You are what you eat. So, as it turns out, is the theoretical baby that you may or may not conceive in the near future. A new book by Harvard nutritionist sperm-and-eggheads suggests that your dietary choices can greatly improve your chances of getting pregnant. The Fertility Diet (McGraw Hill, 304 pages, $24.95) by Drs. Jorge E. Chavarro and Walter C. Willett, and not-a-doctor-but-probably-still-makes-his-mother-proud co-author Patrick J. Skerrett, outlines the optimal foods to consume, and avoid, if you want to boost your odds of getting knocked up. The book is based on findings from a long-running study of the diets, lifestyles, and reproductive histories of nearly 18,000 nurses, and claims that the foods you eat can have a major impact on the likelihood of your conceiving.
Magical baby-making super foods include . . . wait for it . . . a balanced roster of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and animal and plant proteins. Avoid trans fats and cut back on red meat. Sound familiar? It should. It’s pretty much the way you’re supposed to be eating anyway, if you want to be healthy and happy, and to fit into your jeans on a consistent basis. For amped-up ovulation, add a moderate amount of high-fat dairy products such as whole milk, cheese, and ice cream. If you start craving dill-pickle sundaes, you’re probably doing something right.
What you’re not eating can have just as much of an effect on your ability to conceive. Avoid alcohol, for example, and stop eating so much sugary crap. The book, of course, is richer in detail about all of the above, and offers wide-ranging dietary statistics, plus medical explanations and scientific research, to back up its advice.
The Fertility Diet, which recently got a national plug on the cover of Newsweek, is now in bookstores and available online.
What are you waiting for? After all: tick-tock, ladies. Tick-fucking-tock.