Imagine. 

 

It’s the middle of winter, and your heating has just been cut off. You have no food in the house - in the very literal sense. In the pantry, there are 1.5 loaves of bread, 5 potatoes, a tiny bit of cheese left in the block, and a dribble of oil in the bottle. Somehow, you’re going to have to scrape together dinner for you, your husband and your toddler. Oh, and you’re pregnant with your second baby. You clearly need to go out to the shop and get some more stuff … but they all closed weeks ago. So what you have is going to have to last for the next couple of weeks at least. You consider heading out to look for some more potatoes, maybe even a turnip or a cauliflower, from the nearby farm. But honestly, you’re just bone tired, nauseous, your back hurts, and it’s freezing outside. Looks like it’s boiled potatoes for dinner again. Perhaps you’ll even go all out and add a scrape of cheese on top. Delicious.

The year is 1944, you’re in the Netherlands, and it’s the middle of the second world war, and you’re right in the thick of what we now call the Dutch Famine. Now, I’m no historian so I can’t vouch for the accuracy of my little story here - but if wikipedia is anything to go by, it was a dark dark dark time to be in the Netherlands.

Why am I bringing it up?

Well, it’s one of the very clear examples we have of the significance of your diet during pregnancy. You might expect that the babies of the women who survived during this time to be tiny. But what we actually saw was normal or heavy babies, who had a strong tendency to develop metabolic conditions, like diabetes and heart disease later in life.

The Dutch Famine has been extensively studied, and we now understand that miserable diet influenced the way their children’s genes were expressed - we call this epigenetics. THANKFULLY, we can leave famine in 1944, but this (and further research) does tell us that your diet matters. A lot. 

I was so lucky to chat all about how you can harness the power of nutrition during pregnancy with the incredible Stef - founder of the Dietologist. She is an expert in all things fertility and pregnancy, and her brain is just like an encyclopaedia. I could have talked to her for hours. 

You will DEFINITELY DEFINITELY learn something from this chat.

 

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Links and resources:

• Stef's website: thedietologist.com.au

• Stef's Instagram @the_dietologist and @endo.dietitian

• Stef's TikTok: @the_dietologist

• Stef's Facebook Pages: The Dietologist and The Endometriosis Dietitian

• Stef's Podcast: Fertility Friendly Food
• Are we friends on instagram? @nutrition.by.helena
• Email me: [email protected]
• Download "I've Just Been Diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, Now What!?": https://gestational-diabetes-freebie.myflodesk.com/gestational-diabetes-freebie 
• Apply for my premium gestational diabetes coaching package: https://nutritionbyhelena.com/ 

Thanks for being here x

 

Disclaimer: 

The information in this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for individualised medical and nutrition advice. Please speak to your healthcare team before making any changes to your diet and lifestyle. Helena (and any guests) do not accept liability for any harm or damages that occur from following suggestions in these podcast episodes.