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The Dairy Fertility Debate: Low-Fat, Whole-Fat or None? |
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I’m confused by everything I read in the press, do I eat no, low- or full-fat dairy to optimize my chances of getting pregnant?
Low-Fat Dairy View
Western doctors have traditionally recommended only low-fat dairy products, which have beneficial protein and calcium, in order to keep weight down and insulin levels in check.
No Dairy View
However, Chinese medicine experts recommend infertile women limit dairy intake to an absolute minimum. Many people have an undiagnosed dairy intolerance with bloating, gas or sinus congestion. Intestinal disturbance and allergies interrupt proper endocrine function and cause a thickening of your cervical mucus, resulting in decreased sperm transportation, fertilization, and embryo implantation.
Full-Fat Dairy View
Many sensational headlines about eating full-fat ice cream to trigger ovulation have women confused. Here are the facts.
Researchers from Harvard School of Public followed 18,555 married, premenopausal women aged between 24 and 42, with no history of infertility, who were either trying to become pregnant or became pregnant over an 8 year period from 1991 to 1999.
Researchers found that the more low-fat dairy products in a woman's diet, the more trouble she had getting pregnant. The more full-fat dairy products she ate, the less likely she was to have trouble.
Women who had one or more daily servings of full-fat dairy products daily were 27 percent less likely to be infertile than those who had less than one serving a week. Just drinking one 8-ounce glass of whole milk daily cut the risk of infertility by 50 percent.
However, here is the confusing part: women who ate two or more servings of low-fat dairy daily were almost twice as likely to be infertile.
Why the different results from the full-fat and low-fat products? Possibly because estrogen and progesterone in the milk attach to the fat globules. Skimming the fat from dairy also removes these hormones, which are attached to fat. Left behind are androgens, or male hormones. When male hormones are unchecked by female hormones, ovulation is impaired.
The study’s co-author Jorge Chavarro, research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, is “still skeptical about the full-fat dairy connection in the study since high-fat dairy foods have been connected to poor insulin levels in other research. I consider it an optional part of the diet. Women can try a small amount, but they certainly shouldn't go overboard…..The impact of ice cream was seen at two half-cup servings a week, which means a pint should last you two weeks…. I'd rather see women replacing a low-fat yogurt with a full-fat one or adding whole milk to their cereal instead of skim.”
The bottom line on Dairy:
Of course the calcium you get from dairy products is an important component to healthy fertility and nutrition, read more about Calcium below.
Sources: The Tao of Fertility, Fertility Facts, US News
Low-Fat Dairy View
Western doctors have traditionally recommended only low-fat dairy products, which have beneficial protein and calcium, in order to keep weight down and insulin levels in check.
No Dairy View
However, Chinese medicine experts recommend infertile women limit dairy intake to an absolute minimum. Many people have an undiagnosed dairy intolerance with bloating, gas or sinus congestion. Intestinal disturbance and allergies interrupt proper endocrine function and cause a thickening of your cervical mucus, resulting in decreased sperm transportation, fertilization, and embryo implantation.
Full-Fat Dairy View
Many sensational headlines about eating full-fat ice cream to trigger ovulation have women confused. Here are the facts.
Researchers from Harvard School of Public followed 18,555 married, premenopausal women aged between 24 and 42, with no history of infertility, who were either trying to become pregnant or became pregnant over an 8 year period from 1991 to 1999.
Researchers found that the more low-fat dairy products in a woman's diet, the more trouble she had getting pregnant. The more full-fat dairy products she ate, the less likely she was to have trouble.
Women who had one or more daily servings of full-fat dairy products daily were 27 percent less likely to be infertile than those who had less than one serving a week. Just drinking one 8-ounce glass of whole milk daily cut the risk of infertility by 50 percent.
However, here is the confusing part: women who ate two or more servings of low-fat dairy daily were almost twice as likely to be infertile.
Why the different results from the full-fat and low-fat products? Possibly because estrogen and progesterone in the milk attach to the fat globules. Skimming the fat from dairy also removes these hormones, which are attached to fat. Left behind are androgens, or male hormones. When male hormones are unchecked by female hormones, ovulation is impaired.
The study’s co-author Jorge Chavarro, research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, is “still skeptical about the full-fat dairy connection in the study since high-fat dairy foods have been connected to poor insulin levels in other research. I consider it an optional part of the diet. Women can try a small amount, but they certainly shouldn't go overboard…..The impact of ice cream was seen at two half-cup servings a week, which means a pint should last you two weeks…. I'd rather see women replacing a low-fat yogurt with a full-fat one or adding whole milk to their cereal instead of skim.”
The bottom line on Dairy:
- Have a maximum of 2 servings of organic dairy each day
- If you have 2 servings per day, make one serving full-fat, one low fat
- If you only have one serving of dairy per day, make it full-fat and organic
- Remember serving sizes are very small: 1 cup (8 ounces) of milk, 1 cup of yogurt, 1 to 1.5 ounces of cheese (1.5 oz of cheese is the size of 3 stacked dice)
- If you go for the ice cream, you may have a maximum of 1 cup of full-fat ice cream per week
- Avoid all butter! It is not a good source of fat. It can wreak havoc on your fertility by clogging up your arteries and decreasing your circulation.
Of course the calcium you get from dairy products is an important component to healthy fertility and nutrition, read more about Calcium below.
Sources: The Tao of Fertility, Fertility Facts, US News