Nutrition For Fertility

One of the most asked questions in my clinic when it comes to preparing to conceive is, what can I do to help? My answer is, “to eat and drink healthily.”  This is much harder than most people think and from a Chinese medicine perspective, it’s quite different to what you’ve been told before I’m sure.

Kidney Energy is Very Important

Eating well for fertility is vital. As the old Chinese proverb goes, “He that takes medicine and neglects diet wastes the skills of the physician”. According to Chinese medicine, if you want to improve the quality of your eggs and your sperm, which are linked to your Kidney energy, then you must eat high quality protein that is ideally organic and free-range. This includes soups and stews made from animal bones, eggs, kidney beans, fish, beef, lamb and chicken. These foods will help to improve your “Jing” – a deeply nutritive substance that there needs to be enough of for conception to occur in the first place.

Examples of when there is not enough Jing include missing fallopian tubes, missing ovaries, a strange shaped uterus, functional problems with male genitalia, missing vas deferens etc. Things like bone problems, teeth problems and skeletal structural problems are also signs that the Kidneys are highly compromised and conception will be difficult.

Milder signs that will make conception harder than for the general population include persistent lower back pain, little or no fertile mucus for the woman, performance issues for the man, low libido, copious pale urination, losing a lot of hair on your head, going grey early or quickly.

Give Fridge Food the Flick

Generally speaking, all your food should be cooked and warm as it’s easier to digest. It goes without saying that all your food needs to be fresh and not processed. Fresh fruit, veg and meat is best. Cold food can cause problems for a woman’s fertility especially. Examples include salad eaten straight out of the fridge, salad eaten in Autumn and Winter, yoghurt, ice-cream, milk shakes, smoothies, cold fruit whips made with fruit and ice, fruit eaten straight out of the fridge, cold water etc. Where possible eat your fruit and salads at room temperature and avoid consuming food straight out of the fridge.

Coffee

Coffee is bitter and has the action of draining your Kidneys. It’s the same as dipping into your superannuation account every day, you just wouldn’t do it. Coffee was never meant to be an every day beverage but it has become that in our got-to-keep-going society. It’s best to avoid it when preparing to conceive.

Tea

Tea on the other hand is rich in antioxidants, especially white, red and green tea. Black tea with milk and sugar is not doing you many favours. It’s leaching water from your body which you’ll have to make up by drinking more water.

Water

Water is the best drink to have but at room temperature or warm, not out of the fridge and not with ice, especially in the colder months. If you crave cold drinks, it means your composition is too “hot” and needs “cooling” down. It’s better to address this with herbs and acupuncture rather than dousing your digestive fire with freezing water. Cold causes contraction and stagnation in the body and you don’t need this when it comes to your fertility.

Alcohol

Alcohol is a drink that not only heats you up, it helps to leach your body of vital nutrients as it causes you to unrinate a lot more. As a consequence, you need to make up for this loss by eating so many more vegetables. However, I find people struggle to eat vegetables on a daily basis, let alone eating more to compensate for partying. So, it’s best to avoid this when preparing to conceive.

The digestive system is integral to good health. If you can’t digest food, then you are not getting the nutrients your body needs to function, let alone consider conception. It’s integral that this system is in good working order before preparing for children.

Written by Rebecca Mar Young, Springday Chinese Medicine Expert.

Back to Pregnancy and New Mums.

Related Content:
Eastern vs Western Medicine
The Importance of Preparing to Conceive
What is a serving? Are you suffering from Portion Distortion?
10 Easy Ways to Improve Nutrition in Your Diet

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