June 20, 2018

DAA conference | Sydney, Australia

Last month, I attended the DAA conference in Sydney. This was my third DAA conference after becoming a dietitian. Previous conferences in Melbourne and Hobart presented great travel opportunities. But I had a lot going on leading up to this conference (preparing for my oral presentation and another upcoming international conference) so I was kind of relieved that I wouldn’t have to travel anywhere.

Asking the BIG questions “How can we be the change we want to see in the world?”

The theme for this year’s conference was #ThinkBig. The conference started with motivational speaker Jeremy Meltzer who spoke about business as a force for good and millennial power. This was one of my favourite sessions as it really got me thinking big picture.

“Women entrepreneurs and business leaders are the fastest-growing economic force in the world”-Muhtar Kent (CEO, Coca Cola). Women are the greatest drivers of economic growth this century.

We also learnt about new terms like ‘nutribollox’ which describes the utter rubbish we are exposed to on social media. Another interesting one was ‘nutribabble’ which is not absolute rubbish but it is information that conflicts (like a popular women’s magazine).

Why do we so readily reject expert advice? One reason: as humans, we favour information that confirms our pre-existing ideas.

My beautiful city be looking ever so fine on a cold morning

 

Taking a moment to appreciate the architecture of this building..

Did you say salmon and avo? I’m in!

Pearl couscous and barley salad – vegetarian lunches have never looked more exciting!

Woke up super early to make this breakfast seminar!

On Friday, I attended a breakfast seminar which was hosted by Australian Eggs presenting some latest research. A few people asked me about this on Instagram already, so I thought I’d put in a summary here as well:

  • Eggs are an economical, nutrient rich food and contain 11 of the essential vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, E and B12, as well as antioxidants, choline and lutein. The advice in Australia has been to consume up to 6 eggs per week. However, recommendations around the world have been much higher.
  • The latest Australian study (DIABEGG) looked at the of high-egg diet on cardiovascular risk factors in people with type 2 diabetes. It was a randomised controlled trial. This essentially meant that people either got a high egg diet OR low egg diet. The main findings from the study was no change in cardiovascular risk factors when compared between the two groups. They looked at a range of measures which included blood pressure, pulse, body fat, weight, total body fat and waist, total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL (bad cholesterol), HDL (good cholesterol) and novel markers to measure vascular and systemic inflammation.
  • So, what does this mean? This means it may be safe to include eggs in your diet more regularly (even if you are at risk of type 2 diabetes or have type two diabetes). “A healthy diet based on population guidelines and including more eggs than currently recommended by some countries may be safely consumed.”  Click here if you want to know more about the published research.

When your nail polish matches your juice!

Eggs and mushrooms make my day!

Getting my dose of nuts at Nuts For Life

Yes, dietitians do love their cake! #everythinginmoderation

We love our carbs, with veggies of course!

Food fairness everyone’s business especially if we are going to feed 9 billion people by 2042. All stakeholders need to be involved and engaged. It’s time to advocate for change! Most would not think of food security in the modern age of social media where we see so much food porn and endless brunch posts when we are scrolling

On the last day, we had workshops on food security/ hidden hunger which was quite insightful. We are so caught up in the social media world with brunch porn and decadent desserts, we often forget how common food security can be. The plenary session ended with a great debate on the weighty issue which questioned whether BMI should be regularly used to assess obese patients.

BMI is a real issue but not the only issue. But it should not be reflective as a single measure of total health. Focusing on diet quality may be better for improving health and well-being rather than talking only about weight.

These bran muffins were a hit!

Poached salmon, turmeric and coconut with bean shoots and pickled cucumbers

Mango sorbet to treat the 3pm slump

Eat the rainbow!

And it’s a wrap!

Overall reflection

#DAA2018 has been my favourite DAA conference I have been to thus far. Happy to say, it sparked some really big ideas in me. #DAA2018 has gotten me to think bigger than ever before! Now I’ve got a million dreams that are keeping me awake!  It has helped me realise that I need to work on rebranding my account and aligning my passion/ personal interests closer to my professional work.

My favourite sessions included the motivational talk by Jeremy Meltzer, workshops on engaging for success and creating your dream career. The latter workshop focused on branding and becoming an entrepreneur which was highly valuable. It all got me thinking about making changes in my personal and professional life so it aligns better with my passion.

While there is an endless amount of ‘nutribollox’ out there, it’s also an exciting time to be involved. Our profession is not headed in one direction, it’s headed in multiple directions. There is a lot going on which can be puzzling but we now have an international audience.

Here are my top 5 learnings:

  1. We as dietitians need to connect over food and look out for each other (rather than competing). We really need to support the work that other dietitians are doing.
  2. We have lost the enjoyment with food. We need to take your weight-centric glasses off! We should focus on improving diet quality and having a healthy relationship with food (rather than weight per se).
  3. Despite having the expertise in food and nutrition, we must say we “don’t have all the answers”.  We must stop saying sorry for changing diet advice. When the evidence changes, we should not be sorry and stand firm on evidence-based practice.
  4. As dietitians, we have a lot of compassion in our profession already which is great! But we need to work on empathy- we should focus on how patients want to be treated rather than how we want to treat them.
  5. Last but certainly not least, we must have courage, an evidence-based opinion and bring out our passion in everything we do!

Thanks for reading! Check out my Twitter if you’d like to see more conference updates from #DAA2018 :)

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose”- Dr Seuss, Oh the places you’ll go