Alcohol

Both you and your partner need to eliminate alcohol. If your infertility is caused by problems such as polycystic ovaries, fibroids or endometriosis, alcohol can compromise the efficient functioning of your liver and make it less able to get rid of excess circulating hormones. Alcohol will also stop you absorbing essential nutrients like zinc which are crucial for fertility.

Genetically Modified Foods

We know that the fertility of animals feeding on genetically modified foods can be reduced, so it is only common sense for you to eliminate these foods, as best you can, from your diet. We do not yet know the long-term health risks of GM foods but anything that may compromise good health needs to be avoided when you are aiming to increase your chances of conceiving.

Genes are a set of coded instructions, made from DNA, which control physical and behavioural characteristics such as hair colour. Genetic modification means that genes from other species can be introduced into a particular plant, usually to make it more resistant to pests, viruses, weed killers or other hazards. For instance, it is now possible to buy a tomato which contains a fish gene to boost its frost resistance. The gene is from a flounder because they survive well in cold water. This same flounder gene has also been introduced into salmon which could be on the market in two years time. In the cold dark days of winter a salmon stops eating and growing but adding a flounder gene keeps them eating all year round, speeding up their growth rate by 400 per cent. This kind of ‘tampering with nature’ explains why GM foods have been called ‘Frankenstein foods’.

There are worries that GM foods will make various diseases resistant to the antibiotics which have saved millions of us from death in the last few decades.

This is because, when genes are transferred in the lab, marker genes are transferred along with the DNA. This enables scientists to identify which cells have become modified. Usually a gene for antibiotic resistance is used as a marker. The British Medical Association (BMA) fears that resistance to antibiotics might transfer to animals or humans and leave patients vulnerable to diseases such as meningitis. For example, genetically modified maize contains a marker gene which passes on resistance to ampicillin, an important antibiotic used to treat bronchitis, ear infections and urinary tract infections in humans. Some urinary tract infections can impair fertility so we need the medical ammunition to deal with these infections.

The BMA has issued a report, called The Impact of Genetic Modification on Agriculture, Food and Health, and has called for studies to see whether these foods could damage our immune system or cause birth defects.

It is also possible that the DNA from our food could be transferred to the natural bacteria in the human gut, creating lethal substances and a whole generation of new diseases which won’t be killed off by antibiotics.

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