May 19th, 2010 | 
Author: Fertility Food Tip: Eat Nuts and Seeds for Healthy Fat!
Nuts and seeds are a fantastic fertility food. Why? Because they are high in protein and healthy fats, which help stabilize blood sugar levels, ease inflammation and boost fertility. Estrogen is made and stored in fat, so you definitely need fat, you just want to be sure to eat the healthy kind. Nuts and seeds also contain essential minerals and fiber, which is important for the health of the digestive system and lowering cholesterol. Good choices for seeds are pumpkin and sesame, which also contain zinc, and for nuts, almonds and walnuts.
By Cindy Bailey, author of The Fertile Kitchen™ Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Optimizing Your Fertility (www.fertilekitchen.com)
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Fertility Food Tip: Eat Organic As Much As Possible!
By eating organic, you avoid artificial additives and preservatives, pesticides, chemicals and other potentially harmful substances that find their way into our modern food. These substances can take a toll on your body and fertility! Conventionally raised meat, for example, can contain growth hormones that affect our own hormones negatively, as well as antibiotics, additives and preservatives. You don’t want any of that in your system while you’re nurturing your body for a baby! So eat organic and remember that you and your body deserve it right now!
By Cindy Bailey, author of The Fertile Kitchen® Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Optimizing Your Fertility (www.fertilekitchen.com)
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Fertility Food Tip: Eat Your Beans!
Beans are one of the best foods for fertility available. Not only are they packed with protein, fiber and important nutrients such as calcium, iron and potassium, but they also contain a high percentage of folate (a B vitamin), which boosts fertility in both men and women and helps prevent neural tube defects at birth. Beans are also low in fat, good for digestion and a great source of antioxidants, so eat your beans!
By Cindy Bailey, author of The Fertile Kitchen™ Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Optimizing Your Fertility (www.fertilekitchen.com)
Myths & Facts: Fertility Edition
Okay! Everyone got their buzzers out? Do we have a pretty woman in a long sparkly dress ready to gesture to things? Is a cheering audience in place? Good, because today’s edition of Myths and Facts is about fertility. So make keep a scorecard, assure yourself you know the answer before you’ve read it, and then if you get it wrong—swear you knew the right answer all along anyways. (We all heard you.)
…and BEGIN!
• Mumps Will Make You Infertile
Although the mumps vaccine has been around for a while, some adolescents may still have developed it. Deep breath, ladies. If you had mumps as a child, your eggs are safe. However, if hubby had mumps, he might need to see his doctor about sperm analysis.
• Fertility Problems Begin at 35
True—and false. ““A women’s fertility peaks at about age 27 and drops off more rapidly after 35. It’s ok to wait but be forewarned that waiting holds its own consequences.” Says Dr. Peress.
Just because your possibilities are slimmer, doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get pregnant. Take this story for example.
Every woman is different, and so is their cycle. If we could time our cycles down to the minute, than no one would ever have to trash their favorite undies from surprise attacks from mother nature. Using a cycle diary and OvaTel can help you get more a definitive ETA on ovulation.
• A Woman Can Get Pregnant Only on One Day of Her Cycle
Ladies? Are you listening? We want you to remember this key phrase, alright? Five-Day-Fertile-Window. That’s—count em!—one, two, three, four, FIVE days in which you can get knocked-up.
“When a couple decides it’s time to try to conceive, the first step is to use a fertility monitor such as OvaTel. Once you have found your fertile window, which is the 5 days leading up to ovulation, couples should have intercourse once every 24 hours for the entire 5 day fertile window to try to conceive.” Says Dr. Peress, “If after 3 months you are unsuccessful, I recommend visiting your doctor with your MyCycleDiary chart to talk about testing for possible conditions that could be inhibiting conception.”
Bravo, ladies! You have all the right answers. Now somebody tell your husband that.
The Fertile Kitchen (TM) is a new cookbook published by author and culinary couple, Cindy and Pierre. The book gives mouthwatering recipes that show women how to eat healthy during the “TTC” period. Drawing from her husband’s rich culinary background and her own personal experiences the couple educates women on what foods are healthy and helpful when trying for a baby.
Cindy was able to answer a few questions for OvaTel about their new book, her favorite recipes, and why eating with a focus on fertility is essential for an easier conception and healthier pregnancy.
Q. Why write a cookbook focused on recipes for fertility?
A: This book came out of our experience. I was given a 2% chance of conceiving, which I refused to accept. Instead, I did a lot of research and put myself on a fertility friendly diet, among other healing regimens, such as yoga and meditation. Four months later, my husband and I conceived – naturally. During that time, what made the restrictive diet so much easier to follow was my husband Pierre’s cooking. He created a wide variety of dishes that were simple to make, yet full of flavor (you can’t tell these dishes contain no wheat, sugar or dairy!). Having those recipes kept us from getting bored and giving up. It helped us stick with it! Plus, it was a project we could do together, and we felt empowered by the process. Naturally, we wanted to share what we learned and all the recipes with others in hopes that it might help them in the way it helped us. The recipes serve to make the diet easier to follow.
Q. Tell me a bit about what sort of recipes you feature in your book?
A: We feature a variety of ethnically diverse recipes which are all simple to make. Women and couples struggling with fertility issues are often already overwhelmed. We didn’t want them to feel changing their diet would be another burden. We wanted them to enjoy flavorful dishes so they wouldn’t notice too much that they were on a diet. We feature recipes for vegetables, beans, rice and grains, meat, seafood, soups and salads, sides and sauces and breakfast dishes. We only feature a couple of desserts, as processed sugar is not allowed. Favorite dishes include: Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken with Portobello Mushrooms, Lamb Stew, Spicy Garbanzo Beans, Crepes Salée, Chile Con Carne (healthy version!) and more. All are easy to make!
Q. When trying to conceive what sort of foods and drinks should women avoid?
A: Women should eliminate alcohol, caffeine, coffee (even decaf), processed sugar, artificial sweeteners, overly processed foods and trans fats. Sodas and other bottled beverages should also be eliminated (except purified water). (Fruit juices have too much concentration of sugar; eat whole fruits instead.) Women should also avoid dairy and wheat, both because they’re difficult to digest, and also because many have either a sensitivity, intolerance or outright allergy to these food products, making them especially hard on your digestion and body, and causing a number of health problems. You don’t want to overly tax your digestion or body while trying to conceive. Women should also eat all organic, especially for produce and meat.
Q. Are any of the recipes in this book helpful for male fertility?
A: Yes! Male partners are strongly encouraged to follow the fertility diet too, for overall nutritional balance. Not only can diet affect such factors as sperm count, motility and morphology, but there is also the fact that 10 to 15 percent of couples have unexplained infertility, meaning the cause is unknown. Since you can never be absolutely sure of all the factors that are causing a your infertility, you should do the diet together.
Male partners should also be sure to get sufficient levels of zinc, selenium, vitamin B12 and vitamin C to help produce healthy, viable sperm. The diet and recipes in our book support these nutrients – namely: our recipes that include lamb, salmon or halibut, shrimp, broccoli, bell peppers and strawberries, for example.
Q. On a fertility diet, what would your average breakfast, lunch, and dinner look like?
A: Breakfast is very important for blood sugar levels. Don’t skip it! The healthiest includes protein and fiber. Healthy choices include: oatmeal, veggie omelets with 100% rye toast, pancakes made with non-wheat whole grains and no processed sugar—and with all ingredients being organic. Lunch or dinner could be a main protein dish (beans, seafood or meat) with a grain (rice or quinoa, for example) and a vegetable dish. You could also do a soup or salad or a pasta dish (made with rice pasta). Polenta Pizza, Fried Rice or Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup also make great dishes on their own. There are many choices!
Q. Women know that when you’re pregnant you shouldn’t eat sushi or drink alcohol. What pregnancy diet no-no’s apply to the period when you’re trying to conceive?
A: All of them, because in those first few weeks of pregnancy you will not know if you are pregnant and it’s important to be eating right beforehand.
To learn more about Cindy and Pierre you can visit their website www.fertilekitchen.com or purchase their new book The Fertile Kitchen.
When we were in high school, our parents and teachers warned us about just how easy it was to get pregnant.
It was as if pregnancy lurked in the corner of every backseat and empty household just waiting to pounce on our unprepared wombs. We were constantly dreading the plus sign like it might sneak up on us. Today, as we intentionally seek to get pregnant we realize, with incredible irritation, that there is no pregnancy monster waiting to strike.
Perhaps she never existed, or perhaps she is simply on maternity leave.
Either way, getting pregnant no longer seems like an accidental happenstance. It’s a science, and decoding the lingo fertility doctors use to explain it, can make us want to jump out the “fertile window.”
Your five day fetile window. Your fertile window is the five days that lead up to ovulation. Dr. Peress our Fertility Specialist Doctor on call recommends that women who want to become pregnant have unprtected intercourse once every 24 hours for the entire 5 day fertile window. This will increase your chances of conception.Your window is the seven days prior to the day of ovulation. If you have intercourse during these seven days then congratulations! You have significantly improved your chances of getting pregnant.
If you have sex on all of these seven days, then go take a nap.
Healthy women in their twenties have, at best, a 33% chance of getting pregnant in any given cycle. That means if there are twelve cycles in a year, and 23-year-old Betsy has no gray hairs, she has a 33% chance of getting her bump on between January-December.
“Don’t wait!” warns Fertility Specialist, Dr. Peress. “A women’s fertility peaks at about age 27 and drops off more rapidly after 35. It’s ok to wait but be forewarned that waiting holds its own consequences.”
That being said, if 34-year-old (Loreal-improved) Maria wants to join Besty in Lamaze class, it may take just a bit longer, as her percentage of getting pregnant is decreased.
“The best days to get pregnant are the 2-3 days before ovulation occurs,” says OvaTel’s resident fertility guru Kimmie Coon. “Sperm can live from 5-7 days maximum with 2-3 days being the most common. The egg only lives for 12-24 hours, so it is the sperm that await the egg’s arrival that have the highest success rate of penetration and fertilization.”
If you know when you ovulate, then this is fantastic information. However, if you’re relying on crystal balls and your mother to tell you when you’re ovulating, then this won’t help you at all.
Just like baking, pregnancy is a matter of correct timing. And for those of us who often come close to burning down the house with every box of Duncan Heines, you can rely on your cycle chart and OvaTel to guide you through ovulation. View our insutrction manual and if you haven’t already, start tracking today!