Dietary change is a significant lifestyle factor in managing the epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Uncovering the details of effective dietary change requires accurate user friendly dietary assessment and advice tools.
Doctor Yasmine Probst is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian and Certified Health Informatician. As a Senior Research Fellow with the Smart Foods Centre at the University of Wollongong, her research is focused on what actually is contained in our foods with an interest in dietary modelling and dietary assessment methodology.
'NHMRC has contributed to my research in a number of ways. With the grants I have received my team and I developed an online dietary assessment tool, allowing us to have specific Australia region food composition data', explained Doctor Probst.
Doctor Probst works with the clinical trials team at the University of Wollongong to manage food-based intervention trials. She also teaches under- and post graduate students leading the research domain for nutrition and dietetics.
'If we didn’t have food composition data we wouldn’t have the information to be able to translate our Australian Dietary Guidelines into practical recommendations for the consumer and to help everyone better their health', said Doctor Probst.
Video transcript
[Music plays and an image of Dr Yasmine Probst walking and talking on a mobile phone appears on screen]
Dr Yasmine Probst: My primary focus is food composition research.
[Image changes to show Dr Yasmine Probst, University of Wollongong, standing and talking to the camera]
My field is exciting because it’s something that hasn’t been explored very much in the recent years,
[Image changes back to show Dr Yasmine Probst walking and talking on a mobile phone]
it’s a niche area and it’s fascinating because I can develop new methodologies for working out what actually is contained in our foods.
[Image changes to show Dr Yasmine Probst picking up a big glass jar of food and looking at it]
NH&MRC have contributed to my research in a number of ways. I was successful with a development grant, so we had actually developed an online dietary assessment tool and that tool needed to be composition data behind it.
[Image changes to show Dr Yasmine Probst, standing and talking to the camera and then moves back to show her holding the glass jar of food]
Previously we were reliant on borrowing data from Europe and from the United States. We need to have data that’s specific to the Australian region,
[Image changes back to show Dr Yasmine Probst, standing and talking to the camera]
and in turn then, specific to the foods that we eat.
[Image changes to show the camera panning over food labels that outline the nutritional values of the products]
[Image changes back to show Dr Yasmine Probst, standing and talking to the camera]
If we didn’t have food composition data we wouldn’t have the information to be able to translate our Australian dietary guidelines into practical recommendations for the consumer and to help everyone to better their health.
[Image changes back to show Dr Yasmine Probst, standing and smiling at the camera]
[Music plays and NHMRC logo appears on screen with text beside it: Building a Healthier Australia]
End of transcript.