Practical Parenting Expert: Zoe Bingley-Pullin

Zoe Bingley-Pullin is a nutritionist, mother, author, chef and founder of Nutritional Edge – a nutritional consultancy company based in Sydney. Zoe is passionate about food and has a self-confessed love affair with food. Prior to studying nutrition in Sydney, Zoe spent time in the South of France. During this time, Zoe immersed herself in Provencal culture and uncovered a sensual side to food where produce was fresh and seasonal and cooking was uncomplicated and nourishing to the body and soul.

To impart the lessons Zoe has learnt about looking at food in a positive manner and nourishing from the inside out, she created her online Falling in Love with Food 8-week Program. This Program teaches people how to have a loving attitude towards food for life and shows how healthy eating can be both delicious and beneficial to health. Having spent five years as co-host of Channel 10’s Good Chef Bad Chef and now making regular appearances on Channel 7’s The House of Wellness tv show and also radio show, Zoe values having the opportunity to share her food philosophy to the nation and motivate others about health and nutrition.

Zoe has also released two cookbooks Eat Taste Nourish and Falling in Love with Food and has worked with many brands including Vitasoy, SunRice, Woolworths and Thompson’s (hemp) to help strengthen their message around living a healthier lifestyle.

Q. Your profession: What drew you to this area?

A. After spending time in the Europe learning how to cook with amazing produce and witnessing first-hand the connection between food, health and happiness, I started to understand the emotional and psychological aspects of food and wanted to connect this with how food affects our body and brain. This led me to study nutrition, which enabled me to educate people on how different types of food can benefit health and how easy it is to be healthy.

Q. What family health topics are you most passionate about?

A. Meals to suit the whole family – at home there is no divide between what my husband, my daughter and I eat and a lot of families struggle to be able to get the same meal. Simple ways to increase the nutrient density of a families diet, healthy lunchboxes for kids (and adults!)

Q. What children’s health and wellbeing topics (and the key message) are you most passionate about?

A. Picky eating and how to help children have a love affair with food, nutrition to support growth and development, tips for healthy immunity and getting kids in the kitchen. 

Q. What mum’s health and wellbeing topics are you most passionate about and why?

A. The importance of having a healthy relationship with food, the importance of taking care of you, supporting the mental health and wellbeing of mothers and being ok with asking for help. 

Q. What’s one of the biggest dietary furphy’s aimed at parents of recent times?

A. It would have to be that sugar is evil over everything else. This isn’t actually the case as excess sodium and poor quality fats can be as detrimental to health. Not all sugar is created equally and some sources of sugar offer added nutrition. For example Demerara sugar is minimally processed allowing for some of the minerals naturally occurring in sugar to be protected and sugar in fruit also comes with added fibre, vitamins and minerals. Instead of focusing on eliminating sugar, we should be focusing on the quality of the foods we are eating and nutrient density. In addition, making our day-to-day diet, what I like to refer to as our food foundation, well balanced as this enables us to include extras into the diet without impacting health.

Q. What does your life look like off duty?

A. My family and I live in Bondi Beach and we are very much home bodies. I have a 4-year-old daughter and like most parents, I am constantly trying to balance her life with mine – whether it be arranging play dates or meeting new parents (which we are loving to do). We also like to spend a lot of time together as a family and at the moment lego is featuring heavily in our house. During winter, we tend to spend more time indoors and as my daughter can often gets bored at home, I am trying to avoid too much screen time!

Q. What are you most proud of accomplishing?

A. I would have to say self-publishing my latest cookbook Falling in Love with Food – a cookbook and love story. While it was incredibly challenging and took a long period of time, I was fortunate enough to have a great team around me and I learnt so much during the process. I also feel very lucky to be in the nutrition and health industry for as long as I have and I hope to continue my work in this field. I am always adapting my way of thinking about my own life and like other parents, trying to find a healthy balance between work and life.

Follow Zoe

Web:   zoebingleypullin.com Youtube:  @nutritionaledge  Instagram: @zoebingleypullin Facebook: @nutritionaledge