Episode 87 : What I say very differently after 25 years as a paediatric dietitian

Episode 87 : What I say very differently after 25 years as a paediatric dietitian

In this episode, I’m sharing how my nutrition advice has changed over 25 years as a paediatric dietitian—and why it matters for you and your family. When it comes to navigating a healthy diet for the family, the advice out there can feel overwhelming, contradictory, and at times, just plain wrong.

Over the years, I’ve had to unlearn a lot. From outdated beliefs about fats and calories to what truly supports children’s nutrition, this episode is about cutting through the noise and getting back to what actually works—simple, evidence-based, and grounded in real food.

Links:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Highlights:

The Evolution of Eating and Why I’ve Changed My Advice After 25 Years in Dietetics (00:00.852)
Confused About Food? Here’s What Actually Matters (02:26.06)
Is Margarine Really Healthier Than Butter? (04:37.558))
The Low Fat Myth and Why I No Longer Fear Extra Virgin Olive Oil (07:02.21)
Why the Health Star Rating is Rubbish and Other Lessons From a Pediatric Dietitian (09:21.492)
Pesticides, Calories, and the Truth About What We Eat (11:47.074)
A Calorie Is NOT a Calorie (14:11.65)
Why Picky Eating Isn’t Just About the Child (16:35.79)
Nutrition Myths, Picky Eaters & What Really Works (18:52.63)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

Explore more quick easy food ideas and nutritious foods for your family here:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/healthy-recipes-for-kids

For more support with picky eaters, children's nutrition, and building a healthy diet for fussy eaters, visit:
https://nourishwithkarina.com

If this episode helped you, please leave a review—it helps more parents find trusted, evidence-based nutrition advice ; https://share.google/7ssWDqQOZ0PMzqZQH

The Evolution of Eating and Why I’ve Changed My Advice After 25 Years in Dietetics (00:00.852)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 87. The things that I say differently now after 25 years as a pediatric dietician. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.

Hello and welcome back. It's good to have you. I wanted to record an episode today about the things that I say differently now. My thinking has changed. You know, you, you go to uni, well, 25 years ago now, probably 27 by the time I graduated. Actually, no, probably more like 30 because I did a sports science degree first before my nutrition, dietetics course. Anyway, I diverge.

But I wanted to talk about the things that have changed. And do you know what? Some of those things that I learned as a dietitian 30 years ago, are still told to us now. And you know, some of it's valid for sure, but look, things change. We evolve, research evolves, research informs us of new advances and you know, we need to adapt our eating accordingly. Now I say that.

But I also very much like the simplicity of the whole food basic diet. Like, you know, my nonna used to eat, like her nonna used to eat. know, back in the day, it was just so much simpler and so much better than all of the rubbish poured into our food these days. So whilst I say we do need to move with the science and we do need to move with what is better and what's worse for us.

I also believe that we almost need to unwind and unlearn a lot of what we've been told over the last 20 years, because if we just went back to basics, like a hundred years ago, 200 years ago, we'd probably all be a lot better off. So yeah, I'm here to share what I've learned over the last 25 years as a pediatric dietician and what I now say differently compared to what I said as a new graduate. And it's so interesting, you know, the...

Confused About Food? Here’s What Actually Matters (02:26.06)
the opinions and the education that happens in the nutrition space. It is so contradictory. One person will tell you that one thing's healthy for you. And then the next thing you see someone else is saying that is unhealthy for you. And it can be so confusing for so many people because you just don't know who to believe. Right. And you just don't know what to do. And you kind of almost get analysis paralysis because you know, you

You try and do the right thing, but you just don't know what to do. So sometimes you just don't do anything. Well, that's kind of doesn't work in the food world because you kind of need to put something in your mouth, but it's really hard. It's really confusing. And so I wanted to share with you some of the things that have changed in my mind, in my thoughts, in my practices, because it's going to help you. Right. It's based on evidence. You know, when I do my segments on channel seven,

When I present to doctors or nurses or parents, it's always evidence-based. I'm always scouring the research for the latest information on various topics. I'm always making sure that it is based and founded in evidence. And so it's important to take your nutrition advice and your nutrition information from experts. I see so many people that are not experts, not professionals, not qualified.

They classify themselves as health coaches or wellbeing experts, but they have no credentials whatsoever. But yet they are educating parents just as professionals would be educating parents and it's dangerous. And so just be, be careful of who you listen to because the professionals will always base their advice based on evidence. Whereas

that others don't need to, they don't need to abide by code of ethics, just like doctors and dieticians need to. So there's a little, not a warning, but just, you know, something to be aware of, because I just want to make sure that you're getting good quality nutrition advice, that sound advice that's going to work and not be potentially dangerous for your family and actually be helpful. So.

Is Margarine Really Healthier Than Butter? (04:37.558)
What's one thing that has changed over the years? Well, to be completely honest with you, for a lot of my early days as a dietitian, I was told that margarine was better for you than butter. And look, there's a reason why for so many years, and you'll probably still hear this from some dietitians, they'll say that margarine is better than butter. And the reason they'll say that it's better than butter is because it has more what we call unsaturated fats compared to butter.

which has more saturated fats. Now I'm not a fan of the dairy industry anyway. I hate it. I hate the cruelty that occurs. So I don't actually love having a lot of dairy anyway, but we do use butter and my daughter uses butter in cooking. I'll try and move over towards coconut oil where possible, but look, we do have butter in the house. But the thing is margarine was something that was in our house for so many years because that's what I was taught was better than butter.

because it was higher in unsaturated fats. It was so funny. The other day I saw something online. It was on Instagram. It was a reel and it was dad. I think it was a dad or as a guy who's, you know, into health. And he was like, thank you so much food standards for putting a four star health rating on this margarine. And the margarine had like about, I don't know, 25 ingredients and it was additives and preservatives and colors and all this rubbish.

And then he was basically saying, thank you so much for telling me that this highly, you know, additive, rich, highly processed fake food that's coloured yellow is healthier for me than butter, which is basically just churning dairy cream. So you will still see people telling you that margarine is better for those reasons. And don't get me wrong, saturated fat is linked to elevating cholesterol and increasing fatty deposits in the arteries.

So I'm not saying go out and have lashings of butter on your toast because that's probably not healthy. You know, we weren't really made to eat dairy products beyond weaning from our own mother breastfeeding. So from an evolutionary perspective, I don't think we're meant to have butter and lots of butter. But anyway, I think if you were to choose a spread to put on your toast, butter is a much better option in moderation because it's much closer to nature than margarine. Margarine.

The Low Fat Myth and Why I No Longer Fear Extra Virgin Olive Oil (07:02.21)
You can't even consider calling a food butter comes from dairy at least. So you, mean, you people would say, but my drink comes from seeds and oils, but it's so far removed from that seed that came out of the ground is incredibly far removed. So it's so highly processed. It's inflammatory. So there you go. That's one thing that has significantly changed for me over the years.

in terms of how I'm educating patients that I work with in my clinic, because it's important that they know what to choose and that they know what is better for them or their child. So that would be one of the things that's definitely changed. Another one is I still remember standing in my mother's kitchen when I was still living at home. I was a student as a dietitian student.

And she was just standing in the kitchen. didn't tell you background making the pasta sauce that my nonna had always made and my mum always made. And I remember getting stuck into her about how much oil she was putting in the pan when she was browning the onions. And that just now makes me cringe on the inside because I use so much olive oil now in cooking and we put it on our avocado on toast. Avocado is just so good for you.

For so many reasons, I now no longer fear putting too much olive oil into a pan and I now do the opposite. And we go through, buy it by like the three litre tin because we just use so much of it. So that's another thing that's very much changed for me. If, you know, all those years that we were taught low fat, low fat, low fat, rubbish. Okay. It's not low fat, it's low bad fats and the bad fats are all the processed fats that are in like hungry Jackson, McDonald's and KFC.

All of those highly processed unhealthy foods, they're bad fats, sure. But healthy fats like extra virgin olive oil and fish and nuts and seeds. Why on earth should we limit those if we're eating to appetite and eating to what we need? Why on earth would we be limiting something that is plant-based and so nutrient rich and so good for our gut health as well? So the polyphenols in extra virgin olive oil nourish our gut cells and nourish our microbiome. So, you know,

Why the Health Star Rating is Rubbish and Other Lessons From a Pediatric Dietitian (09:21.492)
It's doing way more than we even realize. And for children, healthy fats are essential for growth, development, brain health. And they also help to keep them fuller for longer, especially if you're pairing it up with white foods. So as I said, I do not worry about those healthy fats anymore. I respect them. I revere them and I use them plentifully. Okay. Another thing that I used to think was okay. And now I'm like, no, this is not okay. Is.

food additives, especially for things like preservatives. You know, used to think, and this again, this is another thing that we got taught. If the food standards allow it, it's deemed safe. Then the amounts that we would be consuming is so minuscule. They've tested them. They've done all the safety studies. And if the food standards allow it, then it's safe for our consumption. Well, that's what we learned, right? And that's what I thought for many years, but

The more and more I learn, and again, this is keeping up with all the latest evidence. And this is the kind of thing that we talk about inside my membership with my members in our calls, in our private chat group, because it's important to know what the latest evidence is telling us. We don't want to be feeding our kids food that is going to increase their risk of cancer. And all the latest studies are pointing towards certain additives that will increase the risk of cancer. And this is an email that I actually sent out.

Only 45 minutes ago to the members in my membership, because I want them to be across all of the latest and know exactly what to feed their families. So no, I don't think just because our food standards allow it, that it is safe. To this day, if you went to Woolworths or Coles or wherever today, you will find food products on the supermarket shelf that will either increase risk of cancer, increase risk of stroke and blood clotting.

Increased risk of gut problems and our food standards allow, and I think this is a real issue. And some of these foods have five star health ratings. Okay. So this is another thing that I, I mean, I don't think I've ever really kind of gone, if it's got a five star health rating, then go for it. I've never been a real like health star rating advocate, but I certainly am not now because it's rubbish, right? Like companies know exactly how to.

Pesticides, Calories, and the Truth About What We Eat (11:47.074)
You know, work the loopholes to get an extra star. fact, probably I've always sung that song rather than the opposite. But in terms of the food additives, I always used to say, yeah, well, if they allowed in our food supply, they've tested it and it's deemed safe for human consumption. So it's fine. Don't worry about it. Whereas now I'm like, no, Hey members, you know, specifically avoid these ones because these ones are higher risk. And I've got that it's in my supermarket guru program, which is inside my membership. And you can access all of that. Just head to my website and you'll find more information there.

So that's definitely another thing that I say differently these days. Food additives are not as safe as we used to think they were. And you even look at the blueberry scandal recently about how, you know, the pesticides that are sprayed on our blueberries in Australia, in New South Wales, they tested them. And the levels of consumption of this banned. So this pesticide is actually banned in Europe, but we use it in Australia.

Goodness knows why. And basically if a child ate a cup of blueberries, they would exceed their safety toxicity levels in a day. And so this is crazy because kids sometimes would eat that amount. Kids love blueberries. So why are we allowing pesticides on our food? So again, this is a slight digression, but you know, it just all comes under the same category of why are we allowing this rubbish into our food, on our food, on our food.

in our food, why? It's just harming us. So we need much stricter food standards. And look, I've certainly got a, maybe it's just me getting older and more confident in my years, but after 25 years, I say things very differently now to what I would have said, you know, in my first 10 years as a practicing dietitian. Okay. Another one. I used to think that a calorie was a calorie. You know, a calorie from nut is similar to a calorie from, you know, rice, which is similar to a calorie from an avocado.

Well, that's changed in my mind. And you know, if you use my fitness power, which is quite a crude analysis of, you know, this amount of protein give you this many calories. This amount of fat gives you this many calories. You can't say that because how that food is metabolized will completely change how many calories you end up with at the end of the day. Foods that are higher in fiber are more difficult to digest. They actually.

A Calorie Is NOT a Calorie (14:11.65)
take up more calories, you burn up more calories, digesting them. So the end result, the net result is very different to a calorie from a processed food. So even though when you put it into like a tracker, you get an X amount of calories. That's wrong because the food that you eat will impact how many calories you end up with at the end of the day and you poo out some of the fiber. You don't, it doesn't get ingested. So it's quite a crude analysis. So I used to.

say, you know, a calorie is a calorie and a gram of protein and gram of carbohydrate, they're the same calories, but it really is dependent on the food itself. And we know, for example, nuts take a lot metabolically to digest. So it's not the calories that you start with in the nut. The calories that you end up with is very different because of how many calories actually take to digest and metabolize in the body. Nuts are so nutritious for us. So it's very different. So again, it is very different to what I.

learned at uni and it's really important that as professionals, we do learn and evolve and understand food to the best of our ability. And that's why we have to keep up with all of this latest research. And that's why I love it. I'm a bit of a geek in that respect, but you know, it's important, right? Cause then I can help educate you guys on the latest. So we just need to be really mindful of calories and not that I would...

ever want you to count calories in kids, but it's certainly something that has changed in my mind. So, you know, a child eating 200 calories of ultra processed snack food is very different to a child eating 200 calories from a nutrient rich, fiber rich food. And this does certainly play a role in children who are overweight or obese. So, you know, it's very important to understand the difference there. Okay. I've got one more for you. And then I'll let you go, but I, this one's about.

kids who are a bit more fussy and picky with their eating because, know, I have had first experience as well with fussy eating and I used to think, and again, something that I learned at uni and again, something that you will still see online all the time. Just put veggies on their plate, repeated exposure. What did I learn at uni? was something like a child has to have 15 exposures of a food before they will accept it. And then I remember before I had kids sitting there in clinic with fussy eaters and

Why Picky Eating Isn’t Just About the Child (16:35.79)
To be honest with you, when I was in clinic, like it was great. It was great to see the families, but I would almost not want to see them again in a few months time because I would fear that nothing would have changed. With all my other consults, like, you know, gut problems or other complex medical problems, you knew that that was a really good chance, like 80, 90 % chance that things were going to be a lot better. But with Fatsy Eater, it's such a long game.

You know, I would be like, my gosh, don't, I don't know if anything's gonna have changed in a few months time here. And you know, it's backed up by the evidence. Parents struggle with fussy eaters and repeated exposure of vegetables doesn't work. But I used to think, well, maybe that's what I got taught, that repeated exposure of vegetables was enough. But if it was enough, then why do we all have so much difficulty with getting our kids to eat more vegetables, right?

I used to think picky eating was about the child, but it's so much more than that. It's exactly why I've created my whole feeding ecosystem framework, which is in my Fuzzy Eater program. Again, inside my membership, because it's so much more than just the child refusing food. And that's why putting vegetables on the plate every night won't necessarily get them to eat.

vegetables. So again, if you want more information about how you can fast track to getting your child to eat vegetables, because this ain't working, then head to my website, nourishwithkarina.com. Click on the link to learn more about joining my membership. And that way you're going to get access to all the information to fix things fast and understand how to actually get things moving in the right direction. My feeding ecosystem comprises three key components. The parent.

their child and the environment. It's so much more than just repeated exposure. It could be sensory preferences, anxiety, routine, mealtime pressure, previous food experiences, where they eat, how you talk to them. There's so many factors that go into it, which is again, why this feeding ecosystem framework is so important to understand. You can't just change the food or push the food. You need to change the system.

Nutrition Myths, Picky Eaters & What Really Works (18:52.63)
And that's where things start really working. So there you have it. There are some topics that I certainly talk very differently about these days compared to how I would have 25 years ago when I was very green and I'm still super enthusiastic and ambitious, but you know, very green and ambitious back then, because I guess that's what I was taught back then. And I hope that's been helpful for you just to clear up a few, perhaps myths, misconceptions.

And to, I guess, go into the day slightly clearer on what is good and what is bad. And when you see, you know, something spruiking, some sort of marjoram, you'll think back to this podcast episode and go, maybe, maybe not. Or you'll look at this highly processed protein bar and go, maybe not. Or when you're trying to get your child to eat vegetables and you're just putting veggies on their plate day in, day out and getting frustrated, think.

Maybe I a better system. I hope this has been helpful for you, but please reach out to me. Hello at nourishwithkarina.com. Head to my website nourishwithkarina.com. That's exactly where you'll find out more information too about joining my membership. If you have a topic that you would like me to cover in this podcast, please reach out to me. And once you've finished listening to this, please leave me a review because it helps to get this podcast out to more parents. I wish you a beautiful week. Bye for now.