Flinders staff and students descended on Wellington, New Zealand earlier this month for the Joint Annual Scientific Meeting of the Nutrition Society of Australia and the Nutrition Society of New Zealand. Located at the beautiful Te Papa Museum of New Zealand on the Wellington waterfront, over the course of the 4 days we heard presentations of the latest nutrition science in Australia and New Zealand. The plenary sessions focussed on a range of topical issues in food, nutrition and health of concern now and in the future such as addressing childhood obesity, gut health and optimal nutrition for healthy ageing – many relevant to our own research interests and teaching. There were also plenty of opportunities for networking including an Early Career Conference and the Young Investigator Lunch where early career members had the opportunity to network with senior scientists.

Dr Carly Moores presented pilot results from the PEACH™ program “PEACH ™ Queensland program improved child eating behaviours and reduced BMI z-score for overweight chidren (pilot study)”. Carly was awarded a Healthy Development Adelaide travel grant to support her presenting at the conference. MND Year 2 student Jessica Kruger also presented her results from her Masters Research project carried out at Flinders Medical Centre titled “Weight gain and cardiovascular risk factors in liver transplant recipients”. She was also successful in being awarded a student travel grant from the Nutrition Society of Australia to support her to attend and present at this conference. Dr Kacie Dickinson presented findings from the Australian Health Survey (2011-2013) on food sources of sodium at meal and snack occasions in adults.