how to boost fertility: when you’re vegan or vegetarian

I know in my first fertility post I mentioned that eating like an omnivore is extremely helpful when trying to get pregnant. Animal foods easily provide the building blocks for our reproductive hormones to function properly, but what if you don’t consume animal products? What if you are vegetarian and don’t consume meat? Or vegan and don’t consume meat, eggs, fish or dairy of any kind? You are still going to be able to get pregnant, it just might require a bit more effort and planning to ensure a healthy conception and pregnancy. Read on!

First, it’s important to recognize that there are different types of vegetarians: 
Lacto-ovo Vegetarian – eats no meat, but will eat dairy products (milk, yogurt, butter) and eggs
Ovo Vegetarian – eats eggs, but no meat or dairy
Pescetarian – eat fish but no other type of meat
Vegan – eats no meat or animal products of any kind

Fat is Key

There is a difference between a healthy plant-based diet and an unhealthy one – especially when it comes to fertility. Body fat in particular has a large impact on our reproductive health and we don’t want too much, but we also don’t want too little. Adequate body fat is important for a healthy menstrual cycle, and even more important for ovulation. If a woman doesn’t have enough body fat, her menstrual cycle may continue, but ovulation may cease and she may not even be aware. This would obviously make conception impossible. 

Some plant-based diets don’t contain enough healthy fat to help support your reproductive hormones, so it is important to incorporate the following foods into your diet each day. 

Coconut Oil  
Avocado
Nuts and nut butters (if eating peanuts and peanut butter – be sure to purchase organic, as peanut crops are heavily sprayed with pesticides)
Seeds and seed butters
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Full-fat coconut milk
Grassfed Butter (Kerrygold brand is my favorite) – lacto-ovo vegetarian 
Pastured eggs – 2/day – lacto-ovo and ovo vegetarian
Whole milk, organic yogurt – lacto-ovo vegetarian

Eat a Nutrient-Dense Diet

In addition to eating healthy fats each and every day, it is important to eat a well-balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals. Try to shoot for the following each day: 

1 organic leafy green salad (topped with sprouted grains, quinoa, nuts, seeds etc) drizzled with olive oil – the greens will supply you with a variety of fertility-enhancing B vitamins and healthy hormone-supporting fats
1 green smoothie – organic greens, organic berries, hemp hearts, chia seeds, almond or coconut milk, nut butters, vegan protein powder (I recommend using a powder made from organic rice or pea protein – avoid soy). This is a good option. 

Protein, Protein, Protein

There are plenty of great non-animal protein options out there for plant-based eaters, but it’s important to consider which foods are sources of complete protein. The term “complete protein” refers to amino acids, the building blocks of protein. There are 20 different amino acids that can form a protein, and nine that the body can’t produce on its own. These are called essential amino acids—we need to eat them because we can’t make them ourselves. In order to be considered “complete,” a protein must contain all nine of these essential amino acids in roughly equal amounts. Since a vegan or vegetarian is not eating animal protein (which are all complete protein), they need to focus on complete protein plant-foods in order to get all of the essential amino acids into their diet. 

List of Complete Proteins
Fish – pescetarian
Dairy products (milk, yogurt, whey) – lacto-ovo vegetarian (i.e. 1 cup of whole-milk greek yogurt contains 19 grams protein!)
Eggs – lacto-ovo vegetarian and ovo vegetarian (6 grams per egg)
Quinoa – completely plant-based (8 grams/1 cup cooked)
Buckwheat – completely plant-based (6 grams/1 cup cooked)
Hemp seed – completely plant-based (10 grams/2 T serving)
Chia seed – completely plant-based (4 grams/2 T serving)

I recommend getting at least 70 grams of complete protein/day if you are trying to become pregnant or are pregnant. 

Limit Soy

Many vegetarians and vegans rely on soy as a large source of their protein. Here are a few reasons to limit soy intake. If you do consume soy, there are a few reminders about what to pay attention to when purchasing or consuming. 

Conventional (non-organic) Soy is a Hormone Disruptor aka Phytoestrogen 
Soy is a phytoestrogen, meaning it mimics estrogen in the body and can disrupt both male and female reproductive hormones – therefore making it harder to conceive. 

According to this study, conventional soy-phytoestrogens decrease testosterone in males. Why does this matter for fertility? Depressed testosterone in males lowers sperm production. 

Depletes Vitamin Levels 
Vitamin B12 analogs (a substance that blocks the uptake of a nutrient) in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body’s requirement for B12. 

Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for Vitamin D. This is why synthetic Vitamin D2 is added to soy milk, but this form of Vitamin D can be toxic to humans. 

If you are going to consume soy:
Make sure it is Organic
90% of soy is Genetically Modified, or GMO – purchase organic to avoid GMOs

I believe GMO’s should be avoided for health reasons – and for environmental reasons (read this article about increased pesticide use in GMO crops). There just isn’t enough research on long-term health effects of genetically modified foods and I am not comfortable being a human guinea pig. Organic foods cannot be GMO, which is a big reason I choose to buy organic – especially soy!

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are often engineered to be more resistant to pesticides or produce pesticides themselves.

– Harvard.edu

Make sure it is Fermented – Why?
Most modern soy foods are not fermented to neutralize toxins in soybeans, and are processed in a way that denatures proteins and increases levels of carcinogens. 

High levels of phytic acid (a type of acid that binds to nutrients in the gut, making them harder for the body to absorb and use) in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting, and long, slow cooking, but only with long fermentation.

Fermented soy products to try:
Natto
Miso
Tempeh
Fermented tofu (most tofu is not fermented – double check!)

Supplement with Vitamin B12

B12 is not found in the vegan diet – it is only available through animal foods – so it is vitally important that a supplement is taken. The few plant foods that are sources of B12 are actually B12 analogs. An analog is a substance that blocks the uptake of true B12, so your body’s need for the nutrient actually increases. 

A B12 deficiency can cause recurrent fetal loss, or miscarriage. This study took 14 participants with a B12 deficiency and tracked their fertility and fetal loss. 11 of the participants suffered from fetal loss and 4 suffered from infertility (2-8 years). 

Among pregnant women, nursing women and infants, the effects of vitamin B12 deficiency can be particularly devastating. Pregnant women with B12 deficiency carry an increased risk of having a baby born with neural tube defects, a class of birth defects affecting the infant’s brain and spinal cord. Spina bifida, which can cause paralysis, is a type of neural tube defect, as is anencephaly, which is fatal. 

I like this one. 

Other Supplements I Recommend

Prenatal Vitamin – a whole-food based prenatal is vital to make sure you are getting enough of each nutrient essential for conception. One of my favorite vegan bloggers, Oh She Glows, likes this one, by Mega Food. 

I recommend beginning to take a prenatal vitamin 3-6 months before you decide to start trying for a family. This will help build up nutrient stores that your growing baby will use up in the first trimester – a period of crucial, rapid growth for baby!

Vitamin D3 – found in a lot of dairy products and pastured egg yolks that some vegetarians and all vegans miss out on. I like this one. 

DHA/EPA – Needed for healthy brain growth and vision. Fish Oil is a great source of DHA and EPA but isn’t vegan or vegetarian. Here’s why a DHA/EPA supplement is needed for plant-eaters: Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is an omega-3 found in flaxseeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, and other plant foods. ALA is an essential fatty acid – this means that the human body cannot synthesize it. When we take in ALA from plant foods, the body can elongate it into long-chain omega-3s: DHA and EPA (the omega-3’s we can actually use!) but sometimes this is an imperfect conversion and we don’t actually end up being able to use the DHA and EPA from said plant foods. Confusing? Slightly, but this is why it’s important not to rely on plant foods for DHA and EPA. Get it from a supplement instead. Try this one!

Calcium – obviously if you aren’t consuming a lot of dairy products, calcium may be harder to come by and we need it to build healthy baby bones and teeth once we become pregnant (and to protect our own!). I like this calcium supplement and it tastes pretty good!