Super Foods For Fertility – Eat To Conceive
Food has such a direct link between conception and health. If you are not eating foods that are nutrient dense then your reproductive system will be much more challenged. Foods runs our bodies……. in this country we mostly eat food for survival but not to flourish.
Is the produce you are eating loaded with fungicides, pesticides and other “cides”? Do you ever buy organic? How often? Have you ever heard of “the dirty dozen? The top produce that has the most pesticides in them? Usually the produce with thinner skins and peels such as peaches, strawberries absorb more pesticides.
What is a typical breakfast, lunch and dinner for you? Do you make your own food or do you always buy fast, processed or frozen food? How do you feel after you eat? Are you lethargic and ready for a nap or does it give you the energy to keep on going?
How can you “eat the rainbow” more… filling your plate with more colorful fruits and vegetables and reducing empty calories with things like white breads, white rice and white flour.
When you read the ingredients are they filled with chemicals? Making your own food is one of the most nourishing things you can do for yourself and it will have the side benefit of making your wallet happy as well.
Keep your wallet fat, not your waistline.
What is one choice you can make today about the food you eat that can become a habit? Can you eliminate the candy bar after lunch? Can you choose to buy mostly organic?
Can you incorporate a salad into your dinner every night? Can you order a side of vegetables instead of french fries when you eat out. If you are overweight or obese that will make getting pregnant more difficult. Do you need additional support to get down to a healthy pre-pregnancy weight?
Here are some specific nutrients that can boost your fertility health.
IODINE FOR FERTILITY
Iodine, a non metallic trace element, is required by our bodies for making thyroid hormones. As in, if you do not have enough iodine in your body you can not make enough thyroid hormones.
When our bodies are deficient in this element, it affects our thyroid, adrenals, and entire endocrine system. Not only is it important in a fertility diet, it’s essential in the prenatal and nursing period as well.
Infant mortality rates start to climb in areas known for iodine deficiency, and it’s also been linked to higher rates of miscarriage and still birth.
It used to be prevalent in our soil, but unfortunately we’ve destroyed so many of the nutrients with bad farming practices and chemicals that much of what we currently grow is lacking in key nutrients, iodine being one of them.
While it’s not found in our soil near as much, it is still prevalent in seafoods. Our bodies can not make it on their own, so you must consume iodine in your diet.
- Fruits and Vegetables grown by the sea, including coconut products
Blackstrap molasses - Saltwater fish; haddock, whiting, herring
- Butter from cows fed on iodine rich soil
- Dried Kelp
- Spinach
- Milk and dairy products (at least 20% of iodine is lost during pasteurization so raw is best)
- Eggs
What about Iodized salt?
(and while iodized salt is actually quite high in iodine, it’ can be rather hard for our bodies to assimilate)
The recommended RDA is a small 150 mcgs for women and increase to 220 when pregnant and 290 when nursing, but are you even eating foods that contain iodine in them?
On the other side of the deficiency coin, is that to much in your body isn’t a good thing either. And because iodine directly affects your thyroid and hormones it may be something you want to work with a health professional on.
OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS FOR FERTILITY
There are 3 different types of omega 3 fats; alpha-linolenic acid (ALA- plant based), eicosapentaenioc acid (EPA – animal based), and docosahexaenioc acid (DHA – animal based). Plant based ALA can be found in:
Super Foods For Fertility – Eat To Conceive
- Walnuts
- Chia Seeds
- Flaxseed
- Hemp
Animal based EPA and DHA can be found in:
- Egg yolks from pastured chickens {contain two to four times the amount of omega 3’s as conventional eggs and oily
- Coldwater fish like salmon, herring, tuna, cod, and trout
These healthy fats have been shown to help increase a womans fertility by regulating hormones and ovulation as well as increasing both the quantity of fertile cervical mucous and the blood flow to the reproductive organs.
It is also thought that these good fats help women who are suffering from endometriosis.¹
And a study done last year suggests that women suffering from infertility, on average, have lower levels of omega 3 fats.
Men who do not have enough omega 3’s in their system may have issues with sperm production since the DHA within these good fats help protect the sperm from free radicals and damage.
So, how often do you eat foods that are high in nutrients for increased fertility? Other the last few weeks we’ve looked at some of the many things our bodies need – where are you lacking?
