The Dietitian Cafe

What if one of the biggest opportunities to improve the UK’s health starts with something as simple as eating more fibre? In this episode, we explore the journey behind Whitworths’ From Gaps to Gains paper, from identifying nutrient gaps in the UK to taking the conversation to policymakers in Westminster. We’ll explore what it really takes to turn nutrition evidence into action, how policy can help drive change at scale, and where dietitians and nutrition professionals fit into that bigger picture.
Taking us on this journey today is Phil Gowland, Commercial Director and Director of Health at Whitworths, the UK’s leading supplier of dried fruit, nuts and seeds. He is helping to transform the company from a traditional food manufacturer into a purpose-led health business, guided by its ambition to fuel health and reduce disease—one bite at a time.
Phil works at the intersection of commercial strategy, nutrition science and public health. He has led major research and policy initiatives examining how greater consumption of nuts, seeds and dried fruit could help close the UK’s nutritional gaps and reduce the burden of preventable disease. His work includes engagement with government, health organisations, academics and major UK retailers to help make healthier food choices more accessible.
He is also a board member of the National Dried Fruit Trade Association, Chair of the FRUCOM Nutrition Committee and Nesta Board advisor.
Phil’s LinkedIn: Phil Gowland | LinkedIn
From Gaps to Gains Report: From Gaps To Gains.pdf - Google Drive

Food allergy care in children often centres around safety and avoidance, but where is the line between necessary protection and unnecessary restriction? With the introduction of the UK’s National Allergy Strategy, the conversation is shifting beyond individual responsibility to a broader focus on consistency, support, and quality of life. In this episode, we explore the balance between keeping children safe and helping them develop a more normal, flexible relationship with food, and what that looks like in real-world practice. 
Joining Kate today to explore this in more depth is Professor Adam Fox and Professor Rosan Meyer. 
Show Notes 
Rosan’s LinkedIn: Rosan Meyer | LinkedIn 
Adam’s LinkedIn: Professor Adam Fox OBE | LinkedIn 
National Allergy Strategy: National Allergy Strategy 
Adam read Medicine at Cambridge University and is Professor of Paediatric Allergy at King's College London and Consultant Paediatric Allergist at Evelina London Children's Hospital. At Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, he served nine years as Clinical Lead for Allergy, three as Clinical Director for Specialist Ambulatory Services, and five as Deputy Medical Director (Commercial). He was founding Director of the KCL Allergy Academy, a postgraduate programme and BMJ Awards finalist in 2018.
From 2018 to 2021, Adam was President of the British Society of Allergy & Clinical Immunology — the first paediatrician elected to the role. Since 2022 he has chaired the National Allergy Strategy Group, jointly chairs the Department of Health & Social Care's Expert Advisory Group for Allergy, and leads the 2025–35 National Allergy Strategy.
With Profs Gideon Lack and George Du Toit, he established The Allergy Centre of Excellence at Great Ormond Street Hospital in 2021, before opening their own premises in London's prestigious Harley Street Medical District in 2025, offering cutting-edge allergy diagnostics and treatments.
Adam was named Allergy UK's 'Paediatric Allergist of the Year' (2007), received Cambridge University's Raymond Horton Smith Prize for his doctoral thesis on peanut allergy (2012), and featured in The Times' 'Britain's 100 Best Children's Doctors'. He received the William Frankland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Allergy (2015), Department of Health National Clinical Excellence Awards (2016, 2020), and in 2024 became only the second recipient of the BSACI Fellows Award for outstanding contribution to clinical allergy. In 2025, he was awarded an OBE for services to Paediatric Allergy in the King's Birthday Honours and included in the Tatler Doctors List (2013 & 2026) of the UK's best private medical consultants.
Rosan is a specialist paediatric dietitian, who has almost 30 years of experience in paediatric nutrition. She qualified as a dietitian in South Africa in 1996 and then completed her paediatric dietetic training in the UK in 2000. She has both an MSc and PhD, which she completed at Imperial College London in 2008 and has worked at St. Mary’s Hospital London, as lead paediatric dietitian before becoming the principal research dietitian for the gastro-allergy at Great Ormond Street Hospital until 2015. She is CEO of StepbyStepKidzNutrition Ltd, which is a paediatric dietetic practice that has multiple specialist paediatric dietitians specialising in food hypersensitivity, growth faltering and the spectrum of aversive eating. Rosan has more than > 100 peer reviewed publications and is the co-author of the Paediatric Clinical Dietetics Pocket Guide. She was the co-module leader for the Food Hypersensitivity Module of the MSc in Allergy at Imperial College from 2008 – 2023 and is currently visiting Professor at KU Leuven, on their MSc on swallow disorders and leading the ARFID course together with ARFID Awareness with University of Huddersfield. She is one of the research dietitians on the NIHR funded study on establishing test directed management of eczema and leads multiple task forces for the European Academy for Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

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

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