Systemic change
UNO’s new health and wellness columnist,
Anna Rolleston, shares how a plant-based diet
may benefit your life – and the earth.
Words Monique Balvert-O’Connor
Photos Jahl Marshall
For most people, working with professional sporting teams might be considered the pinnacle of their career. Holding a PhD in nutrition and metabolism, Anna Rolleston was the exercise physiologist for both the NZ Warriors and Waikato/BOP Magic. She was responsible for the team members’ performance monitoring, a critical part of keeping these elite athletes working at their fittest and best.
But Anna isn’t “most people”. In 2010, she felt a calling to shift her life’s work into the health and wellbeing space. With whakapapa to Tauranga, she moved home from Auckland to launch and become director of The Cardiac Clinic. In 2016, the business took on a more holistic direction, rebranding to become The Centre for Health.
The Centre for Health focuses on lifestyle management – through programmes, services, and research – for long-term conditions like heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, anxiety and depression, and more.
“We cover everything from medical management to lifestyle change – nutrition, exercise, dealing with stress – and Māori traditional healing practices and complementary and alternative modalities for health management,” Anna explains.
She and her “excellent” team feel strongly about creating a health system that really works for people. And it’s far from a one-size-fits-all approach.
“We recognise people have different ways of viewing health, different cultural contexts, different conditions. People want to be heard and listened to, and there’s not always a lot of time in the health system to get off their chest what they need to,” Anna says.
“We like to think we are pathfinders, listening to people’s stories and then supporting them in a solution that moves them forward on a health and wellness journey.
“We talk about ourselves as a bridge between potentially disconnected worlds: medical and non-medical, cultural and Western, illness and wellness.”
At The Centre for Health, some of the bridge-making incorporates a te ao Māori approach and is backed by community-driven research undertaken by Anna’s team. “Our strong research arm provides evidence that what we do works, and it supports communities to answer questions people have about their health,” Anna explains. “We also support clinical trials, and combine clinical and qualitative research too.”
As well as research, The Centre for Health team’s capabilities cover clinical exercise physiology, nutrition, sport science, nursing, and Rongoā Māori.
One of the more recent offerings they’ve developed is FastTrack Kai ā Nuku, which offers recipe packages promoting healthy eating. It’s been well received by The Centre for Health’s clients and is now available to the public via its website (fasttracknz.co.nz).
FastTrack – a plant-based approach to eating – started as an idea from the centre's clients. Recipe creation and testing followed, and the programme was launched late last year. FastTrack offers recipes and menu plans for breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and smoothies.
“FastTrack is a way of living that supports flourishing. It is not a diet,” Anna emphasises.
At its heart, FastTrack encourages clients to eat foods that promote good health. The programme is linked to the health and wellbeing services provided at The Centre for Health.
Anna says that The Centre for Health isn’t prescribing a specific way of eating – “We are just about helping people eat more healthily in their lives and sharing various ways to do that, but knowing that plant foods are key in good health.”
FastTrack may be particularly helpful for people who might suffer from diabetes and heart problems, for example. “Our clients were saying, ‘Surely we can eat our way well!’” recalls Anna. “Evidence says this is about reducing meat and dairy intake and increasing plant-based food, so that is FastTrack’s focus.”
This grounded approach to eating has benefits not only for our bodies, but also for the planet. “Eating food that comes mostly from plants is good for our bodies and also helps to support Papatūānuku (the earth),” Anna explains. “We have used evidence from science, principles from BlueZone communities, and the mātauranga (Māori knowledge) that is unique to our place in the world. We’ve combined those three spaces and created an Aotearoa-specific plant-based eating approach.”
The principles behind FastTrack’s recipes and menu plans:
90 percent plant-based
Daily dose of beans of
any varietyMeat on special occasions
only, or limited to one serving per weekEggs limited to four per week
Sourdough bread only, maximum of two slices per day
Fish and other seafood are allowed, three servings per week
No dairy; use goat’s milk products, plant milks and coconut yoghurt as alternatives
No added or refined sugar
Limit caffeine and alcohol.
Every FastTrack recipe has been trialled and rejigged if necessary. Processed foods are out, but fermented foods (kimchi, sauerkraut, sourdough and coconut yoghurt) get the big tick. There is even flexibility to include seafood.
But the main criteria is, the recipes have to be delicious, Anna says firmly.
“In terms of our Centre For Health clients, FastTrack is going great guns. Now we’re ready to spread it more widely.”