What to eat to increase fertility? Is anyone of you have a dream to fall in love and start a family when you reach certain stage of your life? When you have a steady relationship with your love one, i am sure you ever think of starting a family when both of you are ready. A perfect family definition is to have a man, a woman and a baby that makes three of you at first and later, more babies if you wish.
Nowadays, fertility can be a challenge when other factors such as age, lifestyle and environment come into play. If you wish to have a baby after your “honey-moon” period, this is an article for you.
What to eat to increase fertility?
Lifestyle can be one of the factors causing infertility. Many people make lifestyles choices such as regular intake of junk foods or processed foods, smoking, drinking alcohol, late night partying etc and these habits or lifestyles without realizing it, may have effects on their fertility later in life.
Many people have only noticed the effect once they are going to start a family and starting to figure out these years of poor habits are causing their fertility problem. Let bygones be bygones. How can we rectify this?
Make appointment with your doctor for checkup
First of all, both of you need to make appointment to pay your doctor a visit to have a body check up. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) defines infertility as the failure to conceive after one or more years of attempts of natural fertilization.
Doctor will get all your history data and analyze to your infertility causes and propose a treatment for either one of you or both of you. The most common one we have heard about is the in-vitro fertilization (IVF). It is a fertility process done in a laboratory where egg and sperm are combined outside the body. The embryo will then be placed into woman’s uterus to establish smooth pregnancy. It is one of the alternative methods to have your own children, the cost is expensive and may not be affordable for some people. The successful rate is not 100% either.
Diet
Food can be a major factor to increase the chance of conceiving, improve both reproductive efficiency for male and female. Proper nutrition prior to the pregnancy is able to improve chances of healthy ovulation and conception up to 80%!
In fact, in some studies about Nutrition and female fertility: Interdependent correlation study has shown healthy foods intake can indeed increase 40% of the chances of pregnancy outcome by IVF intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
Maintain your BMI (body mass index) is the key factor in your fertility. Eating healthy food and regular exercise to maintain your BMI (between 18.5-25) can prime your body for a successful pregnancy.
Let’s us read more to find out what to eat to increase fertility.
Eating healthy for healthy fertility
This is the best treatment for couples who are planning to conceive and it does not cost you a fortune to do it but you may need to change some old lifestyle to make it happen.
Adopt “Mediterranean Diet“, a healthy eating plan which are high in amount of legumes, vegetables and fruits, olive oil, unrefined cereals, moderate to high consumption of fish, moderate consumption of dairy product such as cheese and yogurt, moderate wine consumption and low intake of meat. This diet plan has shown positive outcome on better IVF performance.
Eating at least 2-3 times a day antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables. Choose variety colors fruits and vegetables include orange, green and red. They are high in free-radicals vitamin C and E, folic acid, selenium and zinc which will provide you with the micro nutrients your body need to produce healthy eggs and support a healthy pregnancy.
Take just enough of your daily requirement of carbohydrate source such as wholegrain bread, pasta, cereals, rice and aim for one serving per meal. Wholegrain bread is better than white bread as it is rich in fibre and able to keep your hormone and blood sugar in check.
Reduce your intake of animal protein such as red meat. You can replace the animal protein to vegetable protein such as dried nuts, pulse and legumes. Take 2-3 times a day. Avoid chicken which is high in hormones and antibiotics. Choose free range sources as possible.
Dairy product such as milk, cheese and yogurt can be your choice of calcium source. Take full fat milk instead of low fat milk for better chances of getting pregnant. Look for low sugar content and fresh milk for healthy reason.
As for protein source, consume diet rich in fish. Oily fish such as salmon, sardine, tuna, anchovies are rich in omega fatty acid. Essential fatty acids are the building block of hormones and they are also known to improve fertility and successful pregnancy. Avoid large deep water fish as they may contain toxic mercury which is harmful to our body. Choose wild, cold water fish instead of farm fish as they may contain antibiotics and pollutants.
Reduce intake of foods contain soy such as soy milk and bean curds products as they contain phytoestrogen which may disrupt your fertility cycle.
Lastly, intake sufficient of essential vitamin such as folic acid during the preconception period until the first trimester of pregnancy. Supplementing folic acid during the preconception period is to prevent some birth defects such as NTDs (neural tube defects). Take 400-500microgram daily as recommended by the Health professional.
Related post : “Tips on how to conceive“, “Best fertility supplement”. Click to read more.
Conclusion
Implementing good healthy diet plan and maintain healthy lifestyle are the keys one in order to get pregnant fast. Supplementing essential vitamin and mineral such as Vitamin D, iron, iodine etc helps prepare your body for better conception, ovulation and pregnancy.
Read more about “Best fertility supplement“.
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