Fertility Friendly Food | Episode 1

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Fertility Friendly Food. My name is Stefanie Valakas and I am an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Nutritionist based in Sydney. And I help women and couples who are trying to conceive, improve their diet and lifestyle. To optimize their fertility. So this episode of Fertility Friendly Food is brought to you by my free preconception lifestyle checklist for him.

And for her available on my website, the dietologist. com. au forward slash freebies, or simply click the link in the show notes to get your copy. So today in our very first episode, we will be talking a little bit about what inspired me to start this podcast, what to expect from this podcast, and a little bit about my passion for preconception and fertility nutrition.

So, like I said, I run a private practice nutrition clinic here in Sydney called The Dietologist, and I have a few different practice locations, Newtown, Bondi Junction, and the Hills District, as well as online consultations for clients across Australia and the state, as well as globally as well. So, uh, What inspired me to start this podcast?

Well, obviously podcasts are pretty trending right now, and I have definitely fallen victim to binging quite a few podcasts, um, whilst cleaning the house or at the gym, I just feel like it’s such a great way to multitask. And I also realized that The, my blogs were getting lots of, um, reads, um, but people just simply didn’t have the, I guess, the attention span to read all the information.

Knowing that it was high quality information that could help people, I just really wanted to deliver that information in a different format that was easy to access, easy to listen to, whilst you’re driving in the car, whilst you’re doing Um, exercise or on a walk, um, or cleaning the house or cooking, you can be absorbing this knowledge and information without having to sit down and have a read.

And also one of my clients actually really inspired me to start a podcast because it She said that she reads every single one of my blog posts, bless her. And, um, she reads them in my voice in her head. And she just said, I just think it would be so weird if people just were reading your blog and had no idea who you were or what you sounded like, um, to read your blogs, you know, what would that sound like in their head?

And I just thought, well, that’s exactly what a podcast is. So yeah, that’s what really pushed me over the edge to start the podcast. So I guess what to expect from this podcast. So my episodes, I’m aiming to be around the 20 minute, 15 to 20 minute mark. So you can listen, absorb a bit of information, a small amount of information, um, and something really practical that you can apply to your life without it taking up, you know, an hour and an hour and a half of your day.

So in these podcasts, I’ll be sharing practical tips, research, and really the tools that work well for my clients in clinic with all of you. So that you can nourish your growing family from the very beginning, from conception, and improve your chances of fertility success if you’re undergoing things like IVF, for example.

So, I guess I should share a little bit about why I got into, um, this space of fertility and preconception nutrition. So not too sure if my face or name gives it away, but I am a second generation Greek Australian and I am a vegan. Proud. And I fell in love with food and nutrition growing up in a family where food was the very center of family, culture, tradition, love, and memories, not calories and numbers.

And I was fascinated about how people could get so off track with food and nutrition, um, and losing all of its joy and pleasure. I remember gathering at my grandmother’s house, actually, with my family around numerous platters of delicious Mediterranean food, bowls of veggies, salads, and my favorite dish, my grandmother’s festive rice filled with pine nuts and currants, and that was a saved for special celebrations.

Funnily enough, throughout my studies, I learned all about the benefits of a traditional Mediterranean diet for a wide range of health conditions. But one thing stood out to me in particular was that very few people in my big Greek family had troubles conceiving children. I wondered what the relationship was between the Mediterranean diet and fertility, if at all.

So I looked into some of the research and found that the Mediterranean dietary pattern was beneficial for both men and women trying to conceive. And so I thought I would put it into practice as a dietitian of Mediterranean background. It really did fuse my two passions together. But I guess, where did the inspiration come from to get into this space of fertility and preconception nutrition?

So when I first started out studying a Bachelor of Science at the University of Sydney, I was really fascinated by the gut microbiome, which back then wasn’t as popular as it is right now, and also a theory called Barker’s Hypothesis or the first 1000 days of life, which looked at how our genes are programmed from three to six months before conception to your child’s life.

second to third birthday and what I was beginning to understand because I had a really big passion for children’s nutrition and I thought, you know, if we get in really early and implement some positive diet and lifestyle changes, we could potentially change the future of all children and therefore as adults as well.

But what I realized through my studies was that in fact, we could get in even earlier if we could. Make healthier parents, healthier women and healthier men before they conceive. This could set up a child’s chances of a healthy life so much more effectively than almost treating the problem later on. And the other part that really fascinated me of this first 1000 days of life theory was understanding that, say in pregnancy, for example, that, you know, if you were to conceive a girl, that all her eggs are made in your womb.

So technically, whatever you expose yourself to through nutrition and your environment is actually affecting not just one generation, but two generations of of women. And I just thought, wow, how impactful that I could potentially affect not just one woman, not just two, but potentially three generations of women.

And yeah, completely mind-blowing, I know, and hashtag no pressure. Um, but yeah, I just became really passionate about this area and started exploring more about it. Uh, after I graduated. And I think this was probably compounded by so many of my friends being diagnosed with women’s health concerns, like polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, and endometriosis.

And whilst they weren’t really pursuing having children right this moment, it was definitely something that I could see was on their mind, that they were worried that it could affect their chances going forward. And so a combination of all these different factors really led me down, um, this path of, of being really passionate and practicing in fertility and preconception nutrition, which I absolutely love.

And. I just wanted to, yeah, introduce myself today and introduce you to the podcast and what you can expect. Um, so the first season I anticipate to go for about 10 to 12 episodes and in this season I want to be talking, I want to talk to you all about why does preconception nutrition, nutrition matter and why it should be on everybody’s agenda.

What nutrients to consider when you’re trying to conceive. Some key problems that I see come up in clinic time and time again. So key clinical conditions, polycystic ovary syndrome, and what to do about diet, endometriosis, and whether diet has a role. egg quality, sperm quality, miscarriage and early pregnancy loss, the pill and how that affects your nutrition, um, the gut and hormones and how they’re related, and of course IBS, irritable bowel syndrome, and its relationship with female hormone issues like PCOS and endometriosis.

So, Most of these episodes will just be me chatting to you all, but I am looking at getting some amazing guests on to chat to you as well. So, keep an eye on that. But in the meantime, if you are as excited as I am about this video, podcast getting started, then please hit subscribe. So you’re the first ones to know about when the next episode is dropped, which will be every week.

And I look forward to hearing from you all very soon. And in the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about me and what I do, you can visit my website, thedietologist.com.au and until next time, everyone. See ya.