Are you thinking about trying for a baby? Then it is time to start thinking about your diet and lifestyle.
At Natural Fertility and Women’s Health we are passionate about the impact of early life nutrition on the health of your children. It is widely accepted that being exposed to positive influences such as a nutrient dense diet and plenty of exercise has a beneficial effect on pregnancy outcomes, while exposure to toxins and stress has the opposite effect. There is a whole field of research devoted to the study of prenatal nutrition on pregnancy called “epigenetics” or how your genes or your children’s genes are affected by your lifestyle choices or other exposures. Literally how you and your partner eat now, before you conceive and during pregnancy can influence not only the health of your children but your children’s children as well.
How you and your partner eat now will decide on your baby’s future health.
Pre pregnancy, some things may be out of your control such as genetics, age and family history. However your diet during and even before pregnancy may have a permanent imprint on your babies health, this is called ‘fetal programming” a scientific idea that proposes that poor nutrition during pregnancy can impair the development of your baby and have long term health consequences including increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and risk of being overweight. Most Interestingly the health and weight of the father may have a long-lasting effect on the health of his unborn child. We know that the children of overweight fathers have children with a greater risk of being overweight and sub fertile. In fact, recent research suggests that Males with excess body fat has a larger impact on baby’s weight long term than the mothers. In addition, eating a nutritious diet can significantly improve your fertility. In fact, a study at Harvard of 17000 women trying to conceive found that women who adopted a healthy diet and lifestyle over 8 months had a 69% reduced infertility rate – or put simply they became more fertile.
You need to adopt a healthy diet and lifestyle at least four months before you plan to conceive. This is because the final maturation of sperm and eggs takes place over four months. Try to think of the sperm and egg as being the genetic code for creating your baby. It is like a recipe book - they provide the recipe or blueprint for making your baby. This recipe will literally shape your baby’s health throughout its life ! so you really want to make sure you are making it with the finest ingredients.
What do you need to do to give your baby the best start ?
So now you know that eating the right foods could prevent your child from struggling with weight issues, obesity or developing diabetes or heart disease in their lifetime, are you prepared to make a different food choice?
If the answer is a big YES, then this is what should you focus on first:
1) Both the Male and Female should aim for a healthy body weight. Having too much or too little body fat (being over or underweight) can affect a women’s ability to have a healthy cycle.
2) Eat food with a lower glycemic index – Choose wholefoods and wholegrain.
3) Optimize your healthy fat ratios . Limit fats high in unhealthy fats such as chips, chocolate, deep fried foods and biscuits. Include plenty of healthy fats found in nuts, avocado, olive oil and fish.
4) Make sure your getting enough folic acid for your needs and in the right form before you conceive
5) Avoid Alcohol and smoking.
6) Research shows that the nutrients most lacking in the diets before pregnancy include.Vitamin A, B12, B6, Zinc, Iron, DHA, iodine and Choline. Make sure you have enough of these nutrients on a daily basis.
Although no diet can 100 % ensure you will become pregnant and have children with perfect health throughout their life, I do hope this article has shown you that it has a major impact and one that you as parents to be, can control. However, diet is not a one size fits all approach and if you have specific food intolerance, allergies or are a vegan or vegetarian you may need more tailor made guidelines. If you would like more individualized advice and help getting started with your preconception diet get in touch with one of our practitioners today.