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Sophie Mahoney - Dietitian, Yarraville (2025)

02/07/2024

Dietitians aren’t often the first person you’d think of to help you with your mental health, and people often ask how I can support them.

Here are 5 ways a dietitian can help your mental health👇

🔸Support you with learning intuitive eating and healing your relationship with food this can have huge benefits for our mental wellbeing

🔸Share ideas about foods and eating habits which might be helpful for your mood but we won’t ‘tell’ you what to eat/what not to eat!

🔸Help you manage gut symptoms which are common in those with anxiety & low mood

🔸Help you manage medication side effects through food like appetite changes and fatigue

🔸Support you with other lifestyle habits like physical activity, sleep, stress

It’s common to feel overwhelmed about where and how to start with making dietary changes, and there is never a one-size-fits-all solution.

If you're looking for a dietitian to support your mental health, book a complimentary call with me to find out how I can help: https://calendly.com/sophie-mahoney/30min

19/05/2024

I’m excited to share that I am now a credentialed eating disorder clinician!

I have been interested in moving into this area for a while now, having worked for many years with people experiencing mental illness and gut concerns which commonly overlap with eating disorders.

Did you know?
If you’re currently experiencing an eating disorder you can receive an eating disorder management plan from your GP which allows to you claim back a portion of your dietitian appointments for up to 20 visits per year.

Appointments can be booked via my website - link in bio.

08/05/2024

Functional dyspepsia is one of the most common disorders of the gut-brain axis.

As it is a functional condition, investigations like an endoscopy won’t find anything visibly wrong, as it’s more about the way your gut is working/functioning.

Symptoms commonly co-exist with IBS symptoms, but many people experience functional dyspepsia without any IBS or lower gut symptoms.

There are many possible causes of functional dyspepsia, and therefore treating it requires a multi-faceted approach often involving dietary therapy, supplements, medications and/or strategies targeting the gut-brain axis.

It’s important to chat with your GP about your symptoms so they can investigate further and/or refer you to a gastroenterologist.

If you’re experiencing functional dyspepsia, book a complimentary call with me to find out how I can help you: https://calendly.com/sophie-mahoney/30min

18/04/2024

3 STEPS TO BUILD A BALANCED MEAL WHEN YOU’RE TIRED & LOW IN MOTIVATION

1️⃣ Protein
2️⃣ Carbs
3️⃣ Colour

+ yummy things to add flavour like olive oil, seasonings, lemon juice and herbs!

You can apply these 3 components to any main meal - breakfast, lunch or dinner. No need to overhaul what you’re eating or spend hours cooking.

Having all these three components on your plate will help keep you full, give you a variety of nutrients, and satisfy your taste buds.

Comment below with your fave quick and easy balanced meals 👇

10/04/2024

How intuitive eating can help you…

First, what is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating is an approach that encourages you listen to your body as a guide for what, when and how much to eat.

Dieting and restricting can reduce our ability to eat intuitively, but for many people it is a skill that can be learnt.

Intuitive eating has been extensively researched and shown to be linked to many health benefits, particularly for our mental health.

For example, it’s been linked with:
✔️Better self esteem and body image
✔️Better psychological wellbeing, including lower levels of depression
✔️Less binge and comfort eating

Some of the key components of intuitive eating include:
💡 Listening to your hunger and fullness cues as a guide for when to start and stop eating
🍽️ Eating mindfully by paying attention to your food and eating without distractions
🙅‍♀️ Eating without food rules such as strict portion sizes, the timing of your meals or labelling and restricting certain foods as “bad”

If you’re ready to stop dieting and want to improve your relationship with food through learning more about intuitive eating, book a complimentary call using my link in bio to find out more about how I can help!

27/11/2023

Last week our research on the Mediterranean diet for people with IBS and mental health symptoms was published!

The Mediterranean diet (MD) has been shown previously to reduce depressive symptoms, however many people with IBS need to cut out key MD foods like onion, garlic and legumes, as these may exacerbate gut symptoms in some people.

The main aim of our research was to see if people with IBS could actually follow this diet. Given the strong link between the gut and brain, we also wanted to see if the diet could improve IBS and mental health symptoms at the same time.

Through personalised education from a dietitian along with resources and a food hamper, participants followed the MD for 6 weeks. The results we found were beyond what we were expecting.

At the end of the trial, our results showed that participants were able to include more Mediterranean diet foods. As well as this, 83% of those in the MD group had a clinically significant improvement in their IBS symptoms, compared to only 37% in the control group.

Those in the diet group also had lower anxiety and depressive symptoms compared with the control group by the end of the study, and the amount that people adhered to the MD was positively linked to improvements in mental health symptoms.

Our results show there’s an alternative option for people experiencing IBS and anxiety and/or depression. Unlike many diets for IBS, the MD is not restrictive, it improves the quality of your diet, and it’s consistently linked with better physical and mental health.

The Mediterranean diet also has positive effects on the gut microbiome, and may have anti-inflammatory effects which could be important in both gut and mood symptoms.

As always, it’s best to get help from a dietitian for any changes to your diet, as navigating it by yourself can be tricky.

If you want to read more about the research, head to the and read their latest blog, or access the full paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apt.17791

The trial was supported by Dr Heidi Staudacher’s Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and seed funding provided by Deakin University. was the supporting Principal Investigator.

13/07/2023

3 signs you're drinking too much coffee ☕️

There are plenty of health benefits linked to drinking coffee, such as a lower risk of many cancers, type 2 diabetes and depression.

The health benefits are mostly due to coffee containing a rich source of polyphenols, which are beneficial plant chemicals with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects on the body.

But many of us might be drinking too much. Here are 3 signs that you're having too much coffee.

1️⃣ You're having more than 3 regular coffees a day.

In Australia, it’s recommended that adults shouldn’t have more than 400mg of caffeine a day. A regular coffee with 1 shot contains about 135mg, so you shouldn’t be having more than about 3 regular coffees a day. Remember that caffeine is not just in coffee but also in green tea, chocolate, energy drinks, and soft drinks.

2️⃣ You're replacing coffee for meals regularly

If you’re choosing to have a coffee instead a snack or meal more than a couple times a day then this might also be a problem. Coffee made on soy or cows milk is a good source of protein, calcium and other vitamins and minerals, but having it instead of a snack or meal more than a couple times a day means that you’re probably missing out on other important food groups.

3️⃣ It's affecting your gut symptoms and/or sleep

Caffeine/coffee can sometimes be a trigger for people’s gut symptoms, and having too much, especially later in the day, can also prevent you from falling asleep at night. The effects are quite variable from person to person, so monitoring how your gut reacts to caffeine and how it affects your sleep could give you an idea about whether you’re having too much.

If you need more personalised dietary advice, book a complimentary discovery call to find out how I can help: https://calendly.com/sophie-mahoney/30min

Don't forget to like, comment or share this post with a friend!

26/02/2023

ULTRA-PROCESSED FOOD SWAPS FOR GUT HEALTH 👇

Our gut loves whole-foods but unfortunately on average half of our diet is coming from ultra-processed foods (UPF), which research is showing may be harmful to our gut microbiome 🦠

Most foods we eat are processed to some degree, but there are varying levels of processing ranging from minimally processed to UPFs.

Some of the negative components of UPFs include trans fats, added sugar and salt, additives such as emulsifiers, the packaging it comes in and heat treatments used during processing.

Above are some easy swaps to reduce the amount of ultra processed foods you’re having to support your gut health.

It’s important to remember that you don’t need to completely eliminate these foods! They have a place in every diet, and many of these are a convenient choice when you’re short on time, so cutting them out might be unrealistic. Therefore it’s better to make sure that they don’t make up a large part of your diet.

Share this with someone who would find it useful 🙌

You can also find plenty of free resources on Dietitian Connection’s guthealthmonth.com website!

12/02/2023

NEW BLOG POST

👉 How to stop ‘falling off the bandwagon’ and change your all or nothing mindset

If you're stuck in the dieting cycle and tired of starting again every Monday then this one's for you.

Click here to read: https://www.sophiemahoney.com.au/blog/change-your-mindset

05/02/2023

3 tips to become an intuitive eater…

Firstly, what is intuitive eating?

Intuitive eating helps you connect with your body's signals and can improve your relationship with food.

Intuitive eating encourages you to pay attention to your body as a guide for what, when and how much to eat. Dieting over many years and rules about food (e.g. clearing your plate as a child) can often override these skills that we inherently have.

Intuitive eating has been shown to have a number of health benefits particularly for mental health. It’s been linked to lower depression, and higher optimism, wellbeing and emotional control.

There are many components of intuitive eating, including:

TIP 1️⃣ Learning to identify the difference between physical and psychological hunger

Physical hunger will increase gradually with time and generally isn't associated with a specific food craving. Whereas psychological hunger can occur suddenly and we usually have a desire for a specific food. It can often be triggered by emotions such as feeling bored, tired or upset.

TIP 2️⃣ Use your hunger and fullness cues as a guide for when to start and stop eating

The hunger and fullness scale helps you to recognise the physical sensations of hunger and when it may be appropriate to start and stop eating. Ideally, you want to start eating when you reach a 3/10, and stop eating around 6/10.

TIP 3️⃣ Practise mindful eating

Paying attention while you're eating can help you understand how much to eat and help you enjoy what you're eating.

Some simple ways to eat more mindfully include:
👉 Minimising distractions: put your phone away and turn off the TV
👉 Placing your cutlery down between bites
👉 Chewing each mouthful well

Teaching my clients about intuitive eating is a key component of my 1:1 programs. If you’re ready to stop dieting and improve your relationship with food, book a complimentary discovery call using my link in bio to find out more about how I can help you.

03/02/2023

February is ’s Gut Health Month, and I’m proud to be representing them as a Gut Guru!

Gut Health Month is an opportunity to talk and learn about nutrition and gut health so Australians can feel better from the inside out.

I wanted to start off Gut Health Month by talking about the definition of gut health, and how you know whether you have a healthy gut.

Gut health has become such a popular term in food marketing and social media but there’s actually no definition of what gut health is.

For me (and probably most dietitians), I refer to gut health as having minimal or no gastrointestinal symptoms (e.g. bloating, constipation) and a healthy gut microbiota. Researchers and health professionals certainly don’t refer to gut health as having a flat stomach like many people on social might promote!

We know now that the microbiota can affect every single organ in our body and influence our risk of developing many health conditions such as depression, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s and more.

How do I know if I have a healthy gut microbiota?!

While there are many commercially available gut health kits, we’re still uncovering the answers about what a healthy gut microbiota actually looks like, and what methods are best to measure this. Aspects of our gut microbiota are changing constantly throughout the day, which is one of the many complexities of analysing the microbiota.

What we do know is that there are lots of factors that affect the gut microbiota, so focusing on a holistic approach may help support a healthy gut microbiota, i.e. considering your diet, stress levels, sleep and movement, to name a few (swipe to see more).

When it comes to what you eat, it’s unlikely that specific supplements or gut health foods will make a significant difference, so focusing on your entire diet has more potential! You can find lots of tips on how to eat and live to support a healthier gut on my profile, and I’ll be sharing more tips over

You can also find plenty of free resources on Dietitian Connection’s guthealthmonth.com website!

22/01/2023

Did you know there are many ways to help your IBS symptoms apart from what you’re eating?

Non-dietary strategies that target the gut-brain axis have shown to be effective in reducing IBS symptoms.

The gut-brain axis refers to the bi-directional flow of information that occurs between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract. Put simply, what’s happening in our brain (stress, anxiety) can affect our gut, and our gut symptoms can also affect how we feel.

Many of these non-dietary approaches have been proven to be just as affective as the Low FODMAP Diet. These include yoga, physical activity, mindfulness and gut-directed hypnotherapy.

These strategies can help reduce stress and anxiety which can worsen gut symptoms, and may also work on the underlying cause of IBS for some people which is the dysfunction between how the gut and brain communicate with each other.

A dietitian or psychologist specialising in IBS can help you work out of if these strategies may be useful for you, and also guide you on how you can put them into practice.

Book a complimentary discovery call to find out how I can help: https://calendly.com/sophie-mahoney/30min

Sophie Mahoney - Dietitian

02/07/2024

19/05/2024

08/05/2024

18/04/2024

10/04/2024

27/11/2023

13/07/2023

26/02/2023

12/02/2023

05/02/2023

03/02/2023

22/01/2023

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