Meet the dietitians helping bring Sanitarium’s nutrition vision to life
Calcium is well-known for being essential in building and maintaining strong teeth and bone density. But did you know around six in ten Australians (63%) and Kiwis (59%) aren't getting enough? Or that many of us could be missing many other critical vitamins and minerals that our bodies rely on to support our overall wellbeing?
Gaps like these are exactly why, here at Sanitarium, we have an entire team of health professionals working hard to help Aussies make more informed decisions about what they consume - and educate them on how eating well could have a positive influence on whole-person health.
To shed some light on common nutritional gaps and offer insights on how to best support your bodies nutritional needs, we caught up with two of our Accredited Practising Dietitians - Shane Landon and Trish Guy to hear what it’s like to work in one most interesting and innovative teams.
Shane, what do you get up to in the Nutrition Insights (NI) Team?
“Sanitarium’s key purpose has always been to change lives through whole-person health. This involves looking at wellbeing holistically, using evidence-based nutrition to support people’s vitality, helping them live healthier each day to improve long-term health outcomes,” said Shane.
“The NI team takes the guesswork out of nutrition. We ensure that every product, recipe and piece of dietary advice is backed by credible, current science, while our team of Accredited Practising Dietitians identify and drive nutrition opportunities by translating complex science into practical advice. This provides people with the confidence of knowing that their food choices can influence their wellbeing.”
What does this look like in practice?
“Most of my work revolves around engaging with Sanitarium’s external stakeholders including health and regulatory agencies like the Australian Food and Grocery Council to ensure our nutrition philosophy is understood and reflected in external regulations and health policy. We work closely with the Grains and Legumes Nutrition Council to advocate for increased emphasis on plant proteins and wholegrains in dietary guidelines
“Another key part of the nutrition role is to monitor emerging nutrition science via journals, conferences and direct engagement with researchers to seek out opportunities for our brands and where possible translate new findings into potential product claims. We also use new nutrition findings to enhance our advice to the public.”
And what about you, Trish?
“A lot of my job involves looking beyond the Sanitarium business to focus on public health education. We bring our dietary expertise to life through publishing articles and resources across our website, enabling Australians to access trusted health information and increase awareness about the importance of healthy eating and lifestyle habits,” said Trish.
“We also help address nutrition misinformation by providing evidence-based guidance grounded in the latest health research making it easy for Australians and New Zealanders to make better food choices in their daily lives.”
What kind of partners does the NI team collaborate with?
“We have partnered with several universities to undertake research across a broad range of nutritional topics. This offers us invaluable insights that inform how we develop and innovate our products and communicate our findings to the public. We are always looking to embed evidence-based findings into our recipes and products.”
What's the most exciting project your team has worked on recently?
“Recently we’ve worked with our internal teams such as our Development and Innovation team to help launch So Good High Fibre + Prebiotics. We did this to ensure all nutrition and health claims are fully substantiated and compliant. From reviewing the latest scientific research on health benefits of prebiotics to guiding the development of on pack messages, it was a great experience where we were able to translate the evidence into practical guidance on recipe development.”
Whether it’s shaping nutrition policy, developing products or answering consumer questions through our ‘Ask our Dietitian’ service on our website, through to leading groundbreaking research, everything the NI team does comes back to one purpose: changing lives through whole person-health.
Get to know more about Shane, Trish and our other esteemed Accredited Practising Dietitians here.