Eating a varied and healthy diet when trying to conceive helps the body to build adequate stores of vitamins and minerals. But what foods should you be eating when you're thinking about trying for a baby?
Guidelines about food and diet are very clear when you're pregnant (and you can read our guide to what not to eat when you're exepcting). But what about when you're trying for a baby? Does food and diet matter?
Well yes - when you’re trying to get pregnant it is essential to maintain a healthy, well-balanced diet that will give your body the nutrition it needs to stay strong. So no late night kebab stops if you can help it!
The following foods are the sort of thing you should be serving up for breakfast, lunch and dinner:
- Leafy greens such as broccoli, fortified breakfast cereals, citrus fruits and pulses provide folic acid which helps prevent neural tube defects such as spina bifida
- Red meat, fortified breakfast cereals, lentils, soy beans, dried fruit and leafy greens such as spinach are great sources of iron. Low iron levels have been linked to an increased risk for ovulatory infertility, making it an essential part of any getting pregnant diet
- Milk and cheese are rich sources of calcium which helps with the development of healthy bones and teeth in a developing foetus
- Asparagus and squash will provide zinc to keep the immune system strong, which is essential when trying to get pregnant. Zinc also helps the production of healthy eggs, as well as healthy sperm
- Fibre rich beans and wholegrains will flush a variety of toxins from the body, thereby increasing the chances of getting pregnant, and can also reduce the risk of pregnancy complications, like gestational diabetes.
Did you try any special diets when you were trying to conceive?
You can also read our tips on naturally boosting your fertility. And remember to enter our new competition to win Vitabiotics Pregnacare His and Hers Conception tablets.
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