What Is The Best Fertility Diet?

Fertility Diet Wisdom: What to Eat to Prepare for Pregnancy

How ‘Healthy’ is Subjective: What the Best Fertility Diet Tastes Like

The goal when preparing for pregnancy isn’t maintaining a rigid “diet to enhance fertility” that leaves you anxious over every bite. It’s far more nuanced than following a prescribed script and list of food shoulds and should nots. Rather it’s about finding a healthy fertility diet focused on cultivating and nourishing your body, mind, and soul so that it feels vibrant, strong, and ready to bear new life.

Whether you are a vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore, Birthing Mother emphasizes certified organic grains, fruits, meats, nuts, oils, vegetables, and dairy for an optimal diet to enhance fertility. Opt for local and seasonal whenever and wherever possible. In short, favor real, whole food that’s not prepackaged or highly processed. 

It’s not wildly interesting or cutting edge, it's about getting back to the basics. For many it might be simplifying and ditching fast, fried, highly-sweetened foods. For others, it’s about refining the quality of food, choosing organic over conventional, or freshly made over packaged. Wherever opportunity lies for you, it’s a philosophy that’s accessible, sustainable, and accommodating to provide your mind and body the best nourishment for fertility. 

Focus on stocking your pantry and fridge with nutrient dense ingredients to ensure that you’ve got your essential vitamins and minerals covered. Be intentional to include foods rich in key nutrients shown to be particularly beneficial for improving both egg and sperm health. Yes, men this includes you as well. Diet and fertility isn’t just a woman’s thing. Fertility boosting diets and nourishment are a joint effort when preparing for conscious pregnancy.  

Diet & Fertility: Reclaim Your Health with Home Cooking

Think of your body like a garden. In order for life to grow and flourish, the soil must be balanced and nutrient rich, the seeds viable, and conditions, like water and warmth, just right. For the body, that means the best fertility boosting diet means choosing foods as close to nature as possible, meaning unprocessed, free from pesticides, and full of the Earth’s life force. Fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds aren’t just nutrients on a plate, they carry energetic signatures hat translate into energy and fuel that in turn enliven us.

Let your food and fertility diet choices be inspired by what’s fresh and in season. Focus on whole foods, literally. When at the grocery store, stick to the produce section and the periphery. This is often where the freshest, most basic building blocks of your kitchen can be purchased. Avoiding all the prepackaged and processed foods found throughout the aisles. 

Home cooking & healthy fertility diets

This approach relies on a very specific act: cooking. For some this may induce a little stress. And if it does, I apologize. But here’s the thing, home cooking is more powerful than you know. Given the time and space, preparing your own meals is incredibly rewarding. 

• You get to infuse it with your love and intention. 
• You get to control the quality and quantity of ingredients. 
• The more you do it, the more you may shock yourself on how home cooking can be both simple and delicious. 

Believe me, there’s nothing like a good home-cooked meal to realize what types of food you like, can easily digest, and make you feel well throughout your fertility diet journey. 

Visit your local farmers market to explore what’s in season or join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) which often provides some kind of subscription for a weekly or monthly box of fresh farm vegetables. When you cook, handle your food gently—steam, roast, sauté, but avoid deep frying. Cook with love and intention. 

The Birthing Mothers Plate: How To Plan Your Fertility Diet

While there’s no one-size-fits-all prescription, there are some guidelines that Birthing Mothers would like to share and emphasize when building a balanced meal. Look at the following list kind of like a checklist for an optimal, healthy fertility diet just for you. 

Do I have a little of each category on my plate? Am I nourishing myself with ample protein or healthy fats? Zooming out and looking at it from this perspective can open up a world of culinary possibilities while maintaining a healthy fertility diet. 

• Protein – organic chicken, wild fish, eggs, beans, lentils, grass-fed meats.
  
• Carbohydrates – sweet potatoes, winter squash, quinoa, black or brown rice, farro.
  
• Vegetables – leafy greens, cruciferous veggies, and colorful seasonal produce.
  
• Healthy Fats – avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, seeds.
  
• Spices + Herbs – not just for flavor, but for their warming, medicinal properties.

Another important aspect is bringing a sense of mindfulness to your meals. Notice how you feel while eating and in the hours afterward. The nourishment you receive isn’t just about the nutrients on your plate. 

Feeling nourished also depends on how well your body can digest, assimilate, and integrate the meal. Food is fuel, yes, but it also carries qualities and energetics. A warm, cooked meal may feel grounding and satisfying, while a cold smoothie might leave you bloated. Dairy might feel heavy, whereas olive oil feels light and energizing. Pay attention as these signals matter. If a meal doesn’t leave you feeling nourished, steady and satiated, free of gas, pain and heartburn, even the ‘healthiest’ dish may not be what your body needs right now. Let your body be your teacher when it comes to diet and fertility.

Fertility Diet Foods: Fertility Boosting Superfoods

There are however some foods that are known to support fertility. If you already have these ingredients in your fertility diet plans or pantry, consider bumping up how often you eat them. Integrate these fertile-rich foods into your regular weekly or daily rotation. And if you haven’t started yet, make sure you add a few to your grocery list. For example, the next time you're out shopping, pick up some wild salmon, avocados, pumpkin seeds, or dark leafy greens. 

Fertility Superfoods For Women:

• Royal jelly
• Goji berries
• Wheat germ (full form and oil)
• Bee pollen
• Turmeric
• Sea salt
• Black sesame seeds
• Red jujube dates
  

Fertility Diet For Men:

• Pumpkin seed butter
• Brazil nuts
• Tomato 
• Garlic
• Lentils
• Goji berries
  

You’ll find a full guide to diet and fertility superfoods & delicious ways to use them inside the Birthing Mothers App.

What to Gently Reduce in Your Diet for Fertility’s Sake 

To support your general well-being, we encourage gentle transitions rather than sudden restrictions. Start your fertility diet journey by adding more fresh foods and passing on the fried fast foods, processed and prepackaged foods, which have a tendency to be high in salts, sugars, and poor quality fats.

Over time, aim to reduce:

• Conventionally grown produce and non-organic meats and dairy.
  
• Processed grains like white bread, crackers, and pastries.
  
• Seed oils (soybean, vegetable, corn, cottonseed, canola, sunflower, safflower) and trans fats (labels read: partially hydrogenated fats).
  
• Sugary drinks, sodas, and artificial sweeteners.
  
• Excess alcohol.

Remember, you don’t need to overhaul everything overnight to have the best fertility diet for you. Like we said at the beginning, fertility, more than anything, is about nourishment. Start with one small change, let it grow, and then build upon it. Perhaps it’s learning one new recipe a week to incorporate all the fresh vegetables you bought. Or maybe it’s buying less prepackaged prepared foods.

With each step, you’re creating a new habit. Watch and notice and continue on. Over time, your body and how you feel will shift with a healthy fertility diet. You are not only nourishing your whole body but supporting the conditions for your body to carry new life.

How You Can Approach Food and Fertility Diets Consciously

True nourishment is when your whole being is taken care of. Adjusting what and how you eat is just the beginning. If any of this resonates and you’d like to know more or are actually preparing for pregnancy make sure to check out the Birthing Mothers App where you’ll also have access to: 

• Personalized eating guides—providing guidance on what choices to make no matter where you are on your journey.
• Fertility superfood recipes.
• Mindfulness practices to pair with your meals.
• Personalized nutrition support from our expert team.
• Integrative daily routine calendar to help turn information into action. 

Within this space we go deeper and take it further, guiding you throughout those beginning months of preconception, to pregnancy and then birth, into postpartum, by making it relevant, joyful, yet most importantly doable.