Alison Smith is a prescribing support consultant dietitian at Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group, she is also chair of the Advisory Committee on Borderline Substances, the first dietitian to hold the position, and has been a committee member of Older People Specialist Group and Optimising Nutrition Prescribing Specialist Group for 12 years, four as chair.
As a dietitian she is also currently campaigning hard for a ‘nutrient dense’ approach to tackling malnutrition, speaking at the recent National Association of Care Catering forum about fortifying food in a nutritionally balanced way to help people who are underweight, rather than simply adding lots of extra fat.
She says: “Older adults do not have any greater requirement for fat and sugar than the rest of the adult population, even when malnourished.
“They do, however, have a greater need for protein and some vitamins and minerals.”
She was awarded a British Dietetic Association Fellowship in 2021.
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Dietitian Alison Smith's efforts to improve the treatment of malnutrition
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