Foods that help fertility

Yet reversing Deena's infertility was no more high-tech than knowing which foods to eat and when. "The simplest treatment is to control your carbs, increase your protein, lose weight and get exercise," says Dr. Yaakov Bentov, a research fellow at the Toronto Centre for Advanced Reproductive Technology. "It's the least expensive option, and it's proven to be effective."

And then some. During a 1998 clinical trial, Australian researchers put 67 anovulatory women on a diet to lose around 22 pounds each. Within five months, 90 per cent were ovulating regularly. Of those, 32 per cent became pregnant and another 40 per cent conceived with additional treatments by a fertility specialist. In short, as the women lost weight, their bodies stopped overproducing insulin and testosterone; their cycles returned to normal, and so did their chances of getting pregnant.

Watch what you eat
Not that Deena floated effortlessly from frustrated to fruitful overnight. She first needed to learn to eat differently, following a strict 1:1 ratio of complex carbohydrates to lean protein with every bite. "Balancing the daily protein intake with an equal amount
of carbs, gram for gram, while keeping starchy carbs to a minimum has been shown to be the lowest stimulus for insulin secretion," says Groll in his book, Fertility Foods: Optimize Ovulation and Conception Through Food Choices (Fireside, 2006). It's
this even balance at each meal that keeps insulin from getting in the way of ovulation and implantation, he adds.

But for carb-loving Deena, it was a bit tougher than just crossing the street to avoid the patisserie. Groll had put her on a daily diet of 70 grams of protein (he typically recommends between 60 and 80 grams daily), an equal number of carbohydrates and 35 grams of fat, or half the protein intake. "While it was hard to get that much protein into my diet," she recalls, "my carb intake was four times too high." But within two weeks, she had "turned into a label reader" and learned to add up grams by using nutritional information on food packages. She loaded her diet with fruit, vegetables and fibre-rich complex carbohydrates such as whole wheat bread, along with fertility foods such as olive oil and cinnamon. She also kept her daily food and exercise totals in a journal. "I read my journal to Jeff at night," she says, giggling. "He wasn't that interested, but the accountability was really helpful."

But it's not just what you eat that counts; it's when you eat it. Three main meals plus a morning or afternoon and evening snack should be spaced three to four hours apart (similar to the schedule of a person with diabetes) to manage blood sugar and appetite, explains Susie Langley, a registered dietitian at Create IVF Clinic and the Sunnybrook and Women's College Hospital Fertility Centre in Toronto.

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