The food we buy, cook and eat every day – as well as the way it’s produced – is key to addressing the challenge of sustainable healthy eating.

This course explores the fundamental principles of a sustainable diet for human and planetary health. It aims to help all health and food professionals to develop the confidence and knowledge necessary to incorporate sustainability into their practice.

This is the first course of its kind to address the nutrition, science and application of sustainable eating. It brings together leading experts across every aspect of sustainable diets, integrating planetary and nutrition science, together with behaviour change tactics and specific considerations such as low income groups, athletes, children and the older population.

We’ll cover:

• The impact of the food system on health and the planet, and why a shift to more sustainable diets is urgent
• What a healthy sustainable diet encompasses
• The impact individual foods and dietary patterns can have on health and the environment
• The latest international and national guidelines and policies
• Nutritional considerations for plant-based diets and advice for various population groups including children, adults, the elderly and athletes

Participants in the course will be able to:

Gain understanding of:

• Why sustainability needs to be embedded into food provision, dietary advice and support
• The impact of the food system on health and planet and the urgency to shift to a more sustainable system
• What a healthy sustainable diet encompasses
• Key nutrients often cited as a concern and the evidence supporting their adequacy within a plant-based sustainable diet
• Adaptations and special dietary considerations needed when advising vulnerable population groups or those with enhanced requirements: children, adults, the elderly and athletes
• Key influencers and barriers to shifting the nation towards more sustainable plant-based eating patterns – a ‘top down’ approach

Be aware of:

• The impact individual foods and dietary patterns can have on health and the environment
• How healthy eating and sustainable food messages align
• The latest international and national guidelines and policies with regards to sustainable diets
• The varied spectrum of sustainable, plant-based dietary patterns suitable for different individuals, ranging from vegan to flexitarian

Be able to:

• Advise on accommodating for all essential macro- and micronutrients on a plant-based diet
• Confidently provide advice to individuals on how they can shift towards healthful, sustainable plant-based dietary patterns
• Identify the top dietary adaptations needed to improve the environmental impact of current dietary patterns
• Understand key reports and studies on sustainable diets and eating

Expert presenters

Tanya Haffner
Tanya Haffner founded Nutrilicious Communications, the first solely dedicated nutrition communications agency in the UK. She subsequently founded the award-winning MyNutriWeb.com – delivering authentic, influential learning and dialogue events, including conferences, policy, networking and training opportunities.
Tanya believes supporting and empowering all health professionals – alongside other change agents in food – with nutrition matters is critical to improving citizens’ health, whilst also helping to protect our planet. Tanya has recently taken up the role of chair of the BDA Sustainable Diets Specialist Group and is working with the BDA to help advance the profession’s impact on sustainable eating.

Elphee Medici
Elphee is an expert consultant in nutrition, health and sustainability with over 30 years’ experience working within the NHS and FMCGs working for Nutrilicious on a variety of health and sustainable projects and lead lecturer on sustainable diets at the Cordon Bleu School, London.

Ali Morpeth
Ali is a Registered Public Health Nutritionist. She works across non-governmental organisations and businesses to develop advocacy, policy and behaviour change programmes that drive improvement for people and planet. Ali is passionate about the opportunities that arise from drawing the dots between health and sustainability, and believes we can address the failings of the food system faster and smarter by working across these disciplines.
She believes that to move the needle in the food system at the pace that’s needed, we need to collaborate boldly, find new ways of working and sit in uncomfortable places where we would not usually find ourselves.

Dr Courtney Scott
Courtney is the Director of Policy and Research, and the Food and Health programme lead at the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Prior to joining the Commission, she was Research and Policy Advisor at the Food Foundation and worked on nutrition and public health research and advocacy in the US and Belgium.

Joanna Instone
Joanna is a registered dietitian with over 30 years’ experience in the NHS, Department of Health and the medical nutrition industry. She currently specialises in sustainable food service in hospitals and helped write the latest edition of the BDA Nutrition and Hydration Digest, which forms part of the National Healthcare Food and Drink Standards.

Toby Park
Toby leads the energy and sustainability work at the Behavioural Insights Team – the world’s first government institution dedicated to the application of behavioural science. Toby’s expertise lies in the psychology of pro-environmental behaviour, developing policy and interventions to promote green choices across food, transport, energy and water.

Rebecca Tobi
Rebecca manages the Food Foundation’s business and investor engagement team. She has oversight of the charity’s work engaging food businesses, investors and policy-makers with the need to transition the UK towards a more sustainable and healthy food system. Rebecca has a background in science communication and has previously published work on eco-labels.

Rosie Martin
Rosie is a plant-based specialist dietitian supporting dietary change for human, planetary and animal health. Rosie works as the Employee Health and Wellness Dietitian for her local NHS trust, as well as running and her private business, Rosemary Nutrition & Dietetics.

Dr Jeannine Baumgartner
Jeannine is a Lecturer in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London and an Extraordinary Associate Professor at the Centre of Excellence for Nutrition of the North-West University in South Africa. She holds an MSc in Food Science and Nutrition from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where she also obtained a PhD in Human Nutrition.

Professor Nicola Lowe
Nicola is Professor of Nutritional Sciences, and Director of the Research Centre for Global Development at UCLan. She has a BSc in Biochemistry/Applied Zoology and a PhD in zinc metabolism. She has worked in the field of global nutrition for much of her career, with a particular focus micronutrient deficiency.

Dr Wendy Hall
Dr Wendy Hall (RNutr) is Reader of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London. Her research investigates the impact of dietary interventions on risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases, as well as sleep interventions and diet quality/health. She has authored more than 95 peer-reviewed publications and was awarded the Nutrition Society’s Silver Medal in 2016.

Paula Hallam
Paula is a specialist paediatric dietitian, having worked in the NHS for 18 years gaining a wide variety of paediatric experience, as well as working in an allergy research team, consulting to charities and baby food brands. Paula has undertaken the University of Winchester course ‘Plant-Based Nutrition: A Sustainable Diet for Optimal Health’ and wrote a chapter for Ella Mills’ highly successful book ‘How to go Plant-Based’ as one of seven experts.

Sandra Hood
Sandra Hood BSc (Hons) RD has worked for the NHS in mental health, paediatrics and diabetes. She has been a regular contributor to the Vegan Society magazine, contributed to many books and produced documents for the BDA, including Food Fact sheets. Sandra became vegan in the 1970’s.

Anita Bean
Anita Bean is an award-winning registered nutritionist, internationally published author, health writer and former British bodybuilding champion. She specialises in sport and exercise nutrition and is passionate about helping athletes improve their performance in training and competition. She is the author of 30 books, including The Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition and The Vegan Athlete’s Cookbook, writes for Cycling Weekly, Good Housekeeping and Waitrose Food. Anita is also the nutritionist for the London Marathon.

Dr Shireen Kassam
Shireen is a Haematologist, Lifestyle Medicine Physician and Visiting Professor of Plant-Based Nutrition. She is founder of Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, a community interest company that provides education on plant-based diets. Her first book, Eating Plant-Based, was published in January 2022. She has also co-edited the textbook Plant-Based Nutrition in Clinical Practice.

This course is kindly run in association with Nutrilicious

We’ll cover:

• The importance of recipe analysis and foundations underpinning it
• How to use nutrient data and account for changes during the preparation and cooking of recipes in theory and practice
• How to use nutritional analysis software to analyse recipes ranging from simple to complex
• Making use of the information across various scenarios, including calculating HFSS, making nutrition and health claims, and mandatory and voluntary nutrition labelling
• The importance of sustainability, including carbon-conscious ingredient selection, and calculating an accurate measure the environmental footprint of a recipe

This course does not include:

• Allergen labelling
• Practical in-depth hands-on sessions
• 1:1 tutoring

Participants in the course will be able to:

Gain understanding of:

• How to use nutrient data and key features of recipe analysis software to allow for accurate analysis of recipes
• The regulations and guidelines that apply to recipes, pre-packed and loose foods sold to consumers
• Why and how ingredients have an impact on the environment, and what a sustainable diet looks like
• The different carbon footprint analysis databases (free and paid) that you can access

Be aware of:

• Key considerations for recipe analysis including information gathering, entering ingredients and assigning portions, weight changes, micronutrient retention, specific gravity, edible portions and sense checking
• Which criteria you must meet before you can make certain claims
• The different impacts our foods have on the planet
• Uncertainties and complexities in the carbon emissions datasets

Be able to:

• Feel confident in the steps that need to be undertaken in order to analyse recipes ranging from simple to more complex
• Identify what claims you can make, where to find the right information, what criteria you should meet and how you can word your claim
• Adapt recipes to be more sustainable for both human and planetary health
• Confidently use a tool to calculate environmental impacts and communicate this to an audience

Expert presenters

Tanya Haffner
Tanya is an Irish born, UK trained dietitian and nutritionist. She founded Nutrilicious Communications, the first solely dedicated nutrition communications agency in the UK, and subsequently founded the award-winning MyNutriWeb.com. Tanya has recently taken up the role of chair of the BDA Sustainable diets group.

Susan Church
Susan is a Registered Nutritionist specialising in food composition and is a co-author of McCance & Widdowson’s The Composition of Foods. As well as undertaking nutritional analysis of recipes for a range of applications, she provides training and advice to nutrition professionals on both recipe analysis and food composition.

Cordelia Woodward
Cordelia is a Registered Dietitian with over 10 years’ experience in dietetic roles including within the NHS. Cordelia currently works for MyNutriWeb, with a role on the programme, blog and the journal club. She has many years of experience working on recipe development and analysis for MyNutriWeb and Nutrilicious. Cordelia spends a lot of time cooking and developing recipes of her own, enjoying bringing principles of dietetics into the kitchen.

Elphee Medici
Elphee is a Nutrition and Sustainable Diets Consultant at Nutrilicious. With over 30 years’ experience working within the NHS and FMCGs, Elphee consults on all matters relating to nutrition, health and sustainability, and regularly lectures at the Cordon Bleu School London.

Christian Reynolds
Dr Christian Reynolds is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Food Policy, City University, London. Christian is recognised as a global expert on food loss and waste and sustainable diets. He is the lead editor of the Routledge Handbook of Food Waste (2019); he has also co-authored over 50 peer reviewed publications, as well as multiple reports and book chapters.

This course is kindly run in association with Susan Church Nutrition and Nutrilicious