It is a fact that lifestyle and diet affect fertility, both male and female. Therefore, if you are looking for a baby, it is important that you take care of your eating habits in advance, as they can not only influence when conceiving and have a healthy pregnancy, but also affect the health of your future baby.
We have talked about nutrition in the preconception period with Elizabeth González, a nutritionist specializing in fertility, pregnancy and postpartum, and founder of Slow Nutrition. The specialist clarifies which foods negatively affect fertility and how the mother’s diet affects the baby , even years before becoming pregnant.
How poor diet affects a woman’s fertility
Poor diet affects the fertility of both men and women, but especially in the case of the latter, since inadequate nutrition not only affects female reproductive health, but also the proper development of pregnancy and pregnancy. baby’s health, both in the short term and in the very long term.
Elizabeth explains to us how, in the case of women, poor nutrition could affect the quality of the eggs and the ovarian reserve, produce imbalances in the hormonal cycle and aggravate pathologies related to a decrease in fertility, such as ovarian syndrome polycystic (PCOS), amenorrhea or endometriosis, among others.
In addition, studies also link the overweight and obesity of men and women with a decrease in fertility, and in the case of women, it also increases the risks during pregnancy.
Foods that should NOT be in your diet if you are looking for pregnancy
Although taking care of our diet should be a priority at any time in life , when we seek to become pregnant it should be with much more reason, since there is ample scientific evidence that a poor diet directly affects reproductive capacity.
Thus, among the foods that Elizabeth advises to always remove from the diet -but especially during the fertile period and pregnancy-, there are those that promote hyperinsulinemia, overweight and obesity and hormonal cycle disorders, such as:
- Negative or trans fats, present in industrial foods such as pastries, precooked foods and snacks.
- Refined cereals.
- Sugars, including syrups, molasses, syrups …
- Alcohol and tobacco
- In addition to completely removing these substances, the nutritionist also advises to moderate the consumption of red meat , since an excess of them in the diet also affects fertility
Foods that YES should be in your diet if you are looking for pregnancy
When a woman is having problems getting pregnant, Elizabeth not only recommends going to the gynecologist to rule out any pathology, but also having a nutritional approach with a professional specialized in fertility .
But although we must take into account the particularities of each woman, Elizabeth gives us a series of general advice when it comes to taking care of our diet in the fertile period :
- Choose foods whose ingredient labeling is as simple, brief and clear as possible , avoiding long, complex labels and ingredients that we do not know what they mean
- Avoid buying precooked foods and foods that contain additives
- Always use the foods that nature offers us: fruits, vegetables, eggs, legumes, nuts, seeds …
- Remember the importance of including in our diet foods that contain good quality fats, for an adequate fertile and hormonal cycle (for example, olive oil, avocado, eggs, seeds, blue fish …)
How to change the diet so that it is healthy?
But although we are all aware of the importance of taking care of what we eat and changing certain habits when they are not healthy, we also know that these changes are not always easy to make , especially if there are many aspects of our diet that we must modify.
If this is your case, Elizabeth offers us two great tips that can help you when it comes to focusing on change :
Know and understand that the mother’s diet will affect the life of her child
Any time in life is a good time to change our nutritional habits when they are not healthy, but it is important for a woman to understand how her diet influences the health of her child , even years before conception occurs. This is how the expert explains it:
- “We know that up to three or four years before a woman becomes pregnant , her way of eating will condition the genetic load that the future baby has, -even in her adulthood-, conditioning her health both positively and negatively. “ .
“In addition, a poor diet years before pregnancy will also make women have a greater predisposition to suffer metabolic diseases during pregnancy , such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity … thus affecting the course of pregnancy, their health and again , to the health of your child “
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If we get closer to the moment of conception, Elizabeth explains how the mother’s diet months before she becomes pregnant can affect the formation of the placenta, an essential organ for the pregnancy to develop correctly.
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And when conception has occurred, the mother’s nutrition will be key in those first weeks of pregnancy , in which environmental factors will determine whether or not the pregnancy continues and its proper development.
Seeking help from a nutritionist who specializes in fertility
Elizabeth’s second tip is to go to a nutritionist during fertility, as changes that are made in a guided way are always easier to undertake .
In addition, it is important to emphasize what we mentioned in the previous section, and that is that although in general there are foods that are considered beneficial to improve fertility, there may be specific cases in which not only are they not, but also harm health of the woman and make her fertility even worse.
It is for all this that the supervision and professional advice in nutrition will be key when it comes to achieving the much-desired pregnancy.
Photos | iStock
Acknowledgments | Elizabeth González, nutritionist specialized in fertility, pregnancy and postpartum, and founder of Slow Nutrition
In Babies and More | Vitamin D would have a fundamental role in improving fertility and preventing abortions, according to a study, One in two pregnant women has nutritional imbalances: the importance of taking care of yourself before, during and after pregnancy
