If you plan to start trying to conceive in the next 6 months, here are 5 preconception nutrition practices to start now in order to promote fertility and prepare for pregnancy.
5 Preconception Nutrition Tips to Promote Fertility
Many of us are familiar with some of the dietary changes that we want to make during pregnancy. Avoiding deli meats, skipping out on sushi and limiting caffeine likely all sound familiar. But what we don’t discuss quite enough is the onramp leading up to pregnancy. Taking care of our bodies while we’re carrying a pregnancy is so important, but we should also start laying the groundwork for a healthy pregnancy before we even start trying to conceive.
Of course it’s our natural inclination to want to take good care of our bodies while we’re nourishing the development of a growing baby during pregnancy, but what what if we zoomed out and also considered how we’re nourishing ourselves prior to pregnancy so that we can start pregnancy off with a healthy environment for our baby to grow within?
Not only can nutrition be a powerful tool to help foster a nourishing environment for our baby to grow in for 40 weeks, but how you eat also significantly impacts your fertility. Many of my clients who have struggled with infertility come to realize through our work together that they’ve been chronically undereating and not nourishing themselves in a way that supports their hormonal function. These issues can create a stressful environment, which is not optimal for a pregnancy. If we’re not nourishing our own bodies in a way that allows it to function properly, how can we expect our baby to support a growing human? As a women’s health expert specializing in fertility, the approach we take here with food is multifaceted – focusing on the below:
- Creating an environment for a healthy hormone cascade. This is essential for fertility to take place. Our hormones are essentially our body’s communication system. But if the environment is too noisy and dysfunctional, one hormones won’t be able to hear one another clearly and respond appropriately.
- Supporting the internal environment. Through proper nutrition, we can optimize our unique biochemistry, immunity and promote inflammatory balance – all of which influence the availability to sustain pregnancy and feel well during pregnancy.
- Nutrient seeking to support hormonal function. Incorporating the appropriate vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to support egg quality and healthy sex hormone, stress hormone, and thyroid hormone production.
If you’re hoping to try to conceive in the next 6 months to a year, now is the time to start building the foundation for a healthy pregnancy. By giving yourself a generous onramp, you’ll not only be able to promote optimal hormone function and create a healthy environment for your baby to grow within, but you’ll also have enough time to make these nutrition changes become true lifestyle shifts that feel more like second-nature habits and less like a chore.
High level there are 5 big areas essential to prioritize on your fertility path:
1. Adequate nutrition (AKA eating enough for your body!)
Many of us women chronically undereat, and it’s often unintentional! Most of us have likely been trapped in the diet cycle at one point or another. But whether or not you’ve been actively dieting, so many of us actually eat less than our bodies need for optimal function without even trying or realizing it. Our busy lifestyles mean we’re often eating on the go, eating smaller meals or skipping meals altogether.
Undereating leads to low energy and nutrient availability, which means our cells cannot function optimally. But our body is wise and efficient, so it won’t allow us to simply fail. Instead, it will find ways to conserve nutrients and energy in order to keep chugging along.
But all of our hormone and organ systems talk to one another – nothing in our body operates in a silo. So if our body starts cutting corners in order to keep going, it can contribute to a cascade of effects which can include thyroid suppression, blood sugar imbalances, sex hormone imbalances, and increases in stress hormones…. Directly impacting conditions such as PCOS, infertility, hypothyroidism, amenorrhea and other hormone imbalances.
Here’s the rundown of how that typically plays out:
- Chronic undereating leads to low glucose availability. Our body perceives this as stress and starts cranking out cortisol and adrenaline in order to try and increase glucose availability.
- High cortisol levels can interfere with thyroid function, slowing down metabolism and making our body less efficient at processing food into energy. A sluggish thyroid can lead to chronic fatigue, stubborn weight loss and sometimes even weight gain.
- Undereating directly impacts progesterone and estrogen production. Low levels of estrogen and progesterone are associated with decreased muscle mass, increased fat synthesis and a dysfunctional cycle. We CAN’T get pregnant or sustain pregnancy without these important hormones!
- Undereating causes our blood sugar to spike and dip more drastically. This can put stress on our liver, and ultimately our body will start using muscle mass for energy by breaking it down and turning it into glucose. This will slow detoxification pathways, impair our metabolism, impact our ability to get sound sleep for recovery and will ultimately increase stress hormones further, worsening the cycle.
If we’re not eating enough for our own body to function, then we certainly are not creating an environment for a pregnancy to thrive. Step one on your fertility journey is to ensure you’re eating enough and eating regularly throughout the day.
2. Anchor your day with a blood sugar balanced meal within 1 hour of waking up
Ah, blood sugar balance and hormones. The non-sexy YET essential fundamental for hormones. As we talked about above, undereating can contribute to blood sugar crashes and spikes, which can lead to a stress response and wreak havoc on our metabolism. But blood sugar stability is about more than eating enough – we also have to learn the foundations of HOW and WHAT to eat to promote better blood sugar balance.
We want to ensure that we’re promoting blood sugar balance at all meals, but kicking it off with a balanced breakfast as the first meal of the day can set us up for success all day long. Having a breakfast with a source of protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and fiber within 1 hour of waking anchors your blood sugar for the day to continue to support stability. eating blood sugar balanced meals every 3-4 hours moving forward
If you tend to run out of ideas for your morning meals, or struggle to build blood-sugar friendly breakfasts, you can download our free 7 day meal inspiration guide for inspiration and guidance.
3. Prioritize 30 grams of protein at meal times
Protein is queen when it comes to blood sugar balance and fertility. As we discussed above, including plenty of protein at our meals will help support blood sugar balance throughout the day as it helps slow down digestion and absorption.
In addition, there are many key amino acids involved in fertility. L-carnitine is an amino acid that is used as an energy source for eggs. L-leucine plays a key role in metabolism and maturation of eggs. L-arginine can help increase blood flow to the uterus and ovaries, which can help improve egg quality and contribute to endometrial thickness.
But don’t go turning to supplements to ensure you’re getting these key amino acids in your diet. We can get all the critical amino acids we need simply by including enough high-quality protein foods in our diet.
When shopping for proteins, try to choose grass fed and finished, organic, full-fat and local whenever possible. And if you catch yourself relying on eggs and chicken on repeat, try to challenge yourself to seek out more variety to make sure you’re getting a variety of minerals and vitamins from your protein sources. Collagenous meats, full-fat dairy, fish and organ meats in addition to poultry and eggs are rich sources of minerals like zinc and copper, which are key for supporting our fertility.
I find those that are trying to conceive with long term vegan and vegetarian diets often require the addition of more animal based options in their routine to restore nourishment and vitamins and minerals that have been lost in their diet. This is why it is important to build in an on-ramp before you’re ready to start trying in order to give yourself adequate time to fill in any nutritional gaps and address any deficits.
4. INCLUDE carbs
We NEED carbohydrates. I’ll repeat that one more time for those in the back. WE NEED CARBOHYDRATES. If you’ve been on a low carbohydrate diet, and you’re hoping to start trying for pregnancy, now is the time to start reintroducing carbs into your diet. Inadequate carbohydrate intake can increase stress on the body and drive down the perceived safety we need for progesterone production.
I know that this may be even harder to hear for my friends out there with PCOS. But EVEN if you have PCOS, you need carbs. We just need to know HOW to include them on our plate to be supportive in our bodies. Choosing complex, fiber-packed sources and pairing them with fat and protein will help prevent blood sugar instability while still giving our body it’s preferred source of fuel.
If you’re not sure how to portion out your carbs, 1/2 – 1 cup of whole food carbs is a great place to start. If you are more carb sensitive, consider berries, starchy vegetables, and smaller portions like 1/3 cup high fiber carbs like beans can be a good way to go. Another great strategy is to start a habit of going on a walk after meals to help mobilize glucose and prevent major spikes. Lastly, eating your protein before your carb can be helpful here too if your meal lends itself to this naturally. For example, hang your steak first, then eating your roasted potatoes.
5. Aim for 2-3 colors on each plate
Who doesn’t love a little more color, anyway? Instead of focusing what you should be restricting from your diet in order to live a healthier lifestyle, focus more on what you can ADD to your plate. Having at least 2 or 3 colors represented on your plate helps to ensure you’re covering all of your nutritional bases.
Not only will this ensure you have plenty of fiber across your plate, but you’ll also include more antioxidants and nutrients to support egg quality and microbiome diversity. Go for vegetable medleys, mixed berries and salads packed with more than just greens.
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In many ways, eating for fertility is incredibly individualized. If you have been on your TTC journey for some time and feel like you are hitting dead ends – here is an opportunity to get in deeper tune with what your body may be telling you it needs as additional support. For your next level guidance on your fertility journey, schedule a discovery call to connect.
