By Breea Johnson, MS RD

It’s the end of the holiday season and most people are already looking towards next year saying to themselves “This will be the year that I _______.” Whatever it is that this next year will be about, cleansing on an emotional, physical and nutritional level is a great way to clear your head and start working towards achieving your goal. Because being in your best health in your best body with your best mind opens you up to achieving anything you set out to accomplish.

Over the past year I have gotten many requests for us to do our ART Recovery/Prep cleanse as a group cleanse as many women like the peer and emotional support that group meetings provide. So, for the New Year, yoga teacher Jenilyn Gilbert and I are working together to offer a joint nutrition and Kundalini yoga cleanse for 4 weeks starting in January 2011. The nutritional cleanse will be a slightly modified version of our ART Recovery/Prep Cleanse which is sure to move your diet to a more clean and green fertility-friendly place. Every week we will split our time between an interactive nutrition lecture and a yoga class that focuses on cleansing a specific area of our body.

What you need to know:

Start the New Year with a special yoga and nutrition combo cleanse! This cleanse will combine nutrition guidelines and Kundalini yoga to focus on restoring digestion, supporting liver detoxification and cleansing both physically and emotionally. Peer support will help you find greater success and even enjoy the process of cleaning up body, mind and spirit!

This class is not for women currently on a medicated fertility cycle or who are pregnant. No prior yoga experience required. The class fee of $200 includes four combined nutrition and yoga sessions, teas and snacks. Any related nutrition supplements are extra.

Co-taught by senior PDtM yoga instructor Jenilyn Gilbert and nutritionist Breea Johnson at the Chicago River North location this is the right class to help you meet your goals for health and wellbeing in 2011!

To sign up or if you have any questions, call Pulling Down the Moon at (312) 321-0004 or visit our web registration page.

by Breea Johnson, MS RD LDN

I’m sure you have heard the saying “You are what you eat” but have you ever heard the saying “you are what you drink?” Beverages are everywhere – especially when the temperature increases in the summer time! The average American adult consumes about 28 ounces of sugar-sweetened beverages per day, equal to about 350 extra calories per day. While our typical client is much more health conscious than the “average American” I’m always surprised to see what people are drinking. Top on the list (other than water) is almost always diet sodas, skim milk and coffee, followed by artificially-sweetened ice teas and lemonades (like Crystal Light), fruit juice, herbal teas, sometimes sports drinks and alcohol.

Fluids – like food – are necessary in the diet. We know our bodies are about 78% water – found inside and in between cells and our brain is almost all water- thus explaining why even minor dehydration leads to difficulty thinking. We know that we need fluid for hydration (especially in times of increased fluid loss like exercise). We need fluid for detoxification – both from internal toxic by-products of metabolism to external toxins like chemicals that are converted to water-soluble compounds and eliminated. We need it for digestion and metabolism of food. And we know that without water, we would die within days. There’s no doubt that fluids are just as essential as food to our lives — and to our fertility – as fluids are needed for lubrication, cervical fluid production, detoxification, and overall metabolic support.

We tend to think of fluids as just added calories and not having any specific nutrients in them. But there are lots of nutrient rich beverages to enjoy.  Fertility-friendly fluids are naturally nutrient and electrolyte-rich and have no added sugar or artificial sweeteners.  Here are some Fertility-Friendly beverages to get some extra vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals into your body:

• Coconut water
• Water infused with sliced citrus fruits, cucumbers and herbs
• Nettle Tea infusion
• Cucumber lemon water – Slice a cucumber and lemon and place in pitcher of water and let chill for 2 hours.
• Seltzer water (8oz) with unsweetened fruit juice (1oz)
• Kombucha Tea
• Cranberry-infused Water (8oz water plus 2 oz unsweetened cranberry juice)
• Watermelon water – Blend 4 cups fresh watermelon, add to 6 cups water and add juice of 2 fresh limes.  Serve over ice.
• Herbal Teas like PDtM’s Nourish ARTea.

For more information on fertility-friendly fluids and our Nutrition Program, please contact Pulling Down the Moon or go to www.pullingdownthemoon.com and schedule an online appointment.

Kimberly Wong, RD, LDN

Spring, in unbroken tradition, has long been a celebration of the fertility of the earth. Similarly, this glowing season marks a time of renewal and revitalization in one’s fertility journey. Thus, in new hope and anticipation, what better way to welcome the coming months than by improving your fertile body with the natural nutrients of Mother Nature.

While it seems like the path to parenthood may at time be paved with difficult words upon deeply scientific concepts, the movement for local foods, dubbed with the endearing, folksy name “locavorism,” is much less esoteric and was spawned in the mid-2000s in an effort to promote sustainability and eco-consciousness.

Fertility vocab 101: locavore, (\ˈlō-kə-ˌvȯr\, noun), one who eats foods grown locally whenever possible.

Repeat. Memorize. Embrace.

Here’s the 411 on why becoming a locavore can aid in optimizing your preconception nutrition status. In short, locally farmed foods a) provide more vitamins and minerals per serving than do their grocery store counterparts b) encourage increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and c) frequently boast a pesticide-free label.

Local foods travel far fewer miles than your average megastore produce. While it seems convenient to run to the corner store and buy a pint of strawberries to meet our daily quota for our 9-A-Day, what we end up with in hand is quite the reverse of nutritious and fresh. In fact, a food is only considered local if it is grown within 100 miles of where it is sold. Conversely, the average carrot will travel 1,838 miles from farm to table.

While this particular carrot travels the rough equivalent of DC to Mexico City, greater than 50% and up to 90% of its vitamin C content will be lost within the first day of travel. Other essential nutrients fall prey to time-, temperature-, and light-sensitivity: the vital B vitamins, particularly folate, and vitamin E. These particular nutrients are all antioxidants that not only protect from an array of disease, but also help prevent harmful oxidative stress that has been linked to both male and female infertility.

Next, shopping for local foods is a calming, rewarding, and positive experience. Sifting through the wagons of crisp kale, chatting with its grower, and breathing fresh air may be considered so pleasurable that it increases the frequency of fresh fruits and vegetables, and grass-fed/cage-free proteins in one’s diet. Even without a drastic increase in servings per day, the mere substitution of local foods decrease the amount of commercialized foods in the diet. This, in turn, essentially cuts back the amount of processed foods, refined carbohydrates, saturated fats and preservatives in the diet. Just think—a mere trip to a local market can bring you one step closer to an anti-inflammatory, lower-glycemic, fertility-friendly diet!

Finally, local foods tend to offer pesticide-free and organic varieties. The upside to directly dealing with the foods’ producer ensures the elimination of any confusion. Pesticide-residues on fruits and vegetables and hormone/antibiotic-residues in meats and their by-products are of concern to fertility because of the accumulation of such toxins has been linked to reproductive damage.  

The Environmental Working Group has developed the infamous “Dirty Dozen,” which notes the foods that are likely to be highest in pesticide residuals. Do try to buy these foods organic and locally when possible. Conversely, they have released the “Cleanest Twelve” which indicates the produce lowest in pesticides.

Words of caution: the label “organic” does not mean that the produce was grown locally. While it may lack harmful toxic chemicals, it may have travelled several days to arrive to your location and thus also lacking in vital nutrients.

Although the warm summer-like weather donned upon us this year with as much surprise as our back-to-back blizzards, take this opportunity to explore new grounds in your fertility journey and tune into your inner locavore and enjoy the one predictable mainstay this spring: the flood of fertility-friendly, nutrient-rich produce into our fresh markets.

Check out http://www.rawdc.org/dc/fruitDC.html, an excellent online resource with more details and links to local farmers’ markets, CSAs, and organic retailers scattered across Northern Virginia, Washington, DC, and Maryland. For nationwide information, check out http://www.localharvest.org/.

Click here to schedule a fertility nutrition consultation with Kimberly Wong at Pulling Down the Moon in Rockville.  For more information about nutrition counseling visit our website at www.pullingdownthemoon.com.

Perhaps the most common question we get at the Moon is “where should I start?”  Women and couples are interested in doing everything they can to increase their odds of conceiving.  But among all the services available – nutrition counseling, acupuncture, yoga for fertility and massage – where to begin?  For the answer to this question, stay tuned to our blog this week as we discuss the different treatments we offer at Pulling Down the Moon and who will best benefit from these treatments.

The most important thing to recognize, though, is that using holistic treatment for fertility requires your participation.  Unlike a medical regimen, where you simply follow the directions your doctor provides, holistic treatment asks you to become involved in identifying and correcting physical, mental and emotional imbalances in your life.  In a sense, these treatments require you to be part of the treatment team.  This is true even if you are also using medical fertility treatments in addition to holistics.

The other point to make about holistic therapy is that it can take some time to work.  Treatments like acupuncture have shown short-term benefit (as few as two acupuncture treatments have been shown to increase IVF success rates), but studies using a longer treatment time frame actually have much more impressive results.  Nutrition changes can also be effective immediately, especially in terms of improving gut function, but other more long-term effects (potential improvement in egg or sperm quality, reduced inflammation, ovulation induction in PCOS) can take several months to achieve.   We feel great for a few hours after yoga or a massage – but longer term practice of these modalities actually leads to a lasting calm in which our body and mind can begin to heal themselves. 

So what’s right for you?  Stay tuned to our blog this week for a deeper exploration of what holistic fertility techniqes are right for you.   Also, feel free to post your questions.  We’ve got experts standing by. 

Be present, be positive!  Paige

Guest Blogger:  Kimberly Wong, RD, LDN

Stress. There’s work stress, family stress, fertility stress…but now oxidative stress? Oxidative stress is natural body process that is essential to physiological function. As we breathe, our cells produce energy, and our body uses oxygen in the process. As a result of these normal metabolic actions, Reactive Oxygen Species (also called free radicals) are produced. In layman’s terms, we can understand ROS’s as highly-reactive molecules that have lost an electron during a chemical reaction and roam around “stealing” electrons from other molecules. While this doesn’t sound particularly scary, this chain reaction actually causes a tremendous amount of trouble on a chemical level. Enter antioxidants.

Antioxidants are chemical compounds that happily give electrons to free radicals in order to keep chemical peace. Antioxidants are present inside the body and also come from food. Antioxidant vitamins include Vitamin E, A and C, alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) and other compounds found in fruits and vegetables. As long as our body’s antioxidant capacity is adequate to manage ROS production, all is well. But when the balance tips, and ROS production outstrips our antioxidant ability, free radicals begin to wreak havoc on DNA, cell membranes and tissues. This condition is called Oxidative Stress (OS). Oxidative Stress can cause damage to our cell membranes, alter protein and DNA and cause cell death. OS is implicated in chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease…and now fertility.

So, what about oxidative damage does a girlfriend need to know? In general, our body knows what to do with free radicals. The body has abundant antioxidant systems that involve antioxidant substances like vitamins C and E, and their cofactors, selenium, zinc, and copper, which swoop through the body and dispose, scavenge, and/or suppress the formation of ROS. Yet it’s a delicate balance that our modern lifestyle with its pollution, over-processed/nutrient-bare foods and stressful pace is likely to upset.

“Oxidative Stress is increasingly recognized as a very important participant in many health disorders, including male and female infertility,” says Dr. Robert Stillman of Shady Grove Fertility.  “Our understanding of oxidative stress and of Reactive Oxygen Species – and their reduction – can improve the overall quality of health of our patients – and their fertility”

In terms of fertility, when the bad stuff (ROS) begins to outpace the good stuff (our antioxidant defenses), our fertility may begin to suffer. Because sperm are basically “DNA torpedoes” with one simple mission (swim fast and fertilize egg), they don’t have extensive antioxidant defense systems and are vulnerable to ROS. In addition, they have a high polyunsaturated fat content, which makes them susceptible to lipid peroxidation (read: damage) in the cell membrane. Various environmental and life-style behaviors can tip the balance of OS for sperm, including STDs, automobile pollution, smoking and potentially diet. OS in sperm has been associated with deceased sperm motility, sperm number, and sperm-oocyte fusion (Desai 2009)

In women, the female ovary is the source of both oocytes (eggs) and the hormones that regulate reproduction. As such, the environment around the ovaries is of particular importance to optimal fertility. The ovaries are also “power houses,” and contain more mitochondria (cellular power plants) than any other cells, including muscles (Bentov 2010).  For this reason, oocytes use lots of energy and oxygen, especially as they are maturing in preparation for ovulation, r oxidative stress. Oxidative stress has been implicated in every stretch of the conception-to-birth cycle imaginable, including endometriosis and miscarriage, yet no direct research has been conducted on the effect of OS on female fertility.  However, studies have shown that women with unexplained infertility show increased free radicals in the peritoneal fluid (the fluid around the egg) and, conversely, lower levels of peritoneal free radicals are associated with successful IVF procedures (Ruder 2008).

The good news is that there are simple strategies for coping with oxidative stress. Here’s the “need to know:”

• Quit smoking and avoid exposure to second-hand smoke. 
• Limit alcohol consumption to < 3 servings per week. Choose red wine for its antioxidant benefits.
• Oxidative stress may also be higher where inflammation is present, so ensuring good digestion and gut health may reduce circulating levels of ROS. If you’re experiencing diarrhea, bloating, constipation, cramping or other digestive symptoms, it may be worthwhile to meet with a nutrition specialist to determine if food sensitivity or other digestive disorder is present.
• Where possible, use organic cleaning products.
• Increase your dietary antioxidant consumption. A diet that is wholesome and rich in fruits, vegetables, tea, and healthy fats will improve our body’s defenses against oxidative stress. Be aware that many sources of healthy fats in the diet (fatty fish, flax seed) should be consumed intelligently to avoid excess intake of environmental toxins (fish) and phytoestrogens (flax).
• Consider an antioxidant supplement or insure your prenatal vitamins have adequate anti-oxidant levels. 
• Avoid high intensity/high impact exercise. The huge aerobic and mechanical demands of strenuous exercise can actually increase oxidative damage to cells in the body. On the flip side, moderate intensity/low impact exercise increases our body’s defenses against oxidative stress.
• Learn to relax, practice yoga or meditate. Life stresses may elevate levels of ROS in the body.

Now, with a firm basis in OS and its effect on fertility, a gal is ready to face the fertility journey. Always at your availability is the advice of a Pulling Down the Moon nutrition specialist who can help you optimize your dietary intake. Our ART Recovery/Prep Nutrition program is specifically designed to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress as well as provide optimal nutrition for fertility.

Sea vegetables are nutrient powerhouses, especially for fertility.  These humble ocean plants (well, technically they’re algae which is neither plant nor animal – but that may be T.M.I.) are full of antioxidant vitamins like carotenoids (A), and C, the B-vitamin folate and minerals that are essential for reproduction like iron, calcium and iodine.   Iodine is particularly important for fertility, since iodine is a key component the thyroid hormones T3 and T4.  Thyroid hormones play a role in almost every body function, from metabolism and weight management to the proper function of our reproductive system.  Many foods in our diet (like soy, caffeine, raw peanuts) can suppress thyroid function so having a good source of dietary iodine on the plate is a good idea.   Sea veggies also contain lignins, which are a fave food of the beneficial bacteria that live in our gut and support digestion and immunity.

Admittedly there can be a bit of a “fear factor” that comes into play when we first begin to explore sea vegetables.  For that reason we suggest baby steps.  Here are two ways to “dip your toe into sea veggies:”

1.  Make dashi.  Dashi is a flavorful broth that can be sipped alone or used as a base for clear or thicker soups.    This recipe from Whole Foods Market will help you get started.  Please note that this recipe includes bonito flakes.  Because bonito is a type of tuna we investigated the mercury content of bonito and were pleased to learn that this quick growing fish is not a high mercury risk.   Some other ways to use dashi:

• Season with fresh ginger and mirin and pour over cooked brown rice for a more hearty soup
• Add cooked protein (chicken, free-range beef strips, shrimp or fish) and some lightly steamed veggies and you’ve got a great one-bowl meal

2.  Try nori (flat sheets of pressed sea vegetable that you’ve probably seen on the outside of sushi rolls) as a condiment.  Toast it over the flame of your gas range until it turns from emerald green to blackish green (but not burnt) and then cut into strips or crush into flakes.  This will add crunch and savory flavor to salads, grains and casseroles.

As with anything related to fertility nutrition, do not overdo.  Several servings of sea vegetables per week is a great start.  Regardless of whether you’re adding sea veggies to your diet, if you’re trying to conceive and not sure about your thyroid function (women can have both overactive and underactive thyroid) you should speak to your doctor about having it tested.

Be Present, Be Positive…Be Adventurous in the Kitchen, Paige