Rate My Professor Kirsten Webster

Kirsten Webster is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Human Nutrition at the University of Otago, situated within the Division of Health Sciences. She holds the qualifications BSc, BGDipDiet, and MSc. In her teaching role, Webster delivers a broad spectrum of content across 100- and 300-level papers, including HUNT141, which explores healthy diets and the role of macronutrients and micronutrients, and HUNT242 Nutritional Assessment, where lectures address principles and methods used in nutritional assessment for research, public health, and clinical practice. Her dedication to student learning earned her the 2021 OUSA Summer School Teacher Award, presented by the Otago University Students' Association.

Webster actively participates in research on dietary intakes, food processing techniques, and their nutritional implications. She has co-authored several peer-reviewed articles. Key publications include 'A Sample of Female Adolescent Self-Identified Vegetarians in New Zealand: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Dietary Micronutrient Intakes' (Nutrients, 2022, with Peddie, Brown, Haszard, and Houghton), which assessed micronutrient adequacy among vegetarian and non-vegetarian adolescent females. In 'Does "activating" nuts affect nutrient bioavailability?' (Nutrients, 2020, with Kumari, Gray, Bailey, Reid, Chisholm, Tey, and Brown), the study evaluated the effects of soaking nuts on mineral absorption and fat content. Another contribution is 'The effects of "activating" almonds on consumer acceptance and gastrointestinal tolerance' (European Journal of Nutrition, 2018, with Taylor, Gray, Tey, Chisholm, Bailey, Kumari, and Brown), examining consumer responses to processed almonds. She also co-authored 'How Does Being Overweight Moderate Associations Between Ultra-Processed Food Intake and Adiposity Indicators Among New Zealand Adults?' (Nutrients, 2021, with Yap, Fleming, Scott, and Haszard) and contributed to conceptual work on nuts mitigating malnutrition in older adults. Webster supervises Master of Dietetics theses, such as those investigating patient foodservice experiences, the impact of nut activation on nutrient content, and dietary patterns in specific populations. Additionally, she serves as Secretary of the Nutrition Society of New Zealand.