Can You Eat Chia Seeds for Fertility? Absolutely! Here’s What You Should Know About This Miraculous Superfood
January 23, 2023
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photo by Joshua Fuller on Unsplash
It’s that time of year when it just feels natural to open all the windows and let in the fresh air, go through your summer clothes and decide what you still want and what no longer sparks joy, and maybe even organize and scrub your whole house from top to bottom.
But what about your body?
April is also a great time of year to do a little Spring Cleanse for your body and soul … especially if you’re trying to conceive.
This is about giving your body a chance to do what it naturally does anyway—and prioritizing yourself and your health.
So this is my gift to you: an invitation to cleanse your body and your life, as an act of powerful self-love and commitment to your fertility! ❤️
When I talk about *cleansing*, I’m not talking about going on a juice cleanse and taking handfuls of herbs to flush your colon. Instead, I’m talking about incorporating gentle, nourishing diet and lifestyle changes to support the natural detoxification channels of the body in order to improve hormone health, egg quality, uterine health, and overall general well-being, which is the first step in optimizing fertility.
The first thing to do is reduce your exposure to everyday toxins, as much as possible.
Secondly, you will nourish your body with satisfying, healing, and nutrient-dense foods and beverages that will leave you full of energy, clear-headed, and happily sustained throughout the day.
Curious About Your Fertility? Do This!
Here are my top recommendations for your own personal Spring Cleanse:
Eliminate all plastic from your kitchen. Avoid canned goods, and if you do buy something in a can, be sure to only buy brands that specify “BPA-free”. Make the switch to non-toxic cleaning products, non-toxic personal care, and clean make-up. Look for cleaning and laundry products that are plant-based, fragrance-free, and phthalate-free. Drink clean, filtered water from glass or reusable stainless steel beverage containers, and store your leftovers in reusable glass or stainless steel.
Many of the chemicals used in cookware are considered xenoestrogens, which are chemicals that mimic estrogen and interfere with thyroid function, fertility, fetal development, and cell growth and repair. Teflon is the commercial name for the chemical polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which has shown to be carcinogenic. It’s linked to cancers, endocrine disruption, and fetal development.
Cast iron is safe, affordable, and lasts forever if well-maintained—you can usually even find it in thrift stores for next to nothing! Enamel-coated cast iron is also safe, and the enamel coating makes it much easier to clean and maintain. Ceramic pans are made from pure glass, contain no toxic metals or chemicals, and are easy to clean and maintain. Stainless steel is a good option if you purchase a reputable brand—low-quality stainless steel sometimes contains metals like nickel and chromium. When shopping for stainless steel, look for the equivalent of surgical stainless steel and pans with heavy bottoms.
Be sure to use a high quality water filter to remove toxins, heavy metals, fluoride, herbicides, disinfectants, and other municipal “additives” from your drinking water.
Alternatively, you can choose spring or mineral water that is bottled at the source in glass bottles.
It’s not a gimmick. It’s legit and definitely worth the extra money, especially when it comes to animal foods. Animal products are the single most important food to purchase organic, because animals absorb and accumulate significantly more toxicity than plants do.
If you do need to purchase non-organic fruits and vegetables to go easy on your budget, I recommend at least purchasing the EWG’s Dirty Dozen fruits and vegetables organic when available—this can help to decrease 90% of your pesticide exposure.
Rather than a traditional detox or cleanse, your goal is not to limit the amount of food you eat—the goal is not to feel deprived or starving.
Instead, you want to make sure the foods you do eat are whole, real, organic foods that you cook yourself the majority of the time. You do want to avoid foods that stress the liver and that create a lot of unnecessary inflammation in the body. This will give your entire system a much needed break.
Foods to avoid include: gluten, dairy, sugar, fried foods, vegetable oils, alcohol, and caffeine.
Leafy greens like chard, spinach, kale, mustard greens, beet greens, arugula, romaine, etc., as well as berries like raspberries, blueberries and blackberries contain B vitamins, bioflavonoids and antioxidants that help transform the chemicals your body has absorbed into less toxic forms. They also protect your cells against oxidative damage. Smoothies are a GREAT way to get your berries and greens in!
Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts are a good source of vitamins and minerals (especially vitamin C, vitamin K and folate), and they contain sulfur, which is critical for supporting the liver during detoxification. Cruciferous vegetables also contain a compound called indole-3-carbinol, which our bodies metabolize upon digestion into diindolylmethane (DIM). DIM is well known for supporting healthy hormone levels in both men and women. In women, it favorably influences the ratios of estrogen metabolites, while in men, it helps reduce the conversion of testosterone to estrogen.
Organic, grass-fed/pasture-raised meat, whole pastured eggs, and organic nuts contain branched chain amino acids like glutathione, which help bind and flush toxins from the body. Glutathione is one of the body’s most important and potent antioxidants—it helps the liver transform toxic forms of chemicals being eliminated by the liver into less toxic forms. Aim for at least two whole eggs per day and a satiating protein at every meal.
Lentils, beans, starchy root vegetables and berries are all great sources of fiber to help flush excess hormones and toxins out of the body.
Green tea extract, curcumin (found in turmeric), milk thistle, and artichoke extract can all also help support your body’s natural detoxification processes.
Because it can be difficult to get enough of these important liver-supporting nutrients from food alone, high-quality, effective supplements can be really helpful and important.
Detox Antiox: 2 capsules per day
Liposomal Glutathione: 5 pumps per day, hold under your tongue for at least 90 seconds
DIM: 1 capsule per day
Stellar C: 1 capsule, twice per day
April is a great time of year to do a little Spring Cleanse for your body and fertility health … especially if you’re trying to conceive. This is about giving your body a chance to do what it naturally does anyway—and prioritizing yourself and your health.
The first thing you’ll want to do is reduce your exposure to everyday toxins, as much as possible. Second, you’ll nourish your body with satisfying, healing, and nutrient-dense foods and beverages that will leave you full of energy, clear-headed, and happily sustained throughout the day.
You have the power to optimize your body for pregnancy, and preconception care and cleansing are essential first steps!
Curious About Your Fertility? Do This!
The Fertility Code is the best-kept secret of women who want to take the guesswork out of conceiving, and give themselves every possible chance of getting pregnant quickly and naturally.
Bringing together evidence-based information, science-backed protocols and nurturing practices, this course is your one-stop-shop for getting your body, mind and soul prepared for conception.
This essential fertility course is for anyone who is struggling to get pregnant, or thinking about getting pregnant soon. The course covers allllll the fertility topics: egg quality, ovarian reserve, miscarriage, ovulation, cycle tracking, low progesterone, IVF, prepping for egg retrieval + embryo transfer, thyroid health, toxins, and much more. It covers EVERYTHING you need to know and you can move through the modules at your own pace.
The Fertility Code will give you the tools, protocols, tests, supplements, and more to optimize your fertility health, nourish your body, and give it what it needs to make a baby, and ensure a healthy full-term pregnancy. It has helped hundreds of women get pregnant, and stay pregnant, and it can help you too.
And if you want to get a baseline of your fertility health before getting started, take my quiz! After you complete it, you’ll receive a detailed report from me explaining your results. Or, if you want to have a more in-depth conversation about your specific concerns, feel free to schedule a consultation. I can’t wait to chat!
Sarah Jane Sandy is a certified nutrition therapist, and a fertility and women’s health expert. She has helped hundreds of women increase their fertility naturally and go on to have healthy full-term pregnancies. Learn more about her own fertility journey here. To send Sarah a message, complete her Contact Form.
