I know I talk about it all the time, but a good diet, and I mean a good diet (not half hearted, I am trying to do it diet), can actually assist with increased fertility and pregnancy rates
Every day I get people ask me “What can I do to increase my fertility and my chances of pregnancy?”
Well, I always say “How long is a piece of string?”
While there are many things that people can do to increase their chances of a pregnancy, one important thing is starting with a good diet. That is one thing “You” are solely responsible for and something can do for yourself. This is for the couple too. Not just the woman.
Healthy couples produce healthy babies. That means health men produce healthy sperm and healthy women produce healthy eggs and the combination creates healthy embryos that go on to become healthy babies. It really is a fact. Even for same sex couples, a partner should be supporting their other half in the journey and at the end of the day a healthy diet is going to help everyone live longer to enjoy their children later on, and hopefully grandchildren too.
Obviously there is a lot more to it, and why in my fertility program I cover “everything” for the couple, but this is one way to ensure your body is ready to have a baby. This is also part of my PACE (Primal, Ancestral, Clean Eating) diet that I have formulated.
Recent studies have shown that when the bad carbohydrates (see below) are removed and the protein increased, that the clinic pregnancy rates shot up by 80%. Yes… a massive 80%
Let me explain what bad carbs are. They are:
Refined grains, refined sugars, refined flour products, breads (gluten free included), pastries, heavily processed foods etc. Anything highly refined and man made and highly processed.
Good carbs are the following:
Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, fresh salads, sweet potato etc, and basically any carbohydrate that is not highly processed and man made.
Decreasing bad carbs and increasing protein increases embryo quality
The other thing that is important is that eating this way also improved the embryo quality. Blastocyst development was higher in the high-protein group than in the low-protein group (64% vs 33.8%), as were clinical pregnancy rates (66.6% vs 31.9%) and live birth rates (58.3% vs 11.3%). (1)
Reducing carbohydrates and boosting protein intake can significantly improve a woman’s and couples chance of conception and birth according to the research presented at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) several years ago.
The effect is “at the egg level,” said lead investigator. He presented the findings here at American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 61st Annual Clinical Meeting.
Refined Carbohydrate-loaded diets create a hostile egg and embryo environment even before conception or implantation, he explained.
“Eggs and embryos are not going to do well in a high-glucose environment.” By lowering carbs and increasing protein, “you’re bathing your egg in good, healthy, nutritious supplements,” he said.
These studies demonstrate how little many in the reproductive medicine and fertility profession know about the effect of micronutrients in our diets on various aspects of reproduction.
These studies demonstrate a field wide open for future research and shows how bad carbohydrates (refined grains, refined sugars etc) have an inflammatory effect that affects fertility and pregnancy outcomes and also detrimental to IVF outcomes.
This is why I always promote a grain free, primal based diet (PACE Diet) to all of my patients, especially my fertility and gynaecology patients. It is an essential part of my fertility program. If you do want to find out more about my fertility program, please give my friendly staff a call.
Regards
Andrew Orr
-No Stone Left Unturned
-Women’s and Men’s Health Advocate
-The International Fertility Experts
References
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2012.07.849