From Paddock to Plate

Flew up to Sydney to join other dietitians to hear about sustainable meat production in Australia and what some of our producers and chefs are doing.

With few kitchen staff knowing how to butcher meat these days, it is challenging for restaurants to use a whole beef or lamb. And the average home cook is also wary of ordering cheaper cuts of meat as they aren’t always sure how to use them. Butchers and restaurants can sell all the eye fillets they buy, but that represents only 3% of the weight of the whole carcass, so ‘sustainability’ and using all the meat produced effectively, takes a back seat to what we know and love. But there is a move to change things.

It starts with farming. Fascinating to hear Jenny O’Sullivan talk about how her family refused to take earlier advice to clear all the trees on their property and how the farm is now enjoying the benefits of diversity in terms of native tree and other vegetation. She is currently focusing on soil improvements, as the beginning of the process to produce better grazing and ultimately better beef. She’s spearheading sustainable beef production, under best practice environmental management systems.

The Agrarian Kitchen’s Rodney Dunn (a chef who learnt his trade with Tetsuya Wakuda), demonstrated his favourite beef and lamb recipes and talked about how he is trying to improve knowledge of just how good other cuts of meat can be and how to prepare them. You can enjoy some of his recipes too.  

Olivia Newton John Cancer & Wellness Centre Fundraiser

Having just arrived back from the US, with my family I was pleased to host a fundraising lunch for Olivia Newton John to support the development of the  Olivia Newton John Cancer & Wellness Centre. Based at Austin Health in Melbourne. It’s a great cause. When I started work as a dietitian at the Peter MacCallum Institute (now the Peter Mac Cancer Centre) as the first ward dietitian, I saw first hand how having a positive environment is so important to recovery and wellbeing, so the concept of focussing on wellness for cancer care is something I feel strongly about.

We need to look at patients holistically – all aspects from healthy eating, meditation, massage, as well as support needs of patients and their families - not just focus on disease and treatment.

I was inspired by Olivia’s hard work for a cause she feels so passionately about. At the lunch Olivia spoke about her own experience and how a positive mind and a supportive environment, alongside integrated wellness care and medical treatment played a huge role in her healing when she faced cancer. She said it’s not just about treating cancer, it’s about healing the whole person.

Radio 3AW’s afternoon presenter Denis Walter kindly acted as MC for the lunch, and hopefully my involvement helped, even in a small way, to lift awareness and raise the additional money for the proposed new centre. (And yes, I served a nutritious lunch with lots of healthy foods, high in antioxidants!) You can help too – see the web site for more information.

US Nutrition News     

My US visit as a member of the Jenny Craig Medical Advisory Board was again so stimulating. I was impressed hearing about the extensive research being done on obesity and lifestyle management around the world – I am particularly interested in the area of behaviour modification and how changing our behaviour is a key factor in successful weight loss and maintenance. It may all seem like common sense but  it’s not that straightforward and certainly not that easy to change behaviours especially when unhealthy lifestyle habits are ingrained into our psyche. Having the right mind set is also vitally important and our ability to reprogram our brain is a very exciting developing area.

Sometimes the most basic strategies in weight loss are the most effective such as filling up on low energy foods like vegies and physical activity of course, moving more and the importance of strength training, particularly as people get older.

One major change since my last visit to America is the extent of nutrition labelling of food. Previously there used to be an over abundance of large portions on offer; now this has certainly decreased. But sadly, despite the fact that there’s more nutrition information available wherever food is accessed (supermarkets; fast food chains and many restaurants and casual dining places), even with all my nutrition knowledge in some places I couldn’t select a salad to eat because of the high fat dressings...and forget about asking for dressings on the side.

While the trip was inspiring, it was marred by the fact my luggage was riffled (despite being locked) and many items were stolen from my bag while in transit through LA airport. The paperwork and effort to deal with the loss has been traumatic and the more I talk about it, the more it seems this was not an isolated instance and is something more Australians should be aware of. When travelling. In future I’ll certainly be taking any ‘desirable’ items in hand luggage and not trust them in my main baggage. At the moment I’m  still dealing with the airline and my insurance company and have spent literally hours producing receipts and filling in forms and writing letters to recover the purchase value – but sadly none of the items I’ve either owned and cherished for years or had just bought as gifts. At least my husband and I are home safe and sound.

DAA Conference challenges dietitians  

Melbourne hosted the Dietitians Association Australia Conference at the end of May. When over 900 dietitians get together, it’s always fun, stimulating and thought provoking. This year’s theme was ‘next generation nutrition: innovative solutions’.

The workshop on nutrition in cyber space – about nutrition communication using new technology (eg facebook; twitter, web sites) – threw  out challenges to every dietitian in Australia. It was predicted that in five year’s time patients will be more likely to consult a dietitian using skype, rather than face to face. One speaker said 54% of Australians get the majority of health information from the web and that 20% use it to decide whether to see a health professional or not. Another suggested every dietitian needs to revamp their website so people can communicate more directly, and sites need to be updated daily. So watch this space, as I’m about to have a major review of my cyber presence.

The ‘hypothetical’ session at the DAA conference was about what we’ll be eating in  the year 2050 – another engrossing debate that had us all thinking. There were strong arguments between the ‘techno food’ camp, versus the ‘nutrigenic food’ supporters. With an ever-increasing population, and higher density living, it was predicted the traditional backyard flower garden will be a thing of the past, with street trees being replaced with fruit or nut varieties, and ‘urban farming’ with edible gardens, including covering walls and in planter boxes on high rise buildings, becoming the norm. Maybe that old TV show ‘The Good Life’ wasn’t really fantasy after all?

Kind regards

Karen Inge.