Mission:

To empower you to create a healthy relationship with food.

We work together with your medical needs, blood work, personal needs, family needs, lifestyle, food preferences, and any questions so that we can make sense of the science so you can make it fit into your life.

Learn more about my philosophy and services
Learn more about my passion project

Interested?

Book an appointment ▸

604 727 2323
irena@LetsTasteLife.ca

REGISTERED DIETITIAN AND FOOD ADVOCATE

Irena Forbes, RD

Hello! I love being a dietitian because I have the privilege of being able to connect with people like you - around a topic I am passionate about - food. I love that food connects us all as people - we all have to eat. And I so appreciate that food offers us so much.

I often hear from clients “I don’t know where to start.” I love unpacking it all and finding a starting place together - so that it doesn’t feel as overwhelming and just like ‘one more thing’. It is just as important to understand how food works in our bodies, as how to make food fit in our life. There is a beautiful balancing act in understanding how food nourishes our bodies and our souls. Food is messy - but there is a way to find it easier to enjoy food - or at least find a way to work with it. My hope is that you can make food fit so that you can get back to enjoying the rest of your life. So let’s get to that place of having a healthy relationship with food, ourselves and (maybe) the food system. 

Some the hats I currently wear:

• Let’s Taste Life Nutrition Education

  • A space where we work together to make a plan that works best for you.
    One to one nutrition counselling. Consulting projects. Presentations.

• Fraser Health Clinical Dietitian

  • some examples include: working with people admitted to hospital & attending appointments.
    emotional eating, mental health, diabetes prevention, diabetes, heart health, elevated liver enzymes, optimal nutrition before surgery, dementia, relationship to food as we age, pancreatitis, heart burn, gout, crohn’s, colitis, change in weight, irritable bowel syndrome, enteral nutrition (tube feeds)

• Let’s Taste Canada - Our Food Adventure blog, Instagram. (Podcasts in process)

  • A space for people to learn about food. I shipped my car across the country and drove back learning from people - food experts by profession and lived experience

A bit about me:
I grew up in Richmond, BC, studied at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia a small town of 5000 which doubles in size with the University. I’ve also lived a little bit in Whitehorse (Yukon), Kelowna (BC), and Halifax (NS). Currently, I live in Abbotsford and I acknowledge the land where I am most often is the unceded shared territory of the Semá:th First Nation and Mathxwí First Nation who are part of the Stó:lō Nation, the People of the River who are the traditional guardians of this land.

Since 2008, I’ve been a food advocate - I believe in food and people. I also often have to hold myself back from doing ‘a little bit more’ volunteer work because community is super important to me. Over the past few years I’ve volunteered significantly with Dietitians of Canada since 2013 and from spring 2020 - end of 2022 I was also co-chair as the Household Food Insecurity Network for Dietitians of Canada. Previously, I have also been chair and co-chair of the nutritional supplements working group and encouraging household food insecurity advocacy stays forefront in BC’s first poverty reduction strategy.

As a registered dietitian, I’m a part of a professional provincial regulatory body same as any other health professional such as a physician. We are the only nutrition professional approved to work in the hospital. I have a Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition and completed a dietetic internship prior to writing an regulatory exam and am required to keep up professional practice standards.

I love to travel (when allowed…), get involved in the community, find out about people, taste food and laugh along the way. I look for the beauty in life and the best in everyone. I think that having foibles is what makes us human and I love getting curious about people and situations. I don’t give up easily and think there is always another way. I am a super clumsy cook, but I love it anyways (most of the time). 

If I was a food, I would be a squash! I’m a little eccentric, but consistently compliment other parts of the dish. There is so much variation squash that it can change to be an appetizer, dinner or dessert!

Hope everyone has a beautiful day!

Irena

Still curious?

- Find out more about what it means to be a dietitian and regulation
- Learn a bit about my counselling philosophy and services
- Check out my life long dream & social media Let’s Taste Canada here. And the reason why it’s separate here.