This article is yet another example of medicine (an art) masquerading as science. As a holistic health practitioner, research scientist, and author of several books on wellness, I am quite familiar with the Nurse's Health Study, upon which many of the conclusions in this article are based. Like the majority of health studies, this one is poorly designed, does not control many of the critical variables that affect the outcome, and repeatedly confuses correlation with causation. The result is that at least half the conclusions fly in the face of reality when seen through the template of Nature. You remember her. She evolved us and every other living thing on the planet. She has been my guide to health for decades and has never let me down.
Here are a few reality checks:
1. The study: plant protein appears to be better than animal protein. Nature: that is only true if you eat grain-fed caged animal products. If you eat what I created - organic free range grass- and grub-fed animal products, the reverse is true.
2. The study: eat more protein from beans. Nature: do not eat my plant embryos. I put toxins in them to discourage you. Many of them like the ones in soy will make you infertile and reduce your partner's sperm count.
3. The study: women are born to run. Nature: women food gatherers have no need to run ??? plants don't move. Vigorous exercise will damage your skeleton and lead to a cessation of menstruation. Pay attention.
I could go on ad nauseum, but you get the idea. The medical community, in its arrogance, believes it knows more about the female body than Nature, and has even declared the birth event as an illness that requires hospitalization. Nature: I designed you to give birth in a squatting position.
The study and the article completely missed the most important points in giving birth to a healthy baby, which is the ultimate goal. Parents need to prepare at least 2 years before conception to clean up their toxin profile. An example is PCOS, caused by an iodine deficiency resulting from a buildup of toxic halogens ??? bromide, chlorine and fluoride. If you want to learn from Nature how to produce health children, read my book: "The Wellness Project," and give a copy to your doctor.
Roy Mankovitz, Director
www.MontecitoWellness.com
Fat, Carbs and the Science of Conception
In a groundbreaking new book, Harvard researchers look at the role of diet, exercise and weight control in fertility. Guarantee: you will be surprised.
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Every new life starts with two seemingly simple events. First, an active sperm burrows into a perfectly mature egg. Then the resulting fertilized egg nestles into the specially prepared lining of the uterus and begins to grow. The key phrase in that description is "seemingly simple." Dozens of steps influenced by a cascade of carefully timed hormones are needed to make and mature eggs and sperm. Their union is both a mad dash and a complex dance, choreographed by hormones, physiology and environmental cues.
A constellation of other factors can come into play. Many couples delay having a baby until they are financially ready or have established themselves in their professions. Waiting, though, decreases the odds of conceiving and increases the chances of having a miscarriage. Fewer than 10 percent of women in their early 20s have issues with infertility, compared with nearly 30 percent of those in their early 40s. Sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, which are on the upswing, can cause or contribute to infertility. The linked epidemics of obesity and diabetes sweeping the country have reproductive repercussions. Environmental contaminants known as endocrine disruptors, such as some pesticides and emissions from burning plastics, appear to affect fertility in women and men. Stress and anxiety, both in general and about fertility, can also interfere with getting pregnant. Add all these to the complexity of conception and it's no wonder that infertility is a common problem, besetting an estimated 6 million American couples.
It's almost become a cliché that diet, exercise and lifestyle choices affect how long you'll live, the health of your heart, the odds you'll develop cancer and a host of other health-related issues. Is fertility on this list? The answer to that question has long been a qualified "maybe," based on old wives' tales, conventional wisdom—and almost no science. Farmers, ranchers and animal scientists know more about how nutrition affects fertility in cows, pigs and other commercially important animals than fertility experts know about how it affects reproduction in humans. There are small hints scattered across medical journals, but few systematic studies of this crucial connection in people.
We set out to change this critical information gap with the help of more than 18,000 women taking part in the Nurses' Health Study, a long-term research project looking at the effects of diet and other factors on the development of chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer and other diseases. Each of these women said she was trying to have a baby. Over eight years of follow-up, most of them did. About one in six women, though, had some trouble getting pregnant, including hundreds who experienced ovulatory infertility—a problem related to the maturation or release of a mature egg each month. When we compared their diets, exercise habits and other lifestyle choices with those of women who readily got pregnant, several key differences emerged. We have translated these differences into fertility-boosting strategies.
At least for now, these recommendations are aimed at preventing and reversing ovulatory infertility, which accounts for one quarter or more of all cases of infertility. They won't work for infertility due to physical impediments like blocked fallopian tubes. They may work for other types of infertility, but we don't yet have enough data to explore connections between nutrition and infertility due to other causes. And since the Nurses' Health Study doesn't include information on the participants' partners, we weren't able to explore how nutrition affects male infertility. From what we have gleaned from the limited research in this area, some of our strategies might improve fertility in men, too. The plan described in The Fertility Diet doesn't guarantee a pregnancy any more than do in vitro fertilization or other forms of assisted reproduction. But it's virtually free, available to everyone, has no side effects, sets the stage for a healthy pregnancy, and forms the foundation of a healthy eating strategy for motherhood and beyond. That's a winning combination no matter how you look at it.
Slow Carbs, Not No Carbs
Once upon a time, and not that long ago, carbohydrates were the go-to gang for taste, comfort, convenience and energy. Bread, pasta, rice, potatoes—these were the highly recommended, base-of-the-food-pyramid foods that supplied us with half or more of our calories. Then in rumbled the Atkins and South Beach diets. In a scene out of George Orwell's "1984," good became bad almost overnight as the two weight-loss juggernauts turned carbohydrates into dietary demons, vilifying them as the source of big bellies and jiggling thighs. Following the no-carb gospel, millions of Americans spurned carbohydrates in hopes of shedding pounds. Then, like all diet fads great and small, the no-carb craze lost its luster and faded from prominence.
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