Can You Eat Your Way to Pregnancy?

Black Sesame Seeds Bars

This bar is easy to make and nutritious. According to Chinese Medicine, black sesame seeds, walnuts and wolfberries can help replenish the ‘essence’, which aids in reproduction, and delays the ‘aging’ process. This bar is also excellent for constipation.

Ingredients
Black Sesame Seeds: 1 lb
Maltose: 1 lb jar
Walnuts shelled: _ cup
Wolfberries: _ cup

Utensils
A large skillet
A greased cookie sheet
A wooden spoon

Preparation

In a large skillet, toast the black sesame seeds but be careful not to burn. Set aside. In the same skillet, melt maltose, stirring occasionally. Remove the skillet from the heat. Place the black sesame seeds, the walnuts and wolfberries into the melted maltose. Mix for about 5 minutes. Pour the mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. Wait 10 minutes or until cool enough to touch. Cut into 1" squares. Do not eat more than 4 pieces a day.

*Most reproductive endocrinologists discourage the use of herbs during a medicated cycle. This is because there is very little scientific data on the interaction between prescription fertility drugs and medicinal quality herbs. Herbs, however, can help restore the body to balance. During natural cycles, and between ART cycles, they can be very helpful if used under the proper guidance of a trained and licensed practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine. An herb or a formula that helps one woman get pregnant could actually impair another woman’s ability to conceive. Chinese herbology is extremely individualized.

(reprinted with permission from Pulling Down the Moon )

You know it's true, but you may not want to hear it.

If there is such a thing as a "fertility diet," it starts simply with the age-old parental wisdom called "eating right."

Especially in ambitious America, we'd like to think that there's a direct, how-to route to getting pregnant, and that's probably no more evident than in our thinking about nutrition. Which foods will enhance fertility? Which ones will stand in the way? It's not really that simple; the human body is just too complex. There are, however, some basic ideas and dietary practices that can optimize not only your chances of conceiving but also of having a successful pregnancy.

Common Sense

First, bear in mind that you're trying to 'optimize' your chances. To that end, beware of anyone who tells you that a certain food, herb, or supplement is just the ticket to help you get pregnant. Even in the most perfect of nutritional scenarios, there are still myriad potential causes of conception difficulty. However, even if you and your partner have conditions that absolutely warrant fertility treatment, like blocked fallopian tubes or severe male factor issues, beginning treatment with the healthiest body possible can, without a doubt, positively impact your chances. And there is virtually no such thing as a healthy body without good nutrition.

"Good" nutrition?

Just like you probably heard as a child -- eat your fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and drink lots of water. Try to eat foods that are steamed, stir-fried, and baked as opposed to pan-fried or deep-fried. Avoid too much of the "bad" stuff -- processed foods, sugar, salt, saturated and trans fats.

The keys are moderation and balance.

"But I heard that..."

Food folklore abounds, especially on the Internet where readers can't always be sure of who's doing the writing. Visit any online infertility community and you'll probably see at least a couple of discussions, if not an entire category of threads, devoted to herbal and nutrition-based therapies. Even well-meaning professionals can inadvertently lead eager patients astray unless they provide advice that is specifically tailored to each individual's needs.

"Even well-written information can be confusing for the layperson," explains Beth Heller, MS, co-director of Pulling Down the Moon, a holistic practice that combines the offerings of both Western and traditional healing paths. The result can sometimes be dangerous self-diagnosis by people who are desperate to try anything to have a baby. Heller says that unless these patients receive explicitly individualized and integrative counseling on food recommendations, implementation of the recommendations may not be balanced or healthy.

As an example, Heller offers, "Someone may say 'you should cut back on gluten' and the patient can easily go way off the deep end. You can end up with a diet that's absolutely inadequate and harmful for fertility."

Professional Guidance

That's where the services of a registered dietitian, such as Barbara Fine, RD, enter the picture. The RD can fine-tune recommendations from other practitioners, such as reproductive endocrinologists or acupuncturists.

"I think the RD's role is critical," Heller emphasizes. "It's very easy when you're going through infertility to take a guideline and run with it to the extreme."

Utilizing the services of an RD is as simple as an office consultation during which the patient's regular daily food intake is reviewed, recommendations from other professionals are discussed, and then an eating plan is devised that will be safe, foremost, and effective toward the patient's goals.

Meanwhile, In Everyday Life...

It may be safe to say that the majority of people would eat right more often if it seemed easier to fit into our lifestyles. When faced with the prospect of changing their diets, most people have uncomfortable visions of learning new food preparation techniques or adding foods that they just don't like to their daily meals.

"It's not easy to do," admits Heller, "but then again, for example, you read all the time about how important a high-fiber diet is, and yes it is, but it's so easy for women struggling with their weight to wind up eating nothing but salads and have an all fiber diet. And that's not necessarily good for fertility."

A fertility-focused RD could help you pinpoint how many grams of fiber are needed daily and just what that looks like in terms of food and its preparation -- and fit the plan into your lifestyle.

So, What Do We Eat?

From their integrative practice working with fertility patients and their physicians, Pulling Down the Moon has come up with some overall recommendations that anyone can use as a starting point. Briefly, they suggest:

1. Maintain a healthy body weight.
2. Eat a balanced diet.
3. Avoid exposure to dangerous mercury and PCBs by limiting your fatty fish intake (mackerel, tuna, shark, and farm-raised salmon, for example).
4. Try to eat organic produce and hormone-free meats.
5. Cook your foods with "nutrient-friendly" methods.
6. If you're staunchly vegetarian (not generally recommended for women trying to conceive), look to add more sources of healthy fats and proteins.
7. Women, take a prenatal vitamin.
8. Men, take an antioxidant formula supplement (see Supplementing Fertility).
9. Take an Omega-3 Fatty Acid supplement.
10. Women with symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) should be evaluated by their physician for celiac disease, which can be treated with a special diet. For more details on the above recommendations, please contact Pulling Down the Moon.

In his popular book, Conceptions & Misconceptions, Dr. Art Wisot of Reproductive Partners Medical Group in California zeroes in on some of the herbs that can actually have a contraceptive effect for women. If you're trying to get pregnant, you want to avoid:

  • ginger
  • cayenne
  • mother wort
  • black cohosh
  • extract of juniper berries
  • saffron
  • catnip
  • aloe
  • cinnamon
  • camellia
  • bee balm
  • penny oil
  • St. John’s Wort
  • extract of English ivy
  • Queen Anne’s lace

Additionally, says Wisot, sperm that has been exposed to echinacea and St. John's Wort showed DNA problems -- so men should avoid them.

On the plus side for men, antioxidant intake is proving more and more to be beneficial for sperm health. Some of the nutritional therapies listed by Wisot as possibly helpful are:

  • carnitine
  • arginine
  • zinc
  • selenium
  • vitamins B-12, C, E
  • glutathione
  • coenzyme Q10

Healing the Extremes

Women can feel especially sensitive to comments about their weight and fertility. Ample evidence exists to demonstrate that too much or too little body fat can disrupt ovulation. The combination of those two facts can make it difficult for a fertility practitioner to sufficiently communicate to some patients the need for weight management.

It may help for patients to take the perspective that weight is a reflection of your overall health. If there were any other health condition present that could stand in the way of getting pregnant and having a baby, input from professionals would be welcomed. The best part of hearing that weight is one of your fertility issues could be that it's ultimately more controllable than many other conditions.

It may also help patients to hear that there is no magical weight at which they must arrive before conceiving. According to Beth Heller, just a few pounds of change in the right direction could make a difference in fertility levels. "We see women who are practicing gentle exercise routines and working with a dietitian, and they're not experiencing medication-related weight gain. They feel a lot better about themselves because they feel like they have control over their bodies."

While there are some fertility-impacting health conditions (such as PCOS and endometriosis, to name a couple) that seem to be more directly affected by a woman's eating practices, it would be unsafe to suggest that all fertility patients can certainly benefit from any particular diet. Individuals with those conditions should follow monitored guidelines from their specialist.

Eat Like a Parent

For many people, changing their daily diet during pre-conception is their first step toward experiencing what it's like to be a parent, the daily give and take for someone else's well-being. People with healthy bodies feel better inside and out. People who feel good make better parents. Make do-able, lifelong changes to your own nutrition now, and your children will thank you later.