Dieticians Association Celebrates 10 Years, Calls for Recognition

Healthier Living & Disease Management

The Dieticians Association of Mauritius (DAM) is celebrating a decade of advocacy, public education, and professional development, while renewing its call for stronger recognition of dieticians within the healthcare system of Mauritius.

Founded in 2015, the association has played a pivotal role in shaping the regulatory and public health landscape surrounding nutrition and clinical dietetics in the country. Over the past ten years, it has worked to elevate professional standards, promote evidence-based nutrition, and raise awareness of the role of dieticians in disease prevention and treatment.

Since its inception, it has collaborated closely with the Allied Health Professionals Council to strengthen the profession’s institutional framework. The association contributed significantly to the drafting of the Allied Health Professionals Act of 2017 and helped define registration criteria for practising dieticians in Mauritius.

These efforts have helped establish a clearer professional structure, ensuring that dieticians operate within recognized standards of practice. Yet, despite these regulatory advances, the profession continues to face challenges in public understanding and recognition.

Beyond weight loss: A clinical profession

According to DAM President Yakshi Nagawa, dietetics remains widely misunderstood.

“Dietetics is a growing field in Mauritius, but many associate it solely with weight loss, whereas it plays a vital role in disease prevention and management,” she explains.

Yakshi Nagawa stresses that dieticians are healthcare professionals specialized in clinical nutrition, working closely with medical teams to manage complex health conditions. Their work includes assessing patients’ nutritional status and designing tailored dietary interventions for conditions such as: diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases and digestive disorders, and obesity and cancer.

Rather than focusing solely on lifestyle advice, dieticians provide therapeutic nutrition support that directly influences medical outcomes.

Addressing the burden of Non-Communicable Diseases

The association’s renewed advocacy comes at a critical time. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) remain a major public health challenge in Mauritius, with high prevalence rates of conditions such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Recognizing this, DAM plans to intensify public education initiatives focused on nutrition for disease prevention and management. It also aims to launch targeted campaigns addressing modern lifestyle trends, including increased consumption of processed foods and sedentary work patterns. Another priority is combating the growing spread of online nutrition misinformation. According to the association, unverified dietary advice circulating on social media can pose serious health risks, particularly for individuals managing chronic conditions.

Dietician vs. nutritionist: Clarifying the difference

A central aspect of DAM’s awareness efforts is explaining the distinction between dieticians and nutritionists — a difference often overlooked by the public.

Yakshi Nagawa highlights that dieticians are healthcare professionals trained in therapeutic dietetics who are qualified to manage patients with medical conditions requiring specialized nutritional care, while also providing general wellness advice
Nutritionists, by contrast, primarily focus on prevention and healthy lifestyle promotion among generally healthy individuals and are not authorized to manage clinical conditions requiring medical supervision.

For patients seeking medical nutritional therapy, this distinction is crucial.

As the DAM marks its ten-year milestone, its mission reflects a broader transformation in public health priorities. The shift from viewing nutrition as an aesthetic concern to recognizing it as a clinical necessity represents a critical step toward improving health outcomes nationwide.

For the public, the message is clear: understanding the difference between general wellness advice and medically supervised nutritional care may be essential not only for healthier living, but for effective disease management in an era of growing health challenges.

The current Executive Committee of DAM comprises: Yakshi Nagawa (President), Reena Soniassy (Vice-President), Shivani Poinoosawmy-Pawaray (Secretary), Aroushinee Goorapah Parmessur (Assistant Secretary), Lovishka Babajee Jankee (Treasurer), and Mélissa Ng Yow Thow (Assistant Treasurer).

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 27 February 2026