True or False? Vegetarian Females are Often More Difficult to Get Pregnant

Some women who want to look beautiful may choose to eat a vegetarian diet, e.g. their supper may be green vegetables slightly scalded in the boiling water, and some women have formed the habit of living on a vegetarian diet for a long time. But, if you are preparing to get pregnant, the vegetarian diet may influence the probability of conception. Why is it at all? Let's see together.

The vegetarian diet will influence ovulation

The professors from Marspolan College in Munich of Germany divided the healthy young girls participating in the experiment into two groups with one group having a vegetarian diet except for a small amount of cheese and milk and another group having a normal diet.

After the six-week weight-reducing plan was over, the researchers found that 78% of the weight-reducing females who ate the vegetarian diet had the physiological phenomenon of stopping ovulation and the menstrual cycles of nearly all of them became shorter than the normal cycles. But for those who ate a normal diet, 67% of them had normal ovulation with menstrual cycles having no obvious change.

According to the findings, the females in the vegetarian group stopped ovulation because the foods they ate contain too little protein, which led to abnormal hormone secretion and disorderly menstrual cycles. From this we can see that living on a vegetarian diet for a long time would influence the fertility of women.

Role of animal protein in the success of conception

Though there are fairly few girls having a totally vegetarian diet around us, there are a lot of girls eating small or little amount of meat. The meat can offer the nutrients needed by conception, and if the human body lacks these kinds of nutrients, the childbearing potential will be lowered. Generally speaking, they are three major kinds of nutrients: animal protein, cholesterol and iron, and calcium and vitamin B12.

Animal protein

Animal protein mainly stems from meats of poultry, domestic animals and fishes, eggs and milk. Animal protein is very important for conception because the nutrient elements needed to generate sperms and ova mainly stem from the animal products. If you live on a vegetarian diet for a long time, it is unfavorable for the generation of sperms and ova.

For women preparing to get pregnant, they need supply of not only sufficient but also high-quality protein. They should absorb 60-80 grams of protein in their daily diet which should include 40-60 grams of high-quality protein stemming from such foods as fish, meat, egg, milk and soy bean products so as to ensure the normal development of the fertilized ovum. Therefore we can see that animal protein plays a very important role in conception. 

Role of cholesterol in the success of conception

Cholesterol 

All of us often hear others say that cholesterol should not be too high and people should control the cholesterol level in the diet. But, if you are a strict vegetarian with very low cholesterol level, it is not good news if you are preparing for pregnancy. 

A great part of cholesterol is obtained from the animal products, and much less from the vegetarian foods. One of the major functions of cholesterol is that it is the basic raw material to produce sex hormone. If you eat too much vegetarian food, it will influence the ingestion of cholesterol and the sex hormone is in short supply, thus influencing the ovulation. The experts advise that the optimum daily ingestion of cholesterol is 50mg-300mg, which, of course, depends on your personal physique.

Though cholesterol helps you get pregnant, please don't ingest too much of it. If you want to eat meat but with cholesterol level controlled, you can try the food with low cholesterol level.

Roles of iron, calcium and vitamin B12 in the conception 

Meats and visceral products are rich in iron, calcium and vitamin B12. If you live on a vegetarian diet for a long time, it will result in short supply of these kinds of nutrition, or even unbalanced nutrition. And, even if a woman gets pregnant successfully, lack of these kinds of nutrition will greatly damage the health of the pregnant woman and fetus. 

For an adult woman weighing 55 kilograms, she should take in 20 milligrams of iron each day; and 25 milligrams each day at the early stage of pregnancy. From these figures we can see the importance of iron in the whole pregnancy. 

The calcium amount for every adult recommended by the nutritionist is 800 mg each day. At the middle period of pregnancy, the female's demand for calcium is even higher. Milk and dairy products are very rich in calcium and people's absorption rate is also high. In addition, dried small shrimp, sesame paste, and soybean and its products are also good sources of calcium.

Vitamin B12 is one of the three major hematogenous raw materials of the human body, and can promote the development and maturity of red blood cells, keep the hematogenous function of the human body in a normal state and prevent pernicious anaemia from happening. And meanwhile, it can promote the metabolism of carbohydrate, fat and protein, with the functions of activating the amino acid, and promoting the biosynthesis of nucleic acid and the formation of protein.

What merits attention is that vitamin B12 only exists in animal products, e.g. milk, meats, eggs, animal's internal organs, fish, cheese, etc.

Though eating meats can help you get pregnant, here we would like to remind you that the most important thing for successfully conceiving a baby is to have a balanced diet mixed with meats and vegetables. You should eat meats, and should also eat fruits and vegetables! Only the ingestion of all of them can guarantee you have comprehensive nutrition and welcome your little baby as soon as possible.