Tell us a little bit about yourself Emma!
Hello! I’m Emma, I’m originally from a small town in the South Island called Ashburton. I made the move to Christchurch for boarding school, before moving again to Auckland for university. I love Auckland and have put my roots down here for now, and my job here at My Food Bag has certainly played a part in that! My Food Bag was my first ‘career’ job following my degree in Nutrition, and have now been here for 4½ years (time flies when you’re having fun!). I love the sunshine, and am happiest outdoors, typically at the beach, or running, water skiing or snow skiing on a bluebird day. I love good food in great company, I love yoga and I love good music.
What’s your role within My Food Bag and MADE?
I’m the Nutritionist for My Food Bag, which includes overseeing the portfolio of recipes and their nutritional and allergen status, as well as being an advisor when it comes to new products and nutritional guidelines around these. I also create lots of nutrition content and communications to pass on nutrition knowledge to our foodies. For MADE, I work with the MADE chef to ensure there’s plenty of veggies and no bad additives in the meals, as well as being nutritionally balanced. We work particularly closely on the Fresh Start MADE meals, to ensure they’re refined sugar free, under 450 calories, filling and delicious. I also create the labels for these meals to make sure they’re all nutritionally correct.
What interests you the most about nutrition and healthy eating?
This is a tricky question, there’s so much to learn when you begin to dig deeper into the world of nutrition! Eating nutrient dense, whole foods can have such an effect on not only how you feel day to day, but how your body is recovering or ageing. I’m really interested in how different foods, due to their nutrient make up, can affect different metabolic pathways or even turn on or off our genes, to cause our body to perform extremely well, or really poorly. This is known as nutrigenomics.
What’s your favourite MADE dish so far?
I loved the Kumara and Lemongrass Dhal which has been around a few times – I love all the veggie options!
