This is the book I wish I had read years ago, when I was much younger and just out on my own (and mostly following the conventional, but too often misguided advice about what to eat); when I was newly married at age 34 and eager to start a family right away with my new husband; three years later when I finally conceived after a complete round of fertility tests, laparoscopic surgery and laser removal of  endometriosis (that I didn’t even know I had) as well as uterine fibroid removal; during my only pregnancy, when I didn’t know I was running high blood glucose levels until more than half way through the second trimester; in the following years when we were trying in vain to have a second child; and during the first few years of my son’s life.   Of all the things I considered might “not be working properly” it never even crossed my mind that nutrition might be a factor.  Nor did any of the fertility doctors mention or ask about my nutrition.  

 

Back then, while not a nutrition “expert” by any stretch of the imagination, I wasn’t clueless about nutrition, either.  In fact, I probably already knew more than the average person about nutrition and what to eat or not eat.  After all, I had a mother who was well tuned into nutrition when I was growing up (“have some cottage cheese or an egg, you need some protein”); I had taken a nutrition class in college for an elective, I had read the NY Times’s Jane Brody and cooked with her recipes regularly; I read Prevention magazine; and  I did know how to cook and did cook quite a bit (but I also succumbed too often to the seduction of “gourmet” prepared foods, too).  

 

But what I didn’t know about optimal human nutrition and fertility back then was that quite possibly it was at least one factor in our difficulty in realizing our dream to have children.  Of course, there’s no way to know for sure that it would have made any difference, but I can’t help thinking that less of the foods I now understand to be problematic and eating more of the nutrient-dense traditional foods might have made it easier to conceive.  I certainly would have prepared foods differently (and different foods) during Gabriel’s first years with what I know now.

 

 

 

I can’t go back in time 5, 10, 20, or even 25 years to eat differently to improve my fertility or the nourishment of my son, but I can spread the word now about information that may help at least some couples reduce or avoid some off the heartache we experienced with infertility.  Or it might  reduce the uncertainty and confusion about what to feed (or not feed) babies and children, for their best chance at healthy development, growth, and abundant health.  Even if you are think you understand what is good food, are not thinking about having children for many years to come, or if like me, that chapter of your life is over or drawing to a close, this will still be an important book to read, to think over, and to share.