Tag Archives: dietitian social media

Family Meals, Recipes, Wheat Free

Simple Chicken and Butternut Curry.

Leave a comment

Comfort food for me is curry. Being half Sri-lankan it’s in my roots that curry is delicious, nutritious and part of life. For me a good curry must include fragrant spice, vegetables and lentils. Or at least have those as side dishes. I’m not about the greasy, ultra spiced up meals with lots of sauce and no veg. Curry can be a great way to be creative with vegetables and give them a twist. It doesn’t have to be time consuming or complicated but it does have to be tasty.

Chicken and Butternut Curry
Serves 4
Family friendly curry
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
40 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
40 min
504 calories
64 g
55 g
7 g
46 g
1 g
233 g
87 g
5 g
0 g
6 g
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
233g
Servings
4
Amount Per Serving
Calories 504
Calories from Fat 63
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 7g
11%
Saturated Fat 1g
5%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 4g
Cholesterol 55mg
18%
Sodium 87mg
4%
Total Carbohydrates 64g
21%
Dietary Fiber 31g
124%
Sugars 5g
Protein 46g
Vitamin A
154%
Vitamin C
13%
Calcium
8%
Iron
47%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Does this look wrong?
Ingredients
  1. 1/2 large butternut squash
  2. 3 medium carrots
  3. 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
  4. 3 chicken breasts
  5. 1/2 tin coconut milk
  6. 2 cups lentils
  7. 1 tsp tumeric, coriander, cumin
  8. 1/4 inch grated ginger
  9. 2 cloves garlic
  10. 80g mushrooms
Instructions
  1. Peel and chop the butternut squash (or use frozen chunks) and the carrots.
  2. Heat the oil in a pan and gently cook the butternut and carrots for 3 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile chop the chicken into bite sized chunks and set aside.
  4. Add the tumeric, coriander and cumin, it will smell fragrant and delicious. Stir around to coat everything. Next add the chicken and stir to coat.
  5. Pour in the coconut milk and add lentils. Top tip: if you use the smallest lentils they cook extra fast.
  6. Whilst this comes up to a simmer prepare the garlic cloves, I like to smash and chop mine. Grate the ginger and add the ginger and garlic to the pan.
  7. Finally add the chunks of mushrooms and simmer for a couple of minutes.
  8. Serve with rice and a sprinkle of coriander if you have it and your family will eat it (mine moan at the green stuff).
Notes
  1. I use frozen ginger and grate it with the skin still on, you could also use it fresh and peel it first.
beta
calories
504
fat
7g
protein
46g
carbs
64g
more
Dietitian UK https://www.dietitianuk.co.uk/
SaveSave

SaveSave

Media, Social Media for HCP's

The risk of social media.

3 Comments

Social media for me is essential. It brings me work, it brings me a virtual team and it enables me to stay up to date. I love it for personal and business reasons. It has connected me to a community of other nutrition professionals who I would probably never had met otherwise. I have daily chats with people about the current research, I can ask questions and support others, I can share resources and collaborate with them.

But at the same time social media can be a tough place to be. The nutrition world has become a crazy place. There are people with no training in nutrition publishing books and becoming the got-to for advice. There are highly qualified and respected experts getting caught up in social media wars.  I can completely understand why some people stay away from it altogether. 

Here are some things I am thankful for on social media:

Dietitian’s and registered nutritionists are trained to read the research and interpret it. That may sound simple but there can be many ways to interpret one piece of research. I’m thankful for people who share research, those who give an unbiased view, those who answer questions and help when others need a clearer answer or more research to back up a view. 

A virtual community who are supportive, forward thinking and inspire me. Working as a freelancer I don’t actually see other dietitian’s that often. To all those who are on the cutting edge with popdcasts, videos, infographics – thankyou. 

People who get in contact to just say nice things. Those who notice and say hi, those who comment on a blog post or a recipe. It is appreciated. 

Things that I wish I could change on social media:

The sniping and fighting that goes on. There is not one perfect answer, or one perfect diet. So maybe sometimes we have to agree to disagree.

Promoting of books and money making schemes over the science. It can be all too easy to think that just because someone has a book contract it makes them an expert. There are too many arguments about who is the expert. Personally I would say look at someone’s qualifications. If they are talking about nutrition have they actually studied nutrition? 

Black and white thinking. Social media only provides you with a small number of characters or a snapshot moment to present your point. This can mean that things become black or white, you end up having to take a side. Nutrition is a fairly new science and we are learning so much all of the time, with new research coming out tat is adding to our evidence. Therefore we do not have absolutes, what we do have is a base of science that we build upon. 

If you are a nutrition professional I do think you need to be on social media, sharing accurate messages, supporting your profession and keeping up with the world on there. How we group together and fight these battles that go on is not something I can answer but I do know it needs to be co-ordinated and professional.

Dietitian Advice, Nutrition Education

The rise of nutrition social media.

1 Comment

Since I qualified as a dietitian in 2005, the way nutrition information is communicated has changed at quite a pace. The basics of nutrition are still the same but we have moved from….

  • Books, journals and written journals to ebooks and blogs.
  • Face to Face meetings have become online meetings, virtual hangouts and video calls.
  • TV chefs have been challenged by food bloggers and YouTube cookery channels.

With social media being a huge knowledge driver it is clear that how we communicate affects language. So nutritional professionals with the RIGHT message need to be actively on social media, shouting about it.

Shoutnutritionmessages

The History:

1999 : Rise of Blogs.

2004 : Facebook begin and is now worth hundreds of billions.

2005 : YouTube started up.

2006 : Twitter, rising to more than 100 million users in 2012.

2012: : Health Bloggers emerge.

Rise nut social media

53% of consumers check their smart phones within 5 minutes of waking. Health bloggers are now prolific and widely followed, some are fast becoming household names with their own recipe books and published in the media. However many of these bloggers are giving out their own nutrition advice but with no real qualifications.

What do people now want?

  • Evidenced based nutrition knowledge presented online, in an easy to access format. Bite sizes snippets that is scientifically correct. 
  • Ethical products.
  • Natural foods.
  • Homemade, fast recipes.
  • Artisan ideas.
  • A unique story on food.
  • Smaller independent brands in a move away from the mass produced products.

As dietitian’s/registered nutritionists  we have a huge role here. 

My thoughts:

  1. How we communicate counts. Be present, be a part of the conversation.
  2. Be authentic. Dietitian’s eat cake! Model healthy eating, balance, moderations and all the things we preach about.
  3. Working with brands is ok as long as you are one about it using the hangtags #ad #spon and a disclosure in any blog posts.
  4. Share your tips, what you eat, your recipes, your work, your stories, new foods, your meals, the research you read, live tweet study days. Show your passion, shout about it.
  5. Keep abreast of the food trends. We can’t get left behind. Be current, be topical, be present.
Nutrition Education, Other

Why dietitians need to be on Social Media.

Leave a comment

This week I gave a talk on social media to a group of dietitians as part of the South East Branch Meeting of the British Dietetic Association. Rather nerve wracking but they were a lovely crowd and it went down really well 🙂 

Here is a photo someone took of me and posted on Instagram. Thankyou to Tash Guildford (@NGuildford82 on Instagram).

Thanks to Tash Guildford for the photo (@NGuildford82 on Instagram).
Thanks to Tash Guildford for the photo (@NGuildford82 on Instagram).

What it really highlighted to me was the lack of expertise we have in the profession in this area. Which is understandable as it’s not exactly what we were trained in! However in this world of technology when everyone has a smart phone and listens to the info on the internet we need to be have a presence. A good presence. A loud presence. A big presence. 

If as dietitians and trained nutritionists we think we are the people that the public should be seeking out for their nutritional knowledge then we need to be visible and easy to find. Otherwise there are plenty of others out there giving nutrition advice. Not all good, evidenced based, sensible advice either. 

Top tips:
1. Find a platform you like best. Set up an account and watch what others post/do. I like twitter the best. I get business through Twitter, I learn through it, I network with other professionals on it. That’s just my preference however.
2. Follow other nutrition professionals and follow who they follow! Start asking questions and interacting. 
3. Post interesting content. Things your patients ask you. Research papers you have read. Websites you like. Good fact sheets. 
4. Share other people’s good content. It makes them feel that what they are doing is worthwhile and it stops you reinventing the wheel. 
5. Find out your departments social media policy and look at starting a department account that several people can post and run. 
6. Don’t get drawn into arguments. It is quite easy to do! Either step back and ignore those types of comments or take it off line. 
7. If you are unsure about anything then ask! There are lots of more experienced dietitians on social media who will help. I chatted to some of the U.S. Dietitians in the early days to get tips on how they do
things and they were delighted to help me. 
8. Join in Twitter chats and network with others. Don’t sit there silently, just watching. Come and “join the conversation” (twitters tag line).
9. Be yourself. I share some personal info on my social media. It helps people see a bit about who I am and how I work. But don’t over share and be careful what you share. In our house we have some rules about what we post about the children for example.
10. Check out the BDA and HCPC’s social media policy and your local departments too. 

If you aren’t following me on social media then go and do it!! Then get chatting to me 🙂