Food Fellowship recognises leadership in nutrition and cultural change

Decades of nutrition research achievements were recognised by the award of Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia to Professor Helen Truby at the 2019 national scientific conference.

For Professor Helen Truby, combining science and food as a nutrition and dietetics researcher was a calling borne from helping others live their best lives.

“I’ve never wanted to do anything else, and I’ve always been driven by solving real problems with practical solutions,” she says.

“But problem-solving also needs curiosity; that push to keep asking questions and go where the data and the science takes you.”

Curiosity creates a scale with a life of its own

For Helen, the development of the Children’s Body Image Scale (CBIS) is a great example of problem-solving your way to an exceptional discovery.

“I was working with children with Cystic Fibrosis who often experience undernutrition — and the response is often to turn the food pyramid upside down. We wanted to understand if children’s compliance with their high-fat diets was related to body image, but we had no way to measure it,” she says.

Helen developed the concept of a photographic scale of children of different body mass index (BMI).

“We’d simply ask them what picture they felt they looked like, and looked at discrepancies with their actual BMI.”

From 2002, the CBIS has embedded gender and racial background variables. It remains the global standard for measuring body image perceptions in 7-12 year olds, which Helen says largely took on a life of its own.

“Research and big ideas grow, evolve and flourish. It started with me, but it’s gone on a journey of its own.”

“The research that started CBIS  — supporting children with chronic disease through metabolic issues — provides endless inspiration and satisfaction. Even working with a small group of children, the impact you can have is enormous.”

The challenge of communicating nutrition advice

Helen says good health and nutrition messages are competing for attention in a time of information overload.

“We used to think one size fits all for dietary advice, but now we know there's a lot more interventional nuances into what food patterns fit different people. So, we’re trying to make it easier, yet the advice starts to get complicated.”

“Social media is impacting people's food choices significantly, and science must get better at competing in that environment, using marketing techniques of the food industry itself. But like so much public health advice, people feel overwhelmed and switch off.”

Meeting misinformation with online empowerment

Developed by Helen and the Monash Nutrition team, the 3-week Food as Medicine online course guides users through the role of food in health and disease, understanding the science of what and how much we should eat, and applying evidence-based nutrition knowledge to use food as medicine for you and your family.

“Nutrition misinformation was at an all-time high. We wanted everyone to have access to high quality, evidence-based nutrition advice. There’s demand — particularly from older people and parents supporting family health — to use food and nutrition in the context of good health.”

Helen says the team at Monash love building resources that make a real difference to the community and health educators. 

“The fantastic people I’ve worked with along the way have always kept me going. From your PhD students to other researchers you work on grants and projects with — that network provides the courage to make change and walk through that door when opportunity arrives.”

Evolving nutrition and social landscapes

After decades of achievement, Helen remains enthusiastic about nutritional and social research.

“It’s always evolving — we’re facing a wave of health data that gives us more information than ever — and more choices. A future where the food industry and researchers work together on foods that sell and keep people well, is one where we’ll be getting the best possible nutritional outcomes.”

And Helen’s own nutritional pet-peeve?

“It has to be sugar-sweetened and artificially-sweetened drinks. We’re drinking soft drinks, juices and waters with no nutritional value and lots of sugar. It’s so important to encourage water or a dairy alternative,” she says.

“And that brings us back to access - how do we make it easy for people to access water when they’re out and about? How do we make fruit and vegetables cheaper and easier than packaged snacks? We have some amazing food technologies, and I hope it’s a step that research and industry take together.”

An optimistic food future

Helen acknowledges the enormity of the food and nutrition challenges the world is facing.

“We’ve got complex problems without simple solutions. We can’t talk nutrition without talking about sustainable food supply and security. We must communicate better, and big multidisciplinary systems must be prepared to flex and make big changes.”

Helen is focused on developing the Decadal Plan for Nutrition Science with the National Committee for Nutrition of the Australian Academy of Science.

“This will be our roadmap for where we want to be in 2030 and how to get there. From personalised nutrition to embedding food literacy from birth, real plans like this are the things truly driving nutrition forward into the future.”

Congratulations Professor Truby on your recognition as Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia and your decades of work making eating better easier for all.

More information

Professor Helen Truby is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian, a Fellow of the Association for Nutrition and a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia and is the Director of Dietetics in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food at Monash University. Her current research focuses on child and maternal health including weight management and optimising engagement and retention of health messages using social media. Click here to access Helen’s research profile. You can follow Helen on Twitter via @ProfTruby.

Stay up to date with the Monash University Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food on Twitter via @MonashNutrition.