Fertility of woman and man General Nutrition

Tips for Women…

It All Adds Up

Your oocytes are in your body since you were born and they have celebrated each and every birthday with you. They have also participated in everything that happened to your body, unfortunately also including all those little “sins” (smoking, alcohol, coffee). The good as well as the bad, it all adds up and influences oocyte quality.

Therefore it is important to make healthy choices well before pregnancy. Stop smoking and drug usage and reduce coffee and alcohol consumption, because it may diminish your chances of conceiving. Please try and avoid extremely distressing situations when possible. Sleeping sufficiently, exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy BMI will have a positive effect on your fertility. Nutrition has a major impact on fertility, too.

Fertility and Diet

Recent research has shown that there is a range of dietary choices that are beneficial for your fertility:

– avoid trans fats, which are found in any product containing hydrogenated vegetable oil, such as many solid margarines, most commercial baked goods and most fast foods

– instead eat more unsaturated fats, contained for example in premium vegetable oils, olive and canola oils, nuts and fatty fish such as tuna, salmon or herring

– eat more vegetable protein (think legumes and nuts) and less animal protein

– when it comes to carbohydrates, choose products with a low glycaemic index (whole grain products) rather than white rice, potatoes or white breads

– consume one to two servings of a full fat dairy product each day. Recent findings of the American Nurses’ Health Study suggest very strongly that this has a beneficial effect on fertility

– make sure you get enough iron (good sources include fruit, vegetables, beans, red meat is not recommendable)

– be aware of what you drink: water is ideal, coffee, tea and alcohol in moderate quantities won’t do any harm, but try to avoid sodas

Important Vitamins

It has long been known that folic acid plays a crucial role for a baby’s healthy development. Lack of folic acid has been associated with deformities such as spina bifida (split spine) and others. In addition to this there is a wide range of other vitamins and micronutrients that have been shown to contribute to conception and a healthy pregnancy.

Fertilovit® F

If you find it difficult to maintain healthy eating habits in everyday life, you might want to choose a suitable supplement to make sure your body gets all the micronutrients it needs. Fertilovit®F products are food supplements providing highly dosed folic acid as well as a complete preconceptional vitamin and mineral supply with one capsule a day. For those of you with special nutritional requirements, the Fertilovit® series offers a range of special dietetic products designed to meet the needs of women with thyroid autoimmunity, endometriosis, and polycystic ovarian syndrome. To learn more, visit http://www.fertilovit.com 

About the author

Dr. rer. nat. Birgit Wogatzky

For many years now, biologist and nutritionist Dr Birgit Wogatzky, has been focusing on the special needs of fertility patients. For the readers of this blog, she sums up interesting novel information and developments from current research projects regarding lifestyle and nutrition of fertility patients.

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