Meet our trusted Dietitian, Vanessa Clarke

We have been thrilled to be working alongside one of Durban's favourite dieititians for the last year. Gaining insight into wholesome, well rounded meals, and the positive impact our meals can have on our customers. We were drawn to Vanessa because of your measured approach to nutrition, her balance with all foods and her insight into feeding families. Here is a little more about Vanessa, in her own words...

"I am Registered Dietitian based in Umhlanga. I grew up in Durban and schooled there before attending the University of Kwazulu Natal to study a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics. In 2007 I completed my Postgraduate Diploma in Dietetics before going on to complete my community service year in Amatikulu on the North Coast of KZN. 

Upon completing my community service I moved to the UK where I worked in a variety of different areas including hospitals and outpatient clinics as well as working with eating disorders, the elderly, oncology patients, diabetics and running various public health nutrition programmes. It was here that I developed a love for pediatric nutrition and working with families to instill healthy eating habits early on in a child's life. Upon returning to South Africa in 2011, I worked in various corporate and medical institutions dealing with areas such as infant nutrition, rehabilitation , nutrition education and product development. In 2014 I opened my own private practice seeing patients of all ranges and with a variety of conditions. My special interests include pediatric nutrition, gut health as well as food labelling and overall family nutrition. My practice is based at Umhlanga medical centre and I also consult to a number of corporate companies. 

I am mom to two beautiful children, Emily ( 4) and Kade (3) and wife to Michael. I love everything about food and so most of my hobbies revolve around food. I love cooking and I am a complete foodie so I love trying new restaurants and cuisines. I also love coffee and sushi. I enjoy hiking, travelling. running and being in the outdoors 

Food and cooking was something I always had a keen interest in however I initially wanted to go into medicine but didn't qualify so decided to stay within the medical field. My plan was to transfer across into medicine but I enjoyed the dietetics course so much, I carried on with my studies. I am a bit of a science nerd at heart. 

My dream is to make nutrition and health eating relevant and sustainable to everyone. I find most people are intimidated by the endless “noise” around nutrition and so I enjoy making nutrition practical and finding a way for healthy eating to fit into each family. My long term goal for nutrition would be to open a feeding clinic in Durban offering multiple therapy services from all disciplines to support families in feeding their children in the early years."