Julia graduated in 2003 with a Diplom (equivalent to MSc degree) in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Giessen in Germany and certified as Ernährungsberaterin DGE, which enables the reimbursement of the costs of dietary counselling by health insurance in Germany. Since her graduation she worked in the field of food allergy. First she counselled parents of children with a food allergy and then started as a lecturer in nutrition and dietetics at Berne University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. She continues counselling patients with food allergies and also supervises Bachelor theses around the topic. Furthermore, she is author of several publications on food allergy.
Over the many years working in the field she has often been asked whether dietary counselling for patients with food allergy is effective. Because there is little research investigating this question, she decided to answer the question herself as a PhD project. Therefore, she plans to conduct a clinical trial investigating the effect of dietary counselling on allergic reactions, nutritional status and quality of life of newly diagnosed children with food allergy and their families.