Preconception Fertility Diet
Good Nutrition Begins Now

No one can deny the benefits of good nutrition. A preconception fertility diet is vital to get your body and reproductive organs healthy and in-tune. The better your health before you conceive the better the outcomes will be.

It's important to start as soon as you decide to try to conceive. This gives you time to maximize the benefits and to minimize the complications. It also gives you time to eliminate from your body the impurities and toxic build-up of certain chemicals and such that are a result of bad eating habits (see fertility cleanse.)

Simple diet changes now can...

• greatly increase fertility and chances of getting pregnant
• help you get pregnant faster
• reduce complications during pregnancy
• decrease odds of birth defects
• help correct luteal phase defect (short luteal phase)

The object is to increase the nutritional value of the foods you eat and to eliminate those that have little or no nutritional value and that may have negative impacts, such as chips, cake, soda, coffee, etc.. If you are like me, you'll find that certain foods and drinks are hard to give up; caffeine, sweets, etc. Try to experiment with different foods and drinks from the checklist and stick with what works for you. For example: Exchange your morning coffee for an invigorating herbal tea mix.

Preconception Fertility Diet Checklist

• Water: Drink at least 10 cups of water throughout the day
• Raw fruits and vegetables: at least one large salad per day. Also, smoothies are a great way to get vegetables that we don't like into our diet. Mix a half a cup or so of spinach, avacodo, or carrots, etc into your favorite smoothie recipe, you won't taste it.
• Snacks: raw, unsalted almonds, sunflower seeds,
• organic:
• complex carbs: whole grains, fruits, nuts, legumes, vegetables
• essential fatty acids: Omega-3s, found in salmon, flaxseed, soybeans, and walnuts, low-mercury fish, such as shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, or catfish, flaxseed oil
• unsaturated fats: olive oil or canola oil
• whole milk: yogurt, cheese, ice cream: Eat whole milk products once a day and avoid low-fat products. A recent US study found that women who consumed a lot of low-fat dairy products, such as skimmed milk, were almost twice as likely to suffer fertility problems as those who did not.

Foods to limit

• preservatives chemicals: artificial sweeteners
• caffeine:
• simple carbs: sugar, high fructose corn syrup, refined flour, potatoes, white rice, pasta, etc
• all trans fats: fried foods, cakes, pastries, and chips, commercially prepared products and fast foods.
• low-fat products: these usually have added ingredients to compensate for taste, such as high salt content and deminished nutrtional value..

It's also important take supplements because no matter how well you may think you are eating, there is always something that is missing, or that you don't get enough of, depending on what you like and dislike or the choices that you make.

A good multi-vitamin or prenatal vitamin along with a well-balanced fertility diet are a good way to get the complete nutrition that you and your baby need.

Related pages

Fertility Cleanse | Fertility Herbs | Folic Acid | Ways to Increase Fertility Naturally | How Long to Get Pregnant? | Tips for Getting Pregnant | Weight and Fertility | Luteal Phase Defect |