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Paul Nelson, KSL NewsradioFertility specialists say there's a well-established link between poor nutrition and infertility. A well-known magazine has unveiled a special diet that they say could help couples trying to have a baby.
It's becoming a very common message. Obesity leads to (fill in the blank). Research shows this also applies to fertility, in men and women.
Dr. Mark Gibson with the Utah Center for Reproductive Medicine said, "Being either very overweight or very under-weight is a risk factor for not ovulating."
Dr. Gibson says, in general, good nutrition equals a better chance of getting pregnant.
"For a couple that's trying to not have any more children, would you recommend eating junk food and getting fatter?" I asked him.
"It wouldn't be reliable contraception," he answered.
"Well, could you please? Because I think we (my wife and I) have enough kids," I told him.
"Yeah, we really don't want to encourage that," he said.
Recently, Newsweek magazine analyzed a long-term research project called the Nurses' Health Study. It's a study of information from more than 18,000 women.
The magazine came up with a diet which could help couples have a baby. They recommend typical things like avoiding trans fat, eating good carbs instead of sugar and getting protein from plants instead of animals. Basically, it's the kind of diet that sucks the enjoyment out of life, except for one thing: ice cream, and not that low-fat kind.
Dr. Gibson said, "This is the finding of the study. They found that women who did pretty well were women who had that kind of diet."
Considering this new revelation about ice cream, I had some pretty tough questions for nutritionists.
"By recommending ‘Skinny Cow' or low-fat ice cream, aren't you in some way endangering mankind?" I asked.
Total Health and Fitness Salt Lake City Director Brian Barney answered, "I hope not."
Barney says he understands why ice cream is in this diet. "Low-fat isn't necessarily always a great thing because fat is an essential macronutrient," he said.
Barney says it's tough for most people to eat better because they've built themselves up to believe they need junk food.
"You can get to a point where you'll eventually lose those cravings," Barney said.
I've been waiting for that for 34 years.
