Author: Dr. Maryam Mahanian, DTCM, RAc
Audio Broadcast of the article is available below:
Diet Recommendations During Your Menstrual Cycles to Get Pregnant
Whether or not you’re trying to get pregnant, there are diet recommendations for each phase of your cycle. These foods will help to balance your hormones, prevent PMS and maximize your fertility.
Phase 1 Menstruation
Eat Iron-rich foods to replenish the blood your body is losing.
Examples are red meat, eggs, fish, kelp, spinach, broccoli, dried fruits, seeds.
Include foods rich in Vitamin C to help with the iron absorption such as citrus, mangoes, cherries, potatoes, tomatoes, cantaloupe, strawberries, and peas.
Eat plenty of animal and vegetable protein
Phase 2 Pre-Ovulation
This phase is after you’ve stopped having menstrual blood up until you ovulate.
Include protein at every meal
Eat regularly and keep yourself nourished in order to nourish a maturing follicle.
Eat foods rich in Vitamin E as vitamin E is found in the fluid around the developing egg and is important for its nourishment. Good sources of Vitamin E are cold-pressed oils, sweet potatoes, avocados, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, whole grains.
Avoiding alcohol in this phase is very important because this is the time that your follicle is developing, getting nourished and matured.
Phase 3 Ovulation
This phase is 3 days before you ovulate up until 3 days after you ovulate
Get plenty of B vitamins because they are particularly important to the release of the egg and implantation. Choose leafy greens, whole grains, eggs and meat.
Eat foods rich in Zinc. Zinc is needed for cell division and it helps with progesterone production. Good sources are meat, fish, poultry, eggs and whole grains.
Vitamin C is important because it’s found in high quantities in the Corpus Luteum and plays a role in progesterone production.
Phase 4 Potential Implantation
This is the week before your period or the implantation phase if you’ve conceived.
Eat Pineapple! Pineapple contains bromelain which is important in implantation.
Eat plenty of warming cooked foods and avoid cold raw foods.
PMS sufferers:
This is an important time to limit processed foods, refined sugar, alcohol, and coffee and increase your fiber and water intake. This will help your body to eliminate estrogen more efficiently.
So again, whether you’re looking to conceive or you would like to balance your hormones and feel well, it’s important to be aware of where you are in your cycle & eat the right foods for each of the four phases of your cycle.
Yours in health,
Dr. Maryam
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