Foods for Your Hormones: Improve Fertility Health
Our diet can impact our health more than we know. Especially while we are trying to conceive, certain foods can improve or hinder our hormone balance, thus our fertility. It can also help the developing egg to be healthy and give us more energy. Even when you are in the trying to avoid stage of life, eating for your cycle can keep your hormones balanced and give you more energy and feel good overall.
Remember though, it can take about 90 days for egg health to be affected. Drinking smoothies for one week before you ovulate isn’t going to make a huge impact to the egg that will be released that month. It will, however, help your body with the nutrients needed to support that egg!
Trying to Conceive Nutrients
There are certain nutrients needed for the body to stay in balance and for boosting your fertility chances. Many of these same nutrients are vital while actually pregnant too, so it doesn’t hurt to get in the habit of including these now! Many of these are important for men’s health too, we will talk about what they can do in another post soon!
- Zinc: aids in hormone regulation, helps egg production and maturity, keeps the follicles in proper working order to move the egg into the uterus. It can also help manage fibroids and reduce the risk of miscarriage.
- Folic Acid/Folate: type of B Vitamin needed to keep baby’s risk of neural tube defects reduced, helps the developing brain, red blood cell production, proper cell division, healthy bone formation, and helps prevent depression.
- Calcium: important to trigger growth in embryos, helps create an alkaline environment for sperm traveling to the egg, supports a healthy reproductive system
- Omega 3-6-9: essential to baby’s circulatory system production, brain/eye/heart development, and central nervous system.
- Vitamin D: helps produce sex hormones for hormonal balance and ovulation support
- Vitamin E: valuable antioxidant to protect egg DNA
- CoQ10: increase egg health, protect it from free radical damage, and protects DNA.
- Vitamin C: increase hormonal levels, aids women with luteal phase defect and helps reduce the risk of miscarriage/chromosomal defects
- Lipoic Acid: re-uses antioxidants in the body, supports reproductive organ health
- B6: regulate hormones, blood sugar, aid luteal phase defect
- B12: boost endometrium lining, reduce miscarriage, aid with regular ovulation
- Iron: aid with ovulation, egg quality
- Selenium: protect eggs from free radicals which in turns helps reduce chromosomal defects, reduce chances of miscarriage and other birth defects
- Protein: plant and animal proteins are beneficial while trying to conceive; aids cell generation, reduces ovulatory issues
- Fats: cholesterol helps with hormone production (don’t go overboard though!), make sure to get them from healthy sources.
- Fiber: allows the body to get rid of toxins and excess estrogen that can cause hormone imbalances while keeping your gut and digestive tract in proper working order.
Foods to Eat while trying to conceive
- Nuts and seeds: Omega 3, Zinc, Vitamin E, Protein
- Eggs: Vitamin D, B12, Protein
- Grass-fed meats: Omega 3, Iron, B12, Protein
- Dark leafy greens: Iron, Folic acid, B6, Vitamin E
- Colored vegetables: B6, Vitamin C
- Fruits: Vitamin C, Antioxidants
- Lentils/Beans: Vitamin D, Omega 3, Zinc, Selenium, B12, CoQ10
- Fish/Shell Fish: Iron, Folic Acid
- Raw/Cultured milk: Vitamin D, B12, Zinc
How to get all your Nutrients
Eating a fertility diet can seem overwhelming when you see all the information listed above. It can actually be easier than you think! Following a well balanced, real food diet is so rewarding for your health, skin support, and so much more. I encourage you to reach out to me for additional support to see what we can do for your unique needs. If you have not already, check out my FREE Fertility Smoothie Challenge as a way to start incorporating nutrients into your diet.
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