Episode 5: Eating to Support Your Cycle

Do you wonder if there are certain foods you can eat to boost your fertility? Each phase of your cycle needs different nutrients to optimize your fertility. Josie shares what to eat during each phase of the cycle to increase your chances of conceiving.

[ID: Colorful fruits and vegetables, including peppers, tomatoes, pomegranate, citrus, grapes, and strawberries, arranged on a wood table.]

Episode Transcript:

I'm Josie Rodriguez Bouchier, and this is the Intersectional Fertility Podcast, where ideas and identities intersect to deepen our understanding of fertility and, ultimately, our whole selves.

Hi friend, one of the most common questions I get asked is what foods should I eat to support my fertility. So, today we're going to dive deep into a bunch of different fertility foods, and what to eat during each phase of your cycle in order to boost your fertility and increase your chances of conceiving. So, I'm going to be listing a lot of foods. So don't feel like you need to write it all down, you can go to my website intersectional fertility.com/podcast and search for this episode, it should be episode five, and there will be a transcript available. So, you can have everything written down there for you on the website. So, don't stress that you need to keep up with me and write it all down. Especially, if you're driving or doing something else, besides sitting somewhere where you can have a pen and a notebook.

If you are someone who does not track your cycle, or know exactly where you are in your cycle, no worries, don't stress, you're definitely not alone. And stay tuned for an upcoming episode where I will dive deeper into this information of knowing how to find out where you are in your cycle, what phase you're in.

And I also want to note that many folks have all sorts of different lengths of their cycle. And each phase might be a different length for you than the length that I talked about in today's episode, in which case, also don't stress. And it's totally normal to have different representations of your phases and your menstrual cycle. So, if you have a particularly long phase, or if your cycle tends to be pretty irregular, then it might not match up to the time frame that I talked about in today's episode. And I don't want you to worry about it. And we will keep addressing these sorts of things in upcoming episodes.

And if you are wanting to know how to start tracking your cycle, and keep track of signs and symptoms that will give you clues as to where you are in your cycle and what phase you're in, there's a book called “Taking Charge of your Fertility” by Tony Wechsler. The language in the book is quite gendered, so I want to warn you about that. If that's something that you don't really feel like exposing yourself to then I recommend skipping it. But if you can get around that gendered language, it has some great info to start to recognize the signs and symptoms that your body gives you to know exactly what phase of your cycle you're in.

And we will just dive right in.

So, there's four phases to your cycle; the menstruation phase, the follicular phase, the ovulation phase, and the luteal phase.

Menstruation Phase:

So, we'll start with menstruation. So that is the phase that we're bleeding and hopefully bleeding and losing blood. And what we want to be doing is nourishing our blood to help replenish that blood loss. So, this is obviously going to be happening if we skipped a cycle if we didn't try to conceive the cycle, or if we did try to conceive, and we didn't become pregnant. So, either way, we're going to be having some blood loss that we want to be replenishing. And if this is the case that we did want to become pregnant during the cycle, and we did try, then I just wanted to also make a little side note to say be extra kind to yourself during this phase, and really up yourself care and your pleasure practice and your calming techniques to help deal with whatever feelings may come up with not having conceived the cycle.

So, in order to nourish our blood during the cycle, we want to eat foods that are rich in iron. So, these foods are going to be:

• meat

• fish kelp, like the seaweed

• broccoli

• dried fruits

• sunflower seeds

• bone broth

• egg yolks

• beets

• grains

• green leafy vegetables

• black beans

• orange and red root vegetables

• cherries

• red grapes

• raspberries

So, a little caveat for these blood nourishing foods, if you're having a particularly heavy cycle, or if you tend to have heavy cycles, avoid these blood nourishing foods during your heaviest days. Because we don't want to create more blood for you to lose, if that makes sense. But if you have sort of a medium, and definitely if you have a light flow, then you definitely want to be focusing on these blood nourishing foods while you're bleeding.

So, another trick to helping the body to absorb these iron rich foods is to pair these foods with foods that are high in vitamin C. When vitamin C and iron go together, that vitamin C helps the body to absorb the iron into the body. So, foods that are rich in vitamin C are;

• citrus mangoes

• cherries

• potatoes [which I always thought was kind of a funny one. I didn't know potatoes were high in vitamin C]

• tomatoes

• cantaloupe

• strawberries

• peas

• watercress

And another trick that I share with my patients a lot is to cook with an iron skillet during this time. So, if you have one in your kitchen, or you may want to invest in one, or I've had really good luck with finding them at thrift stores, and then you have the extra bonus that they're a little bit seasoned for you. And seasoned just means that they have a history of oil being baked into it. So, it has a naturally nonstick surface. And those are extra wonderful to find in a thrift store setting or a used setting because it takes some time to build up that nonstick surface. So, an extra point if you cook something in the iron skillet that is high in vitamin C, because that food that is high in vitamin C can actually leach the iron into the food. And that's a good thing. So, for example, a tomato sauce would be a really great thing to cook in your iron skillet.

So, during this time, you just want to make sure that you're getting plenty of protein, both from animal sources and vegetable sources. And I know this can be a sensitive topic, especially with folks who are vegan or vegetarian. And I just want to sort of acknowledge that I work with a lot of people who are in that boat of being vegan or vegetarian. And I completely understand why one would want to do that. Both from you know, moral perspective and an environmental perspective. Also, there may be sometimes a food sensitivity there that there's, it can be difficult to digest meat for some people, so many different reasons why people would not want to have meat in their diet, and I completely understand all of them.

Also, from a Chinese medicine perspective, one of the best tried and true ways to nourish the blood is through animal protein. And there's really no way around that just from a purely Chinese medicine point of view. So, a good thing to do might be to look at your tongue in the mirror, preferably in natural light, if you can bring a mirror by a window, or take a mirror outside, so you can see the color of your tongue and natural light. And if it looks pale to you, then it could be an indicator that there might be some blood deficiency, what we call blood deficiency in Chinese medicine. So, I know it's a little bit hard to imagine, you know your tongue versus another tongue if you haven't looked at a lot of tongues, but you know us your best guess. Or if there's someone close to you in your household that you can do a little comparing and contrasting. Just for fun in the mirror, you know, that might give you an idea of the color of the body of your tongue, whether it's pale or not. And we're looking for kind of a pale pink color, and maybe even going towards white. And if those colors are there in your tongue, then then it could be that you would benefit from some blood nourishing foods. And especially if you are vegetarian or have a history of eating mostly vegetarian or vegan, there is a good chance that you would benefit from some blood nourishing foods.

So, I often suggest to my patients are in this position to start with some broth rather than a big piece of meat. So, if you are open to trying adding in some meat into your diet, I recommend just doing a chicken broth or a bone broth or beef broth instead of you know, jumping into something.

Follicular Phase (Pre-Ovulation)

So, the next phase of your cycle is pre ovulation or what we call follicular. So, this is when our eggs are developing. And they're going to be released in the next phase and the ovulation phase. So, this is a really important phase, the developing egg is also called a follicle. So that's why this phase is called the follicular phase. So as soon as you're done bleeding, then we enter into this phase, the follicular phase.

And what we want to do is really focus on eating reproductive essence foods or what we call Jing foods and Chinese medicine. So, these are foods which are themselves gametes or which nourish gametes are offspring in nature. So, things like:

• royal jelly

• eggs

• fish roe

• seeds

• nuts

• pollen

• seaweed

• algae

• bone marrow

• oysters

• artichokes

• raw milk

• nettles

• oats

• whole grains

And I know it can be tricky to get a hold of raw milk these days. Most of the milk that we buy at our grocery stores are is pasteurized milk. So, if you happen to have a relationship with a farm, a local farm, or if you know someone who does, this would be a great time to negotiate some sort of obtaining of raw milk, which is kind of hard to come by at least in the part of the world where I am. But if you have easy access to that, I highly recommend it.

We also want to make sure we're eating whole grains during this time that contain the fertilized germ cell. So, when you can see the whole grain, that means it has that fertilized germ cell which contains the potential of an entirely new plant. So, it has that what we call fertile potential. So, this sort of energy, this fertile energy is what we want to be ingesting into our body during this time. And of course, we also want to be avoiding refined grains. So that's the type of grain where that fertilized germ cell is stripped away.

So again, protein is especially important during this phase, because we want to make sure that we're building a nice healthy egg. We also want to eat foods that are rich in vitamin E, which actually nourish and support that developing egg. So, these foods include:

• cold pressed oils

• sweet potatoes

• avocados

• leafy greens  

• nuts

• seeds

• whole grains

And now of all the phases is the most important phase to avoid drinking alcohol. So, I know that in general, you're probably avoiding drinking alcohol as you're trying to conceive. But if you are having a small amount here and there, this would be the phase to actually make sure that you have none, the follicular phase.

Ovulation Phase

So, the next phase is the ovulation phase. So, this is where we release the egg from one or both ovaries depending. And in general, the ovulation phase is considered two to three days before you ovulate and two to three days after you ovulate. So just under a week is that you know phase that is considered part of ovulation. So, it's a loose guess. So, during this phase, we want to be eating kidney Yin nourishing foods. So, there's two aspects to the kidney energy and Chinese medicine. They're called Yin and Yang. So, you may have heard those terms before. So, this is the part of our cycle where Yin is really building, it's really reaching its crescendo. It's getting to be the most big, you know, most volume of yin in our cycle right now. And once we isolate, then it's going to start turning into Yang, that kidney Yang energy.

So right now, we're in the Yin part. So, we want to nourish our bodies with that those kidney Yin nourishing foods. So those include

• barley and millet

• string beans

• asparagus

• all dark colored beans

• dark berries like blackberry, mulberry and blueberry

• seaweeds

• animal products like fish, eggs, dairy, duck and pork

• tofu

• fluids, soups and stocks

We also want to make sure we're getting plenty of B vitamins during this phase, which actually aid and releasing the egg and implantation. So, foods that are high in B vitamins are:

• meat

• leafy greens

• whole grains

• eggs

In addition, we also want to be eating foods that are rich in zinc. And this helps in the cell division and progesterone production. So, progesterone is loosely related to that kidney Yang. So, progesterone, you know, we're about to turn into that kidney Yang phase, which is the progesterone phase where we want to keep those progesterone levels high to sustain and hold a pregnancy. So, this is why if you go through IVF, they have you continue with those progesterone shots after the transfer and throughout the first trimester.

So, the foods that are rich in zinc that help the cell division and the progesterone production, are:

• meat

• fish

• poultry

• wheat germ

• eggs

• whole grains

We also want to make sure we're getting enough vitamin C (see Menstruation Phase above for list), that will also help with progesterone production.

Luteal Phase

So, the final phase in our cycle is called the luteal phase. And this is when there's a potential implantation. Or if we decided to skip this cycle, or if we know that our period is coming. This is the time that we want to prepare for our period coming in to have a healthy smooth, as simple symptom free as possible, most enjoyable period. So, there's a couple different routes, we can take care. The first scenario we'll walk through of how to eat during this phase is if we are hoping that we conceived, if we tried to conceive in some way during this cycle. The second scenario we'll walk through is if we skipped this cycle, we skipped this, you know, time of trying to conceive, and we know that our period is coming. So that's another scenario that we'll walk through.

So, the first one that we're going to go through is if we did try to conceive and we are hoping for an implantation during this phase. So, if that's the case, we want to focus on those kidney Yang nourishing foods. So, this is what I mentioned before where right after ovulation, we start to enter into the kidney Yang phase of our menstrual cycle. And this is where those progesterone levels hopefully start to rise. So, the foods that support this are actually Chinese are called gojis, which also means goji berries. So, these are much more widely available now than they used to be years ago. They're kind of more of a trendy food that you can find. And a lot of natural health food stores. They look like little red raisins and you can just snack on them. They're actually pretty yummy. So:

• goji berries

• chicken

• lamb

• seafood, like trout, salmon, lobster, shrimp, prawn and mussels,

• black beans

• walnuts

• chestnuts

• pistachios

• raspberries

• quinoa

• garlic

• onion

So, another category of foods that we want to eat during this time are foods that nourish our spleen Qi. So, our spleen Qi in Chinese medicine is responsible for holding a pregnancy. It holds our energy up and it holds our blood and the vessels that has this unique holding function. So, one of the things that holds is a pregnancy so we want to make sure our spleen Qi is nice and strong and nourished.

So, foods that nourish that spleen Qi are grains and root vegetables and balanced flavors, colors and natures. So, we want to really turn eating into a pleasant experience by looking at our plate and making sure that there are different colors represented different flavors represented. Also, we want it to be a calm environment where we are breathing and not multitasking and enjoying our food. This is really going to help nourish that spleen Qi. Also eating more frequent but smaller meals can help nourish the spleen Qi so it's not overwhelmed with big meals. All at once. And drinking a small amount of warm water, broth, soup or tea with our meal can really help to nourish the spleen.

And some spices to include in our food and meals during this time, are:

• black and white pepper

• cardamom

• ginger

• cinnamon

• cloves

• nutmeg

• orange peel

• fennel

Those are all really nourishing for our spleen G. Also, during this time, you may have heard a tip to eat pineapple during the possible implantation period. So, this is true, it's my patients asked me this a lot like is this true? Should I be eating pineapple during this time? It is because it contains what's called bromelain, and bromelain helps to thicken the uterine lining which can help with uterine with implantation. So unfortunately, the bromelain only exists or most of the bromelain I should say in high concentrations in the core of the pineapple, not the yummy, fleshy outside parts, where it's much easier to eat. So, if you do want to have some pineapple, for implantation purposes, it might be best to try to chop up the core of the pineapple into smaller pieces and put it into a blender and make some sort of smoothie with it. Because I think it's quite difficult to eat just raw like that.

Also, during this time, in general, we want to be eating warm and cooked foods. And we want to avoid cold and raw foods if possible. But you know, if there is a scenario where a cold raw food like a big salad or something like that is our only option. Then again, a good trick is to add you know just a small amount, a teacup sized of warm water broth super tea with our meal and that will help to warm things up.

So, now we'll walk through the scenario of if we know our period is coming, and we want to decrease our PMS symptoms. So, these foods will be especially important if you tend to have chest or breast tenderness, clots in your blood, cramping you know all these sorts of really bummer PMS symptoms. So, if that really happens to you, these foods will help during this time.

So, what we want to do is eat what are called Qi regulating foods. And again, this is if we have not tried to conceive during this cycle. So those include:

• bitter greens

• onions

• garlic

• basil

• chives

• ginger

• cardamom

• cinnamon

• coriander

• apples

• carrots

• pears

• green tea

• wine in small amounts

So, I would say, you know, no more than two to three glasses of wine during this phase. And this is actually the longest phase of our cycle, the luteal phase which can last up to two weeks. So, you know two to three glasses of wine during that time is a pretty small amount. But if you're not drinking wine at all, then don't worry about it. Don't add it back in. It can more act as a guide in Chinese medicine for these foods and these practices and everything to the liver which is going to help regulate the CI for the next menstrual cycle. So, another one is lemon juice and warm water. Lemon juice and warm water really helps to support the detoxification pathways of the liver. And that's going to help reduce our PMS symptoms.

So, now I want to share with you some bonus fertility foods. I don't want to call them super foods, because that's such a trendy term these days, but they are, I don't know what to call them, but I like to call them fertility boosting foods. They're really excellent to add into your diet in general at any at any phase of your cycle.

So, one of them is flaxseeds. So, you want to make sure to grind them and store them in your fridge or somewhere cool so that the oils within the flax seeds don't go rancid. And a really good way to grind them is a couple of different ways you could use a mortar and pestle or you could use a coffee grinder if you have a grinder to grind coffee beans. You can use it to grind flax seeds or any seeds really. And if this is the case, if your grinder is usually for coffee, you may want to clean it out first.

The best way I have found to clean out a coffee grinder is to grind up some bread crusts. And that will take the little tiny coffee grounds out of all the nooks and crannies in your coffee grinder. So, you want to grind about two tablespoons of flax seeds per day. And what that will do is it removes synthetic estrogen chemicals from our body, which can really play a role in creating imbalances and forms of estrogen that are not healthy for our body that can lead to all sorts of infertility issues or reproductive issues in general. Flax seeds are also really high in omega threes and B vitamins, and magnesium and manganese, which are all super important for fertility.

 Another one to add in just at any point during the cycle is goji berries, which is what I was talking about earlier. And again, this used to be well, they still are a Chinese herb that we use in many different formulas, but it's also a food that you can just snack on. And they have a full spectrum of antioxidants. And studies show that these goji berries can actually promote follicle growth, and follicles another word for our egg cells. So, before we release our egg, it's a follicle, so the follicle eventually becomes our egg. So, goji berries have been found to promote that follicle growth. And also, just as a side note, it's also been shown to increase sperm count as well.

Another food to include at any point during the cycle are sprouts. So, Chinese medicine really values things that are sprouted because it contains again that energy of the full-grown plant, so it has that fertile potential within it. So, anything that’s sprouted, sprouted grains, sprouted legumes, sprouted seeds. sprouts are full of Jing, that fertile essence. They're also alkaline forming, so they create a nice environment within our body.

And then my very last bonus fertility food I think you're going to love is chocolate. So, chocolate is really great for circulating the heart Qi in Chinese medicine and the liver Qi as well. So, this is why we tend to some of us crave chocolate right before a period comes or during our period is because our energy tends to get stagnated or stuck when we're in our period and chocolate can actually help it to flow more smoothly. And it can also help to circulate the blood. So, it has a little bit of offending, circulating quality to it so it will help things to move easier. So go for it with the chocolate and especially during the luteal phase and the menstrual phase. That'll be a really nice addition. But you know, in moderation, Chinese medicine is all about moderation, not too much, not too little. That's sort of something that comes up all the time in Chinese medicine.

All right, those are my tips today for fertile foods. I hope they were helpful, and I will talk to you soon.

If you want to learn more about how to give yourself the best chance of conceiving having a healthy pregnancy and baby or babies head over to intersectionalfertility.com/fertile and put your name on the waiting list to be notified when Fertile registration opens. Fertile is a queer, trans and non-binary centered five-week online program for people with wombs to reclaim power over their fertility journey and conceive using the Whole Self Fertility Method. Registration will open this summer.

Thanks for listening to the Intersectional Fertility Podcast. You can find us online at intersectionalfertility.com and on your favorite podcast platform. If you like the show and want to hear more, tap subscribe. Please consider leaving us a review. It really truly helps. The Intersectional Fertility Podcast is hosted by me. Josie Rodriguez-Bouchier with audio production by Bryce Anderson-Gregson and music by Jen Korte.

 All content offered through The Intersectional Fertility Podcast is created for informational purposes only, it is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.