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Welcome to Issue 18 of My Newsletter.

Hi,

Over the past 17 issues of this newsletter, we have covered a lot of ground.

Evidence-based practice.
Contextual decision-making.
Behaviour change.
Nutrition plans.
Client adherence.
Practitioner judgement.
The limits of protocols.
The importance of asking better questions before choosing interventions.

If there has been a common thread running through all of it, it is this:

Good nutrition practice is not simply about knowing more science.

It is about knowing how to use that science well.

That means interpreting evidence carefully.
Understanding the person in front of you.
Recognising constraints.
Making better decisions.
Reviewing outcomes honestly.
And adapting practice when the context changes.

That theme is not going away.

But this newsletter is now reaching a natural point of evolution.

The next chapter

When I started this recent run of weekly newsletters, I wanted to create something useful for nutrition professionals, coaches, practitioners, and others working at the interface between science and practice.

The original Nutrition Authority direction gave me a useful structure for that.

It helped me explore some of the ideas that have shaped my own work for many years: evidence-informed practice, applied decision-making, practitioner development, authority, credibility, and the need to move beyond protocol-first thinking.

But as the newsletter has developed, it has become increasingly clear that the bigger opportunity is not simply to build another branded newsletter.

It is to create a more coherent ecosystem around the work I care most about.

That work sits at the intersection of:

science, practice, education, performance, communication, and professional development.

It includes my work with the IOPN.
It includes my writing and academic publications.
It includes my speaking and consulting.
It includes the frameworks I am developing around context and evidence-informed practice.
And, importantly, it includes the imminent relaunch of the We Do Science Podcast.

So this newsletter will begin to evolve.

Not abruptly.

Not into something unrecognisable.

But into something more aligned with where this work is going.

What is changing?

The main change is focus.

Rather than sitting purely under the Nutrition Authority banner, the newsletter will increasingly become a weekly publication from me:

Dr Laurent Bannock

focused on helping practitioners, coaches, educators, and performance professionals think more clearly about the translation of science into practice.

That does not mean the themes of the past 17 issues are being discarded.

Quite the opposite.

They are becoming the foundation.

The early issues have helped establish the territory:

Why context matters.​
​Why evidence does not apply itself.​
​Why protocols are only useful when they fit the problem.​
​Why better questions lead to better decisions.​
​Why practitioner judgement is central to applied nutrition.

The next phase will build on those ideas, but with a broader and more connected purpose.

The return of We Do Science

Over the coming weeks, I am very excited to let you know that I will also be relaunching We Do Science.

For those who followed the original podcast, We Do Science was built around long-form conversations with researchers, practitioners, and experts in sport, exercise, nutrition, health, and performance.

The new version will carry that same spirit forward, but with a sharper focus.

It will not just be about discussing science for the sake of it.

It will be about asking:

What does this mean?​
​How should we interpret it?​
​Where does it apply?​
​Where does it not apply?​
​How does it inform better decisions in the real world?

That is the space I want to explore more deliberately now.

Not just “what does the research say?”

But:

How do we move from paper to practice?

That question has shaped much of my own career.

It shaped my doctoral work.
It shaped the development of the IOPN.
It shaped my work in elite sport.
It shapes how I think about education, mentoring, publishing, and professional practice.

And it will shape the next chapter of this newsletter too.

Figure 18. The Next Chapter. The newsletter is evolving from a standalone Nutrition Authority publication into a broader science-to-practice platform connected to Dr Laurent Bannock, We Do Science, IOPN, and the wider mission of improving applied decision-making.

Why this matters

There has never been more nutrition information available.

There are more papers.
More podcasts.
More courses.
More social media content.
More protocols.
More opinions.
More “evidence-based” claims.

But more information does not automatically create better practice.

In some ways, it can make practice harder.

Because the challenge is no longer simply access to information.

The challenge is interpretation.

What matters?
What is relevant?
What is strong enough to act on?
What is being overstated?
What is missing?
What does this mean for this person, in this setting, with these constraints, and this outcome in mind?

That is where the real work begins.

And that is where I want this newsletter, We Do Science, and the wider ecosystem around my work to sit.

From Nutrition Authority to a broader platform

Nutrition Authority has been a useful concept.

The idea of developing authority still matters.

Practitioners need credibility.
They need confidence.
They need clarity.
They need the ability to communicate and apply their expertise in ways that matter.

But “authority” is not the whole story.

The bigger story is the ability to bridge the gap between science and practice.

That is what I keep coming back to.

It is the thread connecting my work as a practitioner, educator, researcher, speaker, and founder of the IOPN.

So, over time, you will start to see this newsletter become less about Nutrition Authority as a standalone brand, and more about the broader body of work behind it.

That means more focus on:

Science to practice​
​Evidence-informed decision-making​
​Contextual application​
​Practitioner development​
​Performance nutrition​
​Applied frameworks​
​Research interpretation​
​The realities of practice

The format will still be practical.

The aim will still be to provide useful, thoughtful, applicable ideas.

But the identity will become more clearly connected to my own work and the wider ecosystem I am building.

What to expect next

In future issues, I will be sharing more on:

How to interpret research through a practical lens​
​How to decide whether a paper is relevant to your work​
​How to move from mechanism to application​
​How to think beyond protocols​
​How to develop better practitioner judgement​
​How elite and everyday practice differ — and where they overlap​
​How to communicate nutrition science more effectively​
​How evidence-informed practice actually works in the real world

I will also use the newsletter to connect some of the dots between my writing, academic work, podcast conversations, IOPN activity, and practical frameworks.

Not in a scattered way.

But in a more coherent way.

Because that is the direction this work now needs to go.

The core mission remains the same

So, yes, things are changing.

But the central mission is not.

This newsletter will still be for people who care about doing better work.

People who do not want to reduce nutrition practice to simplistic rules, isolated mechanisms, or recycled protocols.

People who understand that evidence matters, but that context determines how evidence is used.

People who want to think more clearly, practise more effectively, and communicate more responsibly.

That is the audience I want to serve.

And that is the work I want to keep building.

Applied Practice Takeaways

As this newsletter evolves, these are the principles that will continue to guide it:

1. Evidence matters, but it does not apply itself.​
Research needs interpretation before it becomes useful in practice.

2. Context is not an optional extra.​
It determines whether an intervention is relevant, realistic, and worth applying.

3. Better practice starts with better decisions.​
The goal is not simply to know more, but to decide better.

4. Practitioner judgement is a skill.​
It develops through reflection, experience, feedback, and honest review of outcomes.

5. Science-to-practice is the real work.​
The gap between knowing and doing is where applied expertise lives.

The practical point

The first 17 issues helped establish the foundation.

Now the newsletter begins its next chapter.

Still grounded in evidence.
Still focused on context.
Still written for practitioners.
Still concerned with better decisions.

But increasingly connected to the broader work I am building around science, practice, education, and performance.

More on that soon.

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To better practice,
​Dr Laurent Bannock