Eating a fertility diet in preparation for pregnancy and to boost fertility is one of the most important health changes you can make. Numerous studies have shown that specific changes to the diet can improve fertility, prevent recurrent miscarriage and support a healthy pregnancy.
Nutrition plays a big role when it comes to having a healthy body and reproductive system. The building blocks of hormones are found in the foods we eat. Antioxidants, which help to protect the egg and sperm from free radicals, are found in the foods that we eat. Just as nutrients in food can be helpful for fertility, there are some foods and chemicals that can be harmful to your health and fertility.
Throughout this blog, I will try to give you fertility diet suggestion, based on scientific research, nutritional data, Chinese medicine`s perspective of nutrition and patients personal experience, when changing their diet.
In my clinic Klinikk Fjeld, we recommend a diet of the very low content of processed carbohydrates as the main strategy to get a healthy and fertility boosting diet. We see that a diet which primary is based on vegetables, all kinds of fish and seafood, meat, fowl, and eggs. In addition, fat fruits like avocado and olives, nuts and seeds and cold pressed and unrefined oils, like coconut oil and olive oil. When it comes to the dairy products, we recommend natural butter, cheese, cream and full-fat sour cream.
Why do we recommend this way of eating?
Many experiences that they get a light feeling in their body, sleep better, get a normal digestion, fresher skin, a more stable mood, and more energy.
- A low intake of carbohydrates will result in a lower need for insulin. A high level of insulin is connected to the resistance of insulin, overweight and the developing of diabetes type 2. If you eat a low carb diet, this will not occur. Very many women who do many hormonal treatments will tend to get an addiction to sugar and increase weight. When following this diet, the addiction to sugar will dramatically down and the body`s weight will tend to normalize.
- For users of insulin (Diabetes type 1 and 2) will a diet of few processed carbohydrates make it easier to reach a more stable level of blood sugar and you will need less insulin. This is a very important factor when pregnant, as pregnant women with a high age, tend to develop diabetes (type 1) during their pregnancy. With this way of eating, you will have much more control of the weight increased during the pregnancy and the blood sugar level.
- Normal and stable levels of sugar and insulin in the blood and a good balance between omega-3 and omega-6 prevents inflammations in the body. A low carbohydrate intake will, therefore, slow down many of the inflammatory diseases in the body, such as endometriosis and adenomyosis. I will in one of the following blogs, discuss these diseases in more detail.
PCOS
About 10% of all women in the Western world have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The diagnose requires that at least to out of three criterions are fulfilled:
- Irregular or seldom menstruation. Symptoms of too much testosterone, which will give increased hair growth on parts of the body where men naturally have hair growth, acne and too high levels of free testosterone or too low level of SHBG in the blood. The ovaries tend to have many cysts, which can be seen on an ultrasound.
- Women with PCOS often have a difficulty in getting pregnant, they have a higher risk of miscarriages and a tendency to develop diabetes (type 2) during pregnancy. I have during my 16 years of experience, had a lot of women with this statement and it`s a grateful task because changing their diet is very efficient. After two or three months with a new diet, they will most often get back their regular period and the other symptoms will disappear.
- For women who undergo egg donation, this way of eating will lower the tendency of miscarriage. This is because it will normalize a women’s weight, stabilize the blood sugar, lower the inflammation processes in the body and give a lot of good nutrients to the body end the growing fetus.
Good sources of carbohydrates
Most of the sources of carbohydrates should come from vegetables and beans, lentils. However once daily you can eat a small amount of rice or bread when eaten together with protein. Pasta should be something you almost always avoid or eat very small amount when eating it. Remember drinking vine or any alcohol to your food is adding a lot of carbohydrates to your meal.
Hidden carbohydrates
Most low-fat dairy products have very high content of carbohydrates. Most processed food like crackers, cakes pasta and bread have very high content of carbohydrates. Rice and potatoes in natural form are the next best sources of carbohydrates. These two sources are very good for children as they burn a lot more calories than adults, and therefore need more healthy carbohydrates.
No sugar products
Diet coke and such items are not giving any calories, however, they tend to lower a person's blood sugar which will result in more appetite. If you are having a tendency to low blood sugar you should be careful with such diet products. Also, children under the age of three are advised not to have any intake of such products.
