Issue 123 face to face

F2F

FACE TO FACE Ursula meets: Ursula Arens Writer; Nutrition & Dietetics Ursula has a degree in dietetics, and currently works as a freelance nutrition writer. Shas been a columnist on nutrition for more than 30 years.

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Ursula meets amazing people who influence nutrition policies and practices in the UK. MOIRA HOWIE Manager - Nutrition @ Waitrose Dietitian

Moira has been the company nutritionist for the predominantly south-east-facing retailer Waitrose for 12 years. We had arranged to meet in the cafe of one of their new branches behind Kings Cross station many weeks ago and randomly, there were suddenly many reasons why meeting Moira then and there was so exciting.

It was the Retail Week Conference and the news was full of commentary from the annual trade conference. Many changes were predicted: the smallest but fastest growing heavy-discounters were challenging the larger and moreestablished retailers. There is battle and tension between made-of-bricks premises and online services and while Brexit will not alter the need to eat, it will create food inflation and put huge pressures on currently comfortable trading arrangements for the whole industry.

The Kings Cross branch of Waitrose is not like any other supermarket. It is next to Central Saint Martin’s school of Art and Design, so caters to many image conscious students. One of these, a young student architect also sitting in the cafe, was constantly leaning over, desperate to share our dietetic discussions. While we were sipping tea, there was a media flurry: snapping pictures of a banner proclaiming ‘6%’ (the just-announced annual salary bonus given to all partners of the John Lewis Partnership - a unique benefit of the co-ownership model that John Lewis and Waitrose share). And then

www.NHDmag.com April 2017 - Issue 123

a group of 30 camera-clicking visitors also entered the shop: they were a specialist tour group of shop-owners from Brazil seeking retail ideas and inspiration.

Dietitians seeking retail ideas and inspiration need to meet Moira. She is dedicated to the improvement of public health through the communication of the healthy diet, and enjoys the very special privileges of being able to engage daily and very closely with those who influence decisions of what does and does-not appear on supermarket shelves.

Moira did not start her career in the food and diet arena. After school she worked as a cardiology technician in a hospital in Blackpool. She trained on the job for two years and obtained a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in medical physics and continued to work in this area for seven years. “I really enjoyed the daily tasks, but I was frustrated that much of the suffering I observed could have been prevented.” A colleague who agreed with her and gave her much support, was none other than our own NHD columnist Neil ‘Final Helpings’ Donnelly. “You should be a dietitian,” he had suggested.

After a two-year side-move as a school science technician, Moira signed up for a degree in Biology with Nutrition and Dietetics at the North London Polytechnic (now London Met).

She graduated in 1992 and jumped straight into employment working in a health promotion unit in Chelsea.

Disease prevention in every dietary way was her role, and included projects with local schools, local employers and local NHS clinics.

There was a phone call for her one day (following a very short TV interview segment).

“Join us: we need you,” said the international PR company. Moira was comfortable with the brief and the clients, so for the next five years, Moira enjoyed the international reach that BursonMarsteller allowed her. Here, her main project was the public communication for the Unilever brand Flora, about the benefits of reducing saturated fat in the diet and replacing with polyunsaturates.

In 2000, Moira was approached by the retailer Safeway to set up their nutrition department. This was the start of more forward thinking for the business and its customers.

Moira devised healthy-meal specifications and guided communication and marketing concepts supporting consumers to make better diet choices. When the retailer Morrisons purchased Safeway, they consolidated the technology team, but Moira thought it was time to move on. She really enjoyed the retail environment and Waitrose was very happy to welcome a preformed retail-expert nutritionist, particularly one who had been nominated in 2002 by her BDA peers in a Sunday broadsheet as one of the top 10 dietitians in Britain in bringing influential change.

She heads a team of two nutritionists, and always has a one-year industrial placement for a student studying nutrition or dietetics. So, there are four clever heads that gather to plan and implement nutrition direction and healthier formulation for Waitrose products. She leads the company nutrition strategy to ensure it reflects government policies and science-based research and translates this into product development.

Waitrose has led the field in quiet salt reduction of foods and has also been a pioneer in the

launch of chicken that contains high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, as well as in the promotion of unglamorous beans and pulses.

But she also has to be ever-alert to consumer perceptions of quality and health. In fact, the latter is one of her concerns: many foghorn blasts come as a result of diet assertions by young and beautiful promoters of books and video blogs.

The zephyrs of sound science from dietitians seem to get lost in consumer concerns over diet, leading to distorted demands on retailers.

“I wish dietitians would be more assertive in communicating dietary principles. New media and marketing tools are also there for their use, but they seem hesitant to reach out and join public debates.”

Moira is also critical of the constant eat-less messages that push out some eat-more themes.

The SACN carbohydrates report recommended a reduction in population intakes of free sugars, but lost from public discussion was the equally dramatic recommendations that population fibre intakes should be increased to 30g. “Dietitians should champion and promote broader themes, including consuming more wholegrain foods, and replacing some meat in the diet with plant protein foods such as beans and pulses.” Moira can do a lot to promote healthy diet concepts to Waitrose customers, as every nutritionist working in retail knows, ‘the customer is always right.’

Despite my glum suggestion that population diet change was as many steps back as forward, Moira insisted that so much had been done, and would be done in the future. “I’ve always been a glass-half-full person,” she said. I looked at my three-quarters-empty cup of cold tea, but thought that she was more than that; fully-full and overflowing with positivity.

Moira is the perfect dietitian to combine the daily tensions between commercial reality and driving healthy food choices for shoppers.

If you would like to suggest a F2F date

(someone who is a ‘shaker and mover’ in UK nutrition) for Ursula, please contact:

info@networkhealthgroup.co.uk www.NHDmag.com April 2017 - Issue 123

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