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
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Whether you classify yourself as a couch potato or an exercise aficionado, your fertility zone should include four types of activity: aerobic exercise, strength training, stretching and the activities of daily living. This quartet works together to control weight, guard against high blood sugar and insulin, and keep your muscles limber and strong. They are also natural stress relievers, something almost everyone coping with or worrying about infertility can use.
Exercise has gotten a bad rap when it comes to fertility. While the pioneering studies of Dr. Rose Frisch and her colleagues convincingly show that too much exercise coupled with too little stored energy can throw off or turn off ovulation in elite athletes, their work says nothing about the impact of usual exercise in normal-weight or overweight women. Common sense says that it can't be a big deterrent to conception. If it were, many of us wouldn't be here. Our ancestors worked hard to hunt, forage, clear fields and travel from place to place. Early Homo sapiens burned twice as many calories each day as the average American does today and were fertile despite it—or because of it.
Results from the Nurses' Health Study support this evolutionary perspective and show that exercise, particularly vigorous exercise, actually improves fertility. Exercising for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week is a great place to start. It doesn't really matter how you exercise, as long as you find something other than your true love that moves you and gets your heart beating faster.
Chavarro and Willett are in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Skerrett is editor of the Harvard Heart Letter. For more information, go to health.harvard.edu/newsweek or thefertilitydiet.com .
© 2007
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