Joel Feren, also known as The Nutrition Guy, is not just a media dietitian, recipe developer, and nutrition consultant – he’s your go-to guide for all things nutritious and delicious. Partnering with the media and some of the biggest food brands in the industry, he’s helped shape the food landscape and spark meaningful conversations about nutrition, particularly for male audiences.

Joel has led major projects for renowned brands like ALDI, Sanitarium, Cobram Estate, and Dairy Australia, delivering compelling, evidence-based nutrition communications and marketing advice that significantly boosted engagement. He’s also been the face of the Weet-Bix Better Brekkie campaign, and you might have caught him in Sanitarium’s TV commercials or cooking on Channel 10’s My Market Kitchen.

Food isn’t just his job – it’s his passion. Joel loves nothing more than whipping up new recipes in his kitchen. As a dynamic speaker, nutrition writer, and seasoned media performer, he regularly appears on TV and radio. His forte is taking complex nutrition concepts and breaking them down into tasty tidbits for audiences to digest.

Men are under-represented in the field of nutrition and dietetics, with less than 5% of dietitians in Australia being male. As one of these dietitians, Joel is ideally placed to inspire other men, and help to equip them with the tools and strategies to improve their physical health, mental wellbeing and relationship with food.

Keynotes include:

Eat yourself happy: The link between food and mood

The statistics on mental health issues among Australians are astonishing. But there’s promising news – we may be able to eat our way to better mental health. New and exciting research is showing that our mental health can be strongly influenced by what we eat.

Dietitians can play a pivotal role in treating people living with poor mental health, yet the importance of dietary interventions remains under-recognised. Prioritising measures to improve our mental health outcomes is critical, and the encouraging news is that we can do this one bite at a time.

Who this is for:

This presentation will be valuable for all team members in your business. Mental wellbeing is a key pillar of health. Yet, the nutrition landscape is flooded with misinformation. Achieving better health through good nutrition is neither complicated nor difficult. This evidence-based presentation will provide the necessary steps and information to empower attendees to make healthier food choices that can impact their overall mental health.

3 Key Takeaways:

Audience members will:

– Learn which foods and dietary patterns can positively impact their mood.

– Gain an understanding of the link between our gut and the brain, and how to strengthen this bond.

– Gain recipe ideas and culinary inspiration to encourage better nutrition.

Men’s health: How to man-tain your health

Men’s health encapsulates physical, mental, emotional and social wellbeing; it’s not purely the absence of disease. It’s also clear that men face different health issues than women, and we also have different needs.

Most men are less proactive about their health than women and are less likely to visit their doctor to discuss their health or worries. The macho-man mentality may be at play here. However, subscribing to outdated views about masculinity is just not cutting it. Our lives depend on it.

Men can profoundly change their health outcomes when they modify their dietary and lifestyle behaviours. Making better and more informed choices should be the order of the day.

Who this is for:

This presentation will be valuable for all male team members in your business. Yet, female co-workers may wish to join to gain tips on how they can encourage the men in their lives to focus on their health and wellbeing.

3 Key Takeaways:

Audience members will:

– Gain insights into the health and nutrition issues facing men.

– Find culinary inspiration to make smarter food choices.

– Get science-based advice on how to improve their health and wellbeing.

Fuelling workday performance

Ensuring we are adequately nourished over the workday to avoid the 3pm slump is an all too common goal among workers. Sometimes, the vending machine or office cookie jar can be more enticing than we’d like. But there is help on hand. Joel will provide his top nutrition tips to help fuel performance at work and offer practical strategies to better fulfil your nutritional needs, and get you through the daily grind with flying colours.

Who this is for:

This presentation will be valuable for all team members in your business.

It’s for anyone who wants to maximise his or her work performance and end the day with energy to spare.

3 Key Takeaways:

Audience members will:

– Understand the role of nutrition on cognition and concentration.

– Find culinary inspiration.

– Learn new meal and snack ideas to help boost their performance at work.

Fall in love with food again: Be a more mindful and intuitive eater

Reconnect with food and rediscover the joy of eating. We have never been so inundated with unhelpful and conflicting nutrition messages. Yet, research confirms that diets inevitably fail. That’s what keeps the diet industry afloat and diet culture able to thrive. But what if there was a different way? Gain insights into how to leave dieting behind, ease hard and fast food and nutrition rules, and rediscover the joy of eating wholesome food because food is so much more than a source of nutrition. It sparks memories, fuels conversation, connects us to our culture and transports us to the other side of the world, one mouthful at a time.

Who this is for:

This presentation will be valuable for anyone who wants to improve his or her relationship with food and rediscover the joy that eating can bring.

History tells us that diets fail. So this presentation is for anyone wanting to get off the diet merry-go-round and find a more sustainable and health-promoting solution.

3 Key Takeaways:

Audience members will:

– Rediscover the joy of eating.

– Learn mindfulness strategies to be more aware of their body’s hunger and fullness cues.

– Feel empowered to make more nutritious food choices.

How to nourish a healthy gut

There are 100 trillion reasons to respect your guts. That’s the number of bacteria that live in our digestive system. Out-of-kilter gut bacterial populations (microbiotas) have been linked to obesity, autoimmune disorders, asthma, allergies and diabetes. What we eat and drink can profoundly affect the microbes within us. The old adage that we are what we eat seems to hit home.

There is also emerging evidence highlighting how our gut microbes affect our brain function. Definite links have been found between depression, anxiety and mood disorders and an imbalanced gut microbiota. So, nourishing our guts may help us to improve both our physical and emotional wellbeing.

Who this is for:

This presentation will be valuable for anyone interested in cutting-edge science and nutrition. Gut health is emerging as an important area of discovery and research. Attendees will be taken on a journey of all things gut-related and how best to adopt a healthy diet that truly loves your guts.

3 Key Takeaways:

Audience members will:

– Gain insights into the latest in the area of gut health.

– Learn which foods to include more of in their diet that promote good gut health.

– Get practical tips and tricks on how to best nourish a healthy gut.

 Cooking demonstrations

Joel can deliver an engaging cooking demonstration that can provide your team with practical and easy tips to support their wellbeing and health. He can deliver the following classes:

Sensational smoothies – learn novel and delicious smoothie recipes.

Vegetarian cooking – be inspired by delicious vegetarian recipes using wholesome plant foods.

Terrific tofu – learn how to cook with tofu and why it should be a staple in every omnivore’s diet.

Fantastic fish – be inspired to up your fish culinary skills. Your heart, brain and tastebuds will thank you for it.

BBQ cooking demo – team up meat and fish with a delicious selection of vegetable accompaniments.

Bespoke cooking classes and demonstrations are available.

Handouts – recipes including nutritional analyses and any other relevant supporting materials will be provided.

Demonstrations may be recorded for those who can’t attend.

Sessions are interactive, and participants will have opportunities throughout the session to ask questions as well as don an apron to lend a hand.