Dairy Products & TTC

kristen64 · August 2012

So my diet is heavy on the low-fat/fat-free dairy products - particularly Greek yogurt, skim milk, and frozen yogurt. Somehow today I stumbled upon research that stated whole/full fat dairy products are the way to go when TTC and low fat/skim varieties can increase your risk of anovulatory infertility. Kind of a WTF moment for me. I am 8 months now TTC with no known O. Switching to full fat dairy from now on.

One of the many articles I read: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2038431/Mothers-low-fat-yoghurt-pregnancy-likely-asthmatic-children.html

Does anyone else on here avoid skim milk products?

photag · August 2012

A friend of mine swears by that but I don't know if I believe it. Guess it doesn't hurt in moderation. I just can't see past the calorie count but I may change my mind if I am still ttc a few months from now.

hjk5000 · August 2012

Yeh I ate full fat dairy the whole time I was pregnant and my son is intolerant to milk and soy. I also gained 60 pounds. Also for people with PCOS and annovulatory infertility that I know (including myself), a low glycemic diet is recommended.

So no, I will not be bothering to do the full fat thing this time unless the low fat version contains aspartame.

That said, full fat tastes a million times better though, so if you'd like to give it a shot I say have at it.

ksgsmu · August 2012

Yes my doctor suggested I change from skim to at least 2 percent... I can't do whole milk.. It just doesn't settle well.

SwittyMcGee · August 2012

Whole milk is the only fertility-related "thing" that I do. I have a single glass of whole milk (sometimes I make it into chocolate milk) every day. For cereal/oatmeal/whatever, I use 2%, and I eat full-fat cheese because I hate reduced-fat cheese.

I expect that when I get pregnant I will go back to skim/2%, since for me it's just a superstitious ovulation thing. I will say that I haven't had any anovulatory cycles since I started doing it.

kristen64 · August 2012

KatieCGC:
I'm totally down with full fat ice cream...two scoops for me! Milk...not so much.

Haha, I am going to have to give the full fat ice cream a go. I've always had frozen yogurt!

junie216 · August 2012

I think that all women need a healthy amount of fat and that it is often overlooked. I've always heard that if you use full-fat dairy that you need to get organic and preferably, from pastured cows, because all the toxins are stored in the fat. Organic Valley is a good brand.

TeamAwesomeBaby · August 2012

SwittyMcGee:
Whole milk is the only fertility-related "thing" that I do. I have a single glass of whole milk (sometimes I make it into chocolate milk) every day. For cereal/oatmeal/whatever, I use 2%, and I eat full-fat cheese because I hate reduced-fat cheese.
I expect that when I get pregnant I will go back to skim/2%, since for me it's just a superstitious ovulation thing. I will say that I haven't had any anovulatory cycles since I started doing it.

I have a glass of cold whole milk with a teaspoon of raw honey (for the Royal Jelly - also a superstitious fertility thing) mixed in every evening. I have no idea if it's going to help me but it tastes delicious in the meantime. I don't really consume any other dairy because DH is lactose intolerant, so we do coconut milk or almond milk for things like cereal.

AppleMuffins · August 2012

I switched to organic milk about 2ish years ago and full fat dairy back in May or so. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I will say that my cycles have been relatively normal these past 3 cycles despite PCOS. Last time I was off of BCP3 years ago, but before TTC, my cycles were about 60-80 days long and now they've been around 30-40 days. The only thing I've done differently since then is the milk. Weight, diet, and (lack of) exercise are pretty much the same.

kristen64 · August 2012

Thanks for the replies! Great to know what others are doing.

I picked up some real cream ice cream when I was at Costco today (Originale Augustin - Vanilla). After tasting that, I will never go back to Frozen Yogurt again!!

jerseygirl81 · August 2012

Slapptastic:
mystererae:
Studies show that women on full-fat dairy are slimmer and healthier than those on low or skim dairy. So if you are going to have dairy, full fat is the way to go. If you're not going to have dairy, that's another story altogether. IMHO there is no sense in 2% or skim - it's a choice between full fat or none.
I always wonder about those studies.
Did the study look at whether or not the people that drink the skim or 2% switched to it because they were already heavier than they wanted to be? Things that make you go hmmm....

As a statistician, this is the first thing I always go to. That and the artificial sweeteners/other ingredients that have been correlated with weight.