A while ago I wrote about Intermittent Fasting for women because, I believe, there are some consideration for us that are slightly different than for men. Today I want to share with you a bit of my hormonal health and healing journey, and I want to discuss why it is so interesting that I could conceive while fasting daily.
When I was 21, I still was not getting my period regularly. This is a medical condition called Amenorrhea. My feelings were exactly that, "amen!" no period? no problem! But it is a problem and my mom encouraged me to seek attention from gynecologists. I went to a few. One said I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). But I didn't actually meet the diagnostic criteria for PCOS. One said I needed to gain weight. One said I needed to stop exercising. They all said that I should take progesterone or "the pill".
these are photos of me age 21
Well, I am pretty firm about some things, and at this point in my life, I felt strongly that I did not need to be on hormones for the rest of my child-bearing days. So this is when I started learning about the research of Dr. Weston A Price and working with Kim Schuette CN, former Vice President of the Weston A Price Foundation. Kim was such an amazing woman. She walked me through more than ten years of fixing my hormones, allergies and asthma. She is my hero and the reason I am studying nutrition today.
Anyways. Starting around age 21, I transitioned from eating a mostly plant-based diet, lots of salad, vegan chili, soft serve ice cream or soy ice cream, whole grain bread, almond butter, and hummus to significantly more healthy fats, grass fed dairy (BUTTER and CHEESE!!!), eggs, cod liver oil, grass fed beef, wild fatty fish, and fermented vegetables. At 23, after working on this for a couple of years and continuing my exercise enthusiasm, my period returned, and, over the next few years, I gained a few cup sizes, but not a pant size! Have I caught your attention yet???
age 27 - menstruating regularly
Many physicians advise low BMI women who are not menstruating to (1) gain weight and/or (2) reduce exercise, and it does work for some women (Pizzourno & Murray, p. 1501). But why does it work? I propose that this is a "correlation is not causation" type of thing since there are many other factors involved in fertility (. Women reduce the intensity of their exercise. Maybe the way they were exercising was actually stressful for them, so now they aren't pushing themselves as much and their stress hormones chill out. Maybe they have been restricting calories or fats for years, and they finally let themselves have butter on their bread, or a beef burger instead of a turkey burger. But do you see what is going on there? It's not the lack of exercise or the calorie increase! It's the stress reduction and nutrient increase!!! Butter has vitamins A, D, K, and E if it is from grass-fed animals. It is replete with hormone-supportive fatty acids and helps with calcium absorption! Beef is much more nutrient dense than turkey or chicken. It contains more iron and zinc, in particular, which most American young women are deficient in. It has less omega-6 fatty acids which block uptake of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. So maybe by "decreasing exercise" and "gaining weight" they corrected their hormones, but I propose that it was by reducing stress and increasing nutrient density in their diet.
What does any of this have to do with intermittent fasting?
I'm so glad that you asked!!!
While intermittent fasting, we give our digestive system a break - this reduces stress on the body to constantly process incoming food. It allows time for detoxification. And consequently, it means less cooking, which is such a stress relief in and of itself, right!?
While intermittent fasting, we have a choice to eat adequate calories and nutrient dense foods or to splurge on whatever sounds good at the moment (cinnamon rolls, yum).
There is a lot of discussion about pregnancy requiring a certain Body Mass Index (BMI) or eating "enough carbs" to get pregnant. And I think these things are part of the puzzle, especially for competitive/professional athletes, chronic dieters, and anyone with thyroid dysfunction. On the other side of the spectrum, some overweight and obese women have regained fertility through losing weight Intermittent Fasting. For those on the lower-weight side, note that I am not supporting fasting for regaining fertility. What I am saying is the most important parts of balancing hormones are reducing stress and eating enough nutrient dense foods (Vitale et al, 2017; Panth, Gavarkovs, Tamez, & Mattei, 2018).
While intermittent fasting for 6 months, I got that amazing stress relief of not thinking about food as much. I was eating only one or two BIG meals a day, (around 1200-2000 calories total, so yes, a calorie deficit). You can read about how I got there and see example meals here: How and Why I Started Intermittent Fasting. I had more creative energy for other things, such as this blog! My body had more time between meals to "rest and digest" supporting the sympathetic nervous system (read: hormones). And, I really focused on the nutrient density of the one or two meals that I would eat in a day:
- Does the meal include something dark green (folate)? broccoli, collards, spinach,...
- Does the meal have a good amount of grass-fed red meat or wild fatty fish? Read: high protein and nutrient dense animal fats, omega-3's. Chicken is just not gonna cut it when that's all the meat I'm gonna get in a day.
- Does the meal have enough healthy fat to satiate me till late morning? Butter, egg yolk, coconut oil, lard, avocado, olive oil,... more vitamins, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids
And you know what? These are the same principals that you can follow to get the right micro-nutrients to prevent infertility, miscarriages and birth defects! Vitamin D, Zinc, Iron, Folate, in particular! These are so important for a growing embryo/fetus!
So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's not how much you are eating that determines fertility, it is what you are eating. And this "what you are eating" is so crucial for hormonal health regardless of your stage of life.
So eat your meat, eat your fats, and stay tuned for more thoughts on pregnancy and food. ;)
XOXO
Related posts:
Intermittent Fasting in Pictures
References:
Panth, N., Gavarkovs, A., Tamez, M, & Mattei, J. (2018). The Influence of Diet on Fertility and the Implications for Public Health Nutrition in the United States. Frontiers in Public Health. 6:211. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00211
Pizzorno, J.E. & Murray, M.T. (2012). Textbook of natural medicine (4th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Churchill Livingstone.
References:
Panth, N., Gavarkovs, A., Tamez, M, & Mattei, J. (2018). The Influence of Diet on Fertility and the Implications for Public Health Nutrition in the United States. Frontiers in Public Health. 6:211. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00211
Pizzorno, J.E. & Murray, M.T. (2012). Textbook of natural medicine (4th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Churchill Livingstone.
Vitale, S. G., La Rosa, V. L., Petrosino, B., Rodolico, A., Mineo, L., & Lagana, A. S. (2017). The Impact of Lifestyle, Diet, and Psychological Stress on Female Fertility. The Omam Medical Journal.32(5): 443–444. https://doi.org/10.5001/omj.2017.85
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