Thrive MD Nutrition Blog

 Many women struggle with fertility, causes including endometriosis, PCOS, structural abnormalities and age.  Focusing on good health, addressing nutrient deficiencies, and eating a healthy whole foods diet can have a big impact on fertility.  Compare the human body to a tree. If the tree is not watered well or is not planted in nutrient dense soil, the tree does not grow as well, does not fill with leaves or produce healthy fruit. Our digestive system is like the roots of a tree, and diet has an impact on female fertility. We know that the consumption of trans-fatty acids, refined carbohydrates, and added sugars negatively affects female fertility. In contrast, a diet rich in dietary fiber, omega 3 fatty acids, vegetable protein, vitamins, and minerals—has a positive effect on female fertility.

Trading in some refined carbohydrates for healthy proteins in your breakfast will help better control your blood sugar.  By contrast, starting the day with refined carbs sends your blood surging—and quickly crashing, leaving you feeling tired and hungry only a few hours after eating. I experimented with this myself and saw the difference.  With a high protein breakfast, I wasn’t feeling “hangry” around 11am.  Consider trying higher protein breakfast options and see if you feel different.  High protein breakfast options include – Greek yogurt or oatmeal topped with chopped nuts and fruit, a breakfast burrito with egg and black beans, nut-butter with banana or apple, and avocado toast with a fried egg on top.

I have loved reading Good Energy, by Casey Means MD.  She tells of her transition following medical school, while training as an Ear Nose and Throat specialist to a realization that our health care system is really a “sick care system”.  She challenges the conventional view of healthcare and presents a case for a metabolic approach to longevity, health and weight management. This approach makes us look at our priorities in life.  If we want health, we must focus on what we put in our body, how we take care of our body, and how we support stress in our life. The results….feeling both physically strong and mentally strong!

The medical field has only recently begun to acknowledge the connection between mood, foodand the digestive tract (the organs that food and liquids travel through when they are swallowed, digested, absorbed, and leave the body as feces). If your brain is deprived of good-quality nutrition, or if free radicals or damaging inflammatory cells that can damage brain tissue are circulating within the brain’s space, consequences are to be expected.  Serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate sleep and appetite, mediate moods, and inhibit pain is primarily produced in your digestive tract. Your gastrointestinal tract is lined with a hundred million nerve cells which communicate with your brain. This connection allows your diet and the neurotransmitters created in your GI tract to guide your emotions.

Research has found that tweaking the balance between beneficial and disease-causing bacteria in an animal’s gut can alter its brain chemistry and lead it to become either more bold or more anxious. The brain can also exert a powerful influence on gut bacteria; as many studies have shown, even mild stress can tip the microbial balance in the gut, making the host more vulnerable to infectious disease and triggering a cascade of molecular reactions that feed back to the central nervous system. The human gut, often referred to as the “second brain,” is the only organ to boast its own independent nervous system, an intricate network of 100 million neurons embedded in the gut wall.  How can be best balance the beneficial and disease-causing bacteria in our gut?  Through a diet of whole foods which are rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, and phytonutrient.

Eating from the farm, really means striving for a whole foods diet- one that is minimally processed.  It’s important to know that most foods you’re eating are processed to some degree. Cooked, canned, frozen, packaged, or nutritionally altered foods are all considered “processed”. Nutritionally altered foods include those that are fortified or preserved. That said, any time a food is prepared or cooked, it’s processed to some degree. You can easily identify these foods because they come prepackaged and have a long list of ingredients you’ve never heard of that are often difficult to pronounce. Food from the farm typically is simply packaged to help with transport to a store and includes items such as fruits, vegetables, poultry, seafood, eggs, nuts and seeds, and legumes.  Whole foods retain their nutrients, phytochemicals, and fiber, which are often removed in processed foods.  Those nutrients, are medicine to your body and mind