Gold Coast Dietitian
Dietetics & Nutrition
Health, not diets
Eat real food — with awareness.
At Ridiculously Well, dietitian and health scientist Dr Desha Delumani Ph.D. takes a broader approach to nutrition than simply providing meal plans or telling people what they should and shouldn’t eat.
People come to Desha with specific medical conditions, abnormal blood-test results, digestive or hormonal concerns, changes in weight or appetite, low energy or complicated relationships with food.
Her aim is to help you understand what’s happening in your body, explore where nutrition and lifestyle may appropriately support your health, and develop the knowledge and confidence to make sustainable choices for yourself.
Why might you see a dietitian?
Nutrition may be worth exploring if you’re experiencing things such as:
- digestive problems
- unexplained fatigue or low energy
- changes in weight or appetite
- hormonal or metabolic concerns
- abnormal blood-test results
- difficulty recovering from exercise or injury
- poor dietary intake
- food intolerances or allergies
- restrictive or emotional eating
- anxiety or confusion around food
- body-image concerns
- difficulty concentrating or feeling adequately nourished
Nutrition can also play an important supporting role in injury recovery, muscle and bone health, exercise and training, energy levels, digestive function and general wellbeing.
You don’t necessarily need a diagnosis to see a dietitian.
Sometimes you simply want to understand whether the way you’re eating and the wider circumstances around it could be supporting you better.
More than what’s on your plate
Desha’s first question isn’t simply:
“What do you eat?”
She wants to understand the person sitting in front of her.
That can mean exploring your:
- food and eating patterns
- medical history
- medications and supplements
- blood-test results
- digestion
- sleep and energy
- movement and activity
- stress
- hormonal health
- lifestyle
- relationship with food
- feelings about your body
When appropriate, Desha will also help you understand your blood-test results and what may be happening physiologically, before exploring where nutrition and lifestyle could provide additional support.
The goal is for you to leave with a better understanding of your body, not simply another list of foods you’re allowed or forbidden to eat.
Health, Not Diet
This is the philosophy at the centre of Desha’s work.
She isn’t interested in teaching people to spend their lives counting calories, fearing food, chasing a number on the scales or moving from one restrictive diet to another.
Food is more than calories and nutrients.
Our relationship with food can be influenced by physiology, health, culture, family, emotions, stress, habits, beliefs, availability and years of lived experience.
For Desha, awareness means curiosity rather than judgement:
What does my body need?
How does this food make me feel?
Am I physically hungry or am I stressed, tired, lonely or overwhelmed?
Am I nourishing myself, or fighting against myself?
Her aim isn’t to prescribe a “perfect diet.” It’s to help each person develop the understanding, confidence and awareness needed to make choices they can actually sustain.
Eating disorders, body image & our relationship with food
This needs much greater prominence than it has on the existing page because Desha specifically identified it as an area she particularly values working in.
She works with people experiencing eating disorders, body-image concerns and complicated relationships with food, which may involve restriction, overeating, undereating or other difficult eating patterns.
Importantly, she doesn’t view these behaviours simply as a failure of nutritional knowledge or willpower.
Our relationship with food and our bodies can be influenced by emotional experiences, a need for control, physical illness and many other factors. Desha considers both the nutritional and broader human context rather than reducing the problem to “eat more” or “eat less.”
Where appropriate, dietetic care can also form part of a broader healthcare or mental-health team.
Science-informed nutrition
This is where I’d retain the best part of the existing page.
Desha has a Bachelor of Health Science with Honours in Immunology, a Masters of Nutrition and Dietetics and a PhD in Human Physiology.
Her background as a health scientist gives her particular interests in:
metabolism · hormones · immunity · physiology · nutrition and medical conditions
She has also spent many years working in university research and education in human physiology, immunology, nutrition and health science.
That scientific background influences the way Desha practises today. She enjoys helping people understand why something may be happening rather than simply handing them instructions about what to eat.
Knowledge is power.
When people understand the reasoning behind a recommendation, they’re better placed to make informed decisions about their own health.
Nutrition as part of the bigger picture
“A person does not arrive as a knee, a back, a digestive system or a blood-test result; they arrive as a whole human being.”
That’s why Desha values working within a multidisciplinary practice.
Sometimes another RW practitioner may suggest considering nutrition when recovery isn’t progressing as expected, energy levels are poor, eating has become difficult or nutrition, hydration and overall energy intake may be contributing to the broader picture.
Likewise, Desha can work alongside medical practitioners and other healthcare professionals while remaining within her own area of expertise.
Sustainable change takes time
“You can’t make a flower blossom by pulling on its petals.”
Instead, you create the conditions it needs; water, nourishment, light, attention and time, and allow it to flourish.
She sees our bodies similarly.
Real food, hydration, movement, rest, daylight, connection with nature, patience and care can all form part of creating healthier conditions.
Nutrition isn’t a magic wand, and Desha doesn’t promise overnight transformation.
The objective is sustainable change rather than temporary perfection.
How do you want to age?
Whether you’re 20, 40, 60 or 80, Desha encourages people to think beyond the immediate diet or health problem and ask:
“How do I want to age?”
The choices that support future health don’t begin at some arbitrary age in the future.
They begin with what we can realistically do now.
Does seeing a dietitian mean I’ll be put on a diet?
No.
That’s one of the misconceptions Desha would particularly like to change.
Good dietetic care isn’t necessarily about weight loss, calorie counting, restrictive diets or generic meal plans.
Sometimes specific nutritional interventions are clinically appropriate. But Desha’s broader goal is education and empowerment—helping people understand their body, their food choices and the reasoning behind recommendations so they become less dependent on somebody else telling them what to do.
Homeopathy
Desha also offers homeopathy for clients who are interested in exploring it as a purely optional complementary therapy.
This can be discussed during a consultation and is guided entirely by the client’s interest and preferences. It is offered alongside nutrition and lifestyle support and is not intended to replace appropriate medical care or prescribed treatment.
Meet Dr Desha Delumani
Desha provides consultations in English, Spanish, Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian and/or German.
Private Health Fund rebates may apply depending on your level of cover.
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