Public Health Nutrition from Foodies in the Field

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In this episode Kim Anastasiou, a Research Fellow at the Stretton Health Equity Institute of the University of Adelaide, unpacks the impact that ultra processed foods are having not just on our health but also our environment and what this means for the work we do and the world we live in.

Kim is an advocate for the transformative changes needed to create healthier and more sustainable food systems. Previously, Kim has held the roles of ‘Young Scientist’ for the UN FAO’s World Food Forum (2022-23) and ‘Youth Liaison’ for the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (2021). She formerly worked at the CSIRO as a Research Dietitian on public health nutrition research projects. Current projects include analysing the health and environmental impacts of Australian food policies (University of Adelaide) and reviewing interventions which improve the quality of life of food system workers (part of EAT-Lancet 2.0).

 For further information, check out Kim's researcher profile; and Linked In and Twitter (X) page. 
 
Key links related to this episode

• NOVA Classification scheme 
• Australia Dietary Guidelines review

CONTACT US
Send us your thoughts or questions about the episode or the podcast in general
Via Instagram @fromfoodiesinthefield
Via Twitter @foodies_field
Via email [email protected]
And we’d love it if you left a review of the podcast
 
CREDITS
Host: Sophie Wright-Pedersen
With thanks to Kim Anastasiou for her time and thoughts
 
The Foodies in the Field podcast would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast was made, the Turrbal and Yuggera people of Meanjin, as well as the lands from where Kim was speaking from and where you may be listening from today. We pay respects to elders both past and present and acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first foodies of this nation where food systems, knowledge and practices have always been deeply embedded in this country long before colonisation.

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Dr. Fiona Willer is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy renowned for her advocacy of weight-neutral practices in healthcare. 

Throughout the podcast episode, Fiona shares insights on why a weight neutral approach is necessary to progress population wellbeing, and how community health and food practitioners can identify weight stigma within programs and policies to challenge the obesity-centric language often used in these contexts. 

With a rich background in university lecturing, private practice, and clinical dietetics, Fiona's expertise extends across diverse domains, including dietetic private practice benchmarking and Health at Every Size (HAES) integration into dietetics. As the founder of Health Not Diets, Fiona pioneers professional development training and workshops aimed at integrating HAES principles into clinical practice.

For further information, check out Fiona's website, researcher profile at QUT,  Linked In, and X profiles. 

Key links:

• Willer F. The Weight Stigma Heat Map: A tool to identify weight stigma in public health and health promotion materials. Health Promot J Austral. 2023. 
• Fiona's Podcast: Unpacking Weight Science 
• Book: If not dieting, then what? by Rick Kausman

This episode touches on topics that you may find distressing, including weight stigma and disordered eating. Please check who’s listening in and take a break if you need to. 

If you are in distress and need help 24/7 in Australia

• Lifeline (131114)
• 13 Yarn (139276) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners 
• Emergency services (000)

If you need to talk to someone about an eating disorder 

• The Butterfly Foundation (1800 33 4673, not a crisis line)

CONTACT US
Send us your thoughts or questions about the episode or the podcast in general
Via Instagram @fromfoodiesinthefield
Via X @foodies_field
Via email [email protected]
And we’d love it if you left a review of the podcast

CREDITS
Host: Sophie Wright-Pedersen
With thanks to Dr. Fiona Willer for her time and thoughts

The Foodies in the Field podcast would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast was made, the Turrbal and Yuggera people of Meanjin, as well as where you may be listening from today. We pay respects to elders both past and present and acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first foodies of this nation where food systems, knowledge and practices have always been deeply embedded in this country long before colonisation.

Support the show

Rowena Yamazaki is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian from YouthBlock - a specialist youth health service in Sydney. For the last 17 years Rowena has led the Yhunger program which aims to strengthen young people's food literacy skills and improve their food security status. Rowena talks about involving youth throughout all elements of food and nutrition programs.

This episode touches on topics that you may find distressing, including the violence, abuse and neglect of children, eating disorders and food insecurity. Please check who’s listening in and skip over these sections or take a break if you need to. Refer to the list of support services below if you need to reach out.

For further enquiries about the resources, evaluation and online training, email Rowena ([email protected]) or call Youthblock (+61 2 9562 5640)

Key links related to this episode

• YHunger Website
• Crawford et al. (2014) Sustaining dignity? Food insecurity in homeless young people in urban Australia
• Crawford et al. (2015) Is something better than nothing? Food insecurity and eating patterns of young people experiencing homelessness
• Yhunger ‘My Food Stories’ co-produced with young people
• Yhunger in youth services (case studies) here and here

Trauma informed care resources mentioned 

• Blue Knot Foundation 
• Butterfly Foundation
• Inside Out Institute e-learning 
• STARTTS
• Youth Health and Wellbeing in NSW Health
• Youth Mental Health First Aid

Other organisations mentioned

• CuriousWorks – community youth arts organisation in Western Sydney 
• NSW Refugee Health Service
• Youth Action – peak body for youth services and young people in NSW
• Yfoundations – peak body for youth homelessness in NSW

If you are looking for support services for a young person in crisis

• Ask Izzy website

If you are in distress and need help 24/7 in Australia

• Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800)
• Lifeline (131114)
• 13 Yarn (139276) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners 
• Emergency services (000)

CONTACT US
Send us your thoughts or questions about the episode or the podcast in general
Via Instagram @fromfoodiesinthefield
Via Twitter @foodies_field
Via email [email protected]
And we’d love it if you left a review of the podcast

Support the show

Dr. Sue Kleve is a public health nutrition researcher and senior lecturer with the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food at Monash University. Sue has over 20 years’ experience working across community and public health nutrition settings in Australia. In this episode Sue provides insights into why more and more Australians are experiencing food insecurity in Australia and mechanisms to address the underlying determinants of this wicked problem. 
 
For further information, check out Sue's researcher profile at Monash University, and Twitter (X) page. 
 
Key links related to this episode

• Australian Household Food Insecurity Information Hub (including the S.H.A.R.E collaboration)
• Cardinia Food Movement and Strategy 
• The Community Grocer
• 'Responding to food relief needs' factsheet 

CONTACT US
Send us your thoughts or questions about the episode or the podcast in general
Via Instagram @fromfoodiesinthefield
Via Twitter @foodies_field
Via email [email protected]
And we’d love it if you left a review of the podcast

CREDITS
Host: Sophie Wright-Pedersen
With thanks to Dr. Sue Kleve for her time and thoughts

The Foodies in the Field podcast would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast was made, the Turrbal and Yuggera people of Meanjin, as well as the lands from where Sue was speaking from and where you may be listening from today. We pay respects to elders both past and present and acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first foodies of this nation where food systems, knowledge and practices have always been deeply embedded in this country long before colonisation.

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Dr Alexandra Jones is a public health lawyer and researcher at The George Institute for Global Health within the Food Policy team.  

This episode dives deep into the world of food policy and regulation, as Ali explains Front of Pack Labelling around the world with a particular focus on the Australian Health Star Rating. We talk about how this regulatory mechanism came about, how effective its been and what needs to happen to make it better for population health into the future. 

For further information, check out Ali's researcher profile at the George Institute; and Linked In and Twitter pages. 
 
Key links related to this episode

• Health Star Rating website, and 5-year review
• FoodSwitch website (and app for Apple & Android)
• Defining ‘Unhealthy’: A Systematic Analysis of Alignment between the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Health Star Rating System (Jones et al., 2018)
• The performance and potential of the Australasian Health Star Rating system: a four‐year review using the RE‐AIM framework (Jones et al., 2019)
• Front-of-pack nutrition labelling to promote healthier diets: current practice and opportunities to strengthen regulation worldwide (Jones et al., 2019)
• An 18-country analysis of the effectiveness of five front-of-pack nutrition labels (Pettigrew et al., 2023)

CONTACT US
Send us your thoughts or questions about the episode or the podcast in general
Via Instagram @fromfoodiesinthefield
Via Twitter @foodies_field
Via email [email protected]
And we’d love it if you left a review of the podcast
 
CREDITS
Host: Sophie Wright-Pedersen
With thanks to Dr Alexandra Jones for her time and thoughts
 
The Foodies in the Field podcast would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast was made, the Turrbal and Yuggera people of Meanjin, as well as the lands from where Ali was speaking from and where you may be listening from today. We pay respects to elders both past and present and acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first foodies of this nation where food systems, knowledge and practices have always been deeply embedded in this country long before colonisation.

Support the show

Helen Vidgen is an Associate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics at the Queensland University of Technology. This is Part Two of a two-part episode. This episode is all about Helen’s food literacy work and the global impact that it's had.If you’re unsure what food literacy is, why we should be considering it in our everyday work and how we can do this, then this is the episode for you.
 
For further information, check out Helen's researcher profile at the Queensland University of Technology; and Linked In and Twitter pages. 
 
Key links related to this episode

• Defining food literacy and its components
• Book - Food Literacy: Key concepts for health and education
• Measuring Food Literacy: Progressing the Development of an International Food Literacy Survey Using a Content Validity Study (Fingland, Thompson & Vidgen, 2021)

CONTACT US
Send us your thoughts or questions about the episode or the podcast in general
Via Instagram @fromfoodiesinthefield
Via Twitter @foodies_field
Via email [email protected]
And we’d love it if you left a review of the podcast
 
CREDITS
Host: Sophie Wright-Pedersen
With thanks to Associate Professor Helen Vidgen for her time and thoughts
 
The Foodies in the Field podcast would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast was made, the Turrbal and Yuggera people of Meanjin, as well as the lands from where you may be listening from today. We pay respects to elders both past and present and acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first foodies of this nation where food systems, knowledge and practices have always been deeply embedded in this country long before colonisation.

Support the show

Helen Vidgen is an Associate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics at the Queensland University of Technology. This is Part One of a Two-part episode. In this first episode we go through Helen’s incredible career journey in public health and community nutrition and dive deep into various topics including the lack of diversity in our workforce, how the public health nutrition workforce has evolved over the years, and how individuals can pursue and construct opportunities in this space.  
 
For further information, check out Helen's researcher profile at the Queensland University of Technology; and Linked In and Twitter pages. 
 
Key links related to this episode

• Rise and demise: a case study of public health nutrition in Queensland, Australia, over three decades (Lee et al., 2022)
• Pathways into the health workforce for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Dr. Mark Wenitong, NATSIHC, 2008)

CONTACT US
Send us your thoughts or questions about the episode or the podcast in general
Via Instagram @fromfoodiesinthefield
Via Twitter @foodies_field
Via email [email protected]
And we’d love it if you left a review of the podcast
 
CREDITS
Host: Sophie Wright-Pedersen
With thanks to Associate Professor Helen Vidgen for her time and thoughts
 
The Foodies in the Field podcast would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast was made, the Turrbal and Yuggera people of Meanjin, as well as the lands from where you may be listening from today. We pay respects to elders both past and present and acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first foodies of this nation where food systems, knowledge and practices have always been deeply embedded in this country long before colonisation.

Support the show

Professor Sharon Friel is an ARC Laureate Fellow, Professor of Health Equity and Director of the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse and the Menzies Centre for Health Governance at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University. On today’s show Sharon talks about investigating the intersection of climate change, health and social inequities through the recently launched Planetary Health Equity Hothouse. We explore these three huge topics in the context of the food system and what this means for our field and for our futures. 

For further information, check out the Planetary Health Hothouse website and Twitter page.  As well as Sharon's researcher profile at the Australian National University; and Sharon’s Linked In and Twitter pages. 
 
Key papers related to this episode

• Can be found here
• Using systems science to understand the determinants of inequities in healthy eating 

CONTACT US
 Send us your thoughts or questions about the episode or the podcast in general
 Via Instagram @fromfoodiesinthefield
Via Twitter @foodies_field
Via email [email protected]
And we’d love it if you left a review of the podcast
 
CREDITS
Host: Sophie Wright-Pedersen
With thanks to Professor Sharon Friel for her time and thoughts
 
The Foodies in the Field podcast would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast was made, the Turrbal and Yuggera people of Meanjin, as well as the lands from where Sharon was speaking and where you may be listening from today. We pay respects to elders both past and present and acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first foodies of this nation where food systems, knowledge and practices have always been deeply embedded in this country long before colonisation.

Support the show

Dr. Cathy Wilkinson is the CEO of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation. The SAKG Foundation provides inspiration, information, professional development and support for educational institutions to deliver pleasurable food education for Australian children in conjunction with educators, partners and the wider community. As Cathy explains, this foundation and its repertoire of programs is all about nurturing children’s positive and pleasurable food experiences by going back to the roots of gardening and cooking in settings right across Australia. You can hear the passion that Cathy has for this work throughout the episode and she has inspiring stories of the impact that the foundation and program has had. Possibly even more impressive is the sustainability of this work that has been running for over 20 years and the scale in which it’s being delivered into over 1000 early childhood, primary and secondary schools locations all with their own variation of kitchen-gardens. 

For all things SAKG Foundation and Program, visit and connect with their 

• Website with impact reports (including research articles)
• Newsletter 
• Facebook page 
• Instagram 
• Youtube channel
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Journal article mentioned by Cathy (Chan et al., 2022): "Evaluating the impacts of school garden-based programmes on diet and nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes and practices among the school children: a systematic review"

CONTACT US

Send us your thoughts or questions about the episode or the podcast in general

Via Instagram @fromfoodiesinthefield

Via Twitter @foodies_field

Via email [email protected]

And we’d love it if you left a review of the podcast wherever you're listening from. 

CREDITS

Host: Sophie Wright-Pedersen

With thanks to Dr. Cathy Wilkinson for her time and thoughts


The Foodies in the Field podcast would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast was made, the Turrbal and Yuggera people of Meanjin, as well as the lands from where Cathy was speaking and where you may be listening from today. We pay respects to elders both past and present and acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first foodies of this nation where food systems, knowledge and practices have always been deeply embedded in this country long before colonisation.

Support the show