The Dietitian Cafe

Today’s topic is one that tends to fly under the radar in health and nutrition conversations, but deserves more attention. 
When it comes to protecting our long-term health, eye health is rarely front of mind. Yet conditions like age-related macular degeneration are a leading cause of vision loss, and growing evidence suggests diet may play a role in risk and progression. So, are we overlooking something important, and should nutrition be playing a bigger role in eye care? 
Joining me today to take a closer look is Registered Dietitian Helen Bond. 
Helen is a Registered Dietitian with 30 years of experience in food, diet, and its relationship to health. She practised as a clinical dietitian in acute and community health settings within the NHS, and then moved into PR and marketing, where she helped communicate the important role of food and drink, and balanced, sustainable nutrition in nourishing our bodies and supporting our health, while steering clear of the latest fad diets.
Helen now runs her own successful dietetic practice ‘Spring Vale Dietetic Clinic’ in Melbourne, Derbyshire, providing consultancy and dietetic services to private clients, and several top-name food businesses, pharmaceutical companies, PR, and marketing agencies.  Helen enjoys presenting at HCP conferences, partaking in nutrition-focused media round tables, as well as translating up-to-date nutrition research into simple, practical, and meaningful messages, and dietary advice for her clients and the public.  
As an active spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association (BDA), Helen regularly appears in the media and is constantly in demand to write and provide expert comment on nutrition news stories for TV, radio and national newspapers and magazines.  In 2013, she was named runner-up for BDA’s Media Spokesperson of the Year.
Show Notes 
Helen’s LinkedIn: Helen Bond | LinkedIn

Processed foods like sausages are often viewed through a strong lens in nutrition discussions, but behind every product is a series of complex decisions balancing nutrition, taste, cost, and consumer demand. In this episode, we go behind the scenes of a well-known sausage brand to uncover how products are created, how nutrition is embedded from the very beginning, and what it’s really like for a dietitian working inside the food industry. 
Joining me today to discuss this further is Jemma Milne, Company Nutritionist at HECK! Foods. 
Jemma is a UK-registered Dietitian with over 12 years of experience in nutrition. She has worked extensively in the NHS, empowering patients to manage their health conditions through tailored dietary interventions, and it's that same passion for making nutrition work in the real world that led her to make the move into the food industry almost two years ago.
Joining HECK! Foods as their Company Nutritionist, she focuses on product innovation and recipe reformulation, bridging the gap between great-tasting food and real consumer health needs. She has a strong commitment to educating and inspiring people to make balanced, nutritious choices, both for consumers and within the HECK! workforce.
Outside of her professional role, she's a self-confessed food and fitness enthusiast. You'll either find her baking in the kitchen, training in the gym or cheering on her children from the sideline of a football pitch!
Show Notes 
HECK! Foods: We are HECK! The UK's Favourite Sausage Brand – Heck Food Ltd 
Jemma’s LinkedIn: Jemma Milne RD | LinkedIn

Migraine is still frequently discussed through the lens of “food triggers,” with chocolate, cheese, and caffeine often singled out as culprits. But the reality is far more complex. In this episode, we explore what the current evidence actually says about diet and migraine, why trigger-focused thinking can sometimes be misleading, and where dietitians can have the most meaningful impact in practice. 
Joining us today to explore this is Senior GP Headache Specialist Dr. Katy Munro. 
Dr Katy Munro was an NHS GP partner for 25 years and now works as a Senior Headache Specialist GP for the National Migraine Centre, a charity providing consultations to people with migraine, Cluster Headache and other headaches on a voluntary donation basis. 
She co-founded and hosts Heads Up podcast, Podcast of the Year 2021 finalist in the Medical Journalists Awards. 
Her book, “Managing Your Migraine”, Penguin Life Expert Series, aims to empower people with migraine to manage their condition better through understanding what is going on.
She has taught widely on migraine and has been Secretary and Council member of the British Association for the Study of Headache (BASH).
Show Notes 
National Migraine Centre: Book a consultation - National Migraine Centre 
Katy’s LinkedIn: Katy Munro | LinkedIn 
Katy’s Instagram: Katy Munro (@migrainedoc) • Instagram photos and videos 
Katy’s Book: Managing Your Migraine: 2 (Penguin Life Expert Series, 2) : Munro, Dr Katy: Amazon.co.uk: Books

We’ve got a really interesting conversation lined up for you today, so let’s dive straight in… 
AI is increasingly being used across nutrition and dietetic practice, from meal planning and behaviour support to patient-facing tools and clinical decision-making. As these technologies develop quickly, they’re raising important questions about where they genuinely add value, where they fall short, and what this means for the future of the profession. 
Joining me today to delve into the topic is Aaron Boysen, Dietitian and CEO and Founder of Primary Care Dietitians and Tyson Tripcony, Dietitian and CEO of health app Alli. 
Tyson Tripcony is an Australian entrepreneur and operator who built a multi award-winning dietetics business from the ground up, scaled it into Australia’s largest private practice, and exited to private equity.
He’s known for saying the quiet part out loud. Tyson unapologetically challenges the status quo, pushes past professional comfort zones, and holds a simple belief: if you want different results, you don’t get them by doing what everyone else is doing. He values speed to execution, high standards, healthy competition, and a ruthless focus on what actually works in the real world.
Across his career, Tyson has operated at the intersection of healthcare and business — building teams, systems and culture designed to perform under pressure and keep improving. He cares deeply about the profession, but has little patience for complacency, credential-worship, or change resistance.
 Now, Tyson consults to health and dietetics businesses to help them achieve greater success, while also building health-tech that may just challenge the dietetics industry at large.
Aaron Boysen is a dietitian and founder of Primary Care Dietitians, the UK's largest independent provider of dietitians in NHS and private services. He's also a Clinical Safety Officer and was an NHS Topol Digital Health Fellow. 
Show Notes 
Aaron’s LinkedIn: Aaron Boysen | LinkedIn 
Primary Care Dietitians 
Tyson’s LinkedIn: Tyson Tripcony | LinkedIn 
Alli — Your 24/7 nutrition guide

A major shift in women’s health has recently been announced: PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) has been renamed PMOS (Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome). In this episode, we unpack what’s behind the shift, whether it could help address the large number of people that go undiagnosed, and what it means for dietitians and those living with the condition — because when we change the name, the real question is: do we change care, or just the conversation? 
Joining us on the podcast today is Claire Pettitt.
A women’s health specialist dietitian with a passion for PMOS and infertility, Claire has nearly 20 years experience in healthcare, education, research, and clinical practice. Her expertise lies in nutrition and women's health, with a particular focus on Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS) and fertility nutrition where she combines academic research with applied practice, ensuring her work aligns with evidence-based principles and delivers real-world impact. Claire’s passion is supporting women to holistically manage their health through diet and lifestyle whilst optimising their relationship with food and their body. 
 
Claire has delivered specialist webinars and presentations on PCOS nutrition to many dietetic and nutrition organisations (e.g. MyNutriweb, NutritionGraduates, etc), and also lecturers on women’s health nutrition within dietetics programmes.  In addition to her dietetic and clinical contributions, Claire has recently authored a Dietetic textbook chapter on PCOS nutrition and was an invited speaker at the Fertility 2025 conference speaking on the theme of "Women's Health Nutrition: PCOS and Endometriosis,”.
   
Claire is a founding member of the British Dietetics Association’s Women’s Health and Fertility Nutrition Specialist Group, through which she has worked on many projects, including the publication of a nutrition screening tool identifying women who might benefit from dietetic support to optimise their fertility, and is currently leading a working group reviewing the evidence and writing guidelines for fertility nutrition.

Show Notes 
Claire’s LinkedIn: Dr Claire Pettitt PhD RD | LinkedIn 
Claire's Instagram: @cp_nutritionrd 
Claire's Website: www.clairepettitt.com 
The Lancet Global Consensus Statement: Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, the new name for polycystic ovary syndrome: a multistep global consensus process - The Lancet 
PMOS – What's in a name? Everything https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/393/bmj-2026-079749.full.pdf 
Resources for PMOS: https://mchri.org.au/guidelines-resources/community/pmos-resources-2/