Senior Specialist Dietitian – Diabetes
Does making the healthy choice feel restrictive, boring and unenjoyable? Or, are you struggling to make heads or tails of nutrition recommendations?
I am a passionate and experienced dietitian and I enjoy helping my clients navigate the food and nutrition information “jungle”, which they often find themselves lost in. I love helping people find solutions to nourish their bodies and improve their health, while enjoying food.
Having grown up in Malaysia, where “Hello” is often followed by the words “Have you eaten?”, I have found that food can have such a positive social and cultural role, beyond simply fuelling our bodies. I am a food lover! Meals need to be not only healthy, but delicious!
Let’s work together to discover enjoyable healthy food, develop skills and confidence in easy meal planning and learn how to cook simple, fresh and balanced food using everyday ingredients. No gimmicks!!
Have you been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or type 1 or type 2 diabetes?
Whether you’ve just received a diagnosis or it’s been something you’ve been managing for many years, it’s important to know that diabetes is a progressive disease. Combine that with the mixed messaged of which diet is the ‘best’ to follow and it’s easy to feel discouraged when you’re trying to make changes but the blood sugar levels are not improving.
There is much more to managing diabetes than just weight loss and carbohydrates. I can walk you through how to apply the key evidence-based nutrition principles to help you not only feel good about what you’re eating but develop long term habits for good blood sugar level management.
Are you considering weight-loss surgery?
Have you had weight-loss surgery and you’re struggling to know what to eat?
Bariatric surgery can be effective tool to achieve considerable weight loss. But, like all weight loss tools, it requires maintenance to be able to do its job effectively. This is why I am so passionate about healthy eating to support weight-loss surgery. Healthy eating habits are the cornerstone of weight-loss surgery success.
Too often have I seen clients who struggled with the maintenance of their weight-loss surgery tool. It’s understandable, as not many of us are in the habit of doing the things that are required. Over time the novelty wears off and maintenance strategies can feel tedious. So we ignore the maintenance and the tool starts to work less effectively.
I aim to empower my clients with the skills required to make this maintenance of the weight-loss surgery “tool” less of a chore and more like a habit. Kind of like brushing your teeth or doing your shoe laces – you just do it. Let’s work together to get the best long-term success after weight-loss surgery. The journey has not ended – it’s only beginning.
Melissa can help you with:
General Health and Wellbeing – malnutrition, healthy ageing.
Special Diets – balanced and evidence-based support for keto or very low carb diets.
Gut and Digestion – irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, low FODMAP diet, maximising and improving gut health, digestive issues (diarrhoea and constipation), diverticulitis, Crohn’s disease and support for other gastrointestinal issues.
Chronic Disease – type 1 and type 2 diabetes management, gestational diabetes management, fatty liver and other liver conditions, kidney disease, support for pre and post bariatric surgery, and food and inflammation (anti-inflammatory diet).
Mental Health – managing emotional eating, building a healthy relationship with food.
Women’s Health – amenorrhea, menopause, fertility and preconception nutrition, pregnancy and postpartum nutrition.
Melissa’s qualifications:
- Accredited Practicing Dietitian (APD) with the Dietitians Australia (DA)
- Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Newcastle
Q&A with Melissa!
What’s your favourite food?
I love far too many foods from various different cuisines to be able to choose just one particular favourite!
Regardless of cuisine, I do find that pastries are a big favourite. Whether it be a savoury steamed Chinese bao, or a warm Dutch stroopwafel, with its molten caramel middle. Yum!
What’s your favourite cooking method?
Generally I enjoy stir-frying my meals especially vegetables as they retain that crunch of freshness. It is also quite a speedy cooking method, which can be great when you’re time poor; and a lot of stir-fry recipes belong to the category of “one pot (or wok!) wonders” which means less cleaning up. The trick is to put aside some time for preparation, such as pre-slicing meats and vegetables into smaller pieces prior to storing so that they are ready to go – alternatively you can buy them pre-sliced at the supermarkets.
Why did you become a dietitian?
As I child, I had developed a fascination with how foods could heal or harm the body. My mum and her copy of a naturopathic book “Rapid Healing Foods” was a likely influence. During my high school years I discovered that there was a profession related to using food and nutrition as a form of therapy to improve people’s health. I made up my mind to study Dietetics at university and become a Dietitian. It gives me real joy to be able to make a difference in someone’s health and life by sharing the benefits of eating well.