Evelyn Chang Dietitian

06/01/2026

Often we look for convenience food for a number of reasons: budget friendly, long shelf-life, taste, lazy to prepare meals, lives alone, busy life, and so on. This often lead to choosing ultra processed food as the option. We are also seeing a more ‘healthier option’ food such as high protein or low carb or low sugar options sold at the shop. An interesting question would be, would an ultra processed food be a good option for an individual who wants to lose weight?

I came across with an interesting science paper recently published in Nature Medicine on 4 August 2025, involving a randomized crossover trial (1). This study wanted to know: If following healthy dietary guidelines with ultra-processed food, would that be any difference to if using minimally processed food for weight loss and heart health?

To read more, please go to my post on drevelyndietitian.substack.com

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20/12/2025

06/11/2025

After running around all libraries in Sunshine Coast to share my Sodium and Salt workshop, I finally finished the last session at Caloundra library.

For those who attended the workshop, thank you for coming. I hope you gained some useful knowledge and practical skills to apply to your daily lives and to look after yourself better.

Just would like to share a photo of the new Caloundra library event space for the talk. I was very impressed!

30/09/2025

25/09/2025

Free Workshop: Mineral Myths- Salt and Sodium
Create salt-friendly meal plan | 17 Oct-31 Oct 2025 | 7 sessions

Would you like to learn more about sodium and salt? Is sodium bad for you? Are you being told to limit sodium intake? Do you want to learn how to read food label for sodium and create meal plan which is sodium friendly?

This is a free event and will be packed with useful information and practical skills to bring home. Come along if you are interested.

I will be doing the workshop across 7 libraries in Sunshine Coast from 17-31 October with some days on Saturday. Registration is required and can be done via Sunshine Coast library website (link as below) or simply scan the QR code.

https://library.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/whats-on/at-the-library/mineral-myths

01/09/2025

Easy wholefood and plant-dominant meal: Low sodium and low sugar homemade 'baked bean'

There are a lot of people who lives by themself who do not want to spend too much effort to cook a meal. Most of the time, they end up choosing ultra-processed food, which we know can be high in sodium, salt, additives, saturated fat, sugar but low in fiber and nutrient.

I thought that hopefully this meal will give you an opportunity to cook a nutrient dense meal without spending too much time.

For those who is watching their sodium intake, you do not need to add any salt because the mushroom, basil and oregano in the diced tomatoes can + tuna (in spring water) can already give you a good flavour. If you would like to, you can always stir fry some onion first, use more herbs (fresh or dried), and add in lemon slice or juice to give you more flavour.

I recommend you to choose either 3 bean or 4 bean mix because they will give more variety of bean. Nonetheless, feel free to use any bean can of your choice.

INGREDIENTS: (3 serves)

🍲Macro Organic 4 bean mix (no added salt or additives), 1x420g can. Rinse with water to remove foam
🍲Diced tomato with basil & oregano or fresh tomato (no added salt or sugar), 1/2 of 400g can
🍲onion (optional)
🍲extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 tablespoon (optional to stir fry onion)
🍲5x button mushroom or any mushroom of your choice. Chop with a knife or tear with hand.
🍲95g tuna in springwater, 1x can OR salmon in springwater
🍲baby spinach, 3 handfuls

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Optional: Heat pan or small pot on medium heat. Increase to high heat and add oil. Stir fry onion until soft.
2. Skip step 1. Pour 1 can of 4 bean mix and 1/2 can of diced tomato to a pan or a pot on high heat.
3. Stir in chopped mushroom.
4. Simmer for 1 minute.
5. Add in tuna in springwater with water removed.
6. Stir in baby spinach until wilt. Wilt the baby spinach before serve if you cook this recipe for yourself for 3 meals
7. Serve with a toast.

13/07/2025

Plant Protein Sprinkle to Toast:

Breakfast is a meal when some people tend not to add protein. The easiest protein you can go for is low saturate fat low sugar yoghurt, egg, or low fat cheese. However, I do come across with people not having them due to a number of reasons.

Toast can be an easy breakfast to go to. I introduced toast with almond spread and berry compote (microwave with no added sugar) in one of my previous post. Recently I have been refining this recipe by adding pepitas and sunflower seed (more and more) to my almond spread berry toast. This improved recipe comes with extra benefit including:

⭐Increasing plant protein to the meal
⭐Feeling fuller
⭐Adding in additional unsaturated fat and fiber beneficial for cholesterol level
⭐Most importantly, it tastes soo… goood….. I am sprinkling more and more of both pepitas and sunflower seed whenever I make this breakfast

This recipe has been introduced to my 2 kids and both of them love it. It is now one of our breakfast must have recipe!

Try it and let me know how it goes.

09/05/2025

Chronic kidney disease series 4: My eGFR drops but still within normal range of blood laboratory reference. Should I get worried?

11/04/2025

New Snack Choices at Supermarket
⭐️I have recently found some new convenience snacks at Woolworths which can be an alternative snack choice if one does not feel like a fruit or vegetables stick, or just want to have packaged food which are sweet or savoury but reasonable nutritious, with low sodium, low sugar but not replaced with any sweetener, low saturated fat, and high in fibre.
⭐One important tip here is that whatever you end up wanting to try, stick to 1 serve.
⭐If you try any of them, do let me know which one you enjoy :)

1. Grinny Pea Puff Sea Salt Flavour
🌿Contains inulin as prebiotic fibre which is not suitable for individual with IBS who cannot tolerate inulin (high FODMAP)
🌿Per serve: 286kJ, 2.5g protein,

22/03/2025

High protein low GI high fiber no added sugar blueberry apple muffin

I was asked for the recipe of a ‘healthy muffin’. Here I would like to share with you a typical muffin I will make for my kid’s lunch box or their snack. It is also great to have for an adult. To increase the protein and make it a low GI muffin, I use almond meal. Meanwhile I mix in rolled oat, chia seed, and flaxseed meal to increase the fiber. Here I do not use any flour.

For natural sweetness, I use banana, dates, blueberry and diced apple.

Instead of butter or margarine or oil, I use yoghurt.

Wet Ingredients:
1 medium banana, mashed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 pitted dates, soaked in water to soften and chop finely
1 cup milk
1/4 cup plain yoghurt
1 large egg

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup almond meal
1 cup rolled oat
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoon black chia seeds
2 tablespoon flaxseed meals
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 apple, skin on, diced

For further details and methods, check my new post on Substack.

06/03/2025

Chronic kidney disease series 3: Unpacking eGFR, Albumin Creatinine Ratio, and Stages of Chronic Kidney Disease

04/02/2025

CKD short series 2: Chronic kidney disease-how would you know

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