Newtrition Perspectives: Recent Episodes
Soeng Ha & Ras
Welcome to Nutrition Perspectives. We are two UK Dietitians who recognise that our workforce could do better in improving our understanding of diversity and how we can become better healthcare professionals for our patients. You will follow us as we interview some great individuals ranging from student dietitians to psychiatrists as we gain their perspective on diversity. We hope to get some words of wisdom of how we can do that better. We also hope our audience can learn a thing or two about cultural foods and traditions in some of the episodes!
We welcome Bal this episode, a dietetic manager with contagious energy.
She bravely talks about times that she's "been broken" through her dietetic journey and she also shares her 360 journey from being a student to a student lead placement provider now. She gives advice to other managers out there, she shares her experiences of leadership she's been under and also what manager she aspires to be.
"Be kind to others"
We hope you enjoy a different perspective !
Love Soeng Ha and Ras x
Please reach out to Bal on LinkedIn: Balbinder Sembi
We talk with Kuldip, where his last career had impacted his health and led him to start a path into Dietetics. Now working as a Community Dietitian, he shares very honestly about his professional and personal reflections. He has health and wellbeing at his forefront which is apparent in his work and personal development. We discuss his challenges as a British Asian male and in the latter parts of the episode he gives lights to why he has chosen to wear a turban, practice Sikhism as well as touching on the punjabi diet.
Kuldip has no social media, following his ethos! If you'd like to get in touch with him, let us know via our social media.
Instagram: newtrition_perspectives
Twitter: @Newtrition_P
We hope you enjoy :)
Soeng Ha and Ras
In this episode, we welcome another amazingly well spoken RD2B Kaego. Kaego is a 4th year dietetic student at Nottingham interested in clinical dietetics.
Kaego discusses her lived experiences and the challenges with people not knowing about the role of a dietitian and touches misconceptions around dietetics from patients who are from ethnic minority backgrounds.
In the second half of this podcast, Kaego talks about foods from her Nigerian culture, including tips regarding food fortification and weight management.
P.S sorry for the sound quality on the host's side!
Enjoy!
Ras & Soeng Ha x
You can follow Kaego here!
https://www.instagram.com/kaegoskitchen/
https://www.kaegoskitchen.co.uk/
In this episode, we welcome two of the most wonderful dietitians Rhia and Harpreet from British Sikh Doctors Organisation (BSDO).
Rhia & Harpreet talk about their journeys through dietetics, misconceptions of dietetics, their work with BSDO, health inequalities for those from ethnic minority backgrounds and the importance of getting names right.
In the second half of this episode, they touch upon Sikhism and current affairs with the Indian farmers protests. They also chat about Sikhism and nutrition with some fabulous advice about food fortification, weight management and tips for working with patients who are Sikhs.
Enjoy!
Ras & Soeng Ha x
Follow them here!
https://twitter.com/Veggie_Nut
https://twitter.com/BritishSikhDocs/
Charlotte is a Paediatric Diabetes Dietitian and she confidently talks about living with Bipolar Disorder. Fine Arts was her beginnings and since becoming a Dietitian she has valued the strong importance of self care at any stage of life.
We recognise that there is still stigma to talking about mental health and especially acknowledging this with our patients. Charlotte highlights such great points that she has found useful in helping her with managing her condition alongside work. She has experienced first hand of what antipsychotic medication can do to physical health and the amount of self blame she carried during this time. Her career journey has made her an even better dietitian and an invaluable communicator with her patients.
She concludes that at the end of the day people with mental health can live a normal life with the right support!
Great listen not to miss, we hope you enjoy.
Soeng Ha and Ras x
P.S Follow Charlotte on twitter @_Char_RD
From being told she would not succeed as a student dietitian to a consultant dietitian who co-authored Carbs & Cals World Foods book, we welcome the effervescent and confident Salma Mehar.
Salma chats to us about her journey into dietetics starting with attending a dietetic appointment with her Mum and recognising how much more she could offer if she chose dietetics as a career. We think it’s inspirational to hear her big ideas and growth throughout dietetics and the work she has done to help patients and colleagues on a population level scale. In the second half of the podcast, Salma chats about her cultural journey and gives us some great nuggets of information and resources about Ramadan and working with patients from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Apologies for the slight cut between the two sections of the podcast, there was a slight technical error!
You can find Salma on twitter: @SalmaMehar1
We hope you enjoy!
Ras & Soeng Ha x
Hello! A fun episode today as we speak with Cherry Mo and her experiences as a Chinese Dietitian. We talk far east Asian body size standards and troubles explaining the dietetic career choice to family. Cherry also shares her difficulties in fortifying her dads' diet when he'd lost significant weight from disease and retold her fortified blended soup disaster. Does western forms of food fortification work for the chinese diet?
She also shares her take on Chinese New Year!
We hope you enjoy!
Soeng Ha & Ras x
In ep 10, we welcome the incredible Yusuf Hammad, who is a passionate dietitian trying to make nutritional information accessible to all. He starts off chatting about his journey into dietetics, including how his Mum had a big role to play in him choosing this profession. Yusuf talks about some uncomfortable truths about how he's had to change the way he talks and dresses in order to fit in within the profession. He also talks about his lived experiences with racism from patients.
In the second half of this podcast, we chat about Ramadan and what dietetic colleagues could do to help those who are fasting. We get a super in depth journey about Palestinian food (which we certainly had not heard of!) and Pakistani food with some fabulous tips at the end.
This is another episode not to miss!
We hope you enjoy!
Ras & Soeng Ha x
You can find Yusuf on Instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/yusuf_r.d/
A quote that inspired our guest!
On this episode we have the lovely Sabrina, who is a final year student about to go into her last placement and doing an exciting dissertation on the comparisons of ethnic food shopping habits online verses brick and mortar stores. Sabrina opens the conversation to the stigma around taking a year out and the struggles with the transition from sixth form/college to university. She tells her lived experiences being diagnosed with dyslexia at university and its challenges as a student.
We really hope you enjoy!
Ras and Soeng Ha x
Get in touch/follow our guest on Instagram: @_sabji
How can we distinguish between mental health vs personality? This week we have Claire, a palliative care Dietitian who gives us a glimpse into her journey into managing mental health alongside work. For a topic that's not so often talked about, we bring Claire's open views through her lenses into the podcast. She encourages to lead by example to value our mental health and seek help when needed. We also highlight the duty of the workplace to provide an environment that is sensitive to our colleagues needs and support required.
We hope you enjoy!
Soeng Ha and Ras x
Please reach out to Claire on Twitter: @claireirlamrd
On this podcast episode we welcome Shehnaz who is currently a Community Dietitian with an interest in IBS - she started her journey in dietetics back in 2013 following an unconventional route into the profession. From a rash on her leg to admission to hospital, Shehnaz tells us what it's like as a patient to now managing Crohn's Disease alongside being a Dietitian. In the second half of the podcast we follow a brief migration journey of her parents which has now inspired a fusion of Indian, Pakistani and Malawian cooking, she shares some of these dishes with us! We hope you enjoy this episode as its been a pleasure!
Love Ras and Soeng Ha x
Please get in contact with our guest here: IG tag @gutsy_dietitian
This week we have a special guest, none other than our co-host Ras's sister Bani! Bani is a junior doctor recently qualified as a psychiatrist :)
Bani comes on to our podcast to discuss diversity from a doctors point of view, she's recently undertaken a project looking into Differential Attainment within medicine and shares some shocking statistics around that. She also shares rationale as to why diversity is still an issue within medicine, despite doctors being only 55% White British which may also give us a bit more understanding into how to improve diversity within dietetics. We also hear some interesting stories around discriminatory thoughts from her patients and how we may tackle that.
Enjoy :)
Soeng Ha & Ras x
You can reach her via email:
banipreet.kahai@nhs.net
This episode we welcome Dan, who is also our Diverse Dietitians Support Group admin on Facebook! We follow his journey in dietetics from a perspective of a bisexual person. He also guides us on honing in self confidence and things we could do to encourage a more LGBTQ+ accepting environment
Enjoy!
Ras and Soeng Ha x
You can find him below:
dangloveruk@yahoo.co.uk
In episode 4, we welcome the lovely Ellen Mansfield, a registered dietitian working with stroke patients. Ellen discusses her lived experiences within dietetics with mental illness and also how she's managed to thrive. We touch on some of the highs and the lows of her university experience. We also touch on the challenges of reasonable adjustments and also some of the stigmatised comments which occur in the workplace.
We hope you enjoy!
Soeng Ha & Ras x
You can find Ellen here:
https://twitter.com/EllenMmmRD
Introducing Nusrat! A wonderful dietitian in Bradford who talks about her experience from student to dietitian, being told on her first placement that she should re-consider being a dietitian. We talk more about unconscious bias and others reactions to her wearing a Hijab. Of course we chat about Pakistani food and some tips for weight management.
Sorry again about the slight lag in this episode. We hope you enjoy!
Soeng Ha & Ras x
Find Nusrat here:
https://twitter.com/NusratkRD
For this episode we welcome Justyna Pelka, a registered dietitian in Manchester who moved to the UK in 2004 from Poland. We discuss the importance of getting names correct, touch on unconscious bias in interviews and see the benefits of being bilingual. We also discuss communication methods when working with Polish patients and talk about Polish food and holidays.
Enjoy!
Soeng Ha & Ras x
You can find Justyna below:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/justyna-pelka-74663466
Welcome to Newtrition Perspectives a series of podcasts aimed for our dietetic community and perhaps others! We kick off our first episode with the wonderful Tamara Melton hailing from across the pond and founder of Diversify Dietetics in the US. We follow Tamara’s story and vision in supporting students and professionals of colour and for her to give us a sneak peek into her Trinidadian roots.
“All cultural foods can be healthy!”
We hope you are as excited as we are, enjoy!
Ras and Soeng Ha x
You can find her below:
https://www.diversifydietetics.org/
https://www.instagram.com/diversifydietetics/?hl=en