Poor diet, junk food make you less fertile, delay pregnancy

New Delhi : If you are a woman and can not live without junk food then you are at a risk of experiencing a delay in pregnancy, finds new study. 

Researchers at the University of Adelaide’s Robinson Research Institute asked 5598 women in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland about their diet to learn its effect on their pregnancies.

Professor Claire Roberts, who led the study, said: “The findings show that eating a good quality diet that includes fruit and minimising fast food consumption improves fertility and reduces the time it takes to get pregnant.”

As per findings, the woman who fed more on fruit than junk food conceived earlier compared to those who ate junk food more and avoided regular fruits.

Among all the couples in the study, 468 (8 percent) couples were classified as infertile (defined as taking longer than a year to conceive) and 2204 (39 percent) conceived within a month.

First author Dr Jessica Grieger, said, “We recommend that women who want to become pregnant should align their dietary intakes towards national dietary recommendations for pregnancy. Our data shows that frequent consumption of fast foods delays time to pregnancy.”

The researchers also found that while intake of fruit and fast foods affected time to pregnancy, pre-pregnancy intake of green leafy vegetables or fish did not.

The study has been published in the journal Human Reproduction.