Ursula Arens has been recognised with the BDA Professional Achievement Honour for more than 10 years of sustained and outstanding personal commitment to the profession, as a freelance nutrition writer and columnist.
Her significant contributions have been recognised as amplifying the dietetic voice and that of the BDA in national discussions.
As a longstanding BDA spokesperson, Ursula’s ability to connect, network and communicate with the relevant people/organisations has demonstrated her work ethic – with strength in collegiality with the appropriate alliances. Her talent to translate scientific nutritional evidence into public policy and practice was most notably seen through her decades‑long advocacy for mandatory folic acid fortification.
She is accepted as a trusted voice, consistently challenging nutritional misinformation and deciphering nutrition science facts making them more accessible and understandable to healthcare professionals and members of the public.
Ursula shared what receiving this honour means to her.
What does it mean to you to receive the Professional Achievement honour?
Everything. And confused. In a profession with so many inspiring experts, the thought must be, “Why me?”
Our profession offers a wide span of practice, and it can take a while to find your path. Most of my professional practice has been outside the NHS, so perhaps a less typical career.
What drove you to become a dietitian in the first place and be where you are today?
I was an extremely bookish child, and read Let’s Eat Right To Keep Fit by Adelle Davies in primary school. I wrote a short essay at about the age of 12 about being a dietitian, so my career choice has been linear: just following a bright light. To this day I can become breathless with excitement thinking about (and writing about) the science of nutrition.
Who inspires you?
There are many amazing dietitians who lead great projects supporting individual and population health via dietary guidance.
For about ten years I have written a monthly interview column in NHD magazine, describing the careers and thoughts of many dietitians and nutritionists. I am always astonished at the very open sharing of their zig-zag career paths, and the descriptions of both challenges and achievements. It has been my huge privilege to have been the witness and scribe to the careers of many caring nutrition professionals.
What advice would you give to future dietitians?
Being an active member of various interest groups and committees, is the best way to open the doors of serendipity, to meet and share ideas with other practitioners.
Dietetics is about the intersect between diet and health, and there are many aspects to this. Of course the medical and physiological connections are the immediate terrains for dietitians. But there are also historic and cultural and economic and social aspects linking foods and health.
I would advise future dietitians that the rich depth of factors affecting food choice (and so, health) are all routes into possible careers. Currently environmentally sustainable diets are much discussed, and dietetic guidance contributes to untangle the many areas of confusion and debate.
What has been the highlight to your dietetic career to date?
I have really enjoyed working in the food industry; with the food retailer Waitrose, the pharmaceutical company Hoffman La-Roche, the British Nutrition Foundation and the Consumers Association magazine Which? Roche was the largest supplier of micronutrients for the fortification of foods, and I was responsible for legal and scientific aspects.
One of the evolving issues from the mid 90s was the discussions about folic acid fortification to reduce the risk of neural tube defects. This will become mandatory for flour sold in the UK by the end of 2026, and I feel I may have made a very small contribution to this very big decision.
