Fertility for Beginners: The Fertility Diet and Health Plan to Start Maximizing Your Fertility Paperback – December 20, 2013

Amazing read

“Fertility for Beginners” isn’t just a book about finding natural ways to conceive. When you read the title, it sounds like a book for those who’ve had difficulty conceiving, but it goes much farther than that. This book should be your go to guide for any time you want to get pregnant, not only those times there are difficulties. Here’s why. The book is broken up into two parts. The first part takes you through the basics of understanding what fertility is (language, signs, charting), ways to live a healthier life (stress, diet, exercise, more) and then gets into the basics of eating healthy. I found chapters 2 and 3 to be the most helpful in breaking down why certain foods are important and how it helps the body. Part two provides some very tasty and easy to follow recipes. Having tried a couple already, I can heartily recommend the tofu slaw with sesame-tamari dressing, the yummy spinach salad with toasted walnuts and walnut oil dressing (shh, didn’t have any walnut oil and used macadamia nut instead), coconut ginger rice (delicious) and both salmon dishes (I made some slight modifications). I was also appreciative of the glossary and medical terms sections. I think the one thing that would have made this a ‘complete’ guide would be already created tracking charts.

This book contains very good information about specific tips to try and improve your fertility rate—such as how to monitor your waking body temperature to know when you are ovulating. I found the information helpful about using the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) to know when you are ovulating, as well. It is a good idea to make a monthly chart of your fertility. The directions are helpful but it would be even more helpful to have a sample chart in the book.I was not surprised to see a section about stress here—it is always a good reminder to read about how much stress affects our health and specific functions such as fertility. Most people are under more stress than they realize so this is an important section to pay attention to in the book.I was pleasantly surprised to see the section on using Traditional Chinese Medicine to enhance your fertility. The four gates acupuncture treatment sounds like a good idea for anyone!The section on carbohydrate digestion was very interesting. You can never learn enough on this topic. It was good to know about the benefits of being a flexitarian and eating a mixture of plant and animal protein. The Ten Steps Toward Conception are very useful and a good summary. The recipes included sound delicious! I agree that once you get used to food that tastes really good you think less about focusing on the healthy aspect—it just comes naturally to eat natural foods for any health reason including fertility.

As someone who does not plan on having children any time soon, this book was rather irrelevant. However, I found the underlying intentions (conveying healthy options to “maximize” fertility) as both commendable and generally coherent. Exercise, travel, weight, stress and age are prominent factors examined at the book’s commencement in terms of their prospective adverse and/or beneficial impact on fertility. In addition the segments break down scientific observations and rhetoric explicating how and why evaluating these aspects is so essential in fostering healthy fertility. Next the anatomical methods of measuring individual fertility signs and interpreting biological responses were straightforward and responsibly clarified (references and glossary terms are also collectively provided at the back of the book). A subsequent section is devoted to debunking misrepresentations and myths involving both nurturing and depleting male and female fertility.Segueing into nutritionally conscious territory, the book offers extensive guidance with distinguishing good fats from bad ones, the role of dairy and “smart” proteins, and culminating in laundry-style lists of foods to excitedly consume and others to mindfully avoid. Although the recipe options are generally appealing, from “Coconut Ginger Rice” and “Buffalo Burgers With Smoky Flavors” entrees to tasty snacks like “Dark Chocolate Nut Clusters,” there are only a handful of specific meals. I guess that ultimately compels you to get creative in combining and testing the aforementioned and broad lists of foods to devour for optimal baby-making.A couple of cautionary notes include how the book admittedly notes how the featured studies are based on a relatively small scale in terms of research surrounding the complexities diet and fertility, as well as the virtually non-existent reminders about maintaining medical care and supervision when planning parenthood (the book provides dietary ADVICE – opposed to any health mandates to be used in lieu of routine and proper doctor visits).

While not looking to improve my fertility at the moment, Fertility for Beginners is an easy to read general health guide in regards to fertility. The book bases most of it's information and conclusions on a 10 year study out of Harvard. Most of the information I found was applicable also to health and wellness for those who are not interested in increasing their fertility. I felt that, after reading this, I could now read a more in depth book or study and be able to understand it. Some of the recipes looked very tasty and am looking forward to making the smoothie! It would have been helpful to have a few examples of the graphs suggested in the book. I had a hard time visualizing it and ended up having to go online to see what a Fertility Awareness Method chart might look like. I particularly liked that the book did not just focus on female fertility, but also gave many suggestions on what to do for males. There was a section on debunking common myths about fertility which I found interesting as well. Overall, a good, simple book to get one started on a healthy way to improve their fertility