Free videos aim to get NZ healthy again

Eastern Bay woman Susan Birch has dedicated herself to improving the health of New Zealanders, by providing education and support around obesity and other health conditions.

The Health Detective consultancy founder and owner is creating a series of free videos called Let’s Get NZ Healthy Again. These videos are aimed at helping people understand the underlying reasons for weight gain and other health problems. Five videos have been released, with more to come.

“I want to promote improved health across New Zealand, beginning with local communities,” she says.

The next video in the series, currently in production, covers the protein leverage theory, which Susan says is part of the reason people overeat when all they want to do is be skinny. “People want to be told what to eat, without understanding why they should eat it. This has led to considerable
confusion. There are more people than ever on diets and exercising to control their weight, yet our rates of obesity and chronic disease have exploded over the past 30 years. What we are doing obviously isn’t working.”

She believes understanding how food affects our body is the important first step. To support the video series, Susan also works with small groups, schools and communities to share her expertise to help people live longer, healthier lives. Regardless of your way of eating, from plant-based to Paleo, everyone will benefit from understanding how food works in our body.

Susan has extensive qualifications in health, diet and exercise, including a Master’s in Health Sciences. Her business, The Health Detective, was founded on her own health experience: in 2010 she was diagnosed with extremely high cholesterol and was advised to take medication if she wanted to survive past 10-15 years. She also discovered she has the rare APOE 4/4 gene, which increases the risk of Alzheimer’s and heart disease. This led her to further study in nutritional biochemistry, through which she discovered alternative ways of managing these conditions.

“It’s pretty scary when you learn these things about your body,” she says. “But the human body is a remarkable machine and will work to keep you alive and as healthy as possible. There is a lot we can do to help it in this process. Coronavirus has highlighted how important our health is. Now is the perfect time to reset how we take care of ourselves so we can live long and healthy lives.”

The free Let’s Get NZ Healthy Again videos give people the information they need to make good health choices. They can be viewed here, and on Sue’s YouTube channel.

For more information about her services or to book a consultation phone 027 279 5357 or email susan@susanbirch.co.nz

On July 1, 2020, Susan Birch talked to Eastern Bay of Plenty radio hosts Maria Elliott and Sam Western about her health and nutritional science journey, her work and her upcoming interactive online event, It’s not our fault we get fat. It was a good opportunity to share her stories and take another step towards helping get New Zealand healthy again.