The Food Matrix

And a saucy delicious green farro to balance your leptin hormones for a healthy weight, more energy and a smoother journey to motherhood.

Written with lots of love by yours truly, Anja 💜
Approved by Rosa Keller, PhD RD, Nutrition Science
Supported by Dr. Claire Packer, OBGYN Resident at Mass General Brigham (Harvard) and Ally McGill, Doctor of Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine

Open this in Substack to show your support of my work and pledge a subscription. 🙂 

Have you followed us on Instagram or TikTok yet? @hello_julienne

*This newsletter is not intended to be medical advice.

Hey Julienne fam,

Eating is the most impactful personal choice that we can make for ourselves and for the planet. However, navigating food choices can be tricky. For some of us it already adds a lot of stress (for me included).

So, with Modern Women’s Nutrition, I’m trying to help give you the most impactful insights and easy changes you can make, to whittle out the noise and stress less about what to eat.

This week, we're diving into a topic that's super important for your journey as a woman, and especially during your path to motherhood: leptin.

Leptin is a hormone that helps control your hunger. Understanding how it works to better keep it balanced can help you manage cravings, nausea & maintain a healthy weight before, during and after pregnancy. Managing it better can also boost your fertility.

I am not a fan of discussing the subject of weight, because we’re all going to be different shapes and sizes, and that’s beautiful. But this subject of leptin has been particularly interesting to me during my research, because a lot of weight fluctuations are connected to many other symptoms that we want to pay attention to, in order to feel better, especially during the journey to motherhood.

Let's make this simple and easy to understand so you can make the best choices for you during your everyday, and your journey to motherhood.

---

---

In our MWN conversation each week,

I share verified, *easy* nutritional tips that can *truly* improve how you feel every day, followed by a simple, delicious recipe à la moi – an award-winning, professional chef. 

From our 5 pillars, this week we talk about: Fertility & Pregnancy Hormone Balance

If you’re busy and doing a quick skim, or this subject doesn’t seem interesting you can jump to the tasty recipe I’ve developed this week.

Jump to:

→ The Recipe: Green Saucy Farro with Summer Zucchini & Peas

Why Leptin Matters

Leptin is a hormone that tells your brain when you're full, and it helps regulate your energy levels. During pregnancy, leptin levels increase to support both you and your growing baby and make sure weight stays regulated naturally. (source)

However, due to today’s processed foods, which scientists call the food matrix, many women experience leptin resistance, which can make it harder to feel full and can lead to nausea, cravings, and unhealthy weight gain. (source) Processed foods consist of about 80% of the average American’s diet.

Ultra-processed foods are exactly as they sound — processed. When we digest food, our body wants to be the one to do the processing, which gives it the opportunity to slowly absorb all of the nutrients and use the food properly.

When the food is already partially processed before we eat it, which gives it a longer shelf life, our digestive system and hormones are unable to do their job properly with the food.

In our society today, for many people, our leptin resistance is somewhat out of our control due to the foods we’re eating that are ultra-processed. And we as a society have no clue.

Once we’re consuming these ultra-processed foods, which cause our leptin hormones to go awry, it’s really hard for our body to self-regulate natural eating habits to feel better, as well as maintain a healthy weight. The additives in these processed foods cause our brain signals to our leptin hormones to be confused.

Our body needs leptin to regulate reproductivity, support neurodevelopment, help you sleep better and so much more. Healthy leptin levels can boost your chances of getting pregnant or carrying a child (source).

“Pregnant women display both increased serum leptin levels and decreased leptin sensitivity,” says Waclawek and Park's research. This change is necessary to ensure you and your baby get enough energy but can also lead to excessive weight gain if not managed properly (source).

So how do we put this into practice for our everyday lives? Keep reading for a few tips!

5 Tips to Balance Leptin Levels Everyday
(hint: Avoid processed foods)