Fat, Carbs and the Science of Conception

 

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Milk and Ice Cream
Consider the classic sundae: a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream crisscrossed by rivulets of chocolate sauce, sprinkled with walnuts and topped with a spritz of whipped cream. If you are having trouble getting pregnant, and ovulatory infertility is suspected, think of it as temporary health food. OK, maybe that's going a bit too far. But a fascinating finding from the Nurses' Health Study is that a daily serving or two of whole milk and foods made from whole milk—full-fat yogurt, cottage cheese, and, yes, even ice cream—seem to offer some protection against ovulatory infertility, while skim and low-fat milk do the opposite.

The results fly in the face of current standard nutrition advice. But they make sense when you consider what skim and low-fat milk do, and don't, contain. Removing fat from milk radically changes its balance of sex hormones in a way that could tip the scales against ovulation and conception. Proteins added to make skim and low-fat milk look and taste "creamier" push it even farther away.

It would be an overstatement to say that there is a handful of research into possible links between consumption of dairy products and fertility. The vanishingly small body of work in this area is interesting, to say the least, given our fondness for milk, ice cream and other dairy foods. The average American woman has about two servings of dairy products a day, short of the three servings a day the government's dietary guidelines would like her to have.

The depth and detail of the Nurses' Health Study database allowed us to see which foods had the biggest effects. The most potent fertility food from the dairy case was, by far, whole milk, followed by ice cream. Sherbet and frozen yogurt, followed by low-fat yogurt, topped the list as the biggest contributors to ovulatory infertility. The more low-fat dairy products in a woman's diet, the more likely she was to have had trouble getting pregnant. The more full-fat dairy products in a woman's diet, the less likely she was to have had problems getting pregnant.

Our advice on milk and dairy products might be criticized as breaking the rules. The "rules," though, aren't based on solid science and may even conflict with the evidence. And for solving the problem of ovulatory infertility, the rules may need tweaking. Think about switching to full-fat milk or dairy products as a temporary nutrition therapy designed to improve your chances of becoming pregnant. If your efforts pay off, or if you stop trying to have a baby, then you may want to rethink dairy—especially whole milk and other full-fat dairy foods—altogether. Over the long haul, eating a lot of these isn't great for your heart, your blood vessels or the rest of your body.

Before you sit down to a nightly carton of Häagen-Dazs ("The Fertility Diet said I needed ice cream, honey"), keep in mind that it doesn't take much in the way of full-fat dairy foods to measurably affect fertility. Among the women in the Nurses' Health Study, having just one serving a day of a full-fat dairy food, particularly milk, decreased the chances of having ovulatory infertility. The impact of ice cream was seen at two half-cup servings a week. If you eat ice cream at that rate, a pint should last about two weeks.

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: RMankovitz @ 06/07/2009 2:34:43 PM

    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

  • Posted By: danrupp @ 04/27/2009 9:40:50 AM

    being exposed to mobile phones, televisions, and computers wont stop you from getting pregnant. Plenty of healthy
    women and pregnancies can tell you that. What american women, or all women need to know is that a big fat, obese
    woman in her 20's and 30's is going to have trouble getting and staying pregnant more often than a thinner, healthier,
    woman in her 20's ans 30's. If you have never exercised, sit infront ofthe tv a lot, eat crappy food all the time, eat processed foods all the time, chances are you are not healthy. Women think just being in your 20's and 30's is enough to get you pregnant. It isnt. and everyone is getting FATTER. Kids are fatter, young adults are fatter, oh my god! The summer is here, and the big fat women in bathingsuits they ahouldnt be wearing are on their way! 20 yrs from now 70% ofthe kids in our school system will be obese! You watch! By the way, women in underdevolped nations have sick babies who sometimes die in infancy, as the moms themselves can dies durinfg delivery. They have disgustingly sick babies all the time. Heavy metals in our environment dont cause pregnancy problems. Just like vaccinations cause Autism. We are more likely to believe that power lines cause breast cancer than we are to believe our diets that are in fat, our total lack of exercise, and our high fat diet do. And, by the way, keep on smoking and drinking, that helps too! Dont worry about thefact that you did all that stuff yrs ago, it doesnt affect you now, right?? WRONG!!! WE ARE A NATION OF DUMB DUMBS!!!!

  • Posted By: danrupp @ 04/27/2009 9:40:05 AM

    being exposed to mobile phones, televisions, and computers wont stop you from getting pregnant. Plenty of healthy
    women and pregnancies can tell you that. What american women, or all women need to know is that a big fat, obese
    woman in her 20's and 30's is going to have trouble getting and staying pregnant more often than a thinner, healthier,
    woman in her 20's ans 30's. If you have never exercised, sit infront ofthe tv a lot, eat crappy food all the time, eat processed foods all the time, chances are you are not healthy. Women think just being in your 20's and 30's is enough to get you pregnant. It isnt. and everyone is getting FATTER. Kids are fatter, young adults are fatter, oh my god! The summer is here, and the big fat women in bathingsuits they ahouldnt be wearing are on their way! 20 yrs from now 70% ofthe kids in our school system will be obese! You watch! By the way, women in underdevolped nations have sick babies who sometimes die in infancy, as the moms themselves can dies durinfg delivery. They have disgustingly sick babies all the time. Heavy metals in our environment dont cause pregnancy problems. Just like vaccinations cause Autism. We are more likely to believe that power lines cause breast cancer than we are to believe our diets that are in fat, our total lack of exercise, and our high fat diet do. And, by the way, keep on smoking and drinking, that helps too! Dont worry about thefact that you did all that stuff yrs ago, it doesnt affect you now, right?? WRONG!!! WE ARE A NATION OF DUMB DUMBS!!!!

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