Perfectionism and the ‘Perfect Fertility Diet’
One of my lovely patients recently asked me what a day on the Perfect-Fertility-Diet looked like.
And I love that she’s asked this question, because she’s being proactive and curious!
I also love that she asked this so I can reassure her…there’s no such thing as perfection.
You might already know, I don’t believe in perfection. Perfection is unrealistic, unsustainable, and absolutely a symptom (and cause) of anxiety. I speak from experience as a Recovering Perfectionist since childhood.
‘Perfection’ only fuels our already heightened anxiety about our health and fertility.
And if we aren’t perfect enough, what does that mean?
What story are we telling ourselves?
Are we only good enough and ‘deserving’ when we attain perfection?
No. Way.
So coming back to this question about the Perfect Fertility Diet…I totally get it. Our diet is something we can control. Unlike our fertility and our hormones, which we quickly learn we can’t. So making sure the Perfect Diet is in place, helps us feel more in control of our body and our fertility. It soothes us.
Can you hear the (slowly) recovering control-freak here…?
But…we can’t control our body. Trying to do so will only put you in a vicious cycle of stress and anxiety and body-not-doing-what-you-want-it-to.
So, how about we reframe this idea of control?
Let’s nurture and nourish our body. Sustain and soothe it. With food.
Food for your fertility and hormonal balance
The food you eat is the foundation of good health and wellbeing, and contributes toward our fertility.
As a practitioner, I don’t get into weighing food or counting calories. I don’t subscribe to a particular ‘diet’ or eating philosophy.
Eating ‘perfectly’ all day every day doesn’t interest me. I love food. Because food is truly one of life’s great pleasures.
That doesn’t mean we should gorge ourselves silly on a whole lot of deep-fried-somethings or sugar-laden-whats-its.
Food is medicine.
But I do want to remind you that your diet is different and distinct from any additional supplementation that might be required in your individual circumstances. A dietary intake of a food is usually not enough to provide a therapeutic dosage of a particular nutrient.
Healthful food is the foundation of good health and therefore good hormonal balance and fertility.
So if food is medicine, what sort of foods help to optimise our fertility?
Whole food is wholesome
‘Whole food’ is as it sounds - it’s using real food and real ingredients as the foundation of your meals and snacks.
No processed packets, powders and pre-made mixes - they’re full of additives, preservatives, salt, sugar, thickeners, emulsifiers, stabilisers - all with the aim of creating ‘real-tasting’ food!
Why don’t we just start with the real stuff…?
Empty your pantry and freezer of those pre-made packets and meals that we use as shortcuts. You know…the flavouring packet or sachet, the frozen meal, the two-minute noodles, the frozen pie…
Load up on all the Real Stuff instead - herbs, spices, veg, fruit, protein, whole grains, fats and oils.
Batch cook and freeze meals in individual portions rather than relying on highly processed frozen meals or snacks when you’re tired or time-poor.
Create a routine around stocking your pantry so you’re never in the position of ‘there’s nothing to eat’. Choose a day that suits you and shop weekly. This might be in-store or online. Meal planning can be incredibly helpful too.
Buy organic where you can
Pesticides are found in our soil, water and food. They act as endocrine disruptors and affect female and male fertility. An endocrine disruptor is any substance that affects the way our hormones are synthesised, bound, transported, stored and excreted…they also like to mimic our own hormones. These substances have physiological effects even at very low doses, and pre-and peri-natal exposures are of particular concern. Pesticides impact thyroid hormone synthesis, oestrogen function, progesterone receptor function & signalling, and have an effect on foetal development in-utero.
An organic diet avoids pesticide exposure. If you are in the position to be able to choose organic produce, do so - you’re giving your body a wonderful gift!
For many of us though, it can be difficult to source organic produce or to afford it.
In this case, try to follow the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen, Clean Fifteen - an annual guide to the most contaminated produce (try to buy these organic), and the least contaminated produce (buy conventionally farmed).
Make sure you wash conventionally farmed produce before eating (washing and rubbing under running water assists in removing pesticides). You can also peel fruit or veg (pesticides do penetrate through the skin though, and peeling will remove fibre and antioxidants), or soak them in solutions of vinegar, or salt, or baking soda.
Protein power
Animal and vegetable sources of protein all get digested into their smallest components (the amino acids) and are then used to build and repair tissue, and also for rapidly dividing and growing cells (like an embryo).
Protein is also used to make the enzymes that digest our foods efficiently, to make hormones like insulin to regulate our blood sugar balance, and hormone transporters like sex hormone binding globulin that transport oestrogen and testosterone through our bodies.
Animal sources of protein such as red meat are rich sources of absorbable minerals, but are considered to be inflammatory, and daily consumption is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and bowel cancer. If you’re not already, start exploring vegetarian proteins - they’re affordable, high in fibre, assist in creating a diverse microbiome, and are pretty tasty! Think lentils, legumes, nuts, seeds and nut butters.
Consuming a wide variety of sources of protein is beneficial for health outcomes.
Fertile fats
The omega 3’s are called ‘essential fatty acids’ (but let’s call them Fertile Fatty Acids!) because we can’t make them ourselves and they must be derived from our diet.
We need essential fatty acids to help form our cell membranes - they give structure and fluidity all at the same time. You can imagine this is super important for an egg-cell membrane needing strength in its membrane walls, but also fluidity to enable fertilisation. And also for that sperm cell, encased in layers of fatty membrane - DHA concentrates in the sperm head and has been shown to improve sperm parameters after four weeks of supplementation.
The omega 3’s have been shown to improve ovulation rates and progesterone levels. We use them to make oestrogen and progesterone and prostaglandins - those fabulously potent anti-inflammatory mediators that have a role to play in managing conditions such as period pain and endometriosis.
Trans-fats on the other hand have a negative effect on our hormone balance and fertility. They are found in processed foods like biscuits, pastries and deep fried food.
Omega 3’s (EPA and DHA) are found in seafood or supplements. Vegetarians can convert the a-linolenic acid found in flaxseeds and chia to EPA and DHA, however this process is extremely poor, so supplementation from algal sources is a great alternative.
Fibre - not just for constipated oldies…
Fibre is the part of plant foods that is indigestible. They are those gorgeous long cellulose structures in plant cells that you dyed in high school biology and examined under a microscope.
Once we chew, chew and chew them, and start breaking them down, they help your hormones and fertility by:
keeping you in optimal metabolic health by binding cholesterol and glucose (especially important for those of your with PCOS)
encouraging hormonal balance by reducing oestrogen reabsorption in the gut, and increasing it’s clearance by the bowel
supporting a diverse gut microbiome via fermentation in the gut and short chain fatty acid production, and by acting as prebiotics
Enjoy a variety of soluble, insoluble, fermentable fibres and resistant starch, by including in your diet a wide range of vegies, wholegrains, lentils and legumes.
Soluble fibre helps to keep blood sugar levels stable and is found in fruit, veg, legumes, oats, barley.
Insoluble fibre keeps our bowels moving and is found in wholegrains, nuts, seeds and the skin of your fruit and veg.
Fermentable fibres provide fuel for our gut microbiota and are found in legumes, leeks, onion, garlic, Jerusalem artichoke, banana.
Resistant starch acts as a fuel for our gut microbiota, and the byproducts of its fermentation support gut wall health. Found in legumes, cooked and cooled potato and pasta, green bananas.
You’ll further widen your variety of fibres by having a mix of coarse and fine fibres (eg. rolled oats vs oat bran), raw veg and cooked veg, and also warm and cool food.
Eat the rainbow
Feast on colour - aim to create a visual rainbow on your plate. The more colours on your plate = the greater variety of antioxidants. You can read more about eating the rainbow here.
The antioxidants in your edible rainbow are vital for egg quality, ovarian health, and ova-all (see what I did there!) wellness.
But eating colour on your plate can be a creative exercise as much as a culinary one.
I view our hormones and ovaries and wombs as being full of creative potential.
Of course though!…they ARE creation!
So buy what’s colourful and calling out to you when you’re next doing your vegie shop.
And then…get all Artist-like!
Plate up purple cabbage, and green broccoli, red capsicum and orange carrot, and yellow corn!
Play with texture - will you grate, shred, dice, slice, roast, bake, stir-fry these colourful characters?
✴︎ How about stewed pink rhubarb topped with green pumpkin seeds and mint leaves.
✴︎ Or slow cooked yellow, red and purple cherry tomatoes on toast or pasta, sprinkled with green basil.
✴︎ Or a big salad of roasted beetroot, carrots, red-skinned potato, sweet potato, red capsicum, squash, mushroom and cauliflower, tossed through fresh rocket and topped with an egg and toasted sunflower seeds.
Um, yum!
Beautiful, delicious and colourful inspiration can always be found with vegie-embracing cooks like Yotam Ottolenghi, Hetty McKinnon, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Sarah Britton , Deliciously Ella and Green Kitchen Stories.
Food for your fertility, and your soul
Food should bring you pleasure.
Restrictive diets and denying yourself treats is not a fun way to live, or to create a baby or whole-hearted health.
There are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods.
But there is moderation. And the old adage to eat well 80% of the time is a good one.
Enjoy food that feeds your spirit.
Chocolate. Special foods linked to your heritage. A lovingly made birthday cake. A local specialty when you’re travelling. A restaurant’s signature dish.
Eat. Enjoy. Full stop.
If you have any questions about your fertility and your diet, make an appointment with Jacintha to discuss
→ If you’re interested in optimising your fertility and diet, you might also like:
I talk about all this stuff, all the time! Stay connected…
Additional references
Esmaeili, V et al. Dietary fatty acids affect semen quality: a review, Andrology, 2015, 3 (3) 450-461, https://doi.org/10.1111/andr.12024
Gaskins, A et al. Effect of daily fiber intake on reproductive function: the BioCycle Study, Am J Clin Nutr. 2009, 90 (4) 1061–1069, doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.27990
Gaudriault, P et al. Endocrine Disruption in Human Fetal Testis Explants by Individual and Combined Exposures to Selected Pharmaceuticals, Pesticides, and Environmental Pollutants, Environmental Health Perspectives, 2017 Aug, 125 (8), https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1014
Gore, A et al. Executive Summary to EDC-2: The Endocrine Society's Second Scientific Statement on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals, Endocrine Reviews, 2015, 36 (6) 593–602, https://doi.org/10.1210/er.2015-1093
Hazarika, J et al. A computational insight into the molecular interactions of chlorpyrifos and its degradation products with the human progesterone receptor leading to endocrine disruption, Journal of Applied Toxicology, 2020, 40 (3) 434-443 https://doi.org/10.1002/jat.3916
Leemans, M et al. Pesticides With Potential Thyroid Hormone-Disrupting Effects: A Review of Recent Data, Front. Endocrinol, 2019 Dec, https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2019.00743
Linus Pauling Institute, Essential Fatty Acids, 2019, https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/other-nutrients/essential-fatty-acids#authors-reviewers
Mumford, S et al. Dietary fat intake and reproductive hormone concentrations and ovulation in regularly menstruating women, Am J Clin Nutr. 2016, 103 (3) 868–877 doi: 10.3945/ajcn.115.119321
Raphael, W & Sordillo, LM, Dietary Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Inflammation: The Role of Phospholipid Biosynthesis, Int J Mol Sci. 2013, 14 (10) 21167–21188. doi: 10.3390/ijms141021167