I’m Elif .

Writing about yourself is genuinely hard. So, without taking up too much of your time, here is the short version of the path that led me to nutrition counselling and to becoming a Diabetesberaterin DDG, a diabetes educator certified by the German Diabetes Society.

I was born in Izmir, one of three sisters. My little sister had very little appetite as a child. Making her healthy plates she actually wanted to eat was perhaps the first small step on my professional path.

I began university in Gaziantep, a city famous for its food, and graduated in Beslenme ve Diyetetik (Nutrition and Dietetics) in Kayseri, a true “carbohydrate paradise”. Through Erasmus I studied at Semmelweis University in Hungary and the University of Foggia in Italy, and got to know other cultures and cuisines.

Those experiences still shape how I see nutrition. For me, eating well should not mean giving up the dishes and the culture we love. That is why regional food and your everyday life always have a place in my plans. And because I dislike waste, we often work with whatever is already at home: plans that fit real life and that you can keep up.

After graduating in 2017 I joined the first dietetics team set up by a pharmaceutical company in Istanbul. There I learned how much depends on working with other health professionals, and on passing on scientific knowledge accurately and clearly.

In May 2019 I made a life-changing decision and moved to Berlin. First I learned German. Then I worked as a Diätassistentin at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and gained experience in clinical nutrition. To specialise in diabetes, I then completed the Diabetesberaterin DDG qualification of the German Diabetes Society.

In the years that followed I kept working in diabetology and nutrition: individual counselling, patient education and structured diabetes training. Today, at St. Hedwig-Krankenhaus Berlin, I accompany people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes through their treatment and education as a Diabetesberaterin DDG and nutrition therapist.

For me, nutrition is more than the question “what should I eat?”. It is bound up with health, lifestyle, culture, habits and the whole of daily life. That is why I care about solutions that rest on science and still work in real life.

Alongside this I work freelance as a nutrition counsellor, give seminars and mentor colleagues who want to move to Germany, drawing on my own experience.

If you want to understand healthy eating on a scientific footing, make more conscious choices and truly bring them into your daily life, I would love to meet you.

Warmly, Elif