Last week I had the pleasure of seeing Nina Planck give a presentation about her new book, “Real Food for Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating For Two and Baby’s First Foods.” Nina Planck, a local and traditional foods expert, who created the first farmers’ markets in London and ran the legendary Greenmarkets in NYC, is also a mother and is currently pregnant with twins. Watching her stand before me lecturing for 2 hours straight, 6 months pregnant with twins at the age of 38 (my rough estimate based on her stories), looking as comfortable and powerful as Tina Turner at the Grammy’s and glowing with radiance, I said to myself, “Either I’m looking at Superwoman or this woman clearly knows what she’s talking about when it comes prenatal nutrition. I officially have a new hero.”

And man, the preggers lady really gave it to us straight! Despite what conventional wisdom would have us believe, the foods that support fertility, pregnancy and healthy young development, are organic protein and fat. Lard, egg yolks, liver, coconut oil, nuts, butter, seafood and raw milk and the like, are the champions of pregnancy, not bagels and crackers. Nina has thoroughly researched both current nutritional studies as well as tribal nutritional wisdom to come up with these findings. It seems that illiterate tribal people who live as their ancestors did for thousands of years actually put our Center for Disease Control to shame when it comes to nutrition for fertility, pregnancy and lactation. The following is the first part of my review of “Real Food for Mother and Baby,” focusing on the optimal diet for both parents for 6 months prior to conception, A.K.A. The Fertility Diet. This blog will focus on the FOODS necessary for fertility, not isolated nutrients.

Because of the way that birth control pills cause a body-wide reduction in critical nutrients for a healthy pregnancy, it is recommended that women come off the pill at least 6 months in advance of trying to get pregnant and beginning a nutritionally supportive diet as soon as possible. In addition, it is advised that women replace all metal dental fillings at least 6 months prior to conception. Some studies show that a mother’s nutritional health at the time of conception may have more impact on birth weight than her nutrition during the pregnancy. This is because your baby can draw on your nutritional reserves for her development needs, even if you have a hard time eating during your pregnancy. This means a woman must have some reserves because very often she may not know she is pregnant until her missed period, while critical organs have already been forming.

The nutrient we usually hear the most about is folic acid (deficiency in the vital nutrient can cause horrible neural tube defects). To make sure that you are getting enough eat organic pastured chicken, wild fish, organic leafy greens, organic fruit, organic raw nuts and lentils. Does it have to be organic? Yes. Not only is organic food higher in critical nutrients, pesticides have been linked with infertility and birth defects. This is an easy factor to have control over. Organic all the way!

The following are Nina’s “Four Fertility Rules”:

1. “Be an Omnivore.” That’s right. No matter what modern wisdom will try to tell you, veganism has no place in pregnancy (or human health in my opinion). Anthropologists have not been able to identify even one society living on plants alone. There is a reason for this, we need the nutrients found in animal foods to maintain health such as Vitamin B12 and essential fats. The star nutrients for fertility and a healthy pregnancy are found in fat and protein. The elders of tribal societies did not send the able-bodied men out to gather Activia and Tostitos for the young women who were about to conceive. They sent them to get fish eggs, seafood, raw butter, red meat, moose thyroid, venison liver, bison heart, you name it. Now I’m not actually suggesting you try to get your hands on some moose thyroid. However, I would make every effort to get grass-fed meat (lamb, beef, venison, and bison including organ meats like liver and kidney), bone broths, wild fish, organic seafood (especially oysters), pastured eggs, pastured chicken and raw dairy from grass-fed cows. If you can’t or don’t want to get raw dairy, the next best thing is unhomogenized whole fat dairy from grass-fed cows. These are the foods that make you fertile, not a salad with part-skim mozzarella cheese and raspberry vinaigrette. And avoid soy. Throw in a good fish oil supplement and you’ll be prego in no time! My favorite because of the stringent testing for purity is Pharmax Pure Fish Oil from www.ultralifeinc.com.

2. “Fat and Fertility”: Healthy fats rule when it comes to fertility. This means eating all of the animal-based foods mentioned above as well as avocadoes, nuts, coconut oil (the lauric acid is anti-viral and great for immunity), raw butter from grass-fed cows and olive oil. Fats carry certain vitamins that you cannot get in other foods. They are called fat-soluble vitamins (Vitamins A, D, E and K). These are all fertility nutrients and will only be found in fat-containing foods as fat is needed to digest these nutrients. That means that when you drink skim milk, you are not absorbing the vitamins A and D as suggested by the label. You need fat to absorb those nutrients which is why whole-fat raw milk is the best choice. You also need fat to absorb anti-oxidants such as beta carotene (putting some butter on your steamed carrots will help with this).

3. “The Seafood Principle”: Women need nutrients found in the sea to get pregnant, specifically Omega-3 fatty acids and iodine. Omega-3 fatty acids can best be found in wild fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and sardines. A good fish oil supplement boosts fertility in both women and men. Iodine, which boosts the thyroid gland, can be found in seafood, sea vegetables (kelp, wakame, dulse), butter, eggs and sea salt (preferrably Celtic because it’s the lowest in mercury). My favorite sea salt is Celtra-F from www.ultralifeinc.com.

4. “Don’t Eat Carbage”: Organic fruits, vegetables, whole non-gluten grains and properly prepared legumes are wonderful for fertility. Junk carbs are not. As Nina says, “Refined foods are not pro-baby.” Refined foods like sugar, white bread, white rice, soda, crackers, donuts, cookies, cereal, and ice cream are all displacing foods. That means that they rob nutrition from your body in order to process them. If you eat them you will be deficient in important nutrients like vitamins B, C and E which could have a negative effect on fertility and the early nutrition of your fetus. The second problem with junk food is insulin resistance. When you eat sugar and refined carbs, your cells are overexposed to insulin and over time will become resistant to the hormone. This will raise testosterone in women which has a negative effect on all of the other female hormones that are involved in becoming pregnant. Many women with insulin resistance will be diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a common cause of infertility.

So to wrap up, when it comes to fertility: Praise the Lard! Organic protein and fat are essential. For more information, I would highly recommend Nina’s book as a nutritional resource for couples who are planning to have a baby within the next year.

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