When you’re spending many thousands on IVF, you want to do anything you can to boost your chances of success. People turn to forums to ask whether they can still drink coffee or take a hot bath. Many read “It Starts With The Egg” and avoid eating from plastic containers.
What can you eat every day to have the greatest chance of success? If you go searching for this subject, you’ll sometimes see the Mediterranean diet mentioned but what if there is an even better plan you could follow?
Scientists decided to look at how the adhesion to various diets correlated with success when doing IVF. To do so, they looked at the diets of 357 women over 608 ART cycles. Each woman’s eating habits was rated according to four different diets: the Mediterranean Diet, the Fertility Diet, the Alternative Healthy Eating Index, and the Profertility Diet.
The Profertility Diet is the one that clearly came up in front leading to a much higher percentage of live births (and we both know that is the thing we care about the most).
What is the profertility diet? (overview)
The researchers came up with the Profertility Diet based on factors which have been shown to be linked to IVF success.
It involves consuming:
- Low pesticide fruits and veggies
- Whole grains
- Seafood
- Dairy
- Soy foods
- Folic acid, Vitamin B12, and Vitamin D
And avoiding high pesticide produce.
The study took place in the United States where there are pesticides used which are banned in other places, such as Europe. It is possible that the fruits and vegetables which are labelled high pesticide in the US, wouldn’t apply in other places. The researchers also didn’t ask about whether produced consumed was organic.
The other diets from the study
The 3 other diets that were compared in the study are the Mediterranean Diet, the Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010, and the Fertility Diet.
The Mediterranean Diet
In this study, the Mediterranean Diet consisted of consuming:
- More vegetables, potatoes, legumes, fruit, whole grains, high-fat dairy, olive oil
- Less red meats, poultry, full fat dairy
- Less or no alcohol
The Alternate Healthy Eating Index
The Alternate Healthy Eating Index consisted of consuming:
- Vegetables (excluding potatoes)
- Fruit
- Whole grains
- Nuts and legumes
- Longchain omega-3 fats
- Polyunsaturated fatty acids
- Moderate alcohol
And limiting:
- Sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit juice
- Red and processed meat
- Trans-fat
- Sodium.
The Fertility Diet
The Fertility Diet is targeted on reducing anovulatory infertility. It involves eating more monounsaturated fatty acids than trans-fat, a higher percentage of vegetable protein, high-fat dairy, iron, and multivitamins and limiting animal protein, glycemic load, and low-fat dairy.
What did the study find?
The Profertility Diet gave better results than any other diet for people who adhered most to it. It was correlated with a much higher rate of live birth from IVF.
The Mediterranean Diet might not be as helpful in the US because there are so many fruit and vegetables with pesticides. The European Union has stricter rules and there are pesticides which are banned there but widely used in the US.
 |  |
 |  |
Wondering how your diet compares?
If you would like to situate yourself on the graph, you can try this quiz.
Like to know more detail about the diet?
To find out how much of the various vitamins, foods, and drinks you need to consume to be in the top quartile, you can download a handy PDF. This makes it easy to adjust your eating habits so you can reap the fertility benefits and give yourself an extra advantage at IVF.
References
Gaskins AJ, Nassan FL, Chiu YH, Arvizu M, Williams PL, Keller MG, Souter I, Hauser R, Chavarro JE; EARTH Study Team. Dietary patterns and outcomes of assisted reproduction. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2019 Jun;220(6):567.e1-567.e18. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2019.02.004. Epub 2019 Feb 8. PMID: 30742825; PMCID: PMC6545142. (link)
Chiu YH, Williams PL, Gillman MW, Gaskins AJ, Mínguez-Alarcón L, Souter I, Toth TL, Ford JB, Hauser R, Chavarro JE; EARTH Study Team. Association Between Pesticide Residue Intake From Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables and Pregnancy Outcomes Among Women Undergoing Infertility Treatment With Assisted Reproductive Technology. JAMA Intern Med. 2018 Jan 1;178(1):17-26. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.5038. PMID: 29084307; PMCID: PMC5814112. (link)