The Role of Avocados In Fertility & Maternal Health
Yolandi Rademeyer R.D
Maternal nutrition plays a crucial role in influencing fertility, fetal development, birth outcomes, and breast milk composition. During the critical window of time from conception through the initiation of complementary feeding, the nutrition of the mother is the nutrition of the offspring—and a mother’s dietary choices can affect both the early health status and lifelong disease risk of the offspring.
For pregnant women there is a whole list of nutrients that are needed in a higher (some more than double) quantity than when not pregnant. However pregnant women in the U.S. are known to lack in more than half of this list of nutrients that their bodies require or that’s recommended to sustain a healthy pregnancy and make a healthy baby
The most heavily researched nutrients for fetal health can be narrowed down to a few different groups:
- Micronutrients that regulate DNA synthesis, cell division, and growth.
- vitamin A
- vitamin D
- Nutrients that assist with brain development.
- specific fatty acids
- Antioxidant nutrients which protect against free radical damage and DNA mutation
- vitamin A and carotenoids
- vitamin C
- vitamin E
- Another important class of nutrients for fetal health not currently recognized is regulatory nutrients—such as
—which may improve maternal health status (i.e., reduce the risk of diseases such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and gestational diabetes)
When it comes to the fourth trimester, postpartum, maternal intake of vitamin A, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 as well as iodine and fatty acids directly influence the composition of breast milk.
Few fruits or vegetables are rich in both vitamins and fatty acids, with the exception of oil-containing fruits such as avocados, which contain mono unsaturated fatty acids (MUFA).
A look at an average California avocado:
|Nutrient||Requirement in pregnancy||Amount in 1 Avocado (California,136g)|
|Folate||600-800 mcg||higher than a serving of most fruits, tree nuts, and seeds||121 mcg|
|Total Vit A||770 mcg (1300 lactation)||10 mcg|
| 900 mcg from suppl
90 mcg from food
|Avocado in salads improve carotenoid absorption by 5–15 times ||90 mcg|
lutein + zeaxanthin
|Absorbed better from avocados than other fruits & veg||360 mcg|
|Vit D||15 mcg||–||–|
|Iron||27 mg||0.8 mg|
|Zinc||9-11 mg||Plays a crucial part in fertility||0.9 mg|
|Fatty acids : MUFA||13.3 g|
|Vit C||60-85mg||12 mg|
|Vit E||10 mg||2.7 mg|
|Fiber||25-30g||According to the 2015 DGAC report, only 8% of women who were pregnant had adequate intake of fiber||9 g|
|Potassium||2800 mg||gestational hypertension decreased significantly with roughly 250–300 mg higher intakes of potassium
Avocados have more potassium by weight than most other common fruits and vegetables
DRI reference intakes(National Academic press 2006)/ WHO RDA
Reasons why avocados are an ideal fruit for maternal diet:
- Avocados contain some of the most crucial vitamins that are vastly under-consumed by most women according to their daily requirements ; vitamin E, folate, and vitamin C  ,as well as multiple shortfall nutrients, without significantly contributing to any of the 2015 DGA nutrients of concern for overconsumption (i.e., sodium and saturated fat), or to empty calories from added sugars
- Avocados are a source of several non-essential compounds, such as monounsaturated fats (MUFA), lipid-soluble antioxidants, and various phytosterols that are the components of the mediterranean diet that has been scientifically proven :
- To increase fertility the most as well as improving ovulatory disorders by 70% .
- The researchers found that consuming just 2% of energy from unprocessed MUFA instead of hydrogenated trans fats was associated with less than half of the risk of ovulatory infertility
- To reduce the chances of preterm delivery by 90%
- The researchers found that greater intakes of MUFA were related to nearly three and half times higher odds of live birth after embryo transfer, compared to lower intakes of MUFA
- (Maternal lipid intake is the single most influential factor contributing to breast milk fatty acid composition)
- To increase fertility the most as well as improving ovulatory disorders by 70% .
They found that MUFA made up approximately 29% of the blood fatty acids of pregnant mothers, 18% of the umbilical cord blood, and 23% of the blood of a newborn infant 
- Low GI. Low Glycemic index diets have been proven to increase fertility , reduce the incidence of birth defects , produce a better birth weight and decrease the risk for conditions such as insulin resistance later in life
- Lutein: Lutein is the most abundant carotenoid in avocados ; and it is absorbed in greater quantities from avocados relative to other fruits and vegetables with low or no lipid content . Lutein Represents roughly 25% of the carotenoids in breast milk in the first few days of breastfeeding and actually increases to nearly 50% by the end of the first month .
Conclusion: Avocados are a unique nutrient-rich plant-based food that contain many of the critical nutrients for fetal and infant health and development. They fit within the guidelines for a Mediterranean-style diet (i.e., they contain MUFA, fiber, antioxidants, and are low-glycemic), which is known to be beneficial for disease reduction in most populations including pregnant and lactating populations. Based on this review, avocados offer a range of beneficial nutrients that can make a substantial contribution to a nutrient-rich diet when offered as a staple food for the periconceptional period, as well as during Nutrients pregnancy and lactation.
How to incorporate more avocados into your diet:
- Choose fresh avocado over mayonnaise on a sandwich to reduce saturated fats while adding numerous other essential nutrients, potentially bioactive compounds (e.g., lipophilic antioxidants and phytosterols), and fiber.
- Use an avocado- and yogurt-based dressing in place of many nutrient-poor commercial options in order to avoid added sugars and saturated fats while adding protein, fiber, and fat-soluble vitamins
- Make avocado & eggs & salmon a staple for breakfast
- Incorporate avocados into a berry smoothie
- Make avocado chocolate mousse
- Pinterest has many creative avocado dishes 🙂
The Role of Avocados in Maternal Diets during the Periconceptional Period, Pregnancy, and Lactation, Kevin B. Comerford, 2016
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