Dietary Specialists

17/07/2025

Love this post from Dietitians New Zealand reminding us to get back to basics

04/07/2025

📢 Big News: GPs Can Now Prescribe Wegovy for Weight Loss 📢

From today, GPs in New Zealand are able to prescribe Wegovy, a GLP-1 medication used for weight management.

While these medications can be effective tools, Dietitians NZ strongly recommends working alongside a registered dietitian to ensure your diet remains safe, balanced, and supports your long-term health goals.

🧠 Recent research highlights the importance of nutrition support to:
✅ Prevent muscle and bone mass loss
✅ Ensure nutritional adequacy
✅ Support sustainable, healthy weight changes

At Dietary Specialists, our experienced dietitian Sarah Munn is now accepting new clients who are using GLP-1 medications such as Wegovy and Ozempic. Sarah can work with you to create a personalised eating plan that supports your health, energy levels, and goals.

From today, GPs can prescribe Wegovy for weight loss. Dietitians NZ strongly recommends that anyone using GLP-1 medications seek personalised support from a registered dietitian to ensure safe, balanced nutrition.
Visit dietitians.org.nz (Latest News) to learn more.

19/06/2025

🌟 Dietitians Week Spotlight: Dr Leigh O’Brien 🌟

It’s Dietitians Week — and today we’re shining a light on Dr Leigh O’Brien!

Leigh is an experienced dietitian with a special interest in older adult health, complex gastrointestinal conditions, and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). She’s a regular contributor to New Zealand Doctor magazine and a collaborator on nutrition-related research projects. Throughout her career, Leigh has enjoyed a variety of roles, including:

🔹 PhD in Human Nutrition – University of Otago
🔹 Research Fellow – University of Auckland, focusing on the nutrition needs of people with EDS
🔹 Group education – leading classes for people with prediabetes and contributing to the development of group low FODMAP classes for those with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
🔹 Food safety consultant – monitored food safety for one of New Zealand’s major supermarket chains
🔹 Community dietitian – supporting Rural Canterbury
🔹 Clinical dietitian – Christchurch Hospital

Leigh is also the founding dietitian of Canterbury Dietitians, a consultancy providing both clinical and food service advice to residential care facilities.

She works at Dietary Specialists on Wednesdays, bringing an evidence-based approach to supporting clients with complex nutritional needs.


New Zealand

19/06/2025

We love this post by our Australian dietitian colleagues

17/06/2025

🌟 Dietitians Week Spotlight: Julie Leeper 🌟

It’s Dietitians Week — and today we’re celebrating the expertise and contributions of Julie Leeper!

Julie is a highly experienced dietitian with a long-standing focus on coeliac disease, IBS, and digestive health. She is the author of NOSH – Delicious and Responsible Eating and a regular contributor to both NZ Doctor magazine and Coeliac NZ.

Julie is one of the founding dietitians at Dietary Specialists and also:
🔹 One of the first dietitians in New Zealand to use the low FODMAP diet in clinical practice
🔹 An advisor for Coeliac New Zealand
🔹 A provider of expert input into numerous research projects on the low FODMAP diet and quality of life in people with gut disorders
🔹 A former public health dietitian with Diabetes Life, supporting community diabetes education and prevention
🔹A fabulous foodie!

Julie brings depth of knowledge, empathy, and practical support to every client she sees — particularly those navigating coeliac disease or functional gut conditions.

Julie works at Dietary Specialists on Tuesdays
New Zealand

16/06/2025

🌟 Dietitians Week Spotlight: Sarah Munn 🌟

It's Dietitians Week — and today we’re shining a light on Sarah Munn!

Sarah is a highly experienced dietitian with a passion for women’s health (especially perimenopause, polycystic o***y syndrome and endometriosis), the management of gastrointestinal disorders, sustainable weight loss and emotional/intuitive eating. She is a regular contributor to New Zealand Doctor and Pharmacy Today magazines, and works as a community dietitian supporting Rural Canterbury.

She has also provided expert dietetic input into research projects, including:
🔹 The KneeCAP Study – a collaboration between dietitians, pharmacists, and physiotherapists
🔹 The MASH Study – supporting patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis

Sarah also supports residents in aged care and has held senior dietetic roles both in Aotearoa and the UK, including:

✅ Project Manager Dietitian at Pegasus Health
✅ Senior Specialist Dietitian – Bariatric Surgery, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London
✅ Senior Community Dietitian – Obesity and Coronary Heart Disease, Kensington & Chelsea, London

Sarah works at Dietary Specialists on Mondays and Thursdays, providing skilled, evidence-based support across a range of clinical areas.

New Zealand

16/06/2025

12/06/2025

🌾 Coeliac Disease Awareness Week 🌾
If you’ve been newly diagnosed with coeliac disease—or have been living with it for a while but still have questions—support from an experienced dietitian can make all the difference.

Our expert coeliac disease dietitian Julie Leeper is here to help you feel confident managing your gluten-free lifestyle, improve symptoms, and make sure your nutrition stays on track.

📍Julie is available for in-person and virtual appointments.

It's Coeliac Awareness Week, head to www.coeliac.org.nz to find out more.

27/05/2025

25/05/2025

Histamine intolerance is an interesting potential player in those that do not respond to the low FODMAP diet. Following a low histamine diet can be very restrictive especially as there is no one true source of low histamine foods. Determining if histamine intolerance could be resulting in digestive and non digestive symptoms needs to be done under expert care. Our dietitians are experienced is helping clients navigate a low histamine diet. We are based in Christchurch but can do virtual consults as well.

Similar to FODMAPs, some individuals cannot tolerate histamines. Whilst they do exist naturally in our body, histamines can also be consumed in foods, or some foods can even trigger the release of histamines.

Those who poorly tolerate histamines can experience ‘allergy-like’ symptoms - some of which crossover with common IBS symptoms, making it hard to differentiate the cause sometimes.

Learn more about histamines and histamine intolerance in our blog: https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/histamines-and-ibs/

16/05/2025

Thank you Brain Tree Wellness Centre and Trickett's Grove Walnuts for the opportunity to speak on Nutrition and Brain health - such a fascinating and important topic