Fertility-Boosting Foods

The first order of business, Biasucci-Vianna says, is to achieve and maintain a healthy weight to keep your reproductive cycle in balance. She advises the women she sees to check their BMI (body mass index) score. A BMI ranking of 19-24 indicates a healthy weight (athletes may have higher scores due to muscle mass). Anything below or above that range should be discussed with your health care provider.

[To calculate your BMI and learn your weight category, go to http://www.healthywomen.org]

Foods to improve ovulation

If weight isn't a problem, but you're experiencing infertility, will changing your dietary habits help you eat your way to motherhood?

Recently, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health published findings from a study of more than 18,000 women who were followed over eight years to see if their diets influenced their ability to become pregnant.

The study found that women who ate foods containing higher amounts of trans fats, animal proteins and carbohydrates, among other dietary factors, were more likely to have an ovulatory disorder. Ovulation problems cause infertility in about 20 percent of women seeking help in becoming pregnant. The researchers concluded that a majority of such cases "may be preventable" by adjusting diet and lifestyle.

Those findings apply only to women with ovulation problems and not to all infertile women. Yet, key study findings could give many women new avenues to explore, including:

• Switch protein sources: Replace some of the beef, pork or chicken you eat (animal protein) with vegetable protein sources, such as cooked dried beans and nuts. When five percent of total calories eaten come from vegetable protein instead of animal, the risk of ovulatory infertility drops by more than 50 percent.
• Add some high-fat dairy: Call it the Chunky Monkey Effect. The more low-fat dairy products you eat, the greater your risk of ovulatory infertility. Yes, you read that right—although the study's authors caution against using this to justify late-night freezer raids for a pint of premium ice cream. Instead, try replacing one low-fat dairy serving per day with one high-fat serving, such as a glass of whole milk.
• Don't forget your vitamins: Women in the study who regularly took iron supplements and multivitamins containing folic acid had less ovulation-related infertility.

Building a healthy baby nest