Ways to educate aspiring sports dietitians: Practical experiences with workplace applications
By Dr Kathryn Beck, NZRD
Here at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand we have a BSc in Human Nutrition, an MSc in Human Nutrition and an MSc in Nutrition and Dietetics. We run two sports nutrition courses (papers). The first is Nutrition for Sport and Performance, which all our BSc students complete in their third year. The second is Advanced Sports Nutrition which is an elective paper for our MSc in Human Nutrition students. Alongside traditional lectures, labs and essays we aim to provide students with as many practical opportunities as possible. Here are a few examples that might be helpful for other educators of aspiring sports dietitians.
Cooking classes
As a sports dietitian, I am often asked to run cooking classes for athletes. For example, when 30 athletes from around New Zealand attended a weekend camp with Athletics New Zealand, I involved six of our BSc students in all aspects of the planning and running of the session. They planned menus, created recipe cards, created key sports nutrition messages, prepped the food, taught the session, and did final clean up. During the session, we set up four stations, with a student at each one demonstrating making simple healthy foods, including Swiss muesli, smoothies, protein balls, and vegetables with dip. Each student worked alongside a high profile athlete who provided his or her time and supported our students with stressing the 
importance of the key nutrition messages. The 30 athletes were split into four groups and spent 15 minutes at each station. After a demonstration and some taste testing, the athletes rotated to the next station.
We regularly run similar sessions for the Massey University Academy of Sport athletes. The cooking sessions culminate in a shared lunch and are a popular event. The costs are covered by the group requesting the cooking session.
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Author
Dr Kathryn Beck, NZRD
Associate Professor in Human Nutrition and Dietetics
Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
