Member Profile: Rachael Thurecht

Rachael is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian and Sports Dietitian who has a passion for nutrition, teaching and research. Currently, Rachael is a Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia where she teaches into a variety of first and second year courses.

From a young age food, nutrition and playing sport (mostly softball, squash and swimming) were keen interests. During her Bachelor Nutrition and Dietetics (Honours) she developed an interest in how our individual traits and circumstances impacted on our eating behaviours. Her Honours research focused on Australian dietitians’ perceptions of the healthiness of packaged foods. Through this project Rachael realised research was a great way to combine her interests. After graduating, she had the opportunity to pursue these interests through a USC, scholarship supported PhD.

Rachael’s recently completed PhD centered on the development and validation of an Athlete Food Choice Questionnaire that could be utilised with a sporting and culturally diverse group of athletes. Her research sought to translate current knowledge on the multifactorial construct of food choice into a questionnaire for practitioners, researchers and individual athletes to examine the relative influence of various factors on food choice. Through this project Rachael was fortunate to get to collect data at the 2017 Universiade (Taipei, Taiwan) and 2018 Commonwealth Games (Gold Coast, Australia).  At these games she was also part of the Nutrition Service Team that provided training and advice to the caterers. Additionally, she helped host the nutrition desk within the athlete’s dining hall, where she assisted athletes with food selection and individual consultations.

Research interests

  • Determinants of food choice in diverse populations, especially athlete eating behaviours
  • Operational definitions and perceptions of the healthiness of foods
  • Development and validity of survey instruments

USC Research Bank – Rachael Thurecht

PINES role

Since August 2018, Rachael has been the Executive Officer for PINES.  However, starting in February she will transition from this position into a new role as a Communication Officer. Rachael enjoys sharing knowledge and experience with the PINES global network of sports nutrition professionals. She looks forward to continuing to contribute to the growth of PINES in her new role.