What to Eat And Avoid When Trying To Conceive

Nutrition is vital for our overall health and wellbeing and even more so when you’re trying to get pregnant. You will create the environment for your child to grow and develop so will need to consume nutrient rich foods and avoid those that have the potential to cause harm. This will also aid the function of a healthy reproductive system and help improve your chances. 

To create this post, I've teamed up with a fertility evaluation clinic which gave me a little insight into what you should eat and avoid when trying to conceive.

1. Cut Out Alcohol

It goes without saying that you should cut out alcohol. It can disrupt oestrogen levels in the body (the reproductive hormone needed for ovulation or the release of an egg). It can also reduce ovarian reserve which is the number of eggs that a woman will have throughout her entire lifetime. As women cannot produce more, this can limit the chances of getting pregnant.

2. Try The Mediterranean Diet

What you should do however is consume a good balanced diet with plenty of nutrient rich foods. The Mediterranean diet is one that is linked to higher levels of fertility for this reason as it includes monounsaturated fats, protein rich foods such as legumes and limits those that are bad, like red meats.

3. Limit Your Consumption of Refined Sugar

Following on from the point above, you should avoid foods that are high in refined sugar. While addictive and adding sweetness to food, refined sugar can be harmful to the reproductive system in many ways:

• High blood sugar levels trigger the release of insulin which can increase the risk of developing PCOS if insulin resistance develops.
• Can damage eggs.
• Can lead to weight gain which can also damage eggs.

Implementing these changes can be hard, especially if you’re used to consuming these foods on a daily basis. You may find that taking a staggered approach and gradually cutting down helps and is more effective to work on each of these points.

*Collaborative post