Eating for fertility

We often hear a lot about "eating for two" and eating well in order to have a healthy baby. And while there is no doubt that this is important, we rarely hear about the importance of eating a healthy diet to support fertility. In the past, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and other elders would pass down their knowledge about what foods would support fertility and a healthy baby. Around the world, it has been traditional for parents-to-be, pregnant women, nursing women, and growing children to eat special or "sacred" foods. These foods often included butter, liver, egg yolks, and seafood, especially fish liver and eggs. Dairy (cream and butter) and seafood were common fertility foods in traditional cultures. Modern science proves what older generations and traditional peoples instinctively knew: these foods provide essential nutrients to support conception. A woman cannot conceive without adequate quantities of vitamins A and D, iodine, and omega-3 fats. Grass-fed dairy provides all four, especially the fat-soluble vitamins, and seafood offers omega-3 fats and iodine. While our modern culture tends to focus almost exclusively on the woman's health, these special foods were meant for BOTH parents-to-be. Special foods were considered very important for men as well as for women.

Dr. Weston A. Price, a Cleveland dentist who traveled the world in the 1930s studying traditional peoples and their diets, documented fertility foods amongst a diversity of cultures. In his book, "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration," he wrote about the stellar health of isolated non-industrialized people who only ate real, unprocessed, and nutrient-dense foods. Price studied their teeth and general health. He found that all traditional societies consciously made provisions to ensure healthy future generations. Price noted that "Many (so-called) primitive people have understood the necessity for special foods before marriage, during gestation, during the nursing period and for rebuilding before the next pregnancy." In Kenya, the Maasai only allowed women to marry when the cows were eating fresh green grass so as to ensure the best quality milk. In Swiss villages, spring-grass butter was the special food for fertility. Peruvian tribes high in the Andes Mountains made long journeys to secure kelp and roe (fish eggs) to support fertility and healthy babies.

So what's the point of knowing the diets of traditional cultures and the work of Dr. Weston A. Price? It offers important lessons for modern women and couples who are seeking to have a child. In order to support fertility and a healthy baby, pay very close attention to your diet. It's crucial to stop eating processed and refined foods such as sugar, candy, chips, artificial sweeteners, and white flour, and start eating lots of real, whole foods - including pasture raised and grass-fed meat, wild seafood, healthy fats, pasture raised eggs, and organic vegetables and fruits. Even if you are not planning to have a child soon, it's never too early to start on a healthy diet for fertility and pregnancy.