In Vitro Fertility Goddess

Fertility Diet & Infertility Diet

By Jodi Panayotov 

I've trawled the fertility books for miracle pregnancy secrets and there's a million of them, supporting the premise that it's incredibly hard to keep a secret.

Most of them going on and on about essentially the same things - fish oil, green tea, raspberry leaf tea, no alcohol, six items of leafy greens a day, folate supplements, Vitamin B1-100 etc. And smoking is out of the question.

No doubt smoking is linked with infertility, miscarriage, low birth weight, premature birth - everything you wish to avoid. There's even mention of kitchen spices that help to conceive early.

Why, then, does all the visible evidence point to the contrary? Why is it that if you sight a grossly overweight unhealthy looking woman with a cigarette in one hand and a trolley full of soft drinks, frozen pizza and potato chips, coming out of the supermarket, ninety percent of the time there will be a bunch of assorted offspring (at least two buried under the jumbo potato chip bags) accompanying her?

Why, if you enter any fast food franchise, do you discover the Treasurer's vision for the country - families with three or more young children tucking into burgers and fries and giant cokes with their clearly fertile parents who, by the way, usually have a cigarette packet protruding from a pocket or T-shirt sleeve?

If the books about conception diet are to be believed these people should be relegated to the bottom of the fertility pile. But they're not, and the statistics support it. The latest birth rate figures released show that the baby boom areas are precisely the areas inhabited by these people, the suburbs where fast food franchises rule and where fruit and vegetables are seen as a rarely affordable luxury.

So, what are we to summize from this? If all else fails move to a high fertility area (it worked for me), take up smoking, eat lots of burgers and fries and get your partner to adopt the hobby of adding spoilers and large exhaust pipes to his car. You may get lucky…

One a more serious note, there's compelling new research to come of Harvard University this year which offers some very interesting insights into the right diet to boost female fertility.

Harvard University researchers Jorge E. Chavarro, M.D., Walter C. Willett, M.D., and Patrick J. Skerrett surveyed more than 18,000 women who were trying to have babies over an eight year period. All these would-be mothers were taking part in the Nurses' Health Study which focused on the effects of diet and other factors on various conditions such as heart disease, cancer and other diseases.

What they discovered is that while most of the women surveyed were successful in their quest to have children, one in six had some kind of trouble falling pregnant, including hundreds who experienced ovulatory infertility which is a problem related to the maturation or release of a mature egg each month and accounts for at least one quarter of all cases of infertility.

Then researchers used this data to compare the successful pregnancies against the unsuccessful ones by analyzing diets, exercise habits and lifestyle choices.

And they then came up with the following recommendations:

- Eat Slow Digesting Carbohydrates, Not No Carbohydrates at All

The Nurses' Health Study revealed that women who ate easily digested carbohydrates (also know as fast carbs) such as sugared sodas, potatoes and white bread increased their odds of contracting ovulatory infertility.

However, those subjects who consumed slowly digested carbohydrates (slow carbs) which are rich in fiber found their fertility improved. These slow carbs include vegetables, whole fruits, dark breads, brown rice and beans.

In essence, the reason carbohydrates impact on fertility is because they determine the blood-sugar and insulin levels. When these rise to higher levels, they disrupt the hormones needed for reproduction and therefore disrupt ovulation leading to ovulatory infertility.

- Replace Trans Fats By Unsaturated Fats

Another key finding came from a closer look as to whether dietary fats influence ovulation and reproduction. It has long been known that body fat and energy stores affect reproduction. Women who don't have enough stored energy to sustain a pregnancy often have trouble ovulating. They are also know to stop menstruating altogether. Women who have too much stored energy often have difficulty conceiving for other reasons, many of which affect ovulation.

What the Harvard researchers found is that women who consume trans fats had more chances of suffering from ovulatory infertility than those who took in more unsaturated fats in their diet.

- Get More of Your Proteins from Plants than from Animals

Replacing beef, chicken and pork with the humble bean, peas, tofu or soybeans, peanuts or other nuts as the main source of protein intake also proved to have amazing results in improving women's fertility. The authors found that ovulatory infertility was 39 percent more likely in women with the highest intake of animal protein than in those with the lowest. And the reverse also applied: women with the highest intake of plant protein ended up much less likely to have had ovulatory infertility than women with the lowest plant protein intake.

- The Right Dairy Products

This might sound amazing but yes, ice cream is good for women trying to get conceive. What the Harvard study found is that a daily serving or two of whole milk and foods made from whole milk such as cottage cheese, full-fat yogurt and ice cream appears to offer some kind of protection against ovulatory infertility.

One the other had, low-fat and skim milk do the opposite and should be avoided.

In other words, the more full-fat dairy products in a woman's diet, the less likely she is to have problems getting pregnant.

- Having The Right Body Weight

There are many know research papers to date which stress that obesity or excess weight lowers the chances of a successful in vitro fertilization or other assisted reproductive procedure. The risk factors include a higher incidence of miscarriage, a higher chances of developing high blood pressure or diabetes during pregnancy and increases the odds of needing a Cesarean section. And some of those dangers also extend to women who are underweight and their babies.

A close analysis of the Nurses' Health Study report found that women with a higher or lower Body Mass Indexes or BMI were more likely to have had trouble with ovulatory infertility than women with BMIs of 20 to 24, with the ideal BMI sitting at 21. 

- Exercise!

While the researchers here weren't able to find a magic formula to apply to all women irrespective of their BIMs, the Nurses' Health Study did reveal a strong link between exercise and increased fertility.

The lack of exercise deprives muscles of their ability to efficiently absorb blood sugar and respond to insulin. And with excess blood sugar and insulin in the bloodstream, it jeopardizes ovulation, conception and pregnancy.

The researchers conclude that for most women seeking to become pregnant, at least 30 minutes of exercise each day is recommended. For those with a BMI in excess of 25, they may need to exercise for an hour or more daily. And for those who are lean with a BMI of 19 ort below, they should shoot for the middle of the exercise window over a period of a few months.

That said, out off all those fertility books I've "trawled" through (99% of which are absolute rubbish) there are a couple I'd like to recommend. First there's Stacey Roberts aka "The Baby Maker's" ground-breaking eBook ‘Herbs and IVF' available here » - I know deep in my heart that her fomulas helped me achieve my dream.  

Another excellent and instantly downloadable eBook on the topic is The Fertility Plan » 

I loved it at the time I was desparing about my own infertility and came to the same conclusion when I read an updated September 2008 version. It's basically a guide to overcoming infertility naturally, containing straight to the point, updated and well researched information on diet, sex life and really everything you need to know about achieving a natural pregnancy.

For more on this eBook click here » 

Jodi Panayotov