Low-fat dairy 'could reduce fertility'
Eating ice cream could boost women's fertility
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Wednesday, 28, Feb 2007 03:11
Women trying to conceive could be more successful if they drink whole fat milk and eat ice cream rather than eating a diet of low-fat dairy products.
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health claim to have found a link between a low-fat dairy diet and increased risk of infertility due to lack of ovulation (anovulatory infertility).
If women eat two or more servings of low-fat dairy food a day, such as yoghurts and skimmed milk, they increase their risk of ovulation-related infertility by more than four-fifths compared to women who ate less than one serving of low-fat dairy food a week, their study found.
Results also showed that if women eat at least one serving of high-fat dairy food a day then they reduce their risk of anovulatory infertility by more than a quarter (27 per cent) compared to women who consumed one or fewer high-fat dairy servings a week.
The eight-year study involved 18,555 women aged between 24 and 42 without a history of infertility.
Commenting on the results, Dr Jorge Chavarro, the study's lead author, said: "Intake of total dairy foods was not associated with the risk of anovulatory infertility, but when the low-fat and high-fat foods were considered separately, we found a positive association between low-fat dairy food intake above five servings a week and risk of anovulatory infertility, and an inverse association between high-fat dairy food intake and the risk of developing this condition."
Although he advises women trying to conceive to "consider changing low-fat dairy foods for high-fat dairy foods", Dr Chavarro admits that more research needs to be carried out in order to confirm his study's findings.
"Clarifying the role of dairy foods intake on fertility is particularly important since the current dietary guidelines for Americans recommend that adults consume three or more daily servings of low-fat milk or equivalent dairy products: a strategy that may well be deleterious for women planning to become pregnant," he said.
"Once they have become pregnant, then they should probably switch back to low-fat dairy foods as it is easier to limit intake of saturated fat by consuming low-fat dairy foods."
The research is published in the journal Human Reproduction.