In each edition we delve into the minds of those who are redefining the boundaries of health. Our goal is to share the insights and stories of those leading the way to achieve the highest attainable standard of health for everyone.

In this edition I have been speaking to Natalia Stasenko MS, RD, Founder of the Easy Bites Appwho is tacking weight issues and feeding problems in children through her AI-driven tool.

Please tell us about the Easy Bites App

Easy Bites app is an AI-driven tool for personalised family nutrition on a mission to reduce the risk of weight issues and feeding problems in children. As a female-led team of nutritional experts, child feeding psychologists and technical mavericks, we support caregivers who are confused and overwhelmed at mealtimes by helping them understand their child’s eating, meet their unique developmental and nutritional needs, and prepare easy meals the whole family can share. Our platform ensures life-changing impacts for kids, driving financial gains for health insurers, provider networks, and employers.

What is the impact to children’s development, behaviour and health when we think about poor eating choices?

The impact of poor nutrition on children’s health and development is well documented and includes difficulty to learn, higher risk of infections and low immunity, as well as higher risk of developing certain chronic health conditions later in life.  Unfortunately, most existing nutritional solutions come in too late after children already started school. At the same time, the biggest opportunity for impact is in the first five years of life, when parents desperately seek support. Another big reason most attempts to improve childhood nutrition have poor outcomes is that very few try addressing the psychology of child feeding and parent-child feeding dynamics. Parents need to know not only about the “what” but also about the “how” of feeding children to help them create a healthy relationship with food and strengthen their ability to self-regulate all types of food.

There is a lot of media attention on diet, ultra-processed foods and their impact on our health. What are your thoughts on current diet choices, including plant-based diets versus omnivore diets?

According to the recent statement by the Scientific Advisory Commission on Nutrition (SACN), we don’t have enough evidence to draw definitive conclusions about the effect of ultra-processed food on our health. As a clinical registered dietitian both in the US and the UK, I know that dietary patterns and general lifestyle are at least as important for our health as any single food or group of foods. Striving for as much variety as possible, having regular mealtimes, eating together and having positive mealtime experiences can help even those families who have to rely on ultra-processed foods for different reasons to foster a great relationship with food in their children. As a team, we often discuss the factor of maternal guilt and “mother-shaming”, becoming more and more prominent in research. With mothers carrying most of the mental, physical, and even financial burden associated with feeding the family, our goal is to provide realistic and practical tools to help them feel good about feeding their children and their role as parents at mealtimes.

Regarding plant vs omnivore diets, there are numerous benefits to both and ways to make both diets healthy and appropriate for children and adults. Following a strict plant-based diet, especially where all animal products are avoided, may require more strategic thinking when feeding small children. Children are not small versions of adults and require different amounts and ratios of nutrients. Both omnivore and plant-based diets can be very healthy and balanced or very unhealthy and unbalanced. As a global community, we have examples of a tremendous variety represented through ethnic cuisines of people worldwide. Some are more plant-focused than others, but all are perfectly balanced through the thousands of years of evolution.

What role do you see governments and policymakers having on what we eat in the coming years? Can we improve our eating habits without greater involvement from policymakers when we think about things like sugar taxes?

Unfortunately, research shows that taxing less healthy foods like sugary drinks does not automatically translate into changing consumer behaviour. And while changing the food landscape and culture and making healthy foods more accessible and affordable seems logical, it’s not likely to happen for many more years.

The easiest and most impactful change the governments and policymakers could make could be to provide more support to parents of young children under five years of age. Most children go through multiple developmental milestones at this age, and parents find these changes very challenging. So, after failing to find the answers and support, most parents end up using counterproductive mealtime strategies such as pressure to eat or over-restricting certain foods. We know from research and clinical practice that these issues increase the risk of weight dysregulation and feeding problems.

Please tell us a little bit about launching the Easy Bites App, how difficult it was to take the product to market and what has been your experience of funding the venture.

I launched the app on my own to reach and support more parents, after years of working with families, brands and federal programs in the US and UK. Soon after its release, Easy Bites attracted top clinical, operational, and technical talent, many joined us because they tried and loved the product. Our team is a testament to the dire need for a product like our app. This natural pull from the market made the initial organic growth very easy. It helped us secure significant achievements, such as being selected as the App of the Day by the App Store in the UK and achieving incredible retention rates of 30% on day 28.

Our next step is our first fundraising campaign, which will help us finish building our B2B2C sales funnel with health insurers, provider networks and employers in the US.

Please could you share an interesting fact about yourself.

I became a pediatric dietitian because of the challenges I experienced when feeding my firstborn. I knew what I needed to feed her, but I had no idea how to react to her mealtime behaviour without making things worse. Since then, I have dedicated my life to figuring out the art and science of child nutrition and supporting parents worldwide.