Can­di­da Khan

In­fer­til­i­ty in women can be de­fined as the in­abil­i­ty to achieve preg­nan­cy af­ter 12 months of try­ing with a male part­ner. It can al­so re­fer to the in­abil­i­ty to car­ry a preg­nan­cy to term. Fe­male in­fer­til­i­ty may re­sult from many fac­tors, such as blocked fal­lop­i­an tubes, hor­mon­al im­bal­ances, age-re­lat­ed de­cline in egg qual­i­ty, or health con­di­tions. Lifestyle fac­tors are im­por­tant in in­flu­enc­ing re­pro­duc­tive health.

Spe­cif­ic nu­tri­ent in­take can as­sist in re­duc­ing in­fer­til­i­ty risk. High con­sump­tion of nu­tri­ents like fo­late, iron, mag­ne­sium, vi­t­a­min A, vi­t­a­min C and an­tiox­i­dants from ly­copene has been found to im­prove fer­til­i­ty. The nu­tri­ents that should be fo­cused on are those that are cru­cial for ovu­la­tion, hor­mone pro­duc­tion and egg de­vel­op­ment.

Fo­late is vi­tal for DNA syn­the­sis, and my favourite way of get­ting in more fo­late is by eat­ing dark green veg­eta­bles like kale and cit­rus fruits such as or­anges, even paw­paw and ba­nana. I al­so bal­ance my snacks with low-sug­ar ce­re­al that is for­ti­fied. This means that it is en­riched with nu­tri­ents. Vi­t­a­min C is es­sen­tial to pro­tect eggs from ox­ida­tive stress, which can re­duce fer­til­i­ty. Mag­ne­sium helps to con­tribute to hor­mon­al bal­ance from dark choco­late, which is my favourite snack. When I pair that with pump­kin seeds and al­monds, it makes a mag­ne­sium-rich snack.

There are al­so foods that can neg­a­tive­ly im­pact fer­til­i­ty. This in­cludes ul­tra-processed foods such as sug­ary drinks that I hon­est­ly avoid, such as soft drinks, en­er­gy drinks and processed meats such as sausages, hot dogs, pack­aged snacks such as chips and sug­ary yo­gurts. Bal­ance is key. I al­ways rec­om­mend eat­ing more nat­ur­al and lo­cal foods, but I un­der­stand that con­ve­nient eat­ing is part of our dai­ly life. We can fo­cus on eat­ing more nat­ur­al foods than processed, but not com­plete­ly cut out any spe­cif­ic one.

Did you know that be­ing un­der­weight or over­weight can al­so af­fect hor­mone bal­ance and can lead to ir­reg­u­lar or ab­sent men­stru­al cy­cles? In­sulin re­sis­tance can de­vel­op when you have a high amount of vis­cer­al fat. Fat around the or­gans can af­fect or­gan func­tion­al­i­ty. Stud­ies have con­firmed that body com­po­si­tion, not weight, mat­ters more. Know your fat-ver­sus-mus­cle dis­tri­b­u­tion by us­ing the scale. Over­all health is more im­por­tant than weight alone.

Habits you can start work­ing on to­day that can re­duce vis­cer­al fat in­clude:

1) In­clud­ing more whole grain, high fi­bre foods such as com­plex car­bo­hy­drates, in­clud­ing my favourite sweet pota­to, as well as fruits, veg­eta­bles and all the food groups.

2) Re­duc­ing and find­ing al­ter­na­tives for sug­ary bev­er­ages. I pre­fer fruit-in­fused wa­ter be­cause it is nat­ur­al. Just slice up your favourite fruit in­to your wa­ter and en­joy.

3) Low­er­ing in­flam­ma­tion by pri­ori­tis­ing vi­t­a­min and min­er­al in­take.

4) Fo­cus on get­ting 7-9 hours of sleep dai­ly. Try chamomile tea if you are lack­ing sleep.

Di­et alone can­not guar­an­tee preg­nan­cy, but it is a pow­er­ful mod­i­fi­able fac­tor. Prop­er nu­tri­tion can sup­port fer­til­i­ty and over­all well-be­ing. En­sure ad­e­quate in­take and adapt to a bal­anced, whole food-based di­et.

Can­di­da Khan, MSc RD, al­so known as Di­di is a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist. She is al­so the CEO of Di­di’s Nu­tri­tion Con­sul­tan­cy didis­con­sul­tan­cy.com