Adelle Purbrick is the Principal Dietitian for Body Balance Nutrition. Adelle graduated from Alstonville High School and after extensive travel and work experience, she returned to North Coast NSW in 2011 and established Body Balance Nutrition to service the health and sport nutrition needs of the local community.
Adelle is an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD), Accredited Nutritionist (AN), Accredited Sports Dietitian (ASD) and ANZAED Eating Disorder Credentialed Dietitian, a member of Sports Dietitians Australia and Dietitians Association of Australia. Adelle completed a Bachelor of Health Science: Nutrition & Dietetics (1st Class Hons) at QUT in Brisbane (2004) with a minor in Sport Nutrition and completed the Sport Nutrition course at the Australian Institute of Sport.
Professional experience
As a wide traveller, Adelle has professional experience working in various countries and cultures (Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Tonga and Fiji) and across various fields of Nutrition and Dietetics including clinical dietetics (such as Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital), community nutrition (such as Diabetes Education and Specialist Service), private practice, health promotion and nutrition education (Tonga), and performance sports nutrition (Scottish Institute of Sport, QLD Academy of Sport, North Coast Academy of Sport).
More recently, Adelle has specialised in the following fields: Eating Disorders (Adelle is trained in CBT-E for Eating Disorders and holds the ANZAED Eating Disorder Credential), Gastro-intestinal issues (e.g. IBS, Low FODMAP diet); and Allergy and Intolerance (ASCIA Professional Certificate in Medical Nutrition Therapy for Food Allergy & Intolerance and RPAH Food Chemical Elimination Diet for Food Intolerance).
Personal ethos
“As a mother of 2 gorgeous children, I role model natural normal eating (eating all foods in accordance with your appetite). I strive to ensure my family enjoy fresh, wholesome, seasonal and local food as much as possible, but more importantly, that we eat together as a family and share meals with extended family and friends”.
“I spent my primary school years living on hobby farms in South East QLD (before moving to Alstonville), we milked goats & cows, had chickens for eggs (and later meat), and grew many of our own vegetables. I think my passion for food developed from this early age, living on the farm. My mum made cheese and yoghurt from goat’s/cow’s milk, preserved her own fruit & home-made jams, and Dad would often bake bread on the weekend. From a young age I helped mum to bake cakes and muffins on the weekend for our school lunches, later baking them by myself and now for my own children”.
Born into a vegetarian family, Adelle was a vegetarian for 25years of her life. “My family started eating meat when I was in primary school (for several reasons), but I continued to be a vegetarian until I was about 25yrs old. I still love vegetarian food and my own family’s diet is about 50% vegetarian and 50% meat dishes. Many people ask me why I started eating meat. Mostly because when I met my partner, he was a meat lover. However, I soon realised that I could still incorporate my healthy eating principles and include meat in my diet.”
Adelle is a keen sports enthusiast, competing in basketball during high school, and at university running and triathlon, which progressed to adventure racing and mountain biking while living in the UK. Recently, Adelle’s main sports include social surfing and walking and mountain biking.
In 2009, after 3 years of living and working in the UK, Adelle and partner James, set sail on James 30ft yacht across the Pacific, a trip that lasted 18months and included New Caledonia, followed by Fiji and Tonga. Whilst on route Adelle was offered an AusAid AYAD Volunteer Nutrition position in Tonga. Adelle and James lived on board their yacht for 1 year while Adelle worked at the local Hospital and Health Promotion Unit in Tonga.
Sailing in New Caledonia
“I loved living the simple life of the Pacific Islanders, living in Tonga, as well as on board our yacht. Catching fish and shopping at local markets. I love learning about local traditional cuisines and incorporating their foods into our diet while sailing. For example, the Tongan Lu (fish or meat with coconut cream wrapped in Taro leaves and baked in an earth oven, or in my boat gas oven), cassava and taro.”
In fact, Adelle and James loved sailing so much, that 12 years later, they recently completed a similar trip in a 40ft yacht with their two children (10yrs and 8yrs old) for 6 months, visiting, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Fiji.
My personal nutrition and health message:
Apart from dabbling in Vegetarianism in my youth, I do not avoid any foods, and do not promote any ‘one-way’ of eating. I see benefits of many different dietary styles including Mediterranean diet, Japanese diet, Nordic diet, vegan & vegetarian diets, traditional pacific islander diet, and even the Paelo diet. Different dietary styles suit different people. Although I do not support ‘fad’ diets or any short-term fixes. Healthy eating should be a lifestyle, not a diet. In fact, I dislike the word ‘diet’, which suggests a beginning and an end, good nutrition should be lifelong.
In summary:
1. Love yourself and your food.
2. Eat for both nourishment and enjoyment.
3. Eat wholesome fresh food as much as possible. Prepare your own meals from fresh, local ingredients where possible.
4. Understand your appetite and eat to it.
5. Never deprive yourself of what you truly want, but understand that food cannot be the only way to meet emotional needs.
6. If you have children, involve them in food preparation and eat together where possible.
7. Move for enjoyment.
8. Live life and love it.
