A friend wondered if the fertility diet is just to keep your body healthy (which houses the developing embryo) or whether it could also have an effect on the eggs themselves. The answer: good nutrition (along with other lifestyle factors, such as keeping stress low, and getting moderate exercise which aids with circulation to the reproductive area) certainly does impact the health of your eggs.
From an article in BellaOnline on healthy egg and sperm:
“While women are born with all the eggs they’ll ever have, those eggs are dormant until they begin the process of maturing for release, which is about 3 months in advance.”
…And when they begin that process, having access to healthy nutrients, and the overall health of your body (keeping stress at minimum, etc.) does make a difference in the health of your eggs.
It’s interesting to note that three months is about how long it takes for a body to fully adjust and respond to consistent changes in diet. Acupuncturists who specialize in aiding fertility also ask patients to give it at least three months to begin “working.”
Another important factor in healthy eggs is getting sufficient blood circulation to the reproductive area. I’ve touched on this before in another blog entry (see Feeding Your Lining). Moderate exercise can help; so can acupuncture. You can also check out this article on increasing the health of your eggs.
Bottom line once again: diet makes a difference! Here’s an excerpt from Philip E. Chenette, M.D. of Pacific Fertility Center, who wrote the Foreword to our book (The Fertile Kitchen ™ Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Optimizing Your Fertility): “…there is no doubt that every human is a product of a unique recipe in the form of DNA from the sperm and egg in combination with nutritional building blocks needed to interpret that recipe.” Those nutritional building blocks come from what we eat, and they are so important to embryonic development.
Happy holidays, and get ready to make a difference in your own fertility in the new year!
Photo by http://falloutofline.wordpress.com/2008/12/26/041-eggs/.
