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  • eNews - The PEN Team will see you at ICND 2024 next month!
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The PEN Team will see you at ICND 2024 next month!

PEN® eNews is a monthly e-newsletter shared with the global PEN Community and created to help dietitians position themselves as leaders in evidence-based nutrition practice. In addition, users of the PEN System will find articles on the new evidence, resources and features available and how to maximize one's use of PEN.


The PEN Team will see you at ICND 2024 next month!


Are you planning on joining the International Congress of Nutrition and Dietetics (ICND) June 12-14 in Toronto, Canada?

This year’s theme is Rise to the Challenge, and the PEN Team will showcase how we help dietitians use nutrition research to meet the complex demands of their daily practice.

Come find us at one or more of the following locations:

  • Visit the PEN Booth (Booth 27) where you can meet one of the PEN team members and Global partners to talk about what our dynamic system offers.
  • Unstick your mind and help us envision the future of dietetics globally at the interactive session
    • 100 Ways Dietetics Could Be Different in the Future (Wednesday June 12, 2024) – Teaser: Let’s explore the reality: What if dietitians didn’t talk about food?
  • Attend one of our evidence-based knowledge-sharing sessions
    • Podium: Applying Best Practices to Develop Food and Nutrition Consumer Resources (Wednesday June 12, 2024)
    • Podium: What Nutrition Strategies Are Effective for Symptoms of Long COVID? (Wednesday June 12, 2024)
    • Workshop: Designing Effective and User-Centered Client and Patient Education Resources (Thursday June 13, 2024)
  • Stop by one of our interactive ePoster sessions to learn more about PEN’s global partnership and how we incorporate the latest evidence into the PEN System Content
    • Not Getting Lost at Sea: Navigating Evidence-based-nutrition Through Global Partnership (Friday June 14, 2024)
    • Rapid Mobilization of Systematic Reviews to Enhance Evidence-based Dietetic Practice (Friday June 14, 2024)

Whether you’ve been using the PEN System for years or are just starting, we can’t wait to meet you!

Learn more about ICND and Congress registration here!

  • PEN Applied, 
  • Conference 

Knowledge Pathway Alert: Sports Nutrition


The Sports Nutrition KP is updated! The update includes these practice questions, including a new practice question on relative energy deficiency on sport (RED-S):

Are electrolyte beverages (e.g. sports drinks with or without caffeine, coconut water) safe and effective for improving athletic performance in athletes?
Are creatine, caffeine or protein supplements safe and effective for improving exercise performance, decreasing fat mass or improving recovery after exercise?
Are higher carbohydrate diets more effective than lower carbohydrate diets at improving exercise performance?
What is the optimal timing and composition of a pre-exercise meal to support athletic performance?
What is the optimal timing and amount of carbohydrate during exercise to support athletic performance?
What is the optimal timing and composition of a meal to support recovery after exercise?
Does alcohol consumption interfere with post-exercise (recovery)?
What dietary strategies can be used to treat relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S) in athletes?
Do vegetarian diets support optimum athletic performance as well as omnivorous diets?
Can high protein plant-based diets support athletes to increase muscle mass as well as omnivorous diets do when resistance training?
Are vegetarian athletes at greater risk of iron deficiency than non-vegetarian athletes?

For an overview of this content, see the: Sports Nutrition Summary of Recommendations and Evidence.

Want to find out what else is new on the PEN website? You can check out the New and Upcoming Content page. 


  • Sports Nutrition 

Probiotics - Looking to Learn More?


The latest background to be updated on the PEN website is the Probiotics Background. 

This background is one of 90 PEN backgrounds available, including the most recently published or updated:

Probiotics Background
Food Safety - Pesticides/Herbicides Background
Counselling Models Background
Nutritional Genomics Background
Nervous System – Pediatric/Paediatric Epilepsy: Ketogenic Diet Background
Food, Nutrition and Eating Issues of Transgender and Gender-diverse Individuals Background
Diet Composition - Paleolithic Diet Background
COVID-19: Food, Nutrition and Health Background
Cannabis and Health Background
Diabetes - Glycemic Index Background


To see a full list of backgrounds, use the PEN search function on the home page.

  • Probiotics 

Are you looking for a new way to apply your nutrition practice knowledge?


We need your help! Get involved with the PEN® System as a Contributor in the following ways:

Topic Advisor - Current Opportunities

  • Mental Health
  • Diet Composition - Low Carbohydrate; Ketogenic Diet
  • Gastrointestinal System - Inflammatory Bowel Disease


Content Reviewer

  • Mental Health: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Cardiovascular Disease


Handout Reviewer (Canada only)

  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Gastrointestinal disease
  • Gerontology
  • Endocrinology/medicine
  • Pediatrics - infant and child nutrition
  • Pregnancy and women's health
  • Oncology
  • Sport nutrition

As a reviewer, you will become aware of the most up-to-date research and evidence-informed recommendations before the content is published on the PEN System. Reviewing for PEN also supports your professional portfolio. Reviewers are acknowledged on published content and can download a Letter of Contribution summarizing their contributions.

Want to learn more? Visit our FAQ page or reach out with additional questions to coordinator@dietitians.ca

  • PEN Uses, 
  • PEN Applied 

a hearty send-off for our PEN Editor Heather Alaverdy!


Please join the PEN Team in offering a hearty send-off to our PEN Editor Heather Alaverdy. After 18 years, Heather has retired from her Dietitians of Canada position. She has been working as the PEN Editor since 2006 when she started as a part-time editor. Within three years, the position expanded to full time.

Heather has been part of every major evolution of PEN since the very beginning, leading thoughtful conversations, cheering on her colleagues and inspiring quality and consistency. It's truly hard to imagine the PEN System without her. That said, Heather is ready to step down and is excited for new adventures.

Heather noted: “I have been a dietitian and DC member for 36 years. I feel blessed to have been part of DC's journey, to have supported my profession and its members, and to have had the privilege of working with so many exceptional people. I am so proud of what has been accomplished to date and excited for the future. Being involved in the PEN initiative was amazing in so many ways. But throughout it all, it has been the culture of the PEN Team and the relationships that have mattered the most to me. As a DC member and PEN Team member alumni, I look forward to hearing about future accomplishments and celebrating future successes. And…spending more time on trails, a yoga mat and in my garden!”

Heather, we wish you all the best! You will be thoroughly missed by the PEN and DC Staff. In memory of our Beth, the PEN Team offers you this: “ Here’s to it and from it and if you get to it to do it, do it as you may never get to it to do it again.”


  • PEN Partners 
PEN eNews
PEN: The Global Resource for Nutrition Practice  
May 2024  Volume 14 (5)


A Publication of the PEN® System Global Partners,
a collaborative partnership between International Dietetic Associations.
Learn more about PEN.
Copyright Dietitians of Canada . All Rights Reserved.
Articles in this issue
  • The PEN Team will see you at ICND 2024 next month!
  • Knowledge Pathway Alert: Sports Nutrition
  • Probiotics - Looking to Learn More?
  • Are you looking for a new way to apply your nutrition practice knowledge?
  • A Hearty Send-Off For Our PEN Editor Heather Alaverdy!
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    Copyright © Dietitians of Canada 2005 - 2025. All rights reserved. While individual copies of documents may be reproduced for the convenience of the licensed subscriber according to the end user license, distribution to non subscribers or reproduction of multiple copies of PEN content is strictly prohibited without prior written permission. Licensed subscribers may download, duplicate and distribute copies of the PEN-branded client handouts for educational use with their own clients. Institutions must have sufficient numbers of site licenses in order to make multiple copies to meet client needs. The PEN website may also contain information which is copyrighted by others; multiple copies of these documents may not be reproduced without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

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