great "eggs"pectations - fertility and diet

Better Nutrition, Nov, 2000 by Kristine Kieswer

boost your fertility with a fiber-rich, low-fat diet

Whether you're a self-taught nutrition expert or you only glance at the occasional health article in the supermarket checkout line, you've gotten the message: add fiber-rich, low-fat vegetables and grains to your diet, and reduce consumption of fatty, cholesterol-laden meat and dairy products.

It is well established that a vegetarian diet helps control weight, protects our heart and bones, and provides us with an abundance of cancer-fighting antioxidants. Now, the power of plant foods includes yet another profound advantage: encouraging fertility.

IT STARTS WITH OVULATION

A surprising number of women lose their chance to conceive because they simply do not ovulate regularly. A change in diet may help. A recent study from the University of British Columbia revealed that vegetarian women ovulated normally more than 95 percent of the time. The power of vegetables, grains, fruits and legumes apparently comes from their hormone-taming effect. "Eliminating animal products and keeping vegetable oils low helps you avoid dramatic swings in the amount of estrogen that courses through your bloodstream on fattier diets," says Neal Barnard, MD, nutrition researcher with the Physicians Committee for-Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, the fiber in plant foods whisks excess estrogen safely out of the body.

DON'T DRINK YOUR MILK?

A new suspect in infertility may be as close as your refrigerator. Dairy products contain lactose, which must be broken down into two simple sugars--glucose and galactose--during digestion.

It appears that galactose may not be friendly to ovaries. Daniel Cramer, MD, at Harvard Medical School has conducted ongoing research studying the effects of dairy consumption and associated damage to the ovaries, specifically in the area of ovarian cancer. Looking at Cramer's research, and that of others, Neal Barnard, MD, has concluded that because galactose has been associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer we can assume its toxicity also interferes with fertility.

Compounding the problem, some women have low levels of the enzyme needed to break apart this sugar and galactose builds up dangerously. Reduce your consumption of "milk, ice cream, and cottage cheese, which are loaded with galactose," says Barnard. "There is plenty of highly absorbable calcium in green leafy vegetables, beans, enriched flour, and fortified juices."

ENDOMETRIOSIS

More than 5 million North American women are affected by endometriosis, an often painful condition in which cells lining the uterus spread to other parts of the body. These misplaced cells can build up, become inflamed, and cause scarring, which can interfere with conception and pregnancy.

In the same way that a low-fat, plant-based diet encourages regular menstrual cycles by keeping estrogen levels in check, it can help keep painful cell clusters from growing. Cutting the fat can force these cell clusters to wither and die.

Reducing animal fat intake has another advantage. It lets you avoid a major source of organochlorines (like dioxin), chemicals that build up in animal fat and encourage endometriosis by impairing our immune defenses that combat out-of-place cells.

POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME (POS)

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is a condition in which a woman's eggs produce cysts instead of properly maturing for release. The culprit turns out to be insulin, a hormone intended to help the body store proteins and sugars. In excess, insulin can damage ovaries. Choosing healthy complex carbohydrates such as oatmeal, pasta and whole-wheat breads, instead of simple sugars helps you avoid insulin excess.

Modern fertility treatments are costly, often painful and sometimes work too well. A healthy, low-fat, vegetarian diet is one option to improve fertility with the kind of positive side effects--weight loss and lowered cholesterol levels--that we all want. So choose a bean burrito instead of chicken fajitas, pasta primavera instead of spaghetti with meatballs, and do your whole body a favor while you boost fertility ... naturally.

food choices for hormone balance

* WHOLE GRAINS - pasta, rice, bread, cereal, oatmeal

* VEGETABLES - carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, kale, broccoli

* LEGUMES - chickpeas, lentils, peas, soybeans, black beans

* FRUITS - apples, mangoes, bananas, peaches, pears

REDUCE: animal products (meat, eggs, and dairy). Avoid fatty foods.

Kristine Kieswer is a health writer specializing in the role of nutrition in preventing disease and fostering optimum health. She is based in Washington, D.C.