The Canberra nutritionist who says it’s okay to eat bread – and Christmas cake
Canberra Business Woman of the Year 2022, Kate Freeman, CEO and Founder of The Healthy Eating Group
She runs Canberra’s largest nutritionist business and has ambitions of becoming Australia’s largest dietician company. Meet Canberra Business Woman of the Year 2022, Kate Freeman, CEO and Founder of The Healthy Eating Group.
Open any women’s magazine, and you will likely see the next best celebrity diet – with a recipe for the perfect pavlova or chocolate cake on the following few pages. But unfortunately, there are so many sources of advice when it comes to healthy eating, with many of those sources being ultimately unhealthy (or confusing).
But Canberra nutritionist Kate Freeman is out to change that.
A growing practice
“I have a goal of making us Australia’s largest and most influential nutrition practice”
Freeman’s business – The Healthy Eating Group – consists of two brands. The first is a healthy eating clinic providing nutrition and dietitian practice. The clinic, which has operated for a decade, employs seven dietitians and has four support staff. It is Canberra’s only dedicated nutrition and dietetics practice. But fuelled by modern technology, she has ambitions of expanding her practice throughout Australia.
‘I have a goal of making us Australia’s largest and most influential nutrition practice,’ Freeman said about her plans for this business. ‘I’m taking the opportunity of telehealth growth that COVID has kindly given us,’ she said. ‘There’s a nice subset of people now who are really happy to get their healthcare via video.’
Freeman describes this practice as still ‘pretty old school and traditional. Its services conform to Medicare and private health insurance requirements; accordingly, there are limits to what ‘nuskool’ innovations she can incorporate. And that led her to innovate through her second brand.
Nutrition, tech and innovation
While Freeman’s business model will continue to utilise a traditional nutrition consultancy model, she has a second business that provides online tools to encourage healthy eating habits.
Freeman came up with the idea several years ago and then workshopped it during the Canberra Innovation Network’s Griffin Accelerator program. (She is also an Innovation Connect grant awardee.) She knew she wanted to do something online but didn’t know how to do it. She taught herself how to build a Wordpress website for the first iteration.
‘I’m the sort of person that if I don’t how to do something and I’m on a tight budget, I like to teach myself,’ she said.
The site is an online program based on micro education. The idea is that clients spend 10 to 15 minutes a week doing little bits of learning that they are later encouraged to put into practice. The learning then links users to practical applications of the key outcomes, including foods, products and food swaps. It is aimed at countering routines, behaviours and habits.
Next stop: app
Freeman is now developing her online program into a customised app, with branding completed and wireframes and prototyping in progress. ‘We aim to make the user experience really beautiful,’ she said of the design. The app will help people understand nutrition in the context of their lives and put it into practice by helping them plan and organise their meals – while making good food choices.
According to Freeman, most nutrition apps focus on weight loss and don’t cater for people with special needs. Her app’s point of differentiation is that it will include different nutrition streams. For instance, a person with gastroenteritis may wish to have a weight loss program. And there aren’t any programs for people with impaired digestion. The app will also have a paediatric expert who can provide advice on feeding infants and kids, including advice on fussy eaters and children with textural aversions. And there will be women’s health specialists that can advise on issues such as fertility and endometriosis.
Let them eat bread
Once upon a time, food was food. And to many, it was fuel. It was enjoyable. But it wasn’t divisive.
Now there are so many different approaches, opinions – and fads. It can be difficult to know what advice to follow. Should your diet consist of bone broth (even for newborn babies?) Should we drink oil if we are hungry? Eat dairy? Or not. And what about carbohydrates? Should we quit sugar? Or cut out bread?
‘You should 100 per cent eat bread,’ said Freeman. ‘I am not an anti-bread nutritionist and the science backs that up.’ She recommends that people eat grainy bread to get some extra fibre and nutrients. ‘You can’t build your whole diet out of bread, just like you wouldn’t build your whole diet out of broccoli,’ she advised.
Freeman said one of the problems is that some nutrition advocates construct powerful anecdotes with compelling narratives. Often, this includes cherry-picked science. ‘Everyone eats, and everyone feels like they have an opinion on food – and their own experience with food,’ she said. But the problem is that this leads to people feeling so confused about the different food information they receive that they struggle to make good food choices.
Almost a doctor
When she was a young girl, Freeman wanted to be a doctor. Finishing Year 12, she did well – but just missed out on being able to get into university to study medicine. So she studied science at the University of Canberra, intending to complete a postgraduate degree in medicine.
But then she discovered medicine probably wasn’t her thing. ‘Dissecting organs – I don’t know if I could do that,’ she said. And at the same time, she discovered a love of nutrition.
‘I really loved health, I liked food, and I was good at science,’ she said. ‘And I started to feel like there’s something in this that I can actually help people maximise their health through good food and also help them not feel so stressed about it,’ she said.
Stopping the stress
“We live in, for the most part, an abundant country with one of the best food supplies in the world. Our opportunity and privilege to be well nourished is probably one of the best in the world. We shouldn’t be so stressed about what we’re eating.”
Freeman is passionate about helping people feel less stressed about food and what they are eating.
‘People are very stressed about eating when they don’t need to be,’ she said. ‘We live in, for the most part, an abundant country with one of the best food supplies in the world. Our opportunity and privilege to be well nourished is probably one of the best in the world. We shouldn’t be so stressed about what we’re eating.’
Freeman’s approach is to help people find the balance between enjoying what they like to eat and the social and cultural elements of food. And then bring that back to eating in a way that promotes health in people’s bodies.
Weight stigma
“People sit in my office and say to me, with tears streaming down their faces, that they feel like they are second-rate citizens because their bodies are that size”
Australia has an obesity epidemic. In 2017-2018, 67 per cent of Australians aged 18 and over were overweight or obese (with 31 per cent being obese). That is around 12.5 million adults. Meanwhile, around 25 per cent of children are overweight or obese. In a population of 25.7 million, roughly one in two people has a weight problem.
With these statistics, it would be easy for Freeman to focus on combating obesity. But that is not her approach.
Rather, Freeman is focused on addressing weight stigma. ‘I’d rather want people to feel, regardless of what they weigh, that they can take control of their health and that they can be empowered to do that,’ she said.
‘I’m passionate about removing weight stigma, and we live in a very weight-centric world where there’s so much emphasis placed on the size of our bodies,’ she said. ‘And there’s a body of scientific evidence over the last 20 years that shows that regardless of the size of people’s bodies and what they weigh, it’s more about regular health behaviours. So, what you’re choosing to eat and how you’re moving your body is more indicative of your long-term health outcomes than body size,’ she said.
Freeman said many of her clients suffer weight stigma. ‘People sit in my office and say to me, with tears streaming down their faces, that they feel like they are second-rate citizens because their bodies are that size,’ she said. ‘They are tired of feeling like they don’t belong or aren’t worthy enough.’
While Freeman’s method isn’t aimed at focusing on reducing weight, most of her clients do lose weight. ‘I find that when people start adopting healthy behaviours that weight loss happens as a side effect of that,’ she said. ‘And what I would like to do is help shift that focus to help people not feel like they must change the ‘number’ or think they must be a certain size to be healthy or worthy. I want people to feel inspired and motivated to just do healthy behaviours and then let their body settle into what their size is going to be a result of doing healthy things.’
Christmas calories
And what about Christmas and weight gain?
‘As a nutritionist, early in my career, the message was that Christmas is a holiday from work, not a holiday from your health.’ But then Freeman noticed her clients would go into Christmas feeling fearful, worried they would eat too much and not exercise enough.
Now Freeman advises people to focus on enjoying what they are eating. ‘Just make a mindful choice and make sure that 100 per cent of the time you’re happy with that choice,’ she advised. ‘Sometimes we eat food compulsively because it’s there or because we’ve been restricting it,’ she said.
Restriction is a big thing, with people often overindulging and then feeling guilty about it. ‘I say to clients, I want you to enjoy what you’re eating and feel happy with your choices. So if someone puts something in front of you, and you love that food, and it’s your favourite food, great. Say yes to that food. Enjoy every mouthful and move on. Don’t feel guilt or shame about it. It’s delicious.’
But at other times, people may eat it and realise they are not really enjoying it and are just eating for the sake of eating it. ‘Tell yourself you can eat it tomorrow if you want. Is it what you really want to eat now? It’s available tomorrow to try if you want.’
Make sure to remember Kate Freeman’s advice when indulging this Christmas. Congratulations on your award and look forward to seeing your app when it launches.
