5 Fertility Decreasing Foods to Avoid:
1) Sugar, soda & pasteurized juices:
Pasteurized juices such as bottled apple juice, orange juice, and other bottled fruit juices contain concentrated sugar, which can throw off your blood sugar levels and negatively effect your immune system and hormonal balance. Also avoid any processed/refined and artificial sugars. Some great alternatives are stevia, raw honey, coconut sugar and maple syrup.
2) Caffeine
Studies have shown that caffeine can affect your hormonal balance, increase your chances of a miscarriage and prevent you from ovulating.
3) Soy Foods
Soy foods have been shown to contain estrogen mimicking properties. It is best to avoid processed soy foods such as soy milk, soy burgers, soy protein powder, soy chips, soy meats, and soy cheeses to avoid a negative impact on your hormonal balance. Both men and women are affected by soy.
4) GMO Foods
Genetically Modified foods are becoming a real problem when it comes to fertility, causing an influx in worldwide infertility rates. Since the 1970’s alone, sperm counts among the world’s male population have declined as much as 40-50%, according to some studies. GMO foods may be one of the reasons. Look for the non-GMO verified label (see right) on foods you purchase and choose organic foods when you can.
5) Fat-Free Foods
Foods which are altered to be reduced in fat or fat-free are highly processed and high in sugar. When choosing foods always chose the foods as nature intended. Full fat yoghurt is one example that was shown in a study (Human Reproduction) to increase fertility over the fat-reduced options. Again, fat is what our bodies needs to produce hormones.
How to Eat a Natural Fertility Diet:
Below is a daily and weekly food check list to help you get started.
Don’t feel overwhelmed. If need be, make one change at a time!
Daily
1 Serving Dark Leafy Green Vegetable
1 Fresh Vegetable Juice (12+ oz) or 2 Servings of Vegetables (think colorful)
1 Serving EFA Rich Food
1 Serving of Nuts
1-3 Servings of Fruits
1 Serving of a Fertility Superfood
Use Coconut Oil/Butter daily
Whole Grains
Water
Weekly
Lentils or Beans 2x a week
Fish - 3 servings a week
Example Menu:
Waking: 1 quart water
Breakfast: Ultimate Green Smoothie (w/banan, dates, protein powder, greens powder, maca & milk of choice) + Oatmeal/Porridge with seeds and nuts.
Snack: Berries
Lunch: Veggie stir-fry w/rice and sesame seeds on top
Snack: Green juice w/celery, spinach, apple, ginger, cucumber
Dinner: lentils & broccoli stew
Dessert: NONE
Tips and Tricks…Veggies
A tip for getting a ton of veggies and green leafy veggies into your diet is to juice. By juicing you are able to get an abundant amount of vegetables (more than you could eat) in an easy, fast, and tasty form. If you get in one large green juice per day you are getting your servings of veggies easily taken care of.
Dark leafy greens
The two best ways to get more dark leafy greens into your diet, especially if you don’t like them or eat them yet, is to add them to your smoothies or juice. If you add some spinach or kale to your smoothie you will not even taste it.
Another tip is to use butter or coconut oil when cooking dark leafy greens, it makes all the difference in the world. If you have hypothyroidism make sure to only eat your greens steamed.
Fruit
A favourite way to get servings of fruit in the day is to drink a fertility smoothie. You can toss in your favourite antioxidant rich fruits with some other ingredients and fertility superfoods and you have easily taken care of your fruit, nuts/oils and some protein for the day.
Nuts
Make a trail mix combining the most important fertility nuts and seeds. You can also add nuts to your smoothies, make nut milks and add nuts to your oatmeal and cookies.
Lentils and beans
Experiment with making hummus with various types of beans, especially lentils. You can also make a lentil curry or stew or even sprout them. I have also seen beans used in cake and brownie recipes. So many ways to work with this legumes and they are so tasty too.
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