12 Tips for Better Nutrition & Healthier Cycles
Small Changes for Better Fertility
By Melissa Gorley, FSI Coach and Staff Writer with excerpts from Marilyn Shannon and Recipe from Amanda Rohwedder of Temple and Table.
1.Make protein the foundation of your meals.
A diet rich in protein foods, vegetables, fruits, and grains, without sugary junk food, will naturally tend to stabilize blood sugar.
2. Eat plenty of whole plant foods: grains, beans, nuts, vegetables, seeds and fruits.
Macronutrients: A Mediterranean diet high in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, with olive oil as the main fat source, and low in meat and dairy (except fermented dairy) has been shown to result in couples who are 44% less likely to have difficulty conceiving naturally.
3. Choose healthy fats and oils.
Sufficient body fat in women is absolutely essential for healthy fertility cycles. Avoiding trans fats may improve your cycles or fertility, as research has shown that intake of trans fats contributes to endometriosis and infertility.
4. Substitute more nutritious ingredients for less nutritious ingredients in your favorite recipes.
Eaten raw, veggies and fruits have a crispness gives you something enjoyable to munch on instead of packaged chips or pretzels. Nuts and seeds, with their proteins and natural fats, are a satisfying substitute for chips and dips as well.
5. Eat a greater variety of foods (but avoid foods you are sensitive to).
This is particularly helpful if you are concerned about unwanted additives or toxins that may be in foods that you buy. Not only will you get more vitamins and minerals, but you will also limit your exposure to what you are trying to avoid.
6 . Sharply limit your sugar intake.
Attempt to overcome hypoglycemia and sugar cravings with regularly timed meals of whole plant and animal foods and appropriate supplements.
7. Drink plenty of pure water instead of soft drinks and beverages.
Daily drinking of sugary sodas has been linked to infertility in women. Even artificially sweetened drinks have been implicated in weight gain, increased blood glucose, and increased insulin.
8. Boost your ability to digest your food.
Diets high in processed foods have been linked to a higher risk of digestive disorders. Increased fiber intakes can also improve digestion.
9. Make your meals tasty and simple.
The ideal cookbook should use all natural ingredients; it should provide lots of options so that recipes can be adapted to your taste or pantry supplies; it should cover a wide variety of nutritious foods; it should contain mostly quick and easy recipes; and every single recipe must be delicious!
10. Make good choices when you eat away from home. Vitamins can help!
Micronutrients: The multivitamin Fertility Blend has improved rates of conception in women with infertility: 26% conceived within 3 months, compared to 10% of women taking the placebo in a double-blind study involving 53 infertile women.
11. Enlist your family’s cooperation.
Make no mistake about it—if your spouse or children rebel at your efforts to improve the family’s nutrition, it’s an uphill battle.
12 . Use the 80–20 rule.
Eat nutritious foods 80 percent of the time and have a serving of your favorite treat with the other 20 percent!
New Recipe! Apple Cider Vinaigrette: Your New Go-To Salad Dressing and Marinade
The proven benefits of apple cider vinegar are many including its help lowering blood sugar levels, an important step for hormone health. It also kills harmful bacteria and supports heart and skin health, while being plant based and low calorie. This is the kind of simple whole food that busy women pursuing hormone health want to embrace. A collection of easy and healthy recipes like this one makes for many small changes that add up to healthy and easy meal planning over the course of a week.
Gathering good- good for you and good tasting- recipes makes daily food prep simple, nutritious, and fast. Amanda Rohwedder of Temple + Table shares a tasty Apple Cider Vinaigrette recipe:
Apple Cider Vinaigrette ¼ C apple cider vinegar ½ C olive oil 2 generous pinches of salt Add the three ingredients together in a mason jar and shake she instructs. It can be kept in the fridge.
Amanda created a quick video with this recipe that can be watched on Youtube here.
Taken from M. Shannon, Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition 5th ed., 144.