Episode 35 - The power of healthy dietary patterns - Nuts for Life

25 September 2023

September 2023.

Listen here:

And available everywhere you listen to podcasts: https://pod.link/thehealthyhandful

About this episode

Historically, nutrition science focused on individual nutrients, and how falling short of these could lead to certain diseases or health conditions.

Decades on, in many higher-income countries, like Australia, nutrient deficiencies are no longer the norm. Instead, we’re much more attuned to rising rates of chronic diseases, which are not caused by single nutrients (or lack of a single nutrient), but have multiple determinants.

So, we need to consider foods, food groups and, most importantly, dietary patterns.

In our newest podcast episode, we talk with Dr Elizabeth Neale on all things ‘dietary patterns’.

She touches on why singling out nutrients is now considered a ‘reductionist’ approach, why it’s worth looking at the whole diet, which dietary patterns are the best (and why), and how more recent dietary guidelines have shifted their focus firmly on dietary patterns.

Plus, we consider the where nuts fit within healthy dietary patterns, based on the latest evidence.

About today’s guest

Dr Elizabeth Neale is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian. She completed her PhD in nutrition at the University of Wollongong in 2012, where she now works as a Senior Lecturer.

Elizabeth’s research focuses on the evidence-based framework in nutrition, with a particular focus on systematic reviews and meta-analyses. She also explores the impact of nut consumption on risk factors for chronic diseases.