Saturated Fat: Nutrition for Starting a Family

Sometimes a young couple asks for specific advice about nutritional requirements for fertility and pregnancy. 

Their story often starts with how many years they have tried, how many miscarriages they’ve had, how many hormone treatments and in vitro fertilizations had failed.

After a brief conversation, the prospective mother tells me she is following a low fat, high carbohydrate diet, and she eats very little meat.

By changing their dietary program to fit the guidelines of the Weston A. Price Foundation, every one of these couples has successfully conceived and delivered a healthy baby - something that they thought might be impossible given what they’d gone through. 

I am always amazed and awed at how well it works. Conception occurs in six months or less, and the baby is carried to term.

Saturated fat is a necessary nutrient for fertility and pregnancy. Without it, a successful pregnancy is not possible. 

There is a wide variety, including butter, lard, beef tallow, chicken or duck fat, fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel. (Crab has an additional bonus for fertility - the yellow “crab butter” in the cavity just below the head).

Saturated fats are needed for developing the fetal nervous system and brain that will see them through their school years with fewer learning disabilities and behavioral issues.

Saturated fat contains the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K. Some nutrition experts claim that these vitamins are also available in vegetables. However, vegetable sources only have the precursors to these vitamins, so your body must conjugate them to make the actual vitamin. The human body is only capable of converting a small fraction of the precursor, much less than what is required for optimal health. 

Pastured animals, on the other hand, easily convert them to vitamins, and they store the fully formed vitamins in their fat. That is why it is more efficient and effective to obtain fat soluble vitamins directly from the fat of the animals that make it.

Now come the protests: “Saturated fat will make me fat!” The fact is, carbohydrates are what make you fat. If you reduce your intake of carbs and increase saturated fats, you will shed excess pounds. Try it.

An important consideration is the source of all this fat. It must come from healthy animals that are fed on pasture. 100% grass-fed beef, pastured and forested pork, pastured chickens and lamb. If it is pastured, it has the right balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (no need to supplement with fish oil for omega-3). If it is pastured, it contains conjugated linoleic acid, which has numerous health benefits other than maintaining a healthy pregnancy. It contains fat-soluble vitamins in quantities your body can’t produce alone. It contains other factors involved in developing healthy bones and immune system. It also provides raw materials for making hormones that govern biochemical activity of every system of the body.

For a list of other foods that are essential for fertility and pregnancy, dig into the Weston A. Price foundation's recommended diet for pregnant and nursing mothers. They have an article full of amazing information.

May you be deeply nourished!

Susan