Carin Clegg completed a Bachelor of Science, Nutrition with Honours from the University of Sydney in 2004. She has been an Accredited Practising Dietitian and a member of Dietitians Australia since 2005. 

Early in her career, Carin worked in Queensland, Tasmania and New South Wales, obtaining a good grounding in all medical nutrition therapies in the hospital and community setting. Then, travelling overseas to the United Kingdom, she directed her career focus toward paediatrics and allergies. Whilst completing the British Dietetic Association Course, Paediatric Dietetics Module 1: Paediatrics in Infancy and Childhood and the Anaphylaxis Campaign’s Health Professional Allergy Management Course, she worked in one-stop allergy clinics, paediatric hospital wards and in the community running fussy eating groups, weaning groups and cooking classes.

Carin worked at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit with the team that originally developed the RPAH Elimination diet, the gold standard test method to diagnose food intolerance. Over the past 40 years, they have been perfecting its application as a diagnostic tool to identify food chemicals one is intolerant to, and tailoring individualised diets to help clients manage their symptoms better. 

Carin has worked in the disability sector since 2012 and is trained in the Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) Approach and Responsive Feeding Approach to feeding.  

 

Carin now works at Central Coast Family Psychology with a friendly and supportive multi-disciplinary team for clinic appointments.

 

Carin understands how hard it is to get the right balance in life with body movement, which is why she completed her fitness training, holding a Certificate III and IV in Fitness and is a Fitness Professional and Zumba Instructor, now teaching Zumba Gold classes and soon Zumba Kids Classes at Roundabout Circus.

 

Bright Spark

Carin is a greenie at heart, zipping her way towards a zero-waste lifestyle and she is an active member of Permaculture Central Coast. Healthy Eating and Permaculture go hand in hand.

Carin knows how hard it is to build a positive connection with nutritous foods with so much 'sometimes' food exposure in our society and culture.  With her stage character, 'Bright Spark', she hopes spread the seeds of making healthy eating messages fun through circus and dance with Zumba classes and performances.

 

Thanks to Roundabout Circus ‘Bright Spark's’, debut was a hoop dance performance to the song ‘You Are What You Eat’ by the Formidable Vegetable at their circus AGM. 

 

Dressed up as the Easter Bunny, Bright Spark, challenged the social norm of giving chocolates at Easter, and instead gave out vegetables and packets of vegetable seeds which embrace the true meaning of Easter, celebrating new life.

 

When deciding on a business name, the name ‘Bright Diets’, was actually inspired by Dr Who, who always believed people were clever, but just needed a bit of help believing in themselves to take action.

 

Carin and Bright Spark wants to be the spark to light the fire to help everyone to be clever about their food choices and that includes being more aware of why they choose to eat certain foods. It also involves standing up and using your voice to make our food environment and culture a health promoting one.

 

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Dietitians Australia and as part of the celebration, Carin encourages everyone to add their voice to the Give Us An Ad Break campaign. The campaign is designed to raise awareness about how the amount of ‘sometimes foods’ promotion over the last 5 or so decades, has impacted our food choices, health and culture. It is hoped to start the conversation about what regulations need to be put in place to put the community’s health before big business profits. Please add your voice:

https://giveusanadbreak.org.au/add-your-voice/