Editors Column

By
Dr. Kate Marsh

Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian, Credentialled Diabetes Educator, Health & Medical Writer 

PhD, MNutrDiet, BSc, Grad Cert Diab Edn & Mgt, FADEA, FASLM

Northside Nutrition & Dietetics (NSW)

editor@adea.com.au

Chair: Dr Kate Marsh

PhD, MNutrDiet, BSc, Grad Cert Diab Edn & Mgt, FADEA, FASLM

Kate is a CDE and Advanced APD and is the current editor of the Australian Diabetes Educator (ADE) and Chair of the Editorial Advisory Group (EAG). She is a Fellow of the ADEA and the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine (ASLM).

Kate currently divides her time between clinical practice and health and medical writing, and has a private practice where she works mostly with individuals with diabetes and women with PCOS.

Kate has been a member of the EAG since 2005 and chair since 2015. She is also a long-time editorial board member for Diabetes Management Journal (DMJ). Kate writes regularly for Diabetic Living Magazine and works as a freelance health and medical writer for Diabetes Australia and the ADEA.

Kate was awarded the DAA Joan Woodhill Prize for Excellent in Research – Doctorate Award for her PhD study on low GI diets for women with PCOS and is the recipient of the 2015 inaugural ADEA Jan Baldwin National CDE of the Year.

Introduction

As we put this edition of the ADE together, it remains a challenging time for diabetes educators and the people with diabetes we care for.  I hope everyone is staying safe and well and that the situation will have improved by the time that I am writing my next column.

With major changes to the way we work, I hope the articles on telehealth published in our last edition of the ADE were helpful to members.  Following on from this, we have another article from Amy Rush,  Dietitian CDE from the Type 1 Diabetes Family Centre discussing her experience providing insulin pump therapy and continuous glucose monitoring  education and training via telehealth.  And JDRF discuss whether telehealth will change the future of type 1 diabetes care.

This edition also has a focus on women’s health and nutrition.

Based on her PhD research, Robyn Barnes, Dietitian CDE at The Diabetes Centre, Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, explores the question: How much carbohydrate does a woman with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus need?  With the current focus on low-carb diets among people with diabetes and among the general population, it’s an important question to answer.

Still on the topic of women’s health, your editor has provided an article on Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and diabetes, explaining why it’s important for CDEs to be aware of this common endocrine condition in women, which significantly increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.

Patricia Marshall, dietitian CDE at Curtin University discusses the role of dietary protein in the development of diabetes-related kidney disease. With a rise in interest in the Paleo and Carnivore diets, the question of whether a high protein diet is safe is a crucial one.

Finally, I have provided an article on plant-based diets and type 2 diabetes, discussing the role of plant-based diets in both reversing and managing diabetes along with the mechanisms that might explain the benefits of this way of eating.

A reminder that you can read the ADE via https://ade.adea.com.au on any digital device and can also print, share and comment on articles as well as being able to browse or search for past articles. If you prefer to read offline, you can print any articles, either in hard copy or as a PDF which you can save and read later. You can find instructions on how to do this here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df9-L_7QvqE

Once again I’d like to thank our hard-working EAG, and our authors, for helping to bring this edition together, particularly at this difficult time. We hope you enjoy reading it and welcome your feedback.

Other Articles in this Edition