What does a Fertility Nutritionist have to do with Epigenetics and “The First 1000 days”?

Great question. First of all, let’s talk about:

What is a Fertility Nutritionist anyways?

Also known as a fertility dietitian nutritionist, we are specialized health professionals who assess your nutrient intake and applies the evidence to you and your lifestyle to help you create actionable steps towards boosting your fertility in hopes to have a healthy baby.

What is Epigenetics? And what does it have to do with nutrition!?

Epigenetics is the theory that the environment to which genes are exposed directly informs how they are expressed. The best example for this theory is the butterfly, the same set of genes that code for a caterpillar also code for a butterfly, and epigenetics ensures that they are expressed at the time that is in response to the environment. Some examples of types of genetic modification that can occur include methylation- turning a gene on or off, and histone modification- how tightly the DNA is wrapped around its histones. Nutrition is connected to this process because the coenzymes for DNA to replicate include nutrients like folate among many others.

What is the Exposome? Why Should I care about it?

The set of environmental toxins that we are exposed to in our lifetime is known as the exposome. Time itself is what is known to have the biggest impact on a woman’s egg quality. In order to help work against the wear and tear that come with time, nutrition may help to improve the environment and building blocks that the eggs are exposed to. As a fertility dietitian nutritionist myself, I assess sources of the exposome in your diet and lifestyle. This includes a look at your medical history, assessment of your nutrition intake, a review of your labs, and getting to know your food preferences and schedule so we can work closely together to find the easiest nutrition solution is to boost your fertility. I also work closely with your healthcare team to ensure that our plan is in alignment with your team’s goals and helps you work towards them with supportive, client-led one on one sessions.

So how does this relate to "The First 1,000 days"?

The first 1,000 days is studied in the research as being a critical time in a person’s life for genetic programming to affect their metabolism and disease risks for the rest of their lifetime. I personally find this concept extremely fascinating, and that is why every mom is so focused on getting their baby to eat healthy when they start solids. Epigenetics falls in line with the first 1,000 days because this is a way of thinking about the timeline for the genetic programming itself. But what if the time period for genetic programming starts before conception? The beginning of the first 1,000 days actually starts with those 30 days prior to conception! It also then includes the 9 months of pregnancy and first 24 months of a person’s life. I believe it to be ultimately incredibly important to have nutrition stores to be present before those 30 days which can take anywhere from 3-6 months, through nutrient repletion which takes time and lifestyle changes. Because then those nutrition stores can be present for the pregnancy during which 80% of a child’s brain, auditory, and visual systems, learning, and memory functions are developed. Not to mention gut microbiota and food preferences!

To learn how to apply epigenetics and the first 1000 days to optimize the health of your future baby, sign up for a discovery call to work with me:

-Mindy J Vanberkel MS RD LDN

Fertility Dietitian Nutritionist

Day and Nite Nutrition

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