FERTILITY FOOD GUIDE
Every Meal is an Opportunity to Optimize your Fertility
Just as we see herbs as medicine, so too is food.
What we put into our body can support us in healing, reducing inflammation and improving longevity and fertility...
or, unfortunately sabotaging our best efforts.
3 Foods That May Be
Sabotaging Your Fertility
Gluten
Most wheat (and corn & soy) are sprayed with glyphosate, which significantly impacts health and fertility.
In humans, it is a chelator of magnesium, iodine, zinc, iron and cobalt. It lowers B12, glutathione and biotin, which are important to the liver's ability to detoxify. Liver health is essential to hormone balance, reproductive health and fertility.
Glyphosate also significantly disrupts the microbiome, which is crucial for overall health, including fertility. Simply taking a probiotic may replace 1 or even 10 of the microorganisms, but naturally, we should have millions.
I recommend that you immediately remove all gluten & wheat products from your diets. I also encourage you to choose only organic corn and soy products as well, or consider removing corn and soy entirely.
Using a liver detoxifying product like my Detox tea can help to improve decreased liver function due to glyphosate damage. Because glyphosate also acts as an antibiotic, damaging important gut microflora, I also recommend a course of intensive gut repair and support, especially if you've taken even one round of antibiotics. Gut health is profoundly important for fertility!
My choice is Terraflora Advanced Care by Enviromedica
Dairy
There are tons of articles out there about why dairy can be problematic for your health. Instead, I want to encourage you to think about dairy energetically.
Think about the difference between milk and water. Whereas water is clear and fast-flowing, milk is thick and cloying. It's sticky. Think about the mucousy film you get on the back of your throat when you drink milk. Dairy does that to your whole body. It slows things down, energetically.
It can contribute to the formation of cysts and fibroids and can impede ovulation. I view dairy as the number 1 inhibitor of fertility and have, in the past, actually chosen not to work with women who have inflammatory issues and won't remove dairy from their diets. Yes, it's that problematic!
The only animal that cow's milk is healthy for is a baby cow. Goat milk is much closer in molecular structure to human's, so if you absolutely must drink milk, goat milk is a better choice. Most dairy cows are treated horribly... I won't post all the details here but I encourage you to read up on it.
I've included a list of foods that are rich in calcium, so you don't have to worry that you're not getting sufficient amounts (although in reality, diary may leach calcium from your bones, but that's a whole other topic.) Remember, the dairy association is a business, and it's powerful.
"Iced," Cold and Raw Foods
Women used to come into my office, expecting me to praise them for their juice diets, their raw food diets, their big salad lunch and dinners. I almost feel badly breaking the news to them that all of this cold, raw food can actually be detrimental to fertility.
We want to think of our digestive systems, which sit closely to our wombs, as a furnace, and we definitely want to keep those digestive fires burning. If we are constantly dampening the fires with our iced coffees and smoothies, our raw foods and huge salads, eventually our digestive fires will become weak.
We need to keep that fire burning to not only break down and absorb the nutrients from our food, but also to keep our reproductive organs warm. Warming foods, both in temperature (bone broth, stews, hot tea) and energy (cinnamon, ginger, fennel) are essential for re-kindling our digestive fires to also stoke the warmth of our wombs.
FERTILE FOOD RECOMMENDATIONS
Use these as a guide, and remember, even moderation in moderation
(don't feel badly if you indulge)
OMIT GRAINS
Grains are inflammatory & can be hard on the body.
OMIT ALCOHOL
Alcohol is truly detrimental to overall health and fertility.
AVOID SUGAR
A small amount of maple syrup or honey is okay.
No ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
See Below
On Artificial Sweeteners:
-Dr. Ginger Southall of the Hippocrates Health Institute
"Artificial sweeteners are potent nerve toxins and never should have been approved as safe for human consumption. They have the potential to freak out and damage your nervous system -- your brain and nerves -- leading to a variety of symptoms from migraine headaches to unexplained seizures, dizziness, depression and vision problems. They are even linked to cancer, obesity and diabetes."
BUT IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT WHAT YOU CAN'T EAT...
This food plan is actually abundant in ... FOOD!
Real Food. Not food products.
ANIMAL PROTEINS
Organic, pastured or grass fed meat, chicken, and eggs. If your budget is tight, regular meat is "ok" - just cut the fat off the meat and take the skin off chicken, because that’s where most of the toxins are. Avoid pork unless you can find pastured pork.
HEALTHY FATS
Organic butter, ghee, extra-virgin olive oil, raw nuts and seeds, avocados, coconut milk.
Remember that fat is your fertility friend, and add healthy fat to every meal.
VEGETABLES
All vegetables are included, except for white potatoes.
What are some healthy snack ideas?
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Eggs cooked in butter/ olive oil/ avocado oil
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Matcha Tea Powder mixed with full fat coconut milk & Stevia
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"Bulletproof" coffee: mixed with butter or MCT oil & collagen
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Bone Broth or vegetable broth
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Turkey lettuce wraps with avocado oil mayo
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Unsweetened almond milk (no carageenan) + Chai Tea
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Unsweetened Organic nut butter on a piece of dark chocolate
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Nuts (about 2 TBSP per serving)
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Chia Seed Pudding made with macadamia nut milk & cinnamon
If I'm not drinking milk, how do I get enough calcium?
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White Beans
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Bok Choy
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Broccoli
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Oranges
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Almonds
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Dried Figs
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Kale
Are there specific foods that can support my follicle health?
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Bone Broth
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Healthy Fats
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Dark Meat Chicken, duck, eggs
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Asparagus
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Seaweed/ kelp
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Sweet potato
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Black Sesame Seeds
The Dirty Dozen
PRODUCE TO AVOID UNLESS IT IS ORGANIC
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Celery
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Peaches
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Nectarines
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Strawberries
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Apples
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Blueberries
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Sweet Bell Peppers
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Spinach, Kale, Collard Greens
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Cherries
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Potatoes
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Grapes
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Lettuce
The Clean Fifteen
PRODUCE SAFE TO CONSUME IN NON-ORGANIC FORM
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Watermelon
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Grapefruit
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Sweet Potato
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Sweet Onion
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Kiwi
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Eggplant
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Cantaloupe
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Onions
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Avocado
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Corn
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Pineapples
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Mango
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Sweet Peas
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Asparagus
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Cabbage
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