What you eat in the months leading up to conceiving your bundle of joy matters, but how does it impact your future baby?

In this episode, I dive into the crux of why every single person should be prioritising their health and nutrition well before pregnancy and the evidence around how it can protect your future child from serious chronic health conditions.

Read more about why pre-conception nutrition matters here: https://thedietologist.com.au/why-you-need-to-be-thinking-about-pre-conception-nutrition-now/

Series of papers in The Lancet about pre-conception health: https://www.thelancet.com/series/preconception-health

I’m Stefanie Valakas, fertility dietitian and nutritionist, aka The Dietologist and host of Fertility Friendly Good, here to help inspire and empower you through factual nutrition information about women’s and men’s health, hormones and fertility.

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Download my FREE ultimate pre-conception lifestyle checklist for him and for her at: https://pages.thedietologist.com.au/checklist

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Episode Transcript

 Hello and welcome back to another episode of Fertility Friendly Food. I’m your host, Stefanie Valakas, and I will be talking to you today about why preconception nutrition matters. And despite multiple high level research articles being published in massive journals about why we should be focusing on the health of couples before they conceive, Generally speaking in the community, this is a pretty new idea that we should be looking at the health and lifestyle of couples before they conceive, and how this can not only impact their fertility, but also the future health of children.

And it’s not just for those who are having a problem, quote unquote, it’s actually for everybody. And I think We should be upskilling ourselves in the knowledge and also skills to be able to implement some basic nutrition principles to improve our chances of conception and also improve the health of our future children.

Most people start to focus on eating well during pregnancy, but about 50% of pregnancies are in fact unplanned. So it’s actually a really good idea to work on your nutrition beforehand. Now, for those of you who have had a long TTC journey or trying to conceive journey, it’s probably not going to be an unplanned pregnancy.

So you’re probably laughing right now. But I just wanted to also preface with that information as well. So we really want to be focusing on diet and lifestyle changes in what we call the preconception period. And this is about 3 to up to 12 months prior to conception. So conception is pretty much when the sperm meets the egg and becomes an embryo and your future baby.

Three months before conceiving is an absolutely critical time, because this is where the eggs of a woman are developing and maturing before you ovulate. And for the guys, the sperm takes about 64 days to do a full sperm cycle. So whatever you are eating and drinking or exposing yourself to in that time, like cigarette smoke for example.

can have a direct impact. Just like when you are pregnant and breastfeeding, there is increased nutrition requirements. And so you really want to not be behind the eight ball before you fall pregnant. You don’t want to be dealing with a nutritional deficiency like iron or B12. Once you find out you’re pregnant, you really want to be on top of these things beforehand.

And there’s even some evidence to suggest that nutritional deficiencies can have a direct impact on fertility and conception success. In fact, I know it’s just a mouse study, but they showed that severe iron deficiency anemia, which affects so many women, especially those of you with heavy periods. The mice who were anaemic had much less chance of implantation and pregnancy success when they did a little mini IVF on the mice.

So something to bear in mind I think it is absolutely critical that every single man and woman go out and get their blood work done by their GP. And look at everything. Look at your nutrition. Look at your thyroid. Look at your bloods. Look at everything. Just take a, this is a good time to take stock of your health.

If you haven’t been to your doctor in a little while this is the best time to go and have a chat, sit down and say, Hey, we’re thinking about starting in the next six months to a year.  We just want to make sure that we’re both all good before we go. Go ahead. Now, the next thing I want to talk to you about why preconception nutrition is so important, which I briefly mentioned in episode one is something called epigenetics, which is a term that’s used to describe how environmental factors can affect the expression of genes in your baby’s body.

So we’ve got the basic DNA. Which is in every single cell. Okay, so we have all the DNA and it’s always the same in every single cell. We’re not talking about changing that. We’re not changing that, that foundational layer. We are talking about another process that occurs above the DNA. Above genetics, which is where we can modify our environment to potentially switch certain genes on or off.

So it’s a bit like a light switch, and one of these processes is called methylation. There’s also other processes involved in epigenetics, but methylation is a big one. Now, if the wrong genes are switched on or off that can definitely impact the health of your baby. And like I said, even your baby’s baby.

We want to make sure that a diet rich in nutrition, in different nutrients that are required, which I’ll get into next episode is being consumed around this time of conception and even a little bit beforehand. And this is not just for the ladies. Men, you are not off the hook. Studies are starting to show that a male’s preconception health and diet can directly play a role in epigenetics too.

In fact, alcohol consumption can be a really big player in this. Men who had higher alcohol consumption, were more likely to have a low birth weight baby. We don’t know if that’s the exact cause, it’s just an association, but it’s something definitely to bear in mind. So it’s definitely recommended for men that you have two standard drinks a day and aim for at least two alcohol free days per week, and for women one standard drink per day and at least two alcohol free days per week in the preconception period at a minimum.

And if you’re going through IVF Gents, it’s best to abstain from alcohol one month before you give your sperm sample at a minimum and similarly for women as well. There’s a lot more research needed in this space for sure. The other aspect to consider is looking at your future health outcomes for your baby.

So we are starting to show that specific nutrients and supplements can actually play a direct role in whether your child or your child’s chronic disease risk in their future, in their later childhood and adulthood even. So one of those groups of conditions are allergies, asthma, and eczema. So allergies in kids are on the rise.

I remember going to primary school and I could take my peanut butter or Nutella sandwich, no problems. But nowadays, there’s no nuts, it’s getting to the point no eggs there’s just, allergies are on the rise. It’s end. More than 10 percent of one year old children have a food allergy, one in nine children have asthma, and one in five have eczema.

So this is affecting a lot of children. So allergies really stem from changes in the immune system. And we think that some of these alterations are starting to occur in early pregnancy. So what you’re eating as a mum to be can actually influence the immune development and functions that happens in baby’s body.

So allergy prevention strategies that have been studied include looking at your fish oil intake. So omega 3 rich foods, looking at folic acid supplementation, getting enough prebiotic fibre. So these are the fibres that feed the good bacteria that live in our gut. And we’ll talk more about this in our gut health episodes later in the season.

So prebiotic fibre, just to give you a few examples. Thank you. garlic, onions, cashews, peanuts, legumes and beans, and asparagus. Probiotics for women and men who have a family history of allergies, asthma, or eczema. And in fact, this study is really well recognized now, but I think when it was published, it might not have had the best uptake.

But yeah, so we showed that if we supplemented women in their third trimester of pregnancy with a particular strain of probiotics called lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, which is a mouthful, but when they supplemented with a specific dosage of this probiotic in the third trimester for women who had a family history of any of these conditions food or drug related allergies, asthma or eczema.

They’ve reduced their child’s risk of infant eczema by up to 80%, which is just huge. And really, it’s a simple intervention that can be done by most women. I like to start with probiotics beforehand and you’ll see this in my free checklist that you can download at thedietologist. com. au forward slash freebies or in the show notes.

So don’t forget to grab your copy. I definitely talk about probiotics here because I just find women who forget by the time they get to the third trimester of pregnancy to start on their probiotic and I think it’s a really good habit to get into and it certainly won’t do much harm at all. The other thing that I like to talk about is introducing all the major allergens into your diets and unless of course you are allergic yourself or have a problem with these foods yourself.

So this is really important because we are setting up ourselves to include all these foods then throughout pregnancy, which slightly flavors the amniotic fluid and may reduce the risk of food allergies. So in terms of asthma vitamin E tends to be the standout nutrient for asthma prevention. And so vitamin E is found in foods like extra virgin olive oil, nuts, broccoli, peanut butter, tahini and sesame seeds.

Unfortunately, supplementing with this nutrient is not safe during pregnancy and has actually not been shown to be effective. So we actually want to be achieving our vitamin E requirements through our diet. Also, getting enough antioxidants. Now, antioxidants, I love talking about antioxidants because it really showcases that fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices are more than just important for our body.

For vitamins and minerals, which of course they are too, but these little compounds, which of course are not essential for life. You could go without antioxidants. They’re not an essential nutrient, but what they do is they’re They like to donate, so they’re a bit like a generous philanthropist.

They like to donate a spare electron, which helps stabilize any free radicals that are missing electrons in the body, which can go on to cause damage to your DNA, and that can include both sperm and eggs as well as your own cells too. So getting enough antioxidants through fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices has shown to reduce the risk of asthma and or eczema in pups.

Another good reason to be eating enough fruits and vegetables. In terms of eczema, We’re looking at getting enough vitamin D. And honestly, I would say despite living in sunny Australia, most people I see could benefit from a bit more vitamin D. But before you go out and just grab a random supplement off the shelf, I really recommend you go and get yourself tested first before you go and do things like that, because you never know what your status could be.

But low vitamin D more risk of the eczema, asthma, food allergies, and in babies. So yeah, really important to get that checked out. And regular prebiotic and probiotic intake. I’ve already talked about lactobacillus for amnosis GG. So a combination of all those things would definitely play a role.

The other thing to consider as well, which is a totally a bit of a delicate topic is weight for conception. Now, The definition of healthy weight is definitely up for debate, and I don’t think BMI is the most per is a perfect way to group people. Or, it’s almost like a bit of a judgement, isn’t it?

Especially in The fertility space where some clinics are now having using BMI as a cutoff to refuse treatment, which is just absolutely heartbreakingly sad for those couples who are struggling, who need help and are not being seen because of their weight status, which is just.

devastating. And it’s definitely not a perfect system. But I guess it’s a little bit like the age caps that they also have. So it’s definitely something to bear in mind. And that’s why I say up to about 12 months leading up to conception. If you feel like you’ve probably got some work to do in terms of improving, it’s not so much about your weight, actually.

It’s actually about your body fat. Body fat too much or not enough can affect ovulation and it definitely goes both ways. It’s not just about high body weight, but it’s also about too low. Too low can have a massive impact on hormones. If you’ve got a history of an eating disorder, Or just a really active person who maybe is just under fueling themselves.

That can have a massive impact on your cycles as well. And your ability to ovulate. It’s definitely not all doom and gloom. It just takes time. So we really want to be focusing on nutrition in the year leading up to conception. If you are somebody that has too high body fat percentage or too low body fat percentage.

It definitely plays a role, but you’re going to need a tailored, coordinated approach to make sure that it gets to where it needs to be. So those are my main reasons why your preconception nutrition matters for both men and for women. And it is more than just fertility and conception, which definitely could, It definitely plays a role, but I’m looking at it more from an angle of your baby’s long term health, which is the ultimate motivator.

Now I just want to briefly also talk about some of the nutrition strategies that you can put into place as well that has been associated with obesity. better fertility and conception rates. So I’m going to share two of my favorite ones. The first is getting at least two servings of fish and seafood into your week every week.

Now we’re talking ideally those omega 3 rich fish, those oily fish. So salmon, trout, sardines, mackerel, to a lesser degree tuna, but Definitely including those up to twice per week wherever possible because research has shown that couples who ate fish and seafood up to eight times per menstrual cycle, so on average about twice a week if you’ve got a regular cycle, they conceived faster.

They had a shorter time to pregnancy and they also had more sex. So that’s a fun fact for you there. And the second one that is important is Increasing the amount of protein you get from vegetables versus animal protein. So just swapping as little as 30 to 60 grams of animal protein per week for plant based proteins.

Think legumes, think beans. Beans lentils, all that delicious, nutritious food swapping that can improve both male and female fertility. Plus it’s definitely saves your back pocket as well. So there’s two implementable tips for those who are currently trying to conceive, to try and boost your nutrition for conception whilst bearing the other things in mind from a long term your child’s future health perspective as well.

And that’s especially important if you’ve got a family history of any chronic diseases. Definitely pay attention to those and definitely seek some personalized advice from a dietitian. Here in Australia, it’s accredited practicing dietitians, but for those of you overseas, most of them are called registered dietitians.

And if you would like any more information on From me and about what I do and where I am at, you can follow me on Instagram at the underscore dietologist and find my website, the dietologist. com. au where I have over 100 evidence based blogs about women’s health and fertility nutrition. And you can also grab my free download there as well.

And if you haven’t already ladies who are trying to conceive, sorry guys. I also have a free Facebook page. group called Fertility Friendly Food that you can join and get weekly tips and tricks from me as well. So until next time everyone, see ya.

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