Blog
April 2019
Egg quality and trying to conceive. Important foods to consume.
Trying to conceive and wondering how to improve your egg quality?! Here are some basic tips on improving your chances of falling pregnant.
One of the most important areas to focus on is mitochondrial health ~ this is super important in the production of ATP which is energy for all our cells and most specifically for your egg health.
~ Mitochondrial health regulates the intracellular pH by improving fertilisation of the egg and by equally dividing chromosomes leading to better pregnancy outcomes.
Ways to best support mitochondrial health include avoiding toxin exposure; Tobacco, alcohol, recreational drugs, antibiotics, stress hormones such as cortisol, pain relief drugs such as NSAID’s.
Diet and Lifestyle advice to best support your chances;
~ Eating a well balanced diet with fibre, protein, iron and an array of coloured fruits and vegetables for their ever important dose of antioxidants for cell protection .
~ Including healthy fats; avocado, ghee, grass fed butter , fish oil, nuts, seeds, fatty cold water fish, eggs and olive oil.
~ Low to moderate intensity exercise such as walking, swimming and yoga.
With the egg cycle taking 90 days to mature changes like these are goals for you and your partner to share, with each of you donating one cell of DNA you both of have an important contribution to make.
August 2019
The Oestrogen and Xenoestrogens connection:
Xenoestrogens are a category of chemicals that are known for being endocrine disrupters. They mimick the bodies natural oestrogen receptors which can increase our levels of oestrogen to unhealthy levels. When high levels of oestrogen are found this can lead to the condition ‘ oestrogen dominance ‘ which is becoming a widely seen condition these days and it has some significant side effects including the ones listed above and more significant ones such as some cancers.
Xenoestrogens are found in plastics, non organic food/skincare/laundry, pesticides and the pill just to name a few!
Food tips:Avoid all pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
Choose organic, locally-grown and in-season foods.
Peel non-organic fruits and vegetables.
Buy hormone-free meats and dairy products to avoid hormones and pesticides.
The use of plastics:Reduce the use of plastics whenever possible.
Do not microwave food in plastic containers.
Avoid the use of plastic wrap to cover food for storing or microwaving.
Use glass or ceramics whenever possible to store food.
Do not leave plastic containers, especially your drinking water, in the sun.
If a plastic water container has heated up significantly, throw it away.
Don’t refill plastic water bottles.
Avoid freezing water in plastic bottles to drink later.
Household Products:Use chemical free, biodegradable laundry and household cleaning products.
Choose chlorine-free products and unbleached paper products (i.e. tampons, menstrual pads, toilet paper, paper towel, coffee filters).
Use a filter on shower heads and filter drinking water
Health and Beauty Products:Avoid creams and cosmetics that have toxic chemicals and estrogenic ingredients such as parabens and stearalkonium chloride.
Minimize your exposure to nail polish and nail polish removers.
Use naturally based fragrances, such as essential oils.
Use chemical free soaps and toothpastes.
September 2019
I was so grateful to be featured a new series by the beautiful women at Halcyon Daze, they run a eco friendly swimwear brand and are doing amazing work to keep waste to a minimum and make a difference for our environment. Not to mention being the most amazing swimwear I have ever worn! This new series talks to women who are passionate about teaching women’s health and well-being.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT YOU DO?
I’m a Clinical Nutritionist with an enormous passion for women and children’s health. I specialise in fertility, pregnancy and postnatal support but also love working with women to optimise and maintain the balance of their body and hormones. My practice focuses on and centres around healthy food relationships and making the right balanced nutritional choices for your body and lifestyle. I try to inspire a passion for eating delicious highly nutritional food for overall health in a simple way!
WHAT ARE SOME QUICK AND EASY WAYS TO INCORPORATE MORENOURISHMENT INTO OUR DIET/ LIFESTYLES ON A DAILY BASIS?
Nourishment doesn’t have to be complicated, it can be as simple as adding some flaxseeds into your daily summer smoothie or on top of your porridge in winter. Flaxseeds are fantastic for women as they contain lignans which help to regulate women's hormonal systems. Flaxseeds provide both soluble and insoluble fibre which helps give regularity to the bowel, flushing out toxins and stopping the reuptake of the hormones. They are also a great source of fibre, protein and good fat. Another quick way and easy way is to incorporate nourishment is by adopting a little food prep into your life. Something so simple that offers huge rewards, and it can be as easy as taking a small container of fruit or vegetables with you each day to snack on!
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP TIPS FOR A HAPPY AND HEALTHY BODY?
Food - Eat intuitively, listening to your body enables you to focus on its own individual wants and needs. Stay away from fad diets, the restrictive eating associated with these diets can in some instances wreak havoc on the female body. Don't be lured by quick short term results, the long term effects on your health are not worth it!
Movement - Make sure you move your body in a way that makes you happy and that you don’t dread the thought of, this means you are more likely to commit to a little movement every day. Spend time doing things that make you feel good inside, take a walk by the ocean, skip rope with your kids...move without the pressure of extreme exercise - unless that's your thing and then go for it!
WHAT IS YOUR ULTIMATE GO TO NUTRITIOUS AND DELICIOUS MEAL/SNACK/TREAT?
My all-time favourite, absolutely packed full of so many vitamins and minerals essential for women's health and so easily digestible and gut-friendly is my tasty gluten-free seeded bread. Topped with tahini, figs and honey for a sweet hit or avo and an egg as a simple yet highly nutritional breakfast. Check out the recipe in my “ Recipe section “
September 2019
Nourishment during breastfeeding
As mothers we can tend to put ourselves last and can often neglect our hunger and needs, by grabbing a quick pastry and coffee to get you by or snacking on a piece of fruit or even just eating the leftovers from the kids lunch. Add this up over the day and your overall food consumption is fairly low and lacking important vitamins and nutrients you need to wake up bright the next day and function as a women and a mother!!
Breastfeeding uses an incredible amount of energy and uses many of your nutrients to nurture your child and facilitate their growth. Making sure your diet is well balanced is crucial in providing adequate nutrients to not only your child but also incredibly important is keeping your nutrient levels adequate.
This is an important factor to consider as mothers nutrient levels can begin to wane as we lead such busy lives post birth and when that type of eating becomes a regular occurrence this can lead to the common pitfalls of modern motherhood called “ post natal depletion “ ( I will discuss this further in a seperate post )
Here’s some tips I suggest to my clients:
- Picking 3 easy bulk made meals you can make that can set you up for the week, wether it is to be eaten for dinner for the family or lunch during the week.
- I love the food container brand ‘ THERMOS ‘ we have used this for years for our kids as soon as they started solids but Mum and Dad also have their own. Home cooked meals wherever you may be. Same can be said for your lunch, simply heat your meal and the thermos, add food and away you go.
- Picking a couple of snacks to make and store in fridge and freezer to always have one hand.
- Finding some healthy snacks from the supermarkets : fruit free museli bars, healthy protein balls, individual packs of raw nuts and seeds, hummus and cracker packs.
Meal ideas;
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs w/ Spinach + homemade baked beans, avocado + olive oil.
Lunch : Mixed Salad w/ Salmon, Broccoli , olives, silverbeet pesto + goats cheese + hemp seeds.
Dinner: Red Lentil Dhal + Pumpkin coconut Curry w/ homemade paleo naan.
Snacks: Bone broth, miso soup, raw nuts, clean smoothies.
September 2019Mastitis - a holistic treatment approach
Mastitis is a infection of the tissue breast that occurs during breastfeeding, for example an uncleared milk duct that can bank up in the milk tissue to become hot, red and inflamed leading to infection. When we think of mastitis we generally think of causes such as ‘ baby sleeping though the night ‘ , ‘ a missed feed ‘ and ‘ wearing tight bras ‘ these can attribute to the likelihood of getting mastitis and what we tend to notice is on the flip side is that mastitis seems to occur when we are very busy, run down and tired.
When our body fights any infection our body uses the highly powerful immune system to do this, we have very special helper cells that come in and fight these infections. When our bodies are tired and we are run down generally speaking so is our immune system. We now know that there are direct links with our immunity and the gut and with upwards of 70-80% of our immune system located in our gut - we can now shift the focus Into supporting this incredible part of the body.
There have been studies in the aetiology of mastitis and mothers gut health is now seen to be playing a crucial role! How well our gut functions plays a crucial role in our immune defences and the same can be said for how our body fights infections such as mastitis. Now when you think of reoccurring bouts of mastitis and reoccurring use of antibiotics we are depleting the bacteria that is needed to fight the mastitis - it becomes a vicious cycle!
Nutritional Medicine can assist in so many ways by supporting the gut, boosting your immunity and most important is supporting mum so breastfeeding isn’t a dreaded experience!
INDIVIDUALS THAT NEED EXTRA SUPPORT;
- Gut Dybiosis such as Leaky Gut
- Bouts of reoccurring vaginal thrush
- Vaginitis
- Urinary tract infections
- Have had previous cases of reoccurring mastitis
- Previous cases of mastitis in other children
- Endured a stressful pregnancy
- Atopy or allergic mothers
- Positive result with Step b overgrowth
For the conditions that I have listed above the use of a Broad spectrum probiotic therapy during pregnancy and breastfeeding is advised. The consistent exposure to the strains used in the probiotics can hugely benefit the urinary tract and assisting in the above conditions. We can help support your gut bacteria and add the most beneficial strains of probiotics needed to keep mastitis at bay.
FOOD AS MEDICINE:
- Using Prebiotic foods to repopulate the gut, these foods are fermented by bacteria in the gut; Asparagus, Garlic, Leeks, Bananas, Apples, Onions, Dandelion Greens.
- Consuming gentle nourishing foods such as Bone broths, Soups and Casseroles; these meals are whole foods, incredibly nutrient dense by containing important properties for the gut and importantly include gelatin, this helps to heal and seal the gut and importantly help support your immune system.
- Avoiding Dairy, Wheat and all Sugar; these can cause inflammation in the gut and impair your natural immune responses.
SUPPLEMENTATION;
- Vitamin D and Zinc ; important vitamins in assisting immune responses.
- High potency Vitamin C; important in boosting immunity.
- Garlic; important in boosting immunity, potent antibacterial.
- Qiara probiotics; this brand uses a specific strain that is isolated from breastmilk! Amazing!!
AT HOME CARE;
- Frequent feeding on affected side; this helps make sure no further milk builds up.
- Hot shower massage; gentle massage the affected area to help unblock milk duct.
- Manuka Honey; potent antibacterial properties.
- Cold cabbage leaves; these can help soothe and cool hot inflamed breasts.
- REST REST and REST; care for yourself just as you would if you had a case of the flu. Rest is as important as any supplement you can take.
- Say yes to the help; accepting the help of others, perhaps a meal from a friend, an offer to help with your other children at school pick up.
NOTE! This is general advice, please get in touch for an individual approach or if symptoms persist consult your GP.
November 2019
Postnatal importance
This is a time for resting, healing, loving and nurturing your child and importantly yourself! Traditionally in other cultures new mothers are cared for by their immediate family. They stay in their comfort of their home and well and truly focus in healing and bonding with their child for the first 40 days, but in our modern age it’s back on the horse and off we go! Some women are even required to head back to work at 6weeks post partum. So how do you adapt these traditional styles of post partum if this isn’t as straight forward to your situation. Perhaps hubby only got 2 weeks off or you don’t have family around to help you.
- Accepting help; this is a huge one for mothers, being able to let go and take the offered help for example it might be taking you older ones to school for you so you can stay in your pjamams and can get back into bed once they have gotten off to school.
- Meal Train; the original concept behind “ mama bake “ is healthy nutritious meals for new mothers from you local communities, well this is a modern take on it. Meal Train comes complete with calendar and each individual can add what are they going to contribute. The perfect additional help while hubby has started back at work. You can also set any dietary requirements to best suit your family. Tip! add some kids snacks to the list, things that your other children will eat and even some for you.
- Cleaner; If you can afford a cleaner can take the burden off the desire to get up and start cleaning the house, even if its once a fortnight or once a month for just two hours. Having the floors mopped and vacuumed can make all the difference. Even if you can’t afford a cleaner if someone offers to help, give them direction to what suits you best. Perhaps it’s changing the sheets or even just a vacuum.
- Resting; This is age old advice but sleeping when the baby sleeps, it is one of the best forms of free treatment you can do for yourself. No phones , it’s not time to catch up on insta it’s proper time for restful mind and body. Crucial in building milk supply’s back up and hormone balancing.
Focusing on meals that focus on the below nutrients will help keep these nutrients at an adequate level. Check out a simple meal plan below to pass on to your husband, partner, friends or helper!
Supplementations during this time are still of importance and the continuation of pregnancy supplements is advised.
Iron: This super important mineral makes haemoglobin which carries oxygen within your red blood cells. A super critically important mineral for mums as iron deficiency is a very common and very draining.
Zinc: A master co factor in the body but very important in hormone health , immunity and neurotransmitter production.
Magnesium: The ever so important co factor that helps makes everything work well again. Magnesium helps support your muscles, nerve system and importantly your sleep cycle.
Vitamin B12: The stand along hero of the B vitamins, needed for repairing, detoxify and important in energy production. Vitamin B12 also helps protect our DNA.
Vitamin D: Working more like a hormones vitamin D is very important in female health as it helps control inflammation and absorption of other nutrients.
Omega 3s: Omega 3s are critical for your baby’s brain and eye development. If you are breastfeeding, try to incorporate foods high in omega 3s, such as salmon, sardines, walnuts, chia and flaxseed.
B-Vitamins: Eat plenty of whole grains and dark greens to ensure your body gets the B-vitamins it needs to maintain proper metabolic pathways. B vitamins play an important role in carbohydrate metabolism, red blood cell formation, and work to promote healthy nerves.