ATÖLYE Spotlight: In Conversation with İnci Yürekli, Founder of Alfa Beslenme

Maintaining a sense of wellness in Istanbul is no small feat, with plenty of negative (and often delicious) distractions constantly surrounding us. Knowing these challenges all too well, Alfa Beslenme founder İnci Yürekli started her project with a focus on educating the public on healthy lifestyle choices, while providing personalized services to help individuals reach their own realistic health goals. With a clear love for her work, İnci maintains a loaded schedule of generating content for the platform, offering in-house and on-site consultations, following up with clients, planning and hosting workshops, and providing educational sessions at schools around the city. Her methodology has generated impressive results, often surprising her clientele and helping people rethink their approach to healthy living in an accessible way. In particular, by working with elementary schools, Alfa Beslenme‘s ultimate ambition is to stop bad habits before the even have a chance to form, creating a healthier Istanbul in the years to come.

We took some time to speak with İnci on the appeal of being a dietitian, the importance of developing healthy habits early in life, her project’s future ambitions, and what daily changes we can make in our own lives to embrace wellness.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I was born in Istanbul. I started going to the school at the age of two, as both of my parents used to work full time. That was the best time of my life. After high school I took the university entrance exam and chose to be a dietitian.

I got accepted into Arel University’s Nutrition and Dietetics Department. The campus is very far away from Istanbul, but I only had classes three or four times a week, so I would spend the rest of my free time on social activities and got the chance to get closely involved in the art scene in Istanbul. For some time, I was working as a content editor at bugunbugece.com. Nowadays, this website is not used anymore but back then it was all about cultural events of Istanbul. Then I started an internship at a private dietitian’s clinic. Five months after I graduated I found a job at another dietitian’s clinic and after working there for eight months, I decided to move on.

Last year, I participated in the IKSV Design Biennial, and shortly after that I decided to found my own company and that’s what brought me to ATÖLYE.

Can you tell us a little bit about the name ‘Alfa Beslenme‘?
The hardest time in my life might just be when I was looking for a name for my enterprise. I was asking everyone around me and I considered so many suggestions, that at some point they started making fun of my indecisiveness. I have always had an interest in the Greek alphabet and had even tried to learn it on my own in high school. So it’s no surprise that I ended up choosing Alfa as it’s the first letter of the Greek alphabet and it also symbolizes leadership, as in leader of the industry. It may come off too strong… [Laughter.]

After I chose Alfa, I started noticing all sorts of connections. One example is shortly after the decision, my professor was discussing how alfa secretes glucagon – a hormone that controls blood sugar.

What’s your vision behind the project?
When people think of dieting, they think of restricting their lives by starving themselves. I would like to get rid of that perception. I am trying to make them understand that they can lose weight even when consuming dessert or alcohol. If they don’t like exercising, they don’t have to do it either. It’s all about organizing your diet according to your lifestyle to reach your ideal weight.

Can you tell us a bit about the website and your ongoing projects?
When you write Alfa Beslenme, the first 6 letters make alfabe, meaning ‘alphabet’ in Turkish. I would like to teach people the alphabet of nutrition. I write and publish nutrition related articles on my website and I also provide one-on-one consultancy services here at ATÖLYE.

My projects include visiting schools, especially kindergartens, to give workshops and training on nutrition. I would like to start doing this on a bigger scale and include private companies. Everybody’s lifestyle is different and thus there is a need to personalize their diets. Those who work in offices nine to five typically have a very passive lifestyle and they need less calories than, say, athletes.

What kind of concerns do people typically come in with?
Whenever I step into a new environment, the first question people ask is “How can we lose weight?” Well that is something you can’t casually take on. It is something that should be taken seriously. We should sit down and discuss your background, lifestyle, eating habits and your triggers. Often I suggest a diet to follow for my clients and their first reaction is “Wow this is too much! If I eat all of this, I will gain weight.” However, when they obey the diet and come back for an assessment the following week, they realize they lost weight and they’re usually surprised. Often I get reactions like “I had no idea I had very bad eating habits. Thanks to you I am learning how to eat well, instead of how to diet”.

How does ATÖLYE fit into all of this?
I came to ATÖLYE for the first time for a Creative Mornings session in 2015. The guest speaker was Nasuh Mahruki. I had really enjoyed the atmosphere back then. At the beginning of the event they introduced ATÖLYE and how it works and they mentioned that there are people working here from various disciplines and backgrounds, like lawyers and psychologists. I remember asking myself if dietitians can also work here. After a brief meeting with Atılım [community leader] from ATÖLYE, I decided to start my own company and use ATÖLYE as my office.

It’s clear to all the members here that you enjoy your work and spend a lot of time in the office. What keeps you here?
I am always here. Sometimes I come at around 8:00 in the morning and get off at midnight because my working hours depend on my clients and most of them prefer to come after work. When it snowed last winter I came every single day. It is great to hang out and chat with people here. It’s like a home away from home for me.

It can often feel quite challenging to lead a healthy lifestyle in a city like Istanbul. Do you have any tips for us?
The air is polluted in Istanbul, so we breath dirty air, which makes our body polluted and dirty. We don’t have much space or time to move, and we are dependent on public transportation or private cars to get to places, as Istanbul is a big city. There aren’t many places for people to eat healthy food. Unfortunately, it’s the cheap foods and snacks that are the worst ones for our health. So there are lots of tips I could give. As a start…

Replace all drinks with water. We especially get a lot of empty calories from sodas and carbonated drinks. Keep away from pre-made juices and if you really crave something, then opt for fresh juices, ayran, etc. Don’t just consider the caloric content but also keep in mind the nutritional content as well. For example if you would like to eat some bread, swap white bread with brown bread as it has vitamin B and good bacteria for the digestive system.

Try to balance your daily food intake to include two portions of fruit and three portions of vegetables. You can eat as many raw vegetables as you like though, as it has very limited caloric content. Pay attention to the amount of salt in the food you are consuming. Salt is absorbed with glucose. So the more salt you take in, the more glucose you absorb. One way to limit your salt consumption is to not consume prepackaged food, as they are high in sodium.

I really must emphasize drinking water as it is the most important of all. All the chemical reactions in our body require water to function. You can multiply your weight in kilos by 30 and divide it over 1000 to find the amount of water in liters you need to consume daily for your body. If you consume a lot of tea and coffee, then you need to consume more and more water, because some ingredients in these beverages dehydrate the body.

What’s on the horizon for you and Alfa Beslenme?
I believe that learning how to eat well is a fundamental step in your daily choice of food. That’s why I believe it is of the utmost importance to educate kids very early on so they can form good eating habits. At the very least, we should be educating teenagers as they reach that age where they’re making their own decisions. I am planning to prepare a comprehensive education program to make nutrition education easily available and understandable.

Where do you like to hang out in Istanbul? Any suggestions for our readers?
There are so many great places in Istanbul, but transportation is a big problem. So I usually hang out in Kadıköy or Beşiktaş. When I need more ‘me time’ in nature, I go up to the North. I suggest visiting Atatürk Arboretum. It’s like an enormous museum of nature, consisting of various different species of plants and trees. Spending time out in the nature allows you to get rid of stress.

To keep up with İnci and follow her project, be sure to visit the official page for Alfa Beslenme. You can also follow via Facebook and Instagram.

ATÖLYE Spotlight is our series on the inspiring community members of Istanbul’s most creative space.

All images courtesy of İnci Yürekli.