Optimizing Fertility with a Preconception Epigenetic Diet

Pre-conception

Just as a farmer prepares the soil before planting seeds, you must prepare your body to create an environment that is favourable for your foetus to develop healthily.

Among other things, your prime task is to remove three unhealthy programmers that may exist inside your body. These are excessive fat reserves, excessive inflammatory agents and toxins that are estrogenic hormone disruptors. Consider the following preparations:

Optimise metabolism

This ensures an ideal body weight. For women planning to get pregnant, it is particularly important to avoid being overweight, which is linked to:

• Lower chances of conception;

• Increased risk of miscarriage;

• Increased risk of gestational diabetes, which increases the child's risks of obesity and metabolic syndrome in later years.

Apart from eating an optimal diet, good weight management also depends on adequate sleep, exercise and stress reduction.

Balance inflammation

If you have chronic inflammatory conditions like eczema, asthma, food intolerance or allergy, there are several things that you can do right away to correct the situation:

• Have a blood test for food allergens and avoid foods that cause you problems;

• Avoid using polyunsaturated vegetable oils for cooking and food preparation;

• Stop eating inflammatory foods like refined and processed foods that contain high levels of sugar, trans fats and chemical additives;

• Increase your intake of anti-inflammatory foods, especially foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, like oily fish, fish oil, krill oil and cod liver oil;

• Take nutritional supplements containing vitamins A, C, D3, and E and minerals like zinc, magnesium, selenium and chromium;

• Overall, eat more vegetables and fruits low in glucose, fructose and sucrose. This is covered in more detail in Chapter 7.3 on Fruits.

Detoxify

Minimise your exposure to toxic pollutants and take steps to remove toxins that may already be present in your body. Alcohol, caffeine (from coffee, tea, cocoa and cola drinks) and nicotine (from tobacco) should be eliminated way before conception.

"Minimise your exposure to traffic pollution by avoiding busy roads. Also, minimise your time spent in commercial indoor areas like shopping malls. indoor pollution is serious and such enclosed spaces typically have higher levels of chemical pollutants compared with, say, the side of a busy road.

Pesticides in vegetables and fruits can be reduced by washing them in a mixture of one tablespoon of vinegar to one large washing bowl of water. For vegetables like cabbage and Chinese cabbage, discard the outer leaves. Fruits should also be peeled, especially in the case of heavily sprayed fruits like apples, whose skins may contain more than 20 types of chemicals. As far as possible, eat organic vegetables and fruits.

There are also specific pollutants that you need special care to avoid:

• Mercury: If you have mercury amalgam in your teeth, consult a dental specialist who is familiar with safe techniques of mercury removal. Note that a dentist who is unfamiliar with such techniques can actually worsen your mercury exposure. The seas have become heavily polluted and many fish and seafood today have high levels of mercury. Avoid eating large fish like tuna, swordfish and shark, as these fish accumulate the mercury in smaller fish that they eat. Choose smaller fish like mackerel, sardine, herring, anchovy and white bait, as well as freshwater fish like carp.

• Aluminium: This toxic metal comes mainly from antacid drugs commonly prescribed for indigestion and acid reflux, as well as baking powder. It also leaches from aluminium cooking pots and aluminium foil, as well as canned food and drinks.

• Copper: Major sources of copper toxicity include copper pots and pans as well as water piping. If you have copper pipes at home - or, worse still, older lead pipes - have them changed to stainless steel piping.

Certain foods and food supplements can help your body to eliminate toxic substances that have accumulated in the past. These include:

• High-fibre foods;

• Seaweeds and alginic acid from seaweeds;

• Chlorella, spirulina and blue-green algae;

• Pectin from fruits;

• Vitamin C and vitamin B6;

• Calcium, zinc, selenium, magnesium and other minerals;

• Probiotics supplements and fermented foods.

Nourish your body 

Before conceiving, give yourself at least 18 months to restore your health and enrich your bodily nutrition.

Improve your fertility

Three key nutrients are needed for hormones that support your reproductive health - zinc, vitamin B6 and the two essential fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6. A deficiency in these key nutrients will affect ovulation and menstrual cycles.

The best food sources of these nutrients are:

Enhance methylation

Methylation helps generate DNA and RNA for synthesising new cells, especially brain cells. Poor methylation increases the amino acid waste product homocysteine, which is linked to:

• Poor sperm production in men;
• Increased risk of birth defects, especially in the spinal cord;
• Increased risk of pregnancy complications such as pregnancy-induced hypertension, premature birth and low birth weight babies.

The three key nutrients that support methylation are vitamins B6, mB12 and folic acid. Other helpful nutrients include Trimethy|glycine (TMG, also known as Betaine) and zinc.\

The best food sources of these nutrients are:

Strengthen immunity

A strong immune system keeps you from falling ill as you prepare to welcome a new life. Additionally, a key role is played by about too trillion "friendly bacteria" that live in the body, particularly in the guts.

The body's own immune cells are supported by a diet that is overall rich in vitamins and minerals. Particularly helpful are vitamin C, selenium and zinc.

The best food sources of these nutrients are:

For friendly bacteria, eat naturally fermented foods such as yoghurt or kefir, pickles and fermented soy products like miso and soy sauce. For friendly fungi, eat naturally fermented soy products like natto and tempeh and soft cheeses like brie. These should not be pasteurised or cooked. They should eaten in their natural forms. Probiotic supplements can also be helpful, especially for those who have taken antibiotics.