Veganism is a growing trend all over the world with some turning to it for health
benefits and others for animal welfare, the health of our environment, or all three.
For those of you unsure about what being a vegan is, it's when you eat no animal products at all.
While being plant based definitely has a number of great health benefits with regards to fertility,
what does the research show about a vegan diet and trying to conceive?
Well stay tuned to find out!
Welcome everyone, my name is Melanie McGrice and I'm a fertility and prenatal dietitian.
What we eat can have a huge impact not only on your fertility but once you conceive on both
the short and long-term health of your baby. To get an idea of what a fertility diet looks like,
why don't you download the fertility meal plan that I created at melaniemcgrice.com/fertility.
In this video, I'm going to discuss the pros and cons of
following a vegan diet to enhance your fertility.
The first thing I want to say is that a well planned vegan diet is appropriate
for all stages of life. As with any eating pattern, there are healthy options and not
so healthy options and the trick is to choose a variety of the healthy options more frequently,
especially when it comes to your meat substitutes. Your focus should be on
whole foods as much as possible including loads of fruits, vegetables, wholegrains,
legumes, soy products, nuts and seeds. Let's have a look at some of the benefits of being
a vegan when you are trying to fall pregnant as well as address a few potential concerns.
Firstly, a vegan diet can be packed with antioxidants and fibre
We know that oxidative stress and inflammation can lead to cell damage. This includes damage to your
egg cells, or oocytes as well as an increased risk for infertility related disorders such as
endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome. While it is important to reduce your exposure
to substances that promote inflammation, like pollution, smoke and alcohol we can't avoid
them all. A diet rich in antioxidants can help control inflammation because they neutralise the
free radicals before they can do too much harm. A healthy vegan diet filled with a variety of
minimally processed plant foods provides these valuable antioxidants in the form of vitamins,
minerals and phytonutrients. The more diverse your intake, the better the protection. This
is why we are always recommending that you eat a rainbow of fresh produce!
As I discuss in my video on plant-based diets and fertility, some of these health benefits come from
the individual nutrients but some also come from the unique combination of nutrients housed in the
food matrix. That's why antioxidant supplements don't seem to work as well as whole foods.
All these plant foods also contain a significant amount of fibre,
especially wholegrains and legumes. Fibre is food for the good bacteria that live in your gut. An
imbalance between the good and bad bacteria (which is also known as dysbiosis) can increase levels of
inflammation and as we've learned, inflammation is fertility's public enemy number one!
Next up, there are not many unhealthy vegan fast-foods available
Changing to a vegan diet can also impact the types of fast-food you choose. Traditionally
fast foods contain a number of animal products, making them unsuitable for vegans. Fast-foods
are basically devoid of beneficial nutrients and high in energy, saturated fats, salt and sugar.
Eating them too often can pose a number of problems. They can displace more nutrient dense
options, meaning you get less beneficial nutrients like antioxidants and fibre
and can also contribute to unwanted weight gain which can also have an effect on your
fertility. On top of these, a diet rich in saturated fats has also been associated with
fewer mature egg cells and so possibly lower fertility rates or longer time to pregnancy.
Thirdly, no animal products means less exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals
Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that disrupt our hormones and so
have a negative impact on our fertility. Certain endocrine disruptors, like dioxins and PCBs,
are accumulated and stored in the fatty tissue of animals (mainly meat, fish, shellfish and dairy),
while heavy metals like mercury are found in the flesh of predatory fish.
The good news is that if you are a vegan, you are cutting out this entire exposure stream.
This doesn't mean you aren't getting exposed to other endocrine disruptors
like pesticides or plasticizers, but your exposure is definitely minimized.
I've done a whole video on endocrine disruptors if you're interested in checking that out!
So, as you can see, following a vegan diet can certainly have benefits with regards to
preserving your fertility, but remember that there are always two sides to every coin.
When you follow a vegan diet, it's important that it be well planned to avoid nutrient deficiencies.
One of the main nutrients of concern is vitamin B12.
Vitamin B12 is only found naturally in animal products and because vegans avoid all animal
products, their intake is usually quite low. Some may argue that plant foods like tempeh,
miso and sea vegetables also contain vitamin B12, but they only contain
small amounts of usually inactive B12 due to the contamination of B12 producing bacteria.
Vitamin B12 is important for fertility because together with folate and vitamin B6
it is involved in homocysteine metabolism. High homocysteine levels can have a number of negative
effects from increased levels of inflammation to decreasing chances for fertilization
and anovulation. While further studies need to be done to understand if lowering homocysteine
levels through diet or supplementation with these nutrients will affect fertility,
preventing a deficiency when you're vegan is still necessary. Consider taking a prenatal multivitamin
that contains your daily dose of vitamin B12 to make sure that you're getting your fill.
In summary, taking a vegan approach to your diet can be a great way to improve your health and fertility.
But making sure you are getting in everything you need is an important part of this journey.
Why don't you book a nutrition assessment with one of our experienced dietitians
at melaniemcgrice.com/BookNow to make sure that you're not missing out on anything? I also have
a range of fertility friendly plant-based recipes available as an eBook that you can
buy from our shop melaniemcgrice.com/shop to get you started. If you have any questions,
comments or suggestions for future videos, please let me know in the comments box below.
That's all from me for now, I look forward to seeing you in my next video!