Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Well, it might not be such a far-fetched idea. More scientists, researchers and public health officials believe now than ever before that nutrition plays a larger role not only in the health of an unborn baby, but in a woman's odds of even conceiving the baby.
Research, in fact, is finally aimed in this direction to determine just how large of a role proper nutrition and health eating habits have.
Recently, the well-respected research project, The Nurses Health Study, sponsored by the Harvard School of Public Health, examined nearly 19,000 female nurses. All were actually trying to get pregnant. The study looked at the diets and the eventual ability to conceive. The goal was to find a nutritional link to fertility.
Some clear patterns emerged that you need to know about -- and follow! The first is that the nurses who did eventually get pregnant were more likely to be taking a multiple vitamin supplement which included folic acid, a member of the B-complex of vitamins.
While the benefits of taking folic acid during a pregnancy have long been known, this is the first time it's been suggested that the B-vitamin might be of value in order to get pregnant. Folic acid deficiency is associated with an increased risk of the birth defect spinal bifida.
Similarly, those nurses who consumed foods rich in iron also ended up conceiving. Here, though, there's a catch, as it were. Their conception, believe it or not, depended in large part on the source of the iron. The women who were most likely to conceive received their iron from fruits, vegetables and beans.
Iron derived from red meat or processed foods actually appeared to decrease the odds of a woman getting pregnant -- at least for these particular women in the study.
Even iron received through supplementation improved the odds of a pregnancy more than iron received through the consumption of meat.
Now, here's the real news, though. It really does matter for your overall well-being what types of fats you consume. Think trans-fats only affect your heart? Well, think again!
Those commercial cookies you've been eating? Those innocent appearing doughnuts at work that get passed around so freely? They may very well be the source of your infertility. Well, at least a partial cause.
This study found that women with the highest consumption of trans-fatty acids were also the ones struggling most with infertility.
According to one of the researchers on the study, Jorge Chavarro, woman should consume as little trans-fat as possible. He recommends no more than 2 grams a day. Ideally, he added, the goal is no trans-fat, but in considering the average lifestyle in our society as well as the proliferation of fast foods and processed, packaged and convenience foods, that would be difficult.
But why would trans-fat cause infertility?
Ah! Her again we run into that two-word phrase we've spoken about earlier: insulin resistance. According to Chavarro, women with either insulin resistance or diabetes are more likely to experience regular ovulation. And you're now well aware that it's a key component to fertility.
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