Così è la terra, così siamo noi | Anna Borraccino | TEDxBisceglie

Anna Borraccino begins by describing her journey as an embryologist working in reproductive medicine, where she united male and female gametes to create embryos. During her training in Bologna, she worked with microscopes, incubators, and laboratory equipment in a highly controlled scientific environment. However, after embryo transfer, there was always a 15-day waiting period to determine pregnancy success, during which everything was left to nature. This waiting period made her realize something was missing from the purely scientific approach. During her train journeys back home from Bologna to southern Italy, observing the Adriatic coast, vineyards, and agricultural landscapes, she recognized that an embryologist's work mirrors what farmers do with land - planting seeds according to traditional procedures and then waiting, uncertain whether new life will emerge. Expanding her expertise into nutrition science, she discovered that the same substances found in food (glucose, amino acids, citric acid, fructose) were also present in laboratory culture media and sperm analysis readings. This led her to develop the concept that primitive humans understood - the connection between fertility symbols (seeds representing abundance and prosperity) and the earth's fertility. She established that fertile soil provides the food that can modify both female and male fertility, noting that male fertility is often overlooked despite being crucial as the 'spark' that initiates life. Recent 2024 research confirms the connection between diet and reproductive system functionality. Borraccino identifies the intestine as the body's first fertile soil, explaining how intestinal microbiota influences mood, attention, relationships, and hormonal production through enzymes that metabolize hormones and release metabolites into the bloodstream that reach reproductive organs. She emphasizes that the intestine is actually the first brain, not the second, as it enabled human evolution by driving the search for new food resources. The speaker critiques modern approaches to food that prioritize performance over holistic health care, and environmental practices that ignore seasonality, leading to consumption of endocrine disruptors that interfere with reproductive health. Her project 'Nutriamo la Fertilità' represents a return to connecting with individuals personally rather than just working in laboratories, focusing on understanding people's actual eating habits and food quality rather than just calories. She collaborated with Dr. Sabrina Saperentino to write a book and establish a Master's program in Nutrition and Fertility at the University of Bari, aiming to train other professionals in applying the connection between nutrition and fertility.