Dr. Alie de Boer

“There is so much unreliable information about food. I am on a mission to find well-founded information to help people make better decisions about what they choose to eat.”

What is your personal story?

I became interested in the field of health and nutrition when a student from Wageningen University told me about it during a guest lecture at my high school when I was 16. I have always been very curious, and these subjects appealed to me greatly. After obtaining my bachelor’s degree in Nutrition & Health at Wageningen University, I was looking for a multidisciplinary education and enrolled in the master’s program in Health Food Innovation Management at Maastricht University. I liked that study because it taught me to look at nutrition from different perspectives. For example, I could work at the intersection of nutrition and food law by looking at health claims.

In 2015, I earned my Ph.D. on ‘Interaction of food and medicine in effect and law’ at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Maastricht University. Since 2015, I have been active at the Maastricht University Campus Venlo, where I am currently an Assistant Professor and founder of the Food Claims Centre Venlo. I study how we can best collect and effectively use information about the safety, health, and sustainability of food within the legal environment. For example, how can we assess the safety of new foods based on this regulation? I teach and give guest lectures on a variety of topics in the field of nutrition, health, and food information.

My mission

My mission is to find the truth. There is so much fake information about food on social media, in magazines, and sometimes even in advertisements. I hope the work we do will give people accurate information, so they can make better decisions about the food they choose to eat, whatever their health goals may be.

What are the three main questions you get?

• Which supplements should I use?
• Do you think my diet is healthy?
• What is the best diet to follow?

My answer to this is rather boring. If you eat healthily and make sure you don’t eat too much or too little of anything, then you don’t need supplements or special diets. I am not a dietitian, so I don’t advise anyone on their dietary intake. I only advise you to be aware of what you eat.

Share the important challenges or breakthroughs in your career that have led to where you are now

Most conflicts I have had were with myself. I never saw myself as a researcher, but when I was writing my master’s thesis, I discovered that I was curious about more. My professors gave me the chance to do research, and I learned from that. When I finished my Ph.D., I was ready to work in the industry, and then the opportunity came to set up my own research line. I thought it would be lonely, but I got a blank slate to create something from the ground up. I knew I might fail. Instead, it pushed me out of my comfort zone to do something I might not have done otherwise. And I had a great supportive network of friends and family.

Following my dream
I am fortunate to have very good mentors, both men and women, and they ask very tough questions like ‘what is your ultimate dream’. Five years ago, I would have said that becoming a professor in my research domain was my end goal. But now, I really hope that through the work we do, my team and my students will grow personally. And I hope we can improve the world with more accurate information and better ways to counteract fake information on, for example, social media. Of course, I would still like to become a professor, but it would be a shame if I didn’t enjoy the ride. Now I understand that the ride itself is really great.

Learning from behavior that holds you back
In our interviews, we like to talk about ’12 behaviors that hold you back’
– which have been researched and published in the book ‘How Women Rise’ by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith. We asked Alie if she could identify with any of these 12 behaviors that prevent women from advancing in their careers.

Reluctance to Claim Achievements
As women, we are very good at downplaying our achievements. At research meetings, I am often the only young woman at the table. People look at me, and I can see them thinking, ‘How long have you been doing research? Are you a student?’ They might be surprised when I say that I earned my Ph.D. seven years ago. In my work, I just want to be respected for what I do and what I achieve.

I have had a few experiences with claiming achievements. Once, I had a meeting with some external colleagues, where one of them tried to explain my subject to me. I felt uncomfortable at that moment but did not act on it. Later, I told a male colleague who was there how I felt, and he said, ‘I didn’t realize, but you’re right.’ He said he would support me in addressing it if it happened again.

I’ve noticed that many of my female students feel uncomfortable being called an ‘expert.’ I think it’s partly being a woman and partly being in academia and research, where we are constantly confronted with things we don’t know. That can make you insecure. When my female students receive an email saying, ‘I’m contacting you because you’re an expert in this field,’ they sometimes feel uncomfortable. I try to discuss with them that you are an expert in this field. You’ve done a lot of research on it, so you can be confident that you are an expert.

The Disease to Please
I like to be liked by other people, but I learned something very valuable from a media training. We were discussing the fact that you are always judged in a new program or on social media. And the trainer said, ‘If you want to tell your story, you will get some backlash. But for every person who didn’t like your story, there are probably 99 others who did. Try to let go of the negativity. Ask yourself if you can learn anything from the comment. If not, then let it go.’ That was great advice for me that helped me put things into perspective.

Overvaluing Expertise
I am sometimes a bit reluctant to do things that I fear might bring up topics that are outside my expertise. But I try to feel more comfortable with that. During a training, I was told, ‘If you are interviewed about topic A and they start asking you questions about A, B, C, and D, then you can always steer the discussion. Say that C & D are not my expertise, but I can talk about A & B.’

Letting Your Radar Distract You
If I am in a good place, feeling good, and in a good flow, my ‘radar’ is usually not a problem. But when I’m not, I have an inner critic that comes up. Then I really have to tell myself, ‘Wait, stop blackmailing yourself with your own thoughts.’

If you find yourself in a difficult situation, what is your go-to skill?

I ask questions to try to understand what we’re actually talking about. I look at things from different perspectives to see if I can influence the situation. Otherwise, I just try to do something. Or decide to do nothing at all. One of my professors said, ‘There are situations where you just have to do nothing, but doing nothing is the hardest thing to do.’

What advice would you give other professional women who want to shine in their careers?

Look at what really makes you happy. You have so much potential, but in some cases, you also have so many expectations of yourself. You need to map out where you get energy from and what you’re good at. And acknowledge where you’re not good, because you can build a good team and find others to help you with that. You don’t have to be able to do everything yourself.