Meet Rachel

Clinical Nutritionist and Founder of Busy Families Nutrition

I’m Rachel Surridge, a Clinical Nutritionist with a Bachelor of Health Science (Clinical Nutrition) and a registered member of the Australian Natural Therapists Association (ANTA).

I work with individuals and families who want to better understand their nutrition, address health concerns and make changes that are realistic enough to become part of everyday life.

My path to nutrition wasn’t a straight one. Before becoming a nutritionist, I spent more than 20 years working in IT – a career built around analysing complex problems, finding out what wasn’t working and developing practical solutions.

Eventually, my interest in food, health and the science of nutrition led me in a very different direction. I went back to university, completed my Bachelor of Health Science in Clinical Nutrition and founded Busy Families Nutrition.

That combination of analytical thinking and clinical nutrition still shapes the way I work today: looking at the bigger picture, making sense of the evidence and turning it into clear, achievable steps for the person in front of me.

Nutrition That Fits Real Life

There’s rarely one “perfect” way to eat – and nutrition advice isn’t very useful if it doesn’t fit the life you actually live.

Food doesn’t happen in isolation. There are work schedules, school lunches, budgets, food preferences, health concerns, tired evenings, social occasions and days when the fridge is looking decidedly uninspiring. Sometimes there are several people at the table who all want something different.

That’s why I look beyond what’s on your plate. I want to understand your health, lifestyle, routines and circumstances, as well as what you eat and why.

My approach is evidence-based, but it’s also practical. I’ll help you make sense of nutrition information, understand what matters for your health and separate useful advice from the noise. Then we can focus on changes that are realistic for you rather than chasing an idea of a “perfect” diet.

Sometimes that means improving what you’re already doing rather than starting again. Sometimes it means finding a simpler way. And sometimes the most useful change is not the one you expected.

The goal is to give you the knowledge, confidence and practical strategies to make choices that support your health – not just while we’re working together, but long after your consultation ends.

Why Busy Families Nutrition?

Busy Families Nutrition began with a simple idea: healthy eating needs to be achievable in the middle of real life.

Families were where the idea started. Feeding children, managing different preferences, packing lunches, juggling schedules and trying to look after your own health at the same time can make nutrition feel far more complicated than it needs to be.

But the same principle applies well beyond family meals.

Whether you’re managing digestive symptoms, navigating changing nutritional needs, supporting a child, dealing with a health condition or simply trying to eat in a way that helps you feel better, nutrition still has to fit around the rest of your life.

Today, Busy Families Nutrition supports both individuals and families. The focus remains the same: evidence-based nutrition made practical, understandable and achievable.

A Little About Me

Outside of nutrition, I’m a mum, so I know firsthand that what sounds simple in theory doesn’t always look quite so simple at 6pm on a busy weeknight.

I love good food, but I’m also a big believer that eating well doesn’t have to mean making everything from scratch, following complicated rules or trying to live up to the picture-perfect version of healthy eating we often see on social media. Some days are beautifully balanced; other days are about making something work with what’s left in the fridge.

I’m naturally curious and love understanding the why behind things – which probably explains both my first career in IT and my eventual move into nutrition. I enjoy digging into the evidence, solving problems and then finding a way to make that information genuinely useful in everyday life.

Busy Families Nutrition brings those parts of me together: my love of nutrition and science, my practical problem-solving side, and my understanding that real life rarely goes exactly to plan.

Ready to Work Together?

Whether you have a specific nutrition concern, want support with your health, or need help making food work better for your family, you can explore my consultation options and choose the support that feels right for you.