Our Human Nutrition team is experienced in conducting human dietary trials, including the creation of whole diets or individual foods for volunteers. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, there have been no volunteer dietary studies conducted since March 2020. The team is passionate about nutrition, but what do they do when there is no-one to feed? Miss Aimee Sutherland is a nutrition assistant in the Human Nutrition Unit (HNU) and gives an insight into how the team have adapted to this unprecedented situation.
Aimee works in the kitchen in the HNU preparing diets for nutrition studies and designing new diets along with the dietician. She also works closely with human study volunteers, making them feel welcome and assisting with any issues relating to a specific diet. During the global pandemic, Aimee had to work from home, and that brought its own challenges, as well as opportunities.
One project involved developing a series of store-cupboard recipes. These recipes were designed to give healthy eating ideas to help those who struggled to shop at the beginning of the pandemic. The challenge for this project was not having access to the HNU kitchen where new recipes are usually tested; so, they were created at home and tried by the HNU team themselves.
Want to read more? Our full case study was originally posted here.
This article was written by Mis Aimee Sutherland.
Work is funded by the Scottish Government
