We thank Doctors for Nutrition for providing AHPA with a complimentary pass for the recent Nutrition in Healthcare Conference 2023 in Melbourne and were pleased that Melissa Morris, AHPA Vic-Tas Branch Committee member, was able to attend.
Melissa Morris:
"I was fortunate to attend this wonderful Australasian conference, initiated by Doctors for Nutrition, held in Melbourne.
With the rapid advances in technology, people constantly being in a rush, finding they are time-poor, supermarkets and food outlets offer quick ready-made meal solutions, which may not always be the healthiest. There is also a focus on vitamin supplements to support deficiencies in our diets.
A range of outstanding speakers (healthcare professionals), introduced evidence-based research to provide the tools for healthcare professionals, including general practitioners, and nurses to support their patients with nutrition care. The focus was on how to tackle a wide variety of health conditions, many prevented or reversed through a diet abundant in whole plant-foods, rather than following the original nutrition guidelines of the food pyramid, which included eating meat, fish and dairy products.
It was refreshing to hear from so many respected local and international doctors, gastroenterologists, cardiologists, dieticians who promoted eating a whole food plant-based approach, including seeds and legumes, rather than relying on the advice of commercial companies in taking additional supplements including pre- and probiotics.
An outstanding virtual presentation was by Dr Michael Greger, MD, a physician, author and a founding member and Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and internationally recognised speaker on nutrition. His entire address on ‘Evidence- Based Weight Loss’ was presented whilst he walked on a treadmill! He advocated for ‘tweaking our meals and lifestyles’ by staying hydrated, including black cumin (nigella seeds), ground ginger and garlic powder in our diets.
Dr Gemma Newman, a general practitioner, gynaecologist and author with a specialist interest in holistic health, plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine, presented on hormonal health. Her statement on the importance of ‘making the environment easier for people to make health food choices’, resonated with me, as this is a core part of Health Promotion, to ideally enable and empower people to take control of their own preventative care.
As a member of the Australian Health Promotion Association and a Program Facilitator with the Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network, engaging with general practices to embed prevention of vision loss in their clinics, I left this conference with many valuable tools to share with health practitioners to improve their wholistic care of patients."