We are very pleased to say that Glenville Nutrition have teamed up with Pomegranate and are offering free nutritional consultations to some Pomegranate couples looking to optimise their fertility. Pomegranate is an Irish charity that supports those suffering from infertility, helping them take a step further towards becoming a parent.

Pomegranate was set up by Fiona McPhillips and Joanna Donnelly, both of whom have been lucky enough to have children thanks to fertility treatment. Fiona is also the author of Trying To Conceive: The Irish Couple’s Guide and the blog, Making Babies. Pomegranate is a symbol of fertility in many cultures and religions.

Fiona has written a guest blog piece for us this week, to share with us some of her story…

Let’s Talk About Infertility

Nobody expects to be in for the long haul when they start trying for a baby. It is supposed to be a time of great hope and anticipation, when you start planning your new lives together. It is true that having a baby changes your life, but not having one changes it so much more. Sadly, this is something that more than one in six couples will find out.
Before I became that statistic, I never thought too much about what it meant. Although infertility was a fear, it was not something that bore heavily on me – at least, only to the extent that I didn’t want to put off having children for too long, just in case. I didn’t know anyone who was infertile so I could only guess at how hard it might be.
I didn’t have a clue. My guess only extended to the long-term pain a couple might feel about not having a child in their lives. Thanks to television, many people assume there is a once-off diagnosis a couple has to deal with, and that they are then free to return to their lives and reshape their future without their much-wanted child. If only it was that easy.
It is very difficult to explain the cumulative effect of month after month, and year after year, of hope and disappointment. After a while, everything hurts – other people’s bumps and babies, anniversaries of failed cycles and lost babies, and every new birthday, Christmas and Mother’s Day you face with empty arms.
There is a huge lack of understanding of infertility in the outside world. It is just not viewed as one of the very bad things in life. A common reaction is, “Why can’t you be happy with what you’ve got? Focus on all the good things in your life”. When you can’t have a baby, nothing else matters. It’s not possible to forget about it, channel your energy elsewhere, take up a hobby. The desire for a child goes beyond the desire for the joy that a child brings – it is a primal, uncontainable urge that overpowers all reason.
Infertility is a very difficult and painful struggle. The research of Dr. Alice Domar, professor at Harvard Medical School, suggests that the stress endured by infertility patients is comparable to that experienced by people undergoing treatment for cancer and Aids.
Sometimes this stress can be compounded by people with the best of intentions. “Don’t worry, it could be worse.” “It’s God’s will.” And the old chestnut: “Just relax and it will happen.” If there is one piece of advice I can give to those who know someone suffering from infertility, it is that it is better to say nothing at all than to say the wrong thing. If you feel awkward, just say sorry, and give the person a hug if you think it is appropriate. And one more thing, if I may: stress does not, I repeat, does not cause infertility, but infertility sure does cause stress.
Unfortunately, it’s not just emotional, physical and mental stress – there can also be a huge financial burden. At up to €6000 a go, and with less than a 25% success rate, IVF can become very costly. And for those who don’t have a spare few grand, a diagnosis is often the end of the line.
I know what some of you are thinking: the world is overpopulated already, so many unwanted children out there, why don’t you “just adopt”? Setting aside the huge amount of time and money needed to adopt, I always wonder why the burden of looking after the world’s orphans falls on the shoulders of the infertile. What about those who’ve already experienced the miracle of pregnancy and birth – why don’t they adopt instead of having, say, a second or third pregnancy?
Others may be concerned about the embryos that don’t make it through the IVF process. Even with a “natural” conception, only 20-40pc of embryos make it to implantation. Life may or may not begin at fertilisation but viable life does not begin until the fertilised egg has implanted in the uterus. There is nothing that can be done to protect an unimplanted embryo – you can give it a right to life in law but unfortunately science cannot give any such guarantees.
With one in six couples seeking help to conceive, everybody knows somebody suffering from infertility. It’s an issue that touches all of us either directly or indirectly. And yet it is a conversation many of us have never had.

– Fiona McPhillips, co-founder Pomegranate

We had a great night in Donnybrook Fair last night. We made a selection of delicious and simple recipes to introduce some healthy alternatives, great snacks and salads and some not-so-naughty treats too!
The class got up and got their hands dirty too, making some fragrant fish ‘en papilotte’ with fennel, green beans and spring onions. After working up a nice appetite we all tasted the fruits of our labour which seemed to go down pretty well!
Just to give you at home a flavour, we thought we would share with you one of the popular recipes from last night. This is an extremely easy bread recipe that takes less than ten minutes to put together. A great tip from Glenville Nutrition is to make the dry mixture up in advance, in a large quantity. This will store nicely in a cool dark place and then all you need to do to make fresh bread is add liquid, stir and bake! What could be easier than that?!
For this simple bread, you can use a variety of flours. Here we use a lovely wholegrain rye mixed with spelt flour for a high fibre wholegrain bread. We add some oats for extra texture and fibre, and handfuls of seeds but you can add whatever you like such as chopped walnuts or milled flaxseeds.
Enjoy!

Spelt and rye soda bread
Preparation time 5 minutes, baking time 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups rye flour
1 ½ cups wholegrain spelt flour
1 cup oat flakes
Large pinch sea salt
1 tsp. bread soda
Handful seeds
420 – 450ml buttermilk

Directions:
• Preheat oven to 200C, grease a bread tin
• Place all dry ingredients together in a large bowl and mix.
• Pour in milk and mix well. Then pour mix into bread tin, scatter seeds or oats on top and bake for 50 minutes

You can replace the butter milk with ordinary milk or dairy free alternatives. If you do, add ½ tbsp. lemon juice too

Obesity and overweight can reduce your chances of conceiving, either naturally or via assisted reproduction such as IVF. In addition, obese women and their children are at a higher risk for complications during pregnancy and beyond.

A new study published by Dr. Kyra Sim from the Boden Institute in Sydney provides good evidence that weight loss can improve fertility outcomes. Dr. Sim and her team recruited 49 obese women who were then randomised to a weight loss programme. Half of the women underwent supervised weight loss in a group support programme with weekly meetings for advice and encouragement. The other half were advised on the same weight loss protocol but had no additional support.

After 12 weeks women in the support group had lost more weight, 6.6 kg (~1 stone) versus only 1.6kg (3.5 pounds) in those that had no support. After 12 months, the women from the group had achieved more pregnancies and live births after assisted conception and indeed 3 natural conceptions. After completing the supervised group programme, the women were 5 times more likely to have given birth to a healthy baby.

The study suggested that “group treatment methods tend to be more beneficial than individual treatment programmes because of factors including group support and cohesion, realization that an individual’s problems are not unique, the sharing of difficulties with other group members, encouragement from others and a group expectation of a positive outcome”

If you are looking to lose weight or are concerned about the effects of being overweight on your fertility, talk to us on 01-4020777.

 

 

Read the study summary:

Clin Obes. 2014 Apr;4(2):61-8. doi: 10.1111/cob.12048. Epub 2014 Feb 28.

Weight loss improves reproductive outcomes in obese women undergoing fertility treatment: a randomized controlled trial.

Sim KA¹, Dezarnaulds GM, Denyer GS, Skilton MR, Caterson ID.

Author information

• ¹The Boden Institute, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Abstract

For women attempting pregnancy, obesity reduces fertility and is an independent risk factor for obstetric and neonatal complications. The aim of this evaluator-blinded, randomized controlled trial was to evaluate a weight loss intervention on pregnancy rates in obese women undertaking fertility treatment. Forty-nine obese women, aged ≤37 years, presenting for fertility treatment were randomized to either a 12-week intervention (n = 27) consisting of a very-low-energy diet for the initial 6 weeks followed by a hypocaloric diet, combined with a weekly group multidisciplinary programme; or a control group (n = 22) who received recommendations for weight loss and the same printed material as the intervention. Anthropometric and reproductive parameters were measured at baseline and at 12 weeks. The 22 women who completed the intervention had greater anthropometric changes (-6.6 ± 4.6 kg and -8.7 ± 5.6 cm vs. -1.6 ± 3.6 kg and -0.6 ± 6.3 cm) compared with the control group (n = 17; P < 0.001). The intervention group achieved a pregnancy rate of 48% compared with 14% (P = 0.007), took a mean two fertility treatment cycles to achieve each pregnancy compared with four in the control group (P = 0.002), and had a marked increase in the number of live births (44% vs. 14%; P = 0.02). A group weight loss programme, incorporating dietary, exercise and behavioural components, is associated with a significant improvement in pregnancy rates and live births in a group of obese women undergoing fertility treatment.

© 2014 The Authors; Clinical Obesity © 2014 International Association for the Study of Obesity

Terikyaki is a Japanese soy-based marinade and sauce that tastes great with a variety of different foods. Most of the Terikyaki sauces available to buy in shops or via your local take away are full of additives and sugar (the one we checked was 38% sugar!).

It’s simple and inexpensive to rustle up your own Terikyaki sauce at home. Ideally you need an hour’s marinating time, but if you can’t manage this you can just use it as a stirfry sauce. The results will still be great.

 

Ingredients for sauce:

½ cup soy sauce e.g. Kikkoman (or use Tamari for a gluten free version)

¼ cup mirin (Japanase rice wine vinegar, now available in most supermarkets)

½ tbsp. maple syrup or local honey (optional)

Small knob of fresh ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic, grated or crushed

If you like a thicker sauce add ½ tsp arrowroot too

 

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer on a low heat for up to 10 minutes. See, we told you it was easy!

 

To use the sauce, place your protein (salmon pieces, prawns, cubed tofu, sliced chicken breast….) into a glass container. Add some of the Teriyaki marinade, cover and leave in the fridge for an hour. Heat a wok or frying pan, coat with a little coconut oil, add some quartered some Bok Choy and cook for 2 minutes, remove from the pan and keep warn. Add the marinated protein to the pan and cook until just done, stiring from time to time. This should take about 4 minutes. Serve with wholegrain rice or noodles and top with a little extra teriyaki and some toasted sesame seeds if you have them. Enjoy!

As an alternative you can bake or grill the marinated protein in the oven and stirfry whatever vegetables you have in the veg basket or freezer.

A new study has determined that phytoestrogens are effective at reducing the incidence of hot flushes in menopause. This comes from a ‘meta-analysis’ where researchers group lots of studies and determine the overall effect. The summary or ‘abstract’ of this publication can be found below.

Phytoestrogens are found in foods such as fermented soy (some tofu, tempeh, miso), flaxseeds, legumes (lentils, chickpeas etc.), fennel, garlic and parsley. Contrary to popular opinion, phytoestrogens do not increase the risk of breast cancer or disrupt hormones. They only stimulate certain oestrogen receptors in the body and are perfectly safe to include regularly in your diet.

 

Tips on how to include phytoestrogens in your diet:

• Try hummus with oatcakes as a healthy snack
• Make lentil and vegetable soup (recipe to be posted next week, keep an eye out….)
• Add ground linseeds (also called flaxseeds) to your breakfast cereal or to smoothies
• Grate or thinly slice fennel bulb and add to salads. Or roughly chop it and roast it
• Add chickpeas, lentils or beans to salads
• Make your own vinaigrette with 3 tbsp. flaxseed oil, 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp. lemon juice, 1 clove garlic and a small handful of fresh parsley. Just blend with a handblender and store in fridge for 3 – 4 days. Add mustard if you like

 

 

Efficacy of phytoestrogens for menopausal symptoms: a meta-analysis and systematic review.

Chen et al Climacteric. 2015 Apr;18(2):260-269. Epub 2014 Dec 1.

 

Abstract

Objective

To perform a meta-analysis examining the efficacy of phytoestrogens for the relief of menopausal symptoms.

Methods

Medline, Cochrane, EMBASE, and Google Scholar databases were searched until September 30, 2013 using the following key words: vasomotor symptoms, menopausal symptoms, phytoestrogens, isoflavones, coumestrol, soy, red clover. Inclusion criteria were (1) randomized controlled trial (RCT), (2) perimenopausal or postmenopausal women experiencing menopausal symptoms, (3) intervention with an oral phytoestrogen.

Outcome measures included Kupperman index (KI) changes, daily hot flush frequency, and the likelihood of side-effects.

Results

Of 543 potentially relevant studies identified, 15 RCTs meeting the inclusion criteria were included. The mean age of the subjects ranged from 49 to 58.3 and 48 to 60.1 years, respectively, in the placebo and phytoestrogen groups. The number of participants ranged from 30 to 252, and the intervention periods ranged from 3 to 12 months. Meta-analysis of the seven studies that reported KI data indicated no significant treatment effect of phytoestrogen as compared to placebo (pooled mean difference = 6.44, p = 0.110). Meta-analysis of the ten studies that reported hot flush data indicated that phytoestrogens result in a significantly greater reduction in hot flush frequency compared to placebo (pooled mean difference = 0.89, p < 0.005). Meta-analysis of the five studies that reported side-effect data showed no significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.175).

Conclusion

Phytoestrogens appear to reduce the frequency of hot flushes in menopausal women, without serious side-effects.