Amanda Avery

Lecturer in Nutrition, University of Nottingham
Amanda Avery worked as a community dietitian in Southern Derbyshire for over 22 years, with both a public health remit and as a clinician working in primary care, before moving to Nottingham University in 2009 as a lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics.

A period of time was spent working in the Public Health department with the remit to develop a local Obesity Strategy. This was developed and launched in 2000 so was very much one of the first local obesity strategies available! During the secondment period there was also the opportunity to explore the feasibility of Primary Care working in partnership with the commercial slimming sector and project managing this piece of research. This became the evidence base for the slimming on referral scheme which is now part of many local weight management pathways across the country. It was also the start of my involvement with Slimming World where I have now worked on a part-time basis for the past 10 years as a Consultant dietitian in weight management. This provides many opportunities to keep totally up-to-date with all the developments in weight management and to be involved in developments within the Company - for example being involved in the development of a programme for teenagers and more recently involvement in a RCT developing an intervention to support appropriate weight management during pregnancy.

Other areas of interest, developed throughout those many years of community work, are community development, infant nutrition - chairing the group involved in the development of a local infant feeding policy (all 4editions), school meals, diabetes management and behaviour change techniques. One of my greatest achievements, (in my eyes), was my involvement in the Change to Cup campaign which has the potential to have a significant influence on nutritional intake. It is great to see that at last more emphasis is being placed on getting nutrition right from a very young age and indeed re-prioritising pregnancy as a key time.