed feedback from our event was submitted to the United Nations for consideration as part of September’s United Nations Food Systems Summit.
    • Provided input into a number of Department of Health, United Nations and World Health Organisation documents as part of their consultation process:
      • National Preventative Health Strategy
      • UN Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025
      • WHO fat intake guidelines
      • National Obesity Strategy
    • Senate inquiry on food labelling
    • Added our voice to a number of global and national campaigns, calling for an urgent shift to plant-based diets to combat climate change:
      • ProVeg Diet Change campaign
      • Healthy Climate Prescription
      • Plant-based Treaty
      • Open Letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling for more ambitious action on climate change to protect health
    DFN Team
    Some of the DFN team throughout 2021.

    What’s coming up in 2022?

    Next year we will continue to educate, equip and empower healthcare professionals and their patients about the life-saving benefits of whole food plant-based nutrition.

    With your support, we will expand our educational programs, offering webinars, workshops and CPD accredited learning and development courses specifically for healthcare professionals.

    Our website will be relaunched to provide a more user-friendly experience for healthcare professionals and their patients, including a searchable database of plant-friendly practitioners.

    As the Australian Dietary Guidelines review progresses, we will continue to call for the new guidelines to place a much stronger emphasis on the health benefits of plant-based eating patterns and the risks associated with meat-heavy diets.

    Acknowledging the rise in people transitioning to a more plant-focused diet, we look forward to sharing new resources to support this shift.

    Already underway is a research project to demonstrate the affordability of a whole food plant-based diet compared to a typical Australian diet, and the significant environmental benefits via emissions modelling. We expect to publish our findings in 2022.

    Alongside these projects we’ll be continuing to strengthen and grow alliances with other organisations, and seek impactful opportunities to gain traction for our messages about whole food plant-based nutrition for health—human health and planetary health.

    From all of us at DFN, thank you for accompanying us on our mission. Here’s to a year ahead filled with action towards health and well-being, both now and into the future.

    If you’d like to get involved in supporting our work you can find out more now.

  • 5 best plant-based present ideas: Christmas gifts for the plant-curious to the plant-obsessed

    5 best plant-based present ideas: Christmas gifts for the plant-curious to the plant-obsessed

    The countdown is on, are you running out of time to find the perfect gift for your loved ones this holiday season? Meaningful, purposeful presents that don’t break the budget are not always the easiest thing to find. Why not consider one of the many fantastic whole food plant-based (WFPB) books that have hit our shelves this year, or fall back on an old favourite? We have reached out to a couple of bookworms on our expert Advisory Council to see what has taken pride of place on their bookshelves. Here is what they read (and loved) this year.

    Christmas Day
    The Plant Power Doctor Book

    The Plant Power Doctor

    Written by Dr. Gemma Newman

    The Plant Power Doctor is a lovely, easy to read book that contains so much (referenced) plant-based nutrition information. You can really feel Gemma’s warmth and care when reading it.

    The book contains sections on why and how to lead a healthy plant-based life. The sections are in different colours and contain a combination of factual information, recipe templates, real-life stories and some beautifully photographed, easy to prepare recipes.

    Written in easy-to-understand language, I can visualise Gemma speak as I read. In the first section she discusses what a whole food plant-based diet is and why it is healthy. She then goes on to discuss other topics such as heart health, diabetes, hormones, healthy gut and longevity. Gemma describes how to change to a whole food plant-based way of eating and then offers some recipe advice.

    As a plant-based GP myself, I appreciate the clear language she uses. The book’s format is like a motivating and inspiring consultation. There is something for everyone, from an omnivore looking at dipping their toes into a plant-based diet, through to a long-time vegan who wishes to eat as healthily as possible, through to someone who has eaten whole food plant-based for years.

    Review by Dr. Adrian Griscti, Ambassadoc, South Australia

    The Proof is in the Plants

    The Proof is in the Plants

    Written by Simon Hill

    “Longevity, prevention of disease and a beautiful, healthy planet”. I feel that this quote by esteemed gastroenterologist, Dr. Will Bulsiewicz in the forward of, The Proof is in the Plants, neatly summarises what this book is all about.
    This is the most informative, up-to-date and fun ‘reference’ book on plant-based dietary patterns that I have read in quite a while. The amount of research that Simon Hill put into writing this book is really phenomenal. It is a book that you can pick up and easily read whether you have an interest in nutrition or whether you have a science-based tertiary degree. It is accessible to everyone who wishes to expand their knowledge base in this area.

    As a science nerd, I have enjoyed visiting Google Scholar and reading quite a few of the referenced scientific and clinical studies. The data presented demonstrates the undeniable common thread between dietary patterns and human health.

    Apart from the direct health benefits, this book holistically looks at many aspects of a plant-based way of eating including the sustainability of our planet – not just climate change but also the impact of western diet upon rates of zoonotic diseases and degree of deforestation and their impact.

    Although the book is jam-packed with information in its 400 or so pages, the layout includes tables, diagrams, highlighted sections and factual summaries, making it a very easy read. It is a book that I will continue to refer to again and again.

    By all means read this book from cover to cover, but truly you could open it up at any page and because of the way it is presented you will expand your nutrition knowledge immediately.

    Review by Dr. Adrian Griscti, Ambassadoc, South Australia

    Whole by Natural Harry Book

    Whole by Natural Harry

    Written by Harriet Birrell

    My wife Jenny and I own quite a library of plant-based nutrition books which we regularly loan to family and friends and some of my patients. One book that is not allowed to leave our kitchen bench however, is, Whole by Natural Harry.

    All the recipes in this hardcover book are absolutely delicious, easy to make and without a long list of difficult to find ingredients. They are all healthy WFPB dishes, without added oil. Opposite each recipe is a mouth-watering colour photo of the dish.

    The book starts with a section with Harry’s tips on cooking plant-based meals. She then presents some of her favourite recipes grouped into different categories. Our dog-eared, food smudged copy of this book opens up at multiple favourite recipes including the ‘Cheesy Zucchini Noodle Bake’ page! Each recipe has a comment from Harry describing her thoughts and feelings about her creation. There is also plenty of space on each page to allow you to make your own comments.

    Whole is a beautiful book with a textured cover and pages that feel delightful to hold. The photography is spectacular and accentuates the delicious food. This is a book that would make a well-loved gift – if you can bear to part with it. Our other favourite recipes are ‘Sweet Potato Nachos’, ‘Oaty Seed Loaf’ and …all the rest!

    Review by Dr. Adrian Griscti, Ambassadoc, South Australia

    The Plant-based Diet Revolution Book

    The Plant-Based Diet Revolution

    Written by Dr Alan Desmond

    UK based gastroenterologist Dr Alan Desmond is a close friend of Doctors for Nutrition, having spoken at our inaugural conference in 2019 and continued to share his expertise on all things gut related during subsequent webinars.

    His first book provides a carefully thought out and practical introduction to a plant-based diet, with (unsurprisingly if you’re one of almost 65k following him already on Instagram) an emphasis on the latest research on gut health, naturally complemented by some delicious recipes!

    The Plant-Based Diet Revolution is succinct and highly visual, with the look and feel of a contemporary cookbook – it’s easily digestible in small bites. Perfect for those who might just want to skim or jump around through different topics and the numerous tips and success stories peppered between, before deciding which of 80 included recipes they’ll try out today. Yet, in its entirety it answers all of the questions anyone curious about a plant-based diet might want to ask.

    I’d highly recommend The Plant-Based Diet Revolution for anyone you’d love to encourage to become more plant-based. The beautifully presented recipe section alone, with its simple but attractive recipes with a refreshing UK twist (more familiar to most of us down-under) makes it a great gift to entice even your least plant-forward relatives or friends. Plenty of gluten free and oil free/optional recipes too. Vive la (Plant-Based Diet) Révolution!

    Review by Dr. Luke Wilson, Board Director and New Zealand Ambassadoc

    Eating Plant-based: Scientific Answers to Your Nutrition Questions Book

    Eating Plant-Based; Scientific Answers to Your Nutrition Questions

    Written by Dr Shireen Kassam and Dr Zahra Kassam

    If you are buying for the friend who loves to be the first at everything, pre-order this new book due out on 20th January 2022. It is written by our very own International Advisor and founder of, Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, Dr Shireen Kassam and her sister Dr Zahra Kassam, founder of Plant-Based Canada.

    Eating Plant-Based; Scientific Answers to Your Nutrition Questions, is a Q&A style book that addresses common health-related topics about a plant-based diet. A global transition to a plant-based food system has now become an urgent imperative for both human and planetary health. Even though plant-based diets are associated with some of the best health outcomes and supported by major nutrition and dietetic organisations around the world, myths about the requirement for meat, dairy and eggs persist.

    This book is for anyone who would like a deeper understanding of the scientific evidence supporting a plant-based diet and its impact on human health. It is a guide for health professionals who are increasingly meeting people in their practice who have chosen to adopt a plant-based diet. It is for those of you who are already following a plant-based diet and for those who would like to switch to this way of eating but are being put off by family and friends who question your choice and fill your head with doubt. Is it safe to raise children on a plant-based diet? How do you get enough protein? What about calcium? The answers to all these questions are simple and straightforward and this book provides the scientific background to our understanding of plant-based diets.

    If you are thinking about making the transition, this book will give you the confidence to do so. If you are already following a plant-based diet, it will help you with advocating and discussing your choice with others in an impartial, evidence-based way. The questions are based around the sisters’ experience of advocating and educating family, health professionals, patients and the public on plant-based diets for the last decade.

    If you haven’t had a chance to check-out all these good reads yourself, grab two copies! Not only will you enjoy the read but it will be a lovely way to connect, discussing what you have learnt and comparing recipe notes.

    We’d love to hear what plant-based books you’d add to the Santa list this year! Let us know via social media.

  • WFPB: Restrictive or Intuitive?

    WFPB: Restrictive or Intuitive?

    Is it possible to align a wholefood, plant-based approach with intuitive eating? Absolutely! It’s all about an abundance of healthful food.

    Vege Market

    Intuitive eating is a concept that’s become increasingly well-known since Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch first developed it in the ’90s. These pioneering dietitians founded a movement that provides a valuable counterpoint to unhealthy dieting and weight-loss culture, embracing a non-dieting approach to self-nourishment and care.

    By removing food restrictions, the principles of intuitive eating can offer a welcome escape from the ‘black and white’ thinking that often accompanies dieting, fostering a healthier relationship with food. Intuitive eating encourages tuning in with our body’s needs, which can be revolutionary, especially for people who have been trapped in a cycle of yo-yo dieting.

    Isn’t plant-based a food restriction?

    As long as a plant-based diet is not adopted as a subterfuge for restrictive or disordered eating, it’s absolutely possible to take an intuitive-eating approach. But how does a wholefood, plant-based (WFPB) eating pattern fit in, given that this seeks to exclude highly processed as well as animal-derived foods? Does it go too far and tip us back into a diet mentality?

    Although it’s often referred to as the WFPB diet, this way of eating is not like other diets that require a restrictive mindset. Firstly, the goal of a WFPB eating pattern is not weight loss, but health improvement. It will often result in weight loss, but this is a by-product, not the purpose of the lifestyle. The benefits occur without any need for restricting or monitoring dietary intake. In fact, this is actively discouraged.

    Instead, a WFPB approach encourages eating to satiety from a rainbow of vibrant whole plant foods that are rich in fibre and phytonutrients and low in calories, while being naturally filling and satisfying.

    Secondly, the focus is on what’s included rather than what’s excluded. When you load up on the good stuff, there won’t be any room for processed or animal-derived products. In line with intuitive eating principles, a WFPB way of eating is all about feeling good within ourselves and having a relationship with food that fits with the values of respecting our bodies and honouring our health and wellbeing.

    Lastly, it’s also an empowering way for us to take a daily stand for a kinder and fairer world – values of increasing concern for many of us. These are motivations that are both life-affirming and self-affirming, rather than being about restriction or body image.

    Intuiting your way to WFPB

    Although going fully WFPB is great (with qualified supervision if you’re on medication, given that needs can rapidly change), many people prefer to dip a toe in first and move gradually. This is absolutely fine and very much part of the WFPB philosophy.

    The aim is progress not perfection, and any pace that works for you is likely to be self-reinforcing as the benefits make themselves apparent. With that said, there are a number of questions that arise when eating intuitively and WFPB. The first and most obvious is that eating whole or minimally processed plant foods may not feel intuitive at first.

    What if I crave junk food?

    Processed food and many restaurant foods, especially from the big fast-food chains, are specifically designed to be hyper-palatable, with ‘craveability’ being their holy grail. An entire food industry has been built around tricking our taste buds (and microbiota!) into thinking we want more of what are essentially ‘food-like substances’ – high in added salt, oil, and sugar.

    Vegetables

    Not only that, but these items are heavily marketed and ever-present in our day-to-day environments. As a result, before we truly tune in to our bodies, we might feel ‘intuitively’ inclined to reach for these types of products. The key here is to come back to your motivations of optimal wellbeing. Seek out and sample healthier wholefood options at a pace that’s right for you and, crucially, give your body a chance to adjust as you try out what will undoubtedly feel unfamiliar (and possibly even boring) at first.

    Research suggests that our taste buds take about 12 weeks to adapt to and appreciate new flavours through the fascinating process of neuroadaptation. At the same time, our gut bacteria will also rapidly adjust, influencing our cravings in a healthier direction the more we crowd out the junk with a variety of whole plant foods.

    Doesn’t WFPB often lead to weight loss?

    A strong theme in intuitive eating is that weight loss should never be the goal. So how does this square with WFPB diet proponents who note that a healthy weight is a protective factor against many chronic diseases and often flag weight optimisation as one of its benefits? Some clarification is needed here.

    Intuitive eating doesn’t actually demonise the idea of weight loss where this may be beneficial for an individual’s health, any more than it would where weight gain is needed. The point is that traditional diets don’t work, so weight-related goals are put aside and goals such as healthy living, feeling good, and trusting your body’s cues are prioritised.

    In close alignment with this, a WFPB approach isn’t about dieting or weight loss either, rather it’s about attaining and maintaining good health.

    What about ‘unconditional permission to eat’?

    One of the intuitive eating principles is around giving yourself unconditional permission to eat. Well, if like me you are convinced by the WFPB nutrition science, you no longer consider animal-based or highly processed foods as nourishing food choices, so it’s not about restriction but about what you choose to include based on your convictions. Not only that, but a key aspect of a WFPB diet is that it can be eaten ‘ad libitum’ – with no portion control, calorie counting, or food monitoring – while enjoying the wonderful side effect of better health!

    This was powerfully seen in the BROAD study, a highly successful trial in rural New Zealand in a community suffering from high rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes. The participants were guided to follow a traffic light system indicating foods that form part of a healthy WFPB diet and encouraged to have as much of these as they liked. Many of the participants reported that ‘not being hungry’ was a key factor in enabling them to stick to the program. The study results spoke for themselves, with participants’ health markers improving dramatically, including natural reductions in BMI, weight, and cholesterol as well as resulting reductions in medication needs.

    What if I don’t feel full and satisfied?

    Some people associate WFPB eating with ‘rabbit food’ and worry that they’ll no longer feel full or satisfied if they preference these foods. And this certainly wouldn’t fit with the intuitive eating principles of honouring our hunger, feeling our fullness, and discovering what feels satisfying. Fortunately, tuning in to our hunger cues is crucial when we choose a WFPB way of eating, too.

    In fact, because whole plant foods usually have a much lower calorie density than foods in a typical Western diet, we are likely to need bigger portion sizes when eating this way, which may seem counterintuitive at first, especially when we’re culturally conditioned to distrust large servings! Eating to fullness, or satiety, when we consume foods high in fat, means we have already consumed excess energy. By contrast, when we follow a WFPB diet without restrictions on quantity, we feel full without having consumed excess energy.

    What’s abundantly clear in the literature is that, whatever your size, changing your diet to include predominantly whole plant foods is likely to induce beneficial changes in your biochemistry. And the rewards come quickly, from reduced inflammation to better immunity and hormonal regulation to a thriving gut microbiome. What better way to reinforce an intuitive approach to eating and a truly healthy relationship with food!

    Cooking

    Separating fact from fiction

    There are some myths and misconceptions about intuitive eating. Let’s clarify.

    Unconditional permission to eat means anything goes, so nutrition doesn’t matter

    Not at all! Intuitive eating is all about attuning to your body’s needs and what it calls ‘gentle nutrition’ whereby you make choices that honour your health and what feels good. This results in positive physical and mental health outcomes and an escape from counterproductive cycles of restriction.

    Eating intuitively means eating to emotional cues

    The intuitive eating principles emphasise coping with our emotions with kindness and specifically counsel against using food to comfort, distract, or numb painful feelings. Instead, they advocate dealing with the source of difficult emotions, recognising that ‘eating for an emotional hunger may only make you feel worse in the long run’.

    Weight-related goals are always a sign of disordered eating

    False. Intuitive eating principles don’t preclude wanting to achieve or maintain a healthy weight as part of your overall health and wellbeing goals. The point is that achieving a particular body size and shape isn’t the focus.

    There is no such thing as a healthy weight

    While intuitive eating rejects diet culture, it doesn’t deny the health risks of obesity. What it does do is help people escape cycles of dieting that are known to promote poor body image, guilt, and disordered eating patterns without any lasting weight-loss benefits.

    This article is republished with permission from nourishmagazine.com.au.

  • United Nations Food Systems Summit

    United Nations Food Systems Summit

    The United Nations Food Systems Summit was held in September, 2021. The Summit was called to address the critical role food systems play in global challenges such as the double burden of malnutrition (under-nutrition and over-nutrition), climate change, and inequality.

    H.E. Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the UN
    H.E. Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the UN presenting at the Summit

    The outcomes of the Summit will deliver progress towards achieving the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), goals that Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have formally committed to.

    Was it the “people’s summit” the world needed?

    Over the past 18 months, the Summit brought together global leaders and communities from around the world to collaborate, share best practices, foster innovation, influence local and global agendas and transform the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food.

    Locally to feed into the Summit process, DFN held an Independent Food Systems Dialogue, uniting experts from a range of healthcare and food-related fields in our region and beyond.

    Although the Food Systems Summit was praised by many, it was boycotted by a wide array of scientists, researchers, food producers, advocacy and Indigenous groups. Criticism included the heavy influence of industry interest groups, the inability to address the role and responsibility of the corporate sector in the food systems and a lack of interactive or meaningful participation from grassroots movements, Indigenous peoples, small-scale farmers, and other marginalised populations.

    One hotly debated topic was the place of animal source foods in a sustainable food system. ‘Solution clusters’, or thematically organised groups, have been established to bring together a menu of possible actions. The ‘solution cluster’ for sustainable livestock could not reach a unified set of actions for its final proposition, ultimately three separate papers were submitted, rather than one.

    Far from wasted effort

    Regardless of its shortcomings, the message from the Summit has decisively hit the world stage: clear and radical actions are needed to ensure that our broken global food system can deliver on the triple challenge of health, economic livelihoods, and environmental outcomes.

    Three-quarters of the UN member states have submitted a National Pathways document, a commitment to build on existing initiatives and leadership. Initiatives, alliances, coalitions and commitments have also been formed by a breadth of Summit participants. Commitments include: promises to improve Indigenous People’s participation in food systems transformation, addressing malnutrition in adults and children, promoting gender equality, and protecting biodiversity.

    Local action

    Aotearoa New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has committed to elevate the role of the Māori people in the food system and encourage a Māori worldview through every step of the process. This mirrors the view of our keynote speaker at our DFN Independent Food Systems Dialogue, Professor Boyd Swinburn from the University of Auckland, who outlined the nascent Mana Kai policy that draws on Māori concepts around the social and environmental aspects of food, and how these are interrelated.

    Australia has not yet submitted any firm commitments in the form of a National Pathways document although the member state dialogues, convened by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment earlier this year, did acknowledge that there are important synergies between a healthy diet for people and the planet. The dialogue report noted that key changes required in Australia involve increasing the proportion of healthy plant-based foods in diets, decreasing energy intake and decreasing intake of unhealthy food and drinks.

    Australia played a very active role during the course of the Summit in promoting livestock as key to a sustainable food system. Greater emphasis must be placed on ensuring high-income countries like Australia, where protein and calorie excess is the norm, shift towards supporting the consumption of more plant foods. These shifts have been highlighted as a non-negotiable prerequisite to remaining below the 1.5°c warming threshold set by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, and necessary to secure a safe operating space for humanity.

    The Australian Government has joined the Global Sustainable Livestock Coalition, established as part of the Summit process, alongside the World Farmers’ Organisation, International Livestock Research Institute, International Dairy Federation and others. The coalition has been established to, among other objectives, provide governments, investors, donors, and multilateral institutions, with ‘accurate science-based information about livestock’s role/actions in delivering the SDGs’.

    National dietary guidelines for a healthier, more sustainable and equitable food system

    The Summit has identified Food Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) as a solution area that needs to be substantially improved and used much more effectively. A 2019 review indicated that 90 countries had FBDGs, yet most had not had their intended effect, including in Australia.

    Few countries’ FBDGs consider sustainability issues, such as environmental aspects, food waste, food safety, access, affordability, the important roles of traditional foods, or cultural acceptability. The proposition is that all countries should have FBDGs, based on sound science, tailored to their specific country, and incorporating sustainability as well as health concerns.

    The onus is on high-income countries such as Australia to make radical shifts in diet, especially in relation to animal-sourced foods. This requires improvements not only to the content of our current dietary guidelines but also to their implementation. They are an informational instrument that needs to be backed up by a supportive policy environment. FBDGs should be applied in guiding other relevant public policy such as public procurement, hospital and school food, food labelling, fiscal policies, etc.

    A page from the Brazilian food guide
    A page from the Brazilian food guide.

    Brazil’s FBDGs are often hailed as world-leading. Notwithstanding, their commitment at the Summit includes implementing dietary guidelines based on scientific evidence, to support public policies in different sectors. These policies will aim to “strengthen consumer information and reinforce agendas that foster healthy diets, in particular, the consumption of fruits and vegetables”. And rightly so. Research has shown that if FBDGs were redesigned and fully adopted, the economic value of reduced mortality is estimated to be US$7.2 trillion to US$8.9 trillion, or equivalent to between 10 and 15 percent of global GDP.

    Locally the Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADGs) review is currently underway, led by the National Health and Medical Research Council. They are committed to a transparent, inclusive process that will provide the public and interested parties the opportunity to contribute. The aim is to ensure the revised guidelines use the most relevant, high-quality evidence and are user-friendly.

    The revised ADGs can be an important catalyst for change. If the guidelines consider the impacts of diet on our food system and the SDGs, it is more likely that other government portfolios start engaging with them as a lever. We must get them right.

    Sustainable Development Goals
    Food systems touch every aspect of human existence, from individual health to the health of our environment and our societies. They have a direct or indirect bearing on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Image: United Nations Development Program

    Leveraging the momentum

    Food systems are one of the most fundamental elements of modern human society, forming complex webs of food producers, supply chains, regulators, markets, and consumers. This complexity may leave us feeling powerless. Has the Summit simply created even more policy inertia, more recommendations that will never see the light of day? What role, if any, do we all have to play in transforming our food system?

    Two comments from keynote speakers at the DFN Independent Food Systems Dialogue remind us that we have the power to drive change together.

            “The only way we are going to overcome policy inertia is by lifting the voice of civil society and holding the main power brokers to account, that is the government and the food industry.”

    Professor Boyd Swinburn

           “We have the power as individuals…we must use our fork, our note and even our vote for a better future and a better food system.”

    Dr Sandro Demaio, CEO of VicHealth

    Keynote presentations from the DFN event are available to watch now.

    DFN looks forward to the momentum from the Summit continuing with the upcoming COP26 climate conference and, closer to home, the ongoing review of the ADGs. Like many across Australia, we eagerly wait to learn if Australia will step-up to the calls from other G20 countries and greatly improve our contribution to global climate action.

    If you are interested in helping our work to inform the review of the ADGs, please get in touch by email or via our contact form.

    If you are interested in helping our work to inform the review of the ADGs, please get in touch by email or via our contact form.

  • Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods double that of plant-based foods

    Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods double that of plant-based foods

    A new study published last month in the Nature Food Journal, is one of the first to account for net carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions from all sub-sectors related to food production and consumption.

    This comprehensive study led by the University of Illinois examined four major sub-sectors for plant and animal-based food emissions associated with food production processes. These were: land-use change, farmland activities, raising livestock and other activities beyond the farm gate, such as transport, from 171 crops and 16 animal products across the globe.

    The study found that our food system accounts for 35 percent of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions. Across all regions, emissions equivalent per capita are greatest from the production and consumption of animal based foods. The authors used complex and robust methods of assessment to show very clearly that emissions from production and consumption of plant-foods are around half that of animal based foods, when we take into account the land use requirement, feed, methane production and processing requirements.

    The majority of emissions from food production were animal based (57 percent). Only 29 percent of emissions were attributed to the production of plant-based foods. Beef, cow’s milk and pork were the biggest contributors to this tally, with rice being the most greenhouse gas intensive of the plant-foods. The top 10 plant-based foods in terms of emissions equivalents (apart from rice), were all relatively low, when compared to the animal based top 10.

    Production and consumption based GHG emissions from plant and animal based food.
    Production and consumption based GHG emissions from plant and animal based food.
    Source: Xu X, Sharma P, Shu S, et al research paper
    Source: Xu X, Sharma P, Shu S, et al research paper

    What is of huge concern is that while emission calculations for land use, methane and nitrous oxide are in-line with previous studies, overall emissions calculated in this recent study are much higher than previously estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2010, and more in line with the upper estimates provided by the IPCC. This really highlights the significance of food based emissions and the urgency of action now required.

    The United Nations projects that over the period 2009 to 2050, food production will need to increase by 70 percent to meet increasing food demand…

    he United Nations projects that over the period 2009 to 2050, food production will need to increase by 70 percent to meet increasing food demand. Increased food production may accelerate land-use changes for agriculture, resulting in greater greenhouse gas emissions, reduced carbon sequestration and further climate change.

    With the exponential rise in food demand in mind, this study once again reinforces the importance of the need for an urgent change in consumption towards more plants, particularly in high meat-eating countries like Australia. Shifting to a whole food plant-based diet not only significantly lowers your personal greenhouse gas emissions, it also improves your health. A win-win for people and planet!

    Key reference
    Xu X, Sharma P, Shu S, et al. Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods. Nat Food. Published online September 13, 2021:1-9. doi:10.1038/s43016-021-00358-x

  • Simplify and Nutrify

    Simplify and Nutrify

    The four fundamentals of healthy eating aren’t complicated at all. Read how easy it can be to nutrify your eating pattern. Article first published in Nourish Magazine.

    Woman with silverbeet

    At last Plant-based eating is catching on at an increasing pace, and for good reasons: personal health, reducing our environmental footprint, and compassion for animals are all powerful motivators. From a health perspective, saying goodbye to animal products is a fantastic step. Even lean, white, or unprocessed meats are laden with saturated fat. Plus, animal products are the only source of dietary cholesterol and contain a host of inflammatory compounds proven to contribute to chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and common cancers.

    By choosing plant foods instead, we give ourselves a tremendous head start in both maintaining and regaining good health through all life stages. But establishing a healthy plant-based dietary pattern can be a challenge, especially when we are used to a standard Western diet, and the lure of convenience foods is ever-present.

    So, let’s simplify everything and focus on nutrifying your diet. These fundamentals of healthy eating will help you and your family take advantage of an abundant, life-affirming wholefoods approach to plant-based eating.

    Power plate courtesy of Emma Strutt, APD

    #1 Wholistic Habits

    A wholefood, plant-based way of eating makes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes the stars of your plate. Keeping these in their pure state or minimally processed retains all their nutrients, taking advantage of your body’s natural mechanisms such as feeling satiated, stabilising blood sugar levels, and promoting healthy gut flora, which has numerous knock-on benefits for your overall health.

    A great rule of thumb is to fill half your plate with vegetables and fruits and the other half with whole grains, starchy vegetables (such as potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, and peas), and legumes (such as lentils, beans, and chickpeas). Nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices can be used in smaller quantities for additional flavour and texture.

    Like any new undertaking, there’s plenty to learn before eating this way becomes a habit, but the good news is that once you’re on a roll it becomes second nature, so persistence pays off. As you focus more on wholefoods, you’ll notice that your cravings change, too. Your taste buds will adapt, and your gut microbes will no longer respond well to processed, packaged, or animal-based foods. It’s a self-sustaining cycle, and you’ll see the rewards are worth it!

    #2 Plan to Plantify

    A few meal-planning basics can make including more wholefoods in your diet so much more manageable and enjoyable. A great starting place is to ‘plantify’ some familiar recipes. Perhaps spaghetti bolognese transports you back to your childhood happy place? This is a perfect example of a dish that is even tastier as a plant-based version. Adapting old favourites will help you establish a repertoire of trusted dishes, and there’s no shortage of recipes you can look to for inspiration and guidance.

    Pasta salad

    If you include ‘wholefood, plant-based’ or ‘WFPB’ in your searches, you’ll be well on the way. When planning for the week, consider dishes that can be made in larger quantities so that there is plenty for a couple of dinners or leftovers for work lunches. Freezer-friendly recipes are great candidates for double batches as they can be frozen for another time, making for a ready-to-go nutritious meal whenever you need it. You can even prep up healthy breakfasts such as overnight oats or chia puddings, which are perfect options for making ahead of time.

    Once you’ve got your recipes sorted for the week, it’s a great idea to jot down your shopping list before heading to the markets or grocery store. Having a list with you will avert those impulse purchases and ensure you have the right ingredients on hand at home, making it much easier to follow through on your good intentions.

    #3 Oil-free cooking

    Remember, vegetable oils are not wholefoods, therefore are not recommended as part of a wholefood, plant-based diet. For example, while whole olives and sunflower seeds provide a nutritious package of fibre, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, extracting just the oil leaves behind the vast majority of these important nutrients. What remains is a concentrated source of liquid fat, shifting our calorie intake away from the healthier, complete foods.

    Here’s the good news! You don’t have to give up those caramelised onions or crispy roast potatoes. With a little know-how, there are many ways to cook dishes without oil – and without sacrificing the flavour.

    For any kind of pan-frying, water can be used to moisten the pan – just add a little at a time to prevent food sticking. This works so well, you’ll wonder why you ever used oil to begin with. For caramelised onions, the trick is to start by dry frying them before adding water. Add the sliced or diced onions to a hot pan and keep them moving for a couple of minutes, until they start to brown. Then, simply add one tablespoon of water to deglaze the pan, let it evaporate, and repeat while continuing to stir until the onions are soft and brown.

    Roasting veggies without oil is just as easy, once you quit that habitual oil drizzle! If you’re concerned about sticking, baking paper or reusable silicone baking sheets work well, although cooking without oil actually makes for easier washing up. Just leave any stuck bits to soak and your dish will wipe clean. For oil-free roast potatoes that are golden on the outside and fluffy in the middle, parboil or steam them before roasting. Moisture is added during this step and, because the potato is cooked part of the way through already, it won’t dry out in the oven. Yum!

    #4 Naturally Sweet

    Intrinsic sugars, or in other words those that occur naturally in whole fruits and vegetables, come wrapped in a package of healthy nutrients, making them a welcome part of a wholefood, plant-based diet. By contrast, added or refined sugars are best kept to a minimum. In this way, sugars are similar to extracted oils versus the wholefoods the oils are extracted from.

    Be aware that there are upwards of 40 types of sugars found in packaged food and drinks. Brown rice syrup, malt syrup, agave syrup, fruit juice concentrate, coconut sugar, date sugar – the list goes on, and most are no more healthful than plain old white sugar!

    Ditching added sugar doesn’t mean an end to sweet treats though. For example, in wholefood, plant-based baking a cup of overripe mashed banana can be substituted for a cup of sugar, or you can use unsweetened apple sauce in the same way. In both instances, you’ll just need to reduce the other liquids in the recipe slightly to account for the moisture in the fruit.

    If your added sugar intake is moderate, after about one week you’ll find you’ll have more stable energy throughout the day and the cravings will have ceased. Fruits will seem sweeter and more delicious than ever before and, if for example you opt for the occasional piece of dark chocolate, you’ll be amazed by how rich and satisfying it is in small quantities.

    If in doubt, go back to basics

    It’s often said that healthy eating has become too complicated and, with the masses of information at our fingertips, it is easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed. But, amidst all the claims and counterclaims, there is one simple formula that won’t let you down. Eat ‘wholefoods’ and ‘plant-based’. This is a great guide to sustainable, healthy eating that is abundant in nutrients.

    This approach says a big YES to a wide variety of colourful, nutritious foods that lend themselves to limitless dishes, from familiar favourites to any number of cuisines from around the world. Not only that, when we focus on what we’re including rather than what we’re excluding, it’s easy to crowd our plate with health-promoting, wholesome foods, gradually displacing processed and animal-based foods. The added bonus: it’s a lifestyle that offers the freedom to delete that calorie or macro-tracking app and eat up!

    This article is republished with permission from nourishmagazine.com.au.

  • The role of national dietary guidelines in attaining a healthy and sustainable food system

    The role of national dietary guidelines in attaining a healthy and sustainable food system

    The world’s first UN Food Systems Summit, taking place in September 2021, aims to identify bold new actions to meet urgent global health and sustainability goals. To feed into the Summit process, DFN held an Independent Food Systems Dialogue in July focusing on national dietary guidelines as a lever to attain a healthier, more sustainable and equitable food system, both in Australia and globally. Below we share the keynote talks from the dialogue, a link to our feedback report, and a summary of the recommendations made by our expert participants.

    Food systems touch every aspect of human existence, from individual health to the health of our environment and our societies. They have a direct or indirect bearing on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Image: United Nations Development Program

    Why dietary guidelines, and why now?

    Well-designed dietary guidelines based on the best available evidence, free from industry influence, have significant potential to influence improved diets. They are an example of a ‘triple-duty action’ that could address multiple aspects of the Global Syndemic of obesity, undernutrition and climate change.

    In high-income countries, where protein and calorie excess is the norm, shifts to plant foods correlate consistently and robustly with higher overall diet quality. These same shifts are not only desirable in terms of planetary health – which underpins all human health – but are a prerequisite to remaining below the 1.5°c warming threshold set by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, and securing a safe operating space for humanity. Without these shifts, led by the highest-consuming nations such as Australia, the Sustainable Development Goals will inevitably be undermined.

    The world’s first UN Food Systems Summit, coming up next month, aims to identify bold new actions to align the food system with the Sustainable Development Goals. To feed into the preparations for the Summit, Doctors For Nutrition convened an Independent Food Systems Summit Dialogue in July. With dietary guidelines being one of the solution areas identified under the Summit’s Action Track on sustainable consumption, and the Australian Dietary Guidelines review underway at present, our aim was to explore the role of national dietary guidelines in attaining a healthier, more sustainable and equitable food system.

    DFN brought together experts from a range of sectors to explore how national dietary guidelines can support food systems transformation

    DFN’s Food Systems Summit Dialogue

    Bringing together experts from a range of healthcare and food-related fields in our region and beyond, we invited participants to explore three key questions around the Australian Dietary Guidelines via focused breakout groups:

    • What would truly sustainable Australian Dietary Guidelines look like?
    • What are the existing barriers to implementation of the guidelines and how can we overcome them?
    • What fresh ideas can we consider to drive multi-sectoral implementation?

    The keynote presentations from the event were recorded and are available to watch here, with thanks to our guest speakers, Dr Shireen Kassam, Professor Boyd Swinburn and Dr Sandro Demaio.

    The detailed feedback from the dialogue as a whole has been submitted to the Summit convenors via the UN’s official feedback form.

    Summary of key messages

    The key headline recommendations emerging from the dialogue are summarised below:

    • Dietary guidelines must integrate sustainability and equity issues into their scope of evidence and resulting recommendations.
    • Australian diets need to significantly increase plant-based and minimally processed foods, with corresponding reductions in animal-sourced and highly processed foods. Messaging around the guidelines must highlight this.
    • Guidelines must be culturally responsive, reflecting diverse dietary patterns and cultural wisdom about the relationships between food, health and planet.
    • Industry interests must not have a seat at the table in the development of dietary guidelines or any other aspects of nutrition and public health policy. Profit motives of harmful interests require vigilance and strong governance.
    • The Australian Dietary Guidelines should be used to underpin nutrition education, healthy food policies and sustainable agriculture in Australia.
    • Policy coherence is essential so that ​​the dietary guidelines are not undermined by policies, regulations and programs in other sectors.
    • Coordination across government, at all levels, is required to support an enabling environment for dietary shift. Sector leaders have a key role but industry efforts need to be further incentivised and codified.
    • The dietary guidelines need to be supported by an effective implementation plan including education for health professionals, school students and the public.
    • Monitoring and evaluation is essential to measure progress towards implementation and drive targeted action to identify and fill the identified gaps, leaving nobody behind.

    We are grateful to everyone who brought their expertise to contribute to a rich dialogue, resulting in a set of exciting proposals for consideration by the convenors of the Food Systems Summit.

    In addition to our keynote speakers, we extend special thanks to the facilitators of the three breakout discussion rooms: Dr Talia Raphaely (consultant, Sustainably Speaking), Dr Peter Johnston (dietitian, Perfect Human Food), and Dr Aletha Ward (public health academic, University of Southern Queensland).

    If you are interested in helping our work to inform the review of the Australian Dietary Guidelines, please get in touch via our contact form.

  • AMSA Global Health Conference 2021

    AMSA Global Health Conference 2021

    We engaged with the new generation of health professionals at the AMSA Global Health Conference 2021 and gained some important insight on what medical students think about the role of nutrition in healthcare.

    AMSA Global Health Conference

    On 6-7th August more than 250 medical students came together in Perth, Australia for a few inspiring days of learning and fun at the annual AMSA Global Health Conference 2021. Doctors For Nutrition were there to engage with students and raise the importance of nutrition in healthcare.

    Conference highlights

    With this year’s conference theme ‘Seeds for change’, it was a perfect occasion for DFN to spark interesting conversations with future doctors about a healthcare system that embraces evidence-based nutrition as the first line of defence.

    A large number of students visited the DFN stall for information on the benefits of plant-based eating. The DFN team consisted of Nutrition and Research Development Lead, Dr Angela Genoni, Neuroscience PhD Student, Hugo Morandini, and DFN Ambassadoc for Western Australia, Dr Alyce Churchill. Our team was on-hand during the conference, educating the delegates about the important role of nutrition in medical practice and distributing free practical resources.

    AMSA GHC21 Booth

    Dr Angela Genoni said: “Some of the students approaching our stall have already been following vegan or vegetarian lifestyles and were engaging with more in-depth conversations on the benefits of plant-based eating for long-term health.”

    “In contrast, we also spoke to a large number of students who confessed that they didn’t know much about nutrition as they were not taught about nutrition in medical school”, added Hugo Morandidi.

    On the second day of the conference, Dr Angela Genoni delivered a short talk on ‘The Power of Plants’ where approximately 60 medical students had a chance to learn more about how plant-based nutrition can reduce rates of developing chronic disease.

    More than 100 ‘Plant-based nutrition and health,,’ toolkits were distributed to students to assist them in facilitating nutritional advice during patient consultations.

    The DFN team agreed that students’ interest in the benefits of plant-based eating was very reassuring. “Students understood very quickly why we needed to be here. It felt we were at the right place at the right time”, explained Hugo Morandini.

    The gap in nutrition education

    “A plant-based diet is a powerful prescription for good health. Many of the world’s leading killers – from heart disease and type 2 diabetes to certain types of cancer – can be prevented by focusing our diets on plant-based foods”, said Dr Neal Barnard, President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and DFN International Advisor.

    Yet historically, nutrition education is not a major focus of medical training internationally, including in Australia. According to a 2019 study, medical students receive very little nutrition education during medical school. This educational gap makes it very difficult for medical graduates to provide preventative, evidence-based nutrition advice that could help optimise patients’ long-term health and combat chronic conditions.

    Medical students speaking about nutrition

    During the conference, the DFN team had a chance to ask medical students what they think about the role of nutrition in medicine. It was encouraging to hear from students like Jana about her views on nutrition: “Nutrition is one of the key ways to prevent non communicable disease’’, she said. She added that she would like to see much more emphasis should be placed on optimising health through lifestyle, especially given how much misinformation is out there.

    AMSA Conference DFN Volunteer

    Closing the gap

    Since 2018, Doctors For Nutrition has been on a mission to fill the educational gap in the current healthcare system by providing nutrition information and resources to current and future medical professionals.

    Having the opportunity to work with Australian Medical Students’ Association the organiser of the Global Health Conference 2021 in Perth, was an important step in extending DFN reach to the next generation of doctors. It was also an opportunity to strengthen relationships with AMSA who share a vision for promoting evidence-based nutrition approaches in medicine.

    In their position statement, AMSA is calling for a medical education system to improve the quality and quantity of nutrition education so graduating medical students are better prepared to provide appropriate nutritional advice in clinical practice.

    After a successful event like the AMSA Global Health Conference 2021, the DFN team is looking forward to collaborating with AMSA on future events to highlight the importance of plant-based nutrition education for medical students.

    Next steps

    Missed this event and want to learn more about the benefits of plant-based nutrition?

    The DFN website provides a number of practical educational resources designed for health professionals in clinical practice. You can get a copy of the Plant-based Nutrition and Health Guide and access the Food Vital Webinars to learn more about the benefits of whole food plant-based eating. The DFN recipe collection is also a great place to find inspiration for health-promoting recipes and access practical tips when cooking for nutrition.

    Author bio:

    Martina Brayford is a Doctors for Nutrition volunteer who is passionate about the importance of plant-based nutrition to improve the quality of people’s lives and reduce chronic illnesses. Martina holds a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Centre for Nutrition Studies at Cornell University and studied Food & Nutrition Coaching at the Nature Care College in Sydney.

    With her Plant Oceans Nutrition website, Martina is on a mission to promote plant-based eating among her community and friends in Western Australia, advocating the power of food as medicine and sharing local knowledge about plant-based produce.

  • Staying plant strong

    Staying plant strong

    Changing your diet can present the odd challenge as your body adjusts to different foods. DFN Board Director and Ambassadoc Dr Luke Wilson explores some common concerns and how to overcome them. Article first published in Nourish Magazine.

    Stretching

    Last year, I reached the personal milestone of being fully plant-based for 10 years. I’ve been helping others make this change for almost as long and every year, more and more people from all walks of life are becoming enthusiastic about making the plant-based transition. Whether you’ve made this choice for health, environmental, or ethical reasons (or a combination of all three!), it’s undeniable that going plant-based can throw up the odd hurdle. Let’s better understand some of the most common issues people face, so you can help yourself (or someone you know) stay the course of this positive change.

    I have no energy

    Plant foods like fruits and (especially) vegetables are less energy dense (lower in calories) than animal products, so we can run into problems if we simply substitute one for the other. Feeling lethargic and low in energy when following a plant-based diet, believe it or not, is almost always because we are simply not eating enough!

    Often, this happens when plant-based eaters make well-intentioned efforts to avoid eating too many carbs, but complex carbs are the body’s best source of fuel. Starchy vegetables, whole grains, and beans and legumes contain four, five, and six times more energy respectively than other vegetables and up to twice as much energy as fruit. So, it’s little wonder that our ancestors relied on (minimally processed) staple crops like rice, potatoes, oats, corn, and wheat to provide most of their energy. If you’re feeling low on energy, the best place to start is simply eating more food, emphasising these more concentrated sources of healthy carbohydrates.

    Woman sleeping

    I need more protein

    Protein is the most overhyped nutrient ever. Because it’s a term often (erroneously) used interchangeably for ‘meat’, our protein intake can become a hot topic of conversation or receive misplaced concern when we reveal we only eat plants. Protein is found in all whole foods and our daily protein requirements are tiny: about 10 percent of our total daily energy intake is optimal for most. If this sounds low, consider that our bodies grow the most and the fastest when we are babies – and the perfect food to fuel that growth is breastmilk, with a whopping 7 percent of energy from protein!

    Because almost all plant-based foods provide over 10 percent of energy from protein (except fruit, which is generally about half this), if you are meeting your energy needs from plant-based foods, you are almost certainly getting all the protein you need from it too.

    It’s worth noting that although beans and legumes are often seen as the best source of plant-based protein (around 20–30 percent of energy from protein) – and are certainly an excellent choice to include in your diet regularly – there’s no need to consume these in large quantities, or at all if you’d rather not. Even if you just ate corn all day, you would easily get over 150 percent of your daily protein requirements.

    While athletes or people who are very physically active may wish to look more closely at their protein intake, most people can simply forget about it. We have an inbuilt drive to eat more when we exercise more (which is why exercise alone isn’t particularly effective if your goal is weight loss) and when we eat more whole, plant-based foods, we automatically get more protein. Problem solved!

    It upsets my belly (gas)

    In contrast to protein, fibre is likely the most underrated component of our food, and we should be paying more attention to it. Fibre is essential for staving off gut-related disease, but most people who follow the standard Western diet don’t manage to consume the minimum recommended amount. In contrast, the average plant-based eating pattern easily meets or exceeds our fibre requirements. Simply changing from omnivorous eating to fully plant-based will increase your fibre intake over one-and-a-half times.

    However, the reason that fibre is so important for our health is also the reason it can give us trouble, especially when we first switch to eating more plants. It feeds the trillions of bacteria that live in our gut, known collectively as the microbiome. When we change to plant-based eating, our gut bacteria suddenly get all the fibre they’ve ever dreamed of. Over time they get used to this, and you’re left with the healthy and happy gut that has been associated with lower risk of everything from heart disease to depression, with better immunity into the bargain. But sometimes the transition can be a little rough, with symptoms like bloating, abdominal pain, and increased gas possible as your microbiome adapts.

            Simply changing from omnivorous eating to fully plant-based will increase your fibre intake over one-and-a-half times.

    For almost everyone these symptoms ease over time and eventually disappear completely. But if you’ve had issues with gut symptoms in the past, you may want to ease your microbiome into things gradually. Initially limiting foods that are especially high in fibre, such as beans and whole grains, can make a huge difference. You can increase your intake as your gut microbiome adjusts to the increased fibre. If you’re really struggling, you might like to check out 24 The Happy Gut Course online with plant-based gastroenterologist Dr Alan Desmond. Or for a comprehensive book about plant-based gut health, do your microbiome a favour and get a copy of Fibre Fueled by gastroenterologist Dr Will Bulsiewicz.

    My hair started to fall out

    More commonly, I hear from patients that their hair, skin, or nails seem much healthier since going plant-based. As a doctor I can confirm that a healthy, plant-based eating pattern (along with a B12 supplement and regular, safe sun exposure or a vitamin D supplement) provides absolutely everything your body needs to maintain hair, skin, and nails in optimal condition.

    So why do some people report hair loss when they switch? The usual culprit is a medical condition called telogen effluvium, which may sound like an incantation from Harry Potter but is not usually serious. Telogen effluvium is generally triggered by a disturbance to the hair cycle, which itself results from a ‘triggering event’. These events include prolonged periods of stress, hormonal changes, and nutrient deficiencies.

    Looking back to ‘I have no energy’, a switch to plant-based eating can cause a sudden and significant decrease in energy intake and/or associated weight loss if you aren’t meeting your calorie needs. It’s this that can in turn trigger hair loss in some people. Again, as with addressing your energy needs, simply increasing the number of starchy vegetables, whole grains, and beans and legumes you’re eating will prevent this issue or resolve it in almost all circumstances. These latter two food groups along with green leafy vegetables are also great plant-based sources of zinc and iron that you could consider increasing if you do notice hair loss. Do keep in mind that because the hair cycle is literally years long, it can take time to notice improvements even once you’re doing all the right things. It’s also worth discussing your concerns with a GP that is plant-based friendly.

    Plant based meal

    There’s too much oestrogen from soy (males)

    Before we even get started on this one, I’d like to point out that plant-based eating does not necessitate eating a lot of, or even any, soy products. I’m in favour of a minimally processed and varied approach to eating, so I probably consume soy once a week at most. Gone are the days when the only dairy and meat alternatives were soy-derived or some form of tofu. There’s no need to consume soy at all if you’re plant-based.

    But what if we do eat soy regularly? We’ve all heard that soy contains a particularly high amount of phytoestrogens. These are plant substances that have a very similar structure to oestrogen from the body and can bind to oestrogen receptors. While this may sound concerning, the science is clear: there are numerous health benefits related to phytoestrogen consumption for both men and women, and no convincing evidence of any problems.

    Men who are worried about the effect of eating plant-based on their hormone levels should be heartened by a recent article published in the World Journal of Urology that showed no association between the plant-based content of diet and serum testosterone levels. Further comfort can be taken from the less scientific but hilariously reassuring self-experiment of Brian Turner, a vegan bodybuilder who consumed about half a kilogram of soy daily for over a month and found his testosterone levels had, if anything, increased.

            Even if you experience the odd hurdle as you make the transition, you can be confident that a plant-based diet comes with myriad health benefits and little to worry about.

    Even if you experience the odd hurdle as you make the transition, you can be confident that a plant-based diet comes with myriad health benefits and little to worry about. Based on my decade or so of personal and professional experience, following the science, conducting my own research, and helping hundreds of others to shift to plant-based eating, I am convinced that this is the healthiest dietary pattern for humans. Of course, just like any lifestyle change, a little bit of research and planning from the outset will make the transition a lot easier. A varied plant-based eating pattern that emphasises whole, unprocessed foods (and that mandatory B12 supplement!) is a fantastic long-term choice with proven power to add years to your life and life to your years.

    This article is republished with permission from nourishmagazine.com.au.

  • FODMAP fact drop

    FODMAP fact drop

    Most people have heard of the low FODMAP diet, but how well do we understand what it can help with and how it should be implemented? DFN’s Queensland Lead Dietitian Emma Strutt APD distills the commonly misunderstood diet, providing the essential information. Article first published in Nourish Magazine.

    Fodmap

    The low FODMAP diet is a three-phase dietary approach designed by researchers at Monash University, to help those with medically diagnosed irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) better manage their symptoms. Evidence suggests approximately 70–75 percent of people with IBS can experience symptoms from FODMAPs and following a low FODMAP diet can improve symptoms, especially bloating, abdominal pain, and diarrhoea. Some preliminary evidence suggests that limiting FODMAPs may also improve gut-related symptoms in those suffering endometriosis or inflammatory bowel disease, however more research is needed in this space.

    What is a FODMAP anyway?

    FODMAPs are certain types of carbohydrates that are poorly digested in the small intestine but are rapidly fermented by gut bacteria once they reach the large bowel. FODMAP is an acronym, which stands for:

    • Fermentable – carbohydrates that are broken down by gut bacteria.
    • Oligosaccharides – fructans and galactooligosaccharides, found in foods such as legumes, wheat, and onions.
    • Disaccharides – lactose, found in dairy products.
    • Monosaccharides – fructose, found in certain fruits and sweeteners such as high-fructose corn syrup.
    • And – no explanation needed for this one!
    • Polyols – sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol and maltitol, found in certain fruits, vegetables, and artificial sweeteners.

    What’s all the FODMAP fuss about?

    FODMAPs generate gas and have an osmotic effect, meaning they draw water into the intestines to help with gut motility, which prevents constipation. While this is all generally part of a healthy functioning digestive system, these processes can result in digestive issues for some people with sensitive guts. However, this doesn’t mean high FODMAP foods are bad for our health.

           It’s important you don’t avoid FODMAPs unnecessarily, as many FODMAP-containing foods are a valuable part of a healthy dietary pattern.

    In fact, healthy gut bacteria thrive on many high FODMAP foods and the majority of people can include these foods in their diets without any ill consequences. It’s important you don’t avoid FODMAPs unnecessarily, as many FODMAP-containing foods are a valuable part of a healthy dietary pattern. A low FODMAP diet actually reduces the abundance of beneficial bifidobacteria in the gut, and if poorly designed, can also reduce intake of fibre and certain micronutrients like iron and calcium, all of which are very important for our long-term health.

    Is the low FODMAP diet right for you?

    We need to understand that FODMAPs themselves are not the cause of IBS, so eliminating them won’t cure the condition. Also, the low FODMAP diet was never designed to be a permanent change; rather it is a tool to help people identify which particular foods and FODMAPs trigger their symptoms, allowing them to adopt a more suitable eating pattern in the long term, whereby healthy FODMAP foods are gradually reintroduced, so that the gut can learn to love them. As gastroenterologist Dr Will Bulciewicz likes to say, we can think of this process in a similar way to strength training, where the gut is a muscle that is becoming stronger through careful, incremental increases in intake.

    Depending on a person’s baseline diet and lifestyle, other changes such as exercise, altering fibre intake, or reducing treat foods could be a more suitable starting point than a low FODMAP diet. Some people may see improvements in their symptoms simply by including more whole plant foods, eating slowly, managing their stress, or moving more.

    Trials have also found interventions like yoga and hypnotherapy to be just as effective as a low FODMAP diet for symptom management. Additionally, it’s worth noting that about 25 percent of IBS sufferers will not see improvements on a low FODMAP diet, so other therapies may need to be considered. When it has been determined that a low FODMAP diet is appropriate, there are three phases to move through:

      1. A two- to six-week elimination phase, where high FODMAP foods are swapped for low FODMAP alternatives.
      2. An eight- to 12-week reintroduction phase, where each FODMAP group is methodically reintroduced to help identify the specific FODMAPs that are causing symptoms and to establish tolerance levels.
      3. Personalisation is less of a phase and more for long-term health and symptom management. Well-tolerated FODMAPs should be included in the diet to promote diversity, while poorly tolerated foods remain restricted, but only to the level that provides symptom relief – the aim is to ease restrictions as much as possible!

    Is low FODMAP and plant-based even possible?

    At first glance the initial phases of the low FODMAP diet may seem near impossible for plant-based people. Many healthy plant foods will need to be excluded in phase one but with a bit of planning, it is possible to achieve nutritional adequacy while eating this way as a vegan or vegetarian.

    A common pitfall is removing too much fibre, which can result in constipation. Similar to a standard plant-based diet, when planning main meals, it’s helpful to include good wholefood sources of carbohydrate and protein, along with a variety of vegetables.

    Notebook

    Obtaining an adequate intake of certain micronutrients, such as calcium, iron, and omega-3, when following a plant-based, low FODMAP diet can also be a little challenging, so seeking advice from a dietitian or nutritionist is recommended.

    Low FODMAP nutrient know-how

    Calcium
    Low-oxalate leafy greens, such as kale and rocket
    Chia seeds
    Tahini Calcium-set firm tofu
    Calcium-fortified plant milks, such as almond, cashew, or macadamia. If using soy milk, you will need to choose one made from protein isolates, not the whole beans.

    Iron
    Pumpkin seeds
    Quinoa
    Oatmeal
    Tempeh
    Firm tofu

    Omega-3
    Flax seeds
    Chia seeds
    Hemp seeds
    Walnuts

    Eat as many plants foods as you can

    People who consume more than 30 different plant foods per week have far greater microbial diversity, which supports good gut health, so try to include as many different whole plant foods as you can, even in phase one of the low FODMAP diet. It’s a great idea to purchase the Monash University FODMAP Diet app to help guide you in your food choices, as some foods have upper tolerable limits.

    Veggies

    For example, small amounts of particular legumes are considered low FODMAP, but it is important to pay attention to serving sizes. Canned legumes have a lower FODMAP content than those cooked at home from dried legumes. This is because the water-soluble FODMAPs leach out of the legumes into the brine, therefore when the legumes are rinsed well before eating, less FODMAPs are consumed.

    Some people may still experience reactions to even small servings of legumes, so if this is the case for you, start by incorporating a very small serving, such as half a tablespoon of canned lentils, into a strictly low FODMAP meal. Slowly build on this quantity over a few weeks, while keeping track of symptoms.

    While there are many fruits that will need to be avoided initially, there are still plenty of options to choose from. For example, cumquats, dragon fruit, grapes, guava, kiwi fruit (green and gold varieties), mandarins, papaya, and strawberries, to name a few. Low FODMAP varieties should actively be included as they are a good source of both soluble and insoluble fibre, which is important for regular bowel motions. Try to limit yourself to one serve of fruit per meal and aim for two serves per day. Again, check the Monash University FODMAP Diet app, as many other fruits can be included, just in smaller portions.

    Rest assured, flavour can still be plentiful when eating low FODMAP – even though cooking without onion and garlic can seem like a tall order. You can still achieve delicious flavours with the use of low FODMAP herbs, spices, and condiments. Fresh herbs will be your best friend, so add basil, coriander, chives, lemon grass, mint, parsley, and rosemary to your meals, where appropriate. Dried herbs and spices such as cinnamon, cumin, paprika, and star anise will also be invaluable. And if you can’t get by without a hint of onion flavour, the green tops of spring onions are okay too. You can also add plenty of flavour with condiments such as mustards, peanut butter, tahini, soy sauce or tamari, capers, olives, tomato paste, nutritional yeast, and most vinegars.

    A low FODMAP diet can offer symptom relief for the majority of people suffering from IBS, including vegans and vegetarians, but ultimately variety is key when it comes to a healthy gut microbiome. Remember, a low FODMAP diet can also reduce your intake of beneficial gut bacteria, particularly bifidobacterium species, therefore it’s vital to understand that this dietary regimen is not intended to be a permanent change. The goal should always be to liberate yourself to eat as many plant foods as possible, after doing the necessary detective work to find out your tolerable limits for specific trigger foods.

    NOTE: A low FODMAP diet should be trialled under the guidance of a dietitian to avoid nutrient deficiencies, and after obtaining medical advice to establish a correct diagnosis.

    This article is republished with permission from nourishmagazine.com.au.

  • Cooking for nutrition

    Cooking for nutrition

    DFN’s recipes and dietitian-designed meal plan make it easier for anyone to take a step towards a more energising, sustainable plant-rich eating pattern. DFN’s Lead Qld Dietitian Emma Strutt explains the principles underpinning the collection and shares some handy tips for successful whole food plant-based cooking.

    Recipe compilation

    What we choose to cook each week has a significant impact on our health, as well as the health of the people we are cooking for. The good news is that most Australians have a desire to be more adventurous in the kitchen and try out a variety of healthy dishes. [1] If that’s you, you are in the right place.

    Our newly-released recipe collection and dietitian-designed meal plan make it easier for anyone to take a step towards a more energising, sustainable plant-rich eating pattern.

    What is cooking for nutrition all about?

    Choosing more plant-based dishes is the fastest way to experience the benefits of a healthy diet. Many people have discovered this, and cooking plant-based meals is now mainstream, with 42% of Australians reducing or eliminating meat. [2] However it can be daunting for those who are just getting started!

    To help streamline the process of learning to create nutritious meals and snacks, Doctors For Nutrition have teamed up with a range of dietitians, doctors and other plant-powered people to curate a set of simple yet delicious recipes.

    Why is a resource like this needed?

    Poor nutrition is a leading cause of health loss in both Australia and New Zealand. [3,4] Making it simple to find healthy recipes that can be easily, cheaply and quickly prepared is one way to help cut through the stress and confusion of meal planning. While there are many social, environmental and other factors that contribute to poor nutrition (and Doctors For Nutrition is seeking change in many of these areas), one of the most common questions for those wanting to eat more plant-based meals is ‘what do I cook?’.

              One of the most common questions for those wanting to eat more plant-based meals is ‘what do I cook?’

    Not just any recipes

    The recipes in the DFN collection have been specially selected to reflect our healthy eating principles; they are abundant in the nutrient-dense whole plant foods you should aim to eat every day, with minimal amounts of the “sometimes” foods. They are a guaranteed meat, dairy and egg-free zone, with no added oil, very low to no added sodium, and no refined sweeteners.

    The recipes are all dietitian-approved, aiming to remove the guesswork involved in people seeking to upgrade their nutrition with the minimum fuss. The accompanying meal plan and tips by dietitian Emily Levy APD provide a guided step-by-step way to get started.

    About the DFN recipe collection

      • Dietitian-approved
      • Easy to make, with many in the ‘super easy’ category
      • Reflective of a wide diversity of ethnic cuisines
      • Quick to make, with prep time usually less than 30 minutes
      • Inexpensive, and do not require expensive appliances
      • Made from easy-to-access ingredients
      • Suited to a range of ‘occasions’ including entertaining, picnics and BBQs
      • Allergy-friendly, with many suitable people who are gluten-free or nut-free
      • Easy search and filter options
      • No long introductory recipe blurbs!
      • Handy chef’s tips and notes
      • Downloadable recipe cards to save or print
    Recipe cards
    The collection includes pdf recipe cards for printing or download.

    Specific needs

    Among the collection, some of the recipes are higher in energy density, such as smoothies and desserts, and dishes containing tofu, nuts or avocado. These are great for growing kids, lean highly-active people, and those wishing to gain weight. However, for people wanting to lose weight, or those with cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes it is advised to choose those recipes that contain only the ‘every day’ and ‘as often as you can’ ingredients from the DFN Healthy Eating Guide, or make a few adaptations to reduce the fat content.

    As always, individual needs vary, and people who have health concerns or an existing diagnosis should see a dietitian or doctor with nutrition expertise to help develop a personalised plan for their specific needs.

    Further tips, hacks and FAQs

    Avoiding hidden ‘SOS’

    One of the advantages of home cooking and a whole foods focus is that additives are naturally avoided, including salt, oil and sugar (‘SOS’). However, it can be convenient to buy some healthy whole foods in pre-packaged form, such as canned beans. The key here is to look for salt-free cans to avoid hidden sodium.

    Healthy plant milks

    Plant-based milks are a useful ingredient in a plant-based diet, and are readily available and steadily coming down in price, especially home-brand options from supermarkets. The best options are soy, oat, nut and hemp milks with no added salt, oil or sugar. Coconut and rice milks are high in fat and sugar respectively, so are not recommended.

    Washing produce

    Produce should always be washed as it can unfortunately be contaminated with sprays, animal waste or by-products that are used as fertilisers or find their way into irrigation water, which brings with it a risk of food poisoning.

    Benefits for planet and pocket!

    As well as being the most health-promoting way of eating, a plant-based diet is best for the planet. [6] In fact, following eco-friendly practices is generally budget friendly and convenient too. [7] For example, bulk buying pulses, grains, nuts and seeds is highly efficient and cost-effective as well as green. Likewise, keeping the skin on fruit and veg is delicious, non-wasteful and highly nutritious, too! Try unpeeled mashed potato and pumpkin chunks with the skin on: you won’t look back.

    To blend or not to blend?

    Blended foods such as smoothies or ‘nice cream’ feature in 2-3 recipes as a healthier alternative to ice cream/milkshakes. These are great for kids and athletes, or older people with low appetite. However for those wanting to lose weight, it’s best not to “drink your food”.

    Tempeh Breakfast Burrito
    Tempeh Breakfast Burrito

    With all that said, the best way to get started is not to overthink things, and just get cooking! If mangos are in season, you could try my Mango bean salsa on rice. My other top recommendations are the Plant-powered stew, Yellow split-pea curry, Lentil bolognese and Lemon millet cake.

    When you are ready for a full week of healthy plant-based meals, dietitian Emily Levy’s meal plan is a top resource. Download it from the recipes landing page here.

    I hope you, your friends, family and colleagues all enjoy these recipes. We would love to see and hear how you get on, so don’t forget to post photos and tag us on social media, or leave a review on the recipe webpage.

    Yours in health,

    Key references

    1. McCrindle. Australia’s Cooking Landscape. 2017.
    2. Food Frontier and Life Health Foods, 2019. Hungry for plant-based: Australian consumer insights. Colmar Brunton. https://www.foodfrontier.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Hungry-For-Plant-Based-Australian-Consumer-Insights-Oct-2019.pdf.
    3. Australian Bureau of Statistics. aihw.gov.au/reports/burden-of-disease/burden-disease-study-illness-death-2015/contents/summary.
    4. Tobias M. Health Loss in New Zealand 1990-2013: A Report from the New Zealand Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study. Ministry of Health; 2016. health.govt.nz/publication/health-loss-new-zealand-1990-2013.
    5. Read more about the whole food plant-based approach and why it rejects reductionism at https://dfn.azwebsolutions.co.nz/general-public/what-is-wfpb/
    6. Poore J, Nemecek T. Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science. 2018;360(6392):987-992. doi:10.1126/science.aaq0216
    7. Goulding T, Lindberg R, Russell CG. The affordability of a healthy and sustainable diet: an Australian case study. Nutr J. 2020;19(1):109. doi:10.1186/s12937-020-00606-z
  • Growing gains, not pains!

    Growing gains, not pains!

    Setting kids and teens up with good nutrition is central to lifelong health. They’ll flourish when nourished with a plant-based diet. First published in Nourish Magazine

    If you’re a plant-based parent, it’s only natural to want your children to join you on your health-promoting journey. If this is a recent change for you, they may well protest at having to eat this way. On the other hand, perhaps you’re yet to explore the world of plant-based cuisine but your child decides they want to try a vegetarian or even vegan diet.

    Whichever the case, the good news is you can be confident that a wholefood, plant-based diet is the most nutrient-dense way to eat and will give your child a fantastic foundation for good health. In fact, it can put them at a health advantage over their omnivore peers – as long as their diet is varied and is predominantly based on whole plant foods rather than vegan junk foods.

    As a parent, you’ll want to ensure that you know how to best meet the needs of their growing bodies, which can be a little different to the needs of adults. Plus, it’s always good to be clued up in preparation for questions and occasional criticisms, usually from well-meaning people who are not nutritionally trained – friends and family, but possibly even your doctor or nurse.

    Plant-based diets are healthy for all life stages

    Many organisations including Dietitians Australia, the Canadian Paediatric Society, and the British Dietetics Association all agree that appropriately planned plant-based diets are healthy and nutritionally adequate for all stages of life including pregnancy, breastfeeding and early childhood. Nutrition guidelines from around the world also give us similar reassurance.

    Plant-based diets have many advantages, including being lower in saturated fat and cholesterol, while also delivering more fibre, antioxidants, folic acid, vitamins C and E, carotenoids, and a host of other beneficial phytochemicals. This may explain why people of all ages who eat plant-based diets have a lower incidence of obesity, heart disease and other vascular diseases, as well as lower rates of diabetes and cancers.

            Plant-based diets are lower in saturated fat and cholesterol, while also delivering more fibre, antioxidants, folic acid, vitamins C and E, carotenoids, and a host of other beneficial phytochemicals.

    Conversely, we know from published research that atherosclerosis (a narrowing of the arteries that heightens the risk of heart disease and stroke) begins in childhood. It has been shown from autopsies of trauma victims that virtually all children raised on a standard Western diet have signs of heart disease – visible to the naked eye – by age 10! Evidence shows that this heart disease begins in utero, so it is never too early to start improving your own diet. And of course, ensuring your children have the best possible diet as they grow sets them up for better lifelong health.

    Let’s dispel a few myths so you can make the right choices for your family.

    Don’t growing bones need dairy?

    Dairy products are frequently cited as being ‘essential for bone strength’. Yet a recent review by leading Harvard researchers concluded that high consumption of milk may increase the risk of fractures later in life. Graphs of milk consumption versus the incidence of hip fractures (a key marker of bone strength) show that countries with the highest dairy consumption generally have the highest rate of hip fractures. We also know that osteoporosis was once very low in traditional Asian cultures where dairy consumption was rare, although sadly, such benefits have been lost as diets have become increasingly Westernised.

    Interestingly, about 65 percent of all humans are actually lactose intolerant, including most people of Asian, African, and Latin American descent. Consuming milk from cows, sheep, and goats is a fairly recent development in terms of our human evolution and has only been practised for around 8,000–10,000 years. We could even consider it quite strange that we wean from our human mothers, then promptly start to breastfeed from another animal!

    Acne and asthma are frequent problems for children and removing dairy products is known to reduce or eliminate these conditions. It’s also good to be aware that dairy cheeses contain mild opiates, called casomorphins, and so are mildly addictive. You can help children overcome any cravings with the many plant-based alternatives now available. Better still, there are plenty of easy-to-make, wholefood recipes for the healthiest cheesy fix.

    Bone strength comes primarily from weight-bearing exercise, so when it comes to kids and teens, it’s best to keep screen time to a reasonable minimum. Instead, try to encourage sports and other physical activities that they enjoy. Calcium in the diet is also required and can be readily obtained from greens; white, navy and black beans; tofu and tempeh; fortified soy milk; and figs; among other wholefoods.

            Calcium can be readily obtained from greens; white, navy and black beans; tofu and tempeh; fortified soy milk; and figs; among other wholefoods.

    Healthy bones also require vitamin D, which we make when exposed to sunlight – another reason to get your kids outside playing games or sports. Depending on skin tone (with darker skin needing more sun), around 15 minutes during the middle of the day is generally enough. Supplements are available if sun exposure is less than this and, since vitamin D is a common deficiency population-wide, it’s a good idea for everyone, regardless of diet, to get their levels checked periodically by the family doctor.

    Are meat and fish even safe for children?

    The World Health Organization has classified processed meats, including bacon, ham, salami, hot dogs, and sausages as Group 1 carcinogens – meaning they have been proven to cause cancer. This puts them in the same category as tobacco, asbestos, and plutonium. You wouldn’t want your children smoking cigarettes, so it stands to reason you wouldn’t want to feed them a proven carcinogen either. Similarly, red meats, such as beef, lamb, and pork, are categorised as Group 2A carcinogens – meaning they probably cause cancer,

    Growing pains i

    Considering seafood, our oceans have been used as an industrial sewer for the past 300 years, so fish and shellfish now contain toxic levels of mercury, PCBs, dioxins, and microplastics. Most of the world’s fisheries are now considered to be overfished or in collapse, and even fish farming is unsustainable. It’s a huge contributor to the problem of antibiotic overuse, which does not result in a healthy ‘product’ for human consumption.

    Like most animal foods, eggs have been associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes. In fact, eggs are the leading source of cholesterol in the standard Western diet, and are also packed with saturated fat. They do contain some protein, but per 100 grams, they deliver about the same amount of protein as oats or whole wheat. Nuts, on the other hand, have significantly more protein per 100 grams than eggs. A diet based on whole plant foods with sufficient calories easily meets the protein needs of kids, teens, and adults. Even better, it has been shown that replacing protein from animals with protein from plants gives us all our essential amino acids while significantly reducing our risk of mortality from all causes.

    This article is republished with permission from nourishmagazine.com.au.

    Updated: 2 February 2026

  • Australian Dietary Guidelines review scoping survey

    Australian Dietary Guidelines review scoping survey

    The review of the Australian Dietary Guidelines is underway, with an initial scoping survey currently seeking input into what should change and what is missing from the current guidelines. Responses are invited from everyone who uses the guidelines whether professionally or personally, so this is an excellent early opportunity to submit your suggestions.

    Scoping survey open now

    Following on from the 2020 announcement that the Australian Dietary Guidelines are up for review, an initial stakeholder scoping survey is now open, seeking input on how the current guidelines are used and inviting suggestions for topics for consideration in the review.

    The current scoping stage is a valuable first chance to suggest high-level topics for the review, with the survey providing space to suggest up to four topics to update and four to consider for inclusion.

    The headline topics that DFN is flagging at this scoping stage are as follows:

    Australian Dietary Guidelines

    To update

    • Update the ‘lean meat and alternatives’ food group to recommend plant sources of protein in preference to animal sources
    • Remove red meat entirely from the current ‘lean meat and alternatives’ food group
    • Remove milk yoghurt/cheese and alternatives as a standalone food group
    • Provide clarity about the health benefits of carbohydrates and starches from whole food sources, in the face of dangerous ‘high fat low carb’ diet trends

    To include

    • Place a stronger emphasis on the health benefits of plant-based eating patterns
    • Integrate environmental sustainability considerations into the guidelines, highlighting the co-benefits of plant-based diets for both human and planetary health
    • Proceed with caution on dietary cholesterol due to evidence on its health risks, especially among hyper-responders
    • Ensure the new guidelines recognise the proven affordability of plant-predominant diets in comparison to standard Australian diets

    Have your say

    The survey is open to everyone who uses the ADGs, whether as a health professional or on an individual basis to inform their eating, so is an excellent opportunity for our plant-based health community to share our views.

    For full details about what is in and out of scope for the survey, see nhmrc.gov.au/health-advice/nutrition/australian-dietary-guidelines-review.

    Next steps

    Responses to the scoping survey will be collated and published on the NHMRC website in the second half of 2021.

    • The next major opportunities for input during the review are anticipated to be:
    • The call for supporting evidence on finalised review topics – expected in the final quarter 2021
    • Further targeted and public consultation – currently expected in the second quarter 2023

    DFN is preparing to have involvement at both of these stages and throughout the process, to champion the importance of whole food plant-based diets for the health of all Australians and to safeguard planetary health into the future.

    If you are interested in helping our work to inform the review of the Australian Dietary Guidelines, please get in touch via our contact form.

  • Be smart, B12

    Be smart, B12

    If you follow a plant-based diet, vitamin B12 is probably on your radar – and it should be! This is one nutrient you need to supplement. Here’s why. Article by DFN’s Lead Dietitian for South Australia, Deeni Betar-Young APD. First published in Nourish Magazine.

    Often flagged as the most important nutrient to be aware of on a plant-based diet, vitamin B12 (also known as cobalamin) is required for normal blood function and neurological health, and deficiency is serious. There are plenty of myths surrounding B12, so let’s learn how to ensure adequate intake. B12 is produced by certain bacteria (not by animals, as some people believe) when in environments containing the mineral cobalt, which makes up part of the structure of vitamin B12. Animal products can be high in B12 because animals obtain it from bacteria in the food (or faeces!) they eat, or are able to synthesise it in their guts.

    Historically, traces of soil left on foods grown in nutrient-rich environments and unsanitised drinking water were likely to have been regular sources for early humans. However, this is no longer the case. We now (quite rightly) sanitise our water supply and wash our vegetables thoroughly to avoid ingesting pathogens. Also, in part due to intensive farming practices, soils have been depleted of many nutrients globally. As a result, even farmed animals are commonly given B12 supplements.

    Is there B12 in plants?

    There have been many claims made about natural plant sources of B12, with certain foods such as seaweed, spirulina, mushrooms, and fermented foods reported to contain it. While some of these foods do in fact contain B12, in most cases this appears to be predominantly in ‘inactive’ forms. These do not fulfil the important functions of ‘active’ forms in the body, and can even block uptake of the active B12! Even where the B12 does appear to be in a form that we can absorb, we’d be hard-pressed to consume enough of that particular food to meet our daily needs. The key message is that none of these foods have been shown to improve the B12 status of humans and therefore cannot be relied upon for adequate B12 intake.

    Because B12 is produced by bacteria, some is formed in our bacteria-laden guts (or colons); however, this isn’t able to be absorbed into our bloodstream because B12 absorption occurs higher up in our digestive tract, in the small intestine. As a result, there are only two non-animal food sources of vitamin B12: supplements and fortified plant foods.

    Fortified foods are those that have had B12 added to them during processing, like nutritional yeast, certain meat substitutes, and some plant milks. The B12 content of fortified foods can vary considerably between brands and batches.

    To obtain and absorb enough vitamin B12 from these foods, they need to be consumed at multiple times over the day and often in quantities that exceed standard serving sizes. For this reason, it’s always preferable to also take a supplement rather than relying solely on fortified foods.

    Supplement

    So, are omni diets better?

    While there’s no denying animal products do contain B12, we can safely say that this limited benefit is outweighed by the costs. This is because animal products come packaged with certain harmful properties, including known cancer-promoting agents, production of TMAO (a significant causal factor in our number one killer, heart disease), saturated fats that promote insulin resistance, inflammation, and numerous other risks including overall increased mortality. By contrast, wholefood plant-based diets are associated with reduced risks of diabetes, heart disease, many cancers, autoimmune diseases, and much more. Further, animal farming promotes antibiotic-resistant infection risks and the emergence of zoonotic diseases that transfer from animals to humans. So, we can safely say it’s preferable to eat a healthy plant-based diet with a cheap and effective B12 supplement than it is to eat animals!

              It’s preferable to eat a healthy plant-based diet with a cheap and effective B12 supplement than it is to eat animals.

    Deficiency isn’t just a vegan problem

    People avoiding animal products aren’t the only ones at higher risk of developing a B12 deficiency. As we age, we often become less efficient at absorbing B12 from animal products, which puts anyone over age 50 in the higher risk category. Those with gastrointestinal conditions such as Coeliac disease and Crohn’s are also at higher risk as they may also absorb less B12. There’s also a small percentage of the population with a condition known as ‘pernicious anaemia’, which prevents vitamin B12 from being absorbed. And, particular medications can reduce B12 absorption, namely, proton-pump inhibitors, which are used to manage reflux and Metformin (also called Diaformin), a diabetic drug.

    People together

    So, what happens when we don’t have enough B12 in our bodies? A deficiency can lead to serious consequences and even death if it isn’t detected and treated early on. In the early stages, it often presents similarly to iron deficiency with fatigue being a common symptom, as well as a loss of appetite and nausea. There are many other ways that a B12 deficiency can show up, including tingling or numbness of hands and feet, mild depression, and diarrhoea. Neurological symptoms are some of the most concerning effects of a prolonged or pronounced B12 deficiency, as they tend to be irreversible and can develop into serious conditions like dementia. Even a mild B12 deficiency can increase risk of dementia, and once a dementia diagnosis paired with a B12 deficiency has been made, supplementing is no longer able to improve cognitive function.

              A deficiency can lead to serious consequences and even death if it isn’t detected and treated early on.

    Anyone who displays symptoms of a B12 deficiency or who has had a low B12 reading when last tested, should have their B12 status checked. Those at higher risk of developing a deficiency, including vegans, should have routine testing done, especially if they aren’t following a regular and adequate supplementing regime. It’s particularly important to ensure you have adequate levels while pregnant or breastfeeding, as the B12 status of mum determines that of baby.

    The most common test GPs order for this is a serum vitamin B12 test. However, this test isn’t always an accurate indicator of B12 status because it can show ‘false positive’ results, where the level looks to be in the normal range, but the person is actually deficient. To get an accurate B12 status reading, I recommend an MMA (methylmalonic acid) test. MMA is related to B12 metabolism and our levels increase if we become B12 deficient. So, next time you’re due for a B12 test, ask your GP for an MMA blood or urine test rather than a serum vitamin B12 blood test (this may come at an out-of-pocket cost).

    Smart supplementation

    Supplementation is recommended to start within the first few months of reducing or eliminating animal products from your diet. Our bodies store some B12 in the liver and muscles, so we can usually go a short time without supplementing before signs of a deficiency develop. There are various methods of supplementing – oral (sprays, chewables, or capsules), sublingual (sprays or dissolvable tablets under the tongue), and intramuscular injections. I always recommend an oral supplement as the safest, most effective and practical way to ensure adequate vitamin B12 status.

    Injections are equally safe and effective but are less practical for most. Sublingual supplements do not appear to be any more effective at ensuring effective absorption of B12 than oral supplements, and are less well-studied than oral forms.

              The cyanocobalamin form of B12 is extremely reliable.

    Most supplements are in the form of either methylcobalamin or cyanocobalamin (which is converted into the body’s usable forms when consumed). Despite the common notion that methylcobalamin is the active form and the most easily absorbed by the body, the best form to take is cyanocobalamin, except in a few special cases. The cyanocobalamin form is the most extensively studied, stable, and effective form for raising and maintaining adequate B12 status, so it is extremely reliable.

    Absorption of B12 is complex and only small amounts can be absorbed at a time, so supplement doses are much higher than the recommended daily intake. Either smaller daily doses of B12 may be consumed or much larger doses can be taken on a less frequent basis to maintain adequate B12 status.

    In general, healthy vegan adults can ensure adequate intake with a daily supplement of 100–250mcg of B12 in the cyanocobalamin form. Alternatively, a larger weekly dose of 2500mcg can be taken. It’s a good idea to discuss your B12 status and supplementation needs with a qualified health professional to ensure a personalised approach, because absorption can vary between individuals depending on their overall health, life stage, specific conditions, and medications.

    My best advice is to find a GP or dietitian who specialises in plant-based diets. You can find listings of these on the Doctors For Nutrition website.

    Vitamin B12 is essential for human health and it is important to have a solid plan in place to obtain it when following or considering a plant-based diet. As an Accredited Practising Dietitian who specialises in plant-based nutrition, I firmly believe that everyone can reap the enormous benefits of this healthy, compassionate, and sustainable lifestyle. As part of this, maintaining adequate B12 levels is important and, fortunately, easily achieved through inexpensive supplementation.

    Doctor with fruit and veg f+v doc image - sized as email block - 'donate here'

    This article is republished with permission from nourishmagazine.com.au.