Fertility Friday: Tips for Cooking at Home

 

 When trying to enhance overall health, here are a few tips to try at home:

• Use olive oil, greapesee oil, or rice bran oil instead of canola oil, peanut oil, or butter.
• Never use shortening (Crisco)
• Avoid deep frying or frying foods
• Be careful of how long a food is cooked in oil for, don't over cook foods, especially vegetables. Check the cooking time on vegetables.
• Steam things when you can
• Avoid trans fats at all costs
• Add good carbs, like beans and legumes to change up old recipies
• You don't need rice or pasta, vegetables and legumes are great sides

Fertility Friday: Carbohydrates

As we learn more about how our bodies work, we are learning more about how carbohydrates effect our metabolism and hormones. Carbohydrates, once ingested, become glucose (sugar). Some carbohydrates are digested very quickly and turn to sugar quickly. Other carbohydrates have a slow burn and take longer to turn to sugar in the system. These slowing burning carbohydrates are a better choice to keep hormone levels under control. Glucose peaks effect insulin (a hormone) which effects sex hormones. Think of the metabolism like wood burning furnace. We want to keep the fire going all day, without having to stoke it too much and without letting it go out. Carbohydrates that are slow burners are ones that have a low glycemic index. Low glycemic index carbs include:

• Beans: white, black, kidney, lentil
• Soy beans
• Nuts, almonds, walnuts
• Small seeds like anything smaller than a pumpkin seed
• Intact grains like spelt, kamut, wheat, oat, rye, rice, barley
• Large pitted fruits like peaches, mangos, avocados, and strawberries

Fertility Friday: Diet Matters

Our diet is our medicine. When trying to conceive or even just trying to maintain overall excellent femninine health, diet is the foundation of good health. Some quick tricks include:

• Eat like a Mediterranean. See Mediterranean Diet
• Eat whole foods, avoid processed junk
• Limit Red Meat
• Eat oils, nuts and olives as opposed to animal fats
• Drink water, avoid sugared drinks
• Eat leafy greens, the darker the better
• Eat beans and legumes, the oft forgotten items. Add them to food you enjoy often like pastas, rice, and other grains