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| Can a 'special diet' increase fertility in women and men? |
If you go to any reproductive health chat room online, the main topic of discussion will be what foods to eat to increase your chances of getting pregnant.
In addition to reproductive health supplements, some foods are believed to help achieve a healthy pregnancy.
Despite the hype and all the marketing, what is the real evidence that eating certain foods can improve reproductive health in men and women and help the fetus develop?
Certain nutrients, such as folic acid, may be helpful for a healthy pregnancy and fetal development. Taking folic acid before and during pregnancy can help protect the baby's brain and spinal cord from possible damage.
Defects such as the brain and spinal cord can occur in the early days of pregnancy and often occur before the woman is even aware that she is pregnant (ie, the very early days of pregnancy or the first month). That's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States recommends that all women of reproductive age consume 400 micrograms of folic acid daily.
Adding folic acid to your daily diet may be safer because most pregnancies are unplanned.
According to an estimate, 22% of cases of brain and spinal cord injuries were avoided worldwide in 2019 thanks to such effective daily food programs.
Folic acid may also have additional benefits: taking it by women who want to get pregnant increases their chances of conceiving, although more experiments are needed to confirm this.
But are there other foods and supplements besides folic acid? Is there such a thing as a 'diet for reproductive health', which can increase the chances of conceiving?
Finding the answer to this question also helps us to know the causes of infertility.
15% of couples in the US do not get pregnant after a year of unprotected sex, and this can be for several reasons. In the case of women, it may happen that the ovaries are not able to produce healthy eggs or the egg is not able to move from the ovary to the uterus.
Even if the egg successfully completes this journey, it may not attach to the lining of the uterus (womb) or survive once attached.
In the case of men, the quality of sperm cells is extremely important for reproductive health. This includes sperm count, size, shape, and motility.
Many other factors, including environmental factors, can affect sperm quality, but the cause of infertility is not always clear even after a test: in 15 percent of infertility cases, the cause remains unclear.
However, no particular diet or supplement is a quick fix for infertility and any of the potential problems associated with it, but experts say diet can play a huge role in trying to conceive and beyond.
It is clear that eating a good diet is extremely important and the consequences of lacking an adequate diet can be disastrous.
A study of pregnancies and the resulting babies born during the so-called 'Dutch Hunger Winter' in 1944 and its results give us an explanation: During this eight-month famine, the Nazis started World War II. At the end of, the food supply in the Netherlands stopped. At the time, pregnant women were surviving on just 400 calories a day.
Children born during this period suffered from various health problems and were shorter, thinner, and had smaller heads than those born before or after them.
When these children grew up, diseases like obesity, diabetes, and schizophrenia were observed in them, in addition to a tendency to die at an earlier age.
For people who have access to food, it is still important to consume the right and adequate food. Although the benefits of diet are often discussed in the context of women's reproductive health, there is a growing awareness that diet also affects men's reproductive health.
A 2015 study of couples undergoing IVF found that men who ate meat had different results. Eating more poultry products had positive effects on the growth rate, while processed meats (such as sausages and bacon) had negative effects.
Men who ate the least amount of processed meat, an average of 1.5 times a week, had an 82 percent chance of conceiving with their partner, compared to only 54 percent for those who ate processed meat an average of 4.3 times a week. was
"Men's health and diet are overlooked but important when it comes to reproductive health," says study author Shelley Wilkinson of the University of Queensland. It can also affect the health of male grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Shelley Wilkinson also works at Lifestyle Maternity, a private reproductive health support clinic in Australia. She also highlights the importance of dealing with problems faced by couples.
They"If one person is following dietary guidelines, chances are the other person will too," she says. We need to focus on healthy changes in women as well as men. Otherwise, we will lose half the war.
An effective change may be to increase the amount of healthy fats in the diet. Healthy fats can be found in nuts, seeds, salmon (a type of fish), avocados, and olive oil, but fats found in fried foods, donuts, and other processed foods pose a greater risk of obesity.
Plant-based foods may also be more beneficial. The Harvard School of Public Health examined the diets of 18,555 women who tried to become pregnant or became pregnant for eight years.
The study found that consuming more plant-based proteins such as pulses instead of red meat (beef and goat meat) reduced the chance of ovarian cysts by 50 percent.
The authors of a 2021 review of research on the relationship between diet and women's reproductive health concluded that "diet and the way we eat it are undoubtedly important to the reproductive health of men and women."
The researchers provided a detailed review of individual nutrients and foods that contain these nutrients. They also emphasized the importance of including obstetricians in the care of couples planning pregnancy, among other things.
The researchers' summary recommended vegetables, fruits, whole-grain pasta and bread (for carbohydrates), fish, beans, eggs, and lean meats for protein.
The researchers also pointed out the importance of certain nutrients, which can sometimes be overlooked: This includes iodine, which helps the proper development of the fetus and the thyroid of the expectant mother.
Advice on alcohol remained clear and consistent throughout the study, stating that there is no safe amount of alcohol to drink during pregnancy or while trying to conceive. This includes all forms of alcohol including wine and beer. The advice in this regard is to avoid it completely.
If you have any concerns or questions about how your diet may affect your reproductive health, consult your doctor and learn where many foods can contribute positively to your reproductive health. The benefits of such food should not be exaggerated.
Infertility and its causes is a very complex matter. Obsessing over one's diet can cause unnecessary stress, as well as feelings of shame and regret.
People trying to conceive need to understand that this problem cannot be solved by eating or not eating one thing.
Shelley Wilkinson says that people with reproductive health problems are often looking for a single food that can improve their reproductive health, but it's better to make their eating habits healthier overall.
'Pineapple is talked about a lot in online reproductive health chat rooms. Like if you're trying to get pregnant, it's a magic fruit, but there's no single food or supplement that works like that.