How Important is Food and Vitamins to Increase Fertility?

Even though there are a few books written about fertility and nutrition, and a ton of stuff online, I appreciate that this topic can be very confusing. I will briefly describe what I determine to be the most important nutritional foundation to lay when trying to conceive. Whatever tweaking you do from there is at least being done upon a solid foundation.
 
First, let's start off by identifying the most important goal of your fertility nutrition. It's twofold in my opinion:
 
1.  Your nutrition should be providing you with a complete range of nutrients, meaning all the nutrients that your body needs to nourish your system and create energy and life force for you on a daily basis. Said another way, you want to begin removing the things you put in your body that steal your energy. You want your nutrition to leave you with more energy than you started with before eating, not less.
 
2. Your nutrition should be a stabilizing force to the endocrine system. The way most people eat is far from stabilizing. Rather, it is burdensome. Meal after meal, day after day, this becomes quite a strain on the endocrine system. Our endocrine system, as you may recall, is a delicately balanced system of hormones. Your hormonal balance is essential in trying to conceive.
 
The key is this: In order to stabilize hormones, your body needs the three macronutrients, in proper balance for you, at each meal. The three macronutrients are: protein, essential fat and complex carbohydrates. When the body receives these macronutrients in proper proportion for you, your nutrition is converted to fuel and balance. It is supportive to your system vs. burdensome.
 
Of course, what you choose to eat as a protein, essential fat and complex-carb is important as well. A good rule of thumb is when you eat a food that is in its most whole and natural state, you are going to get the most energy or life force from it. A food that hasn't been processed will be converted to Qi or Energy in your body. It will be able to provide your system with life force. Your body can't convert life force for you  when you eat foods that have been so over-processed, because there is no Qi or life force left in them.
 
You want life force or essence out of the food you eat, so you'll need to eat foods in their whole state as much as possible. That doesn't mean not cooking foods. It just means that you will get so much more for yourself from fresh sautéed vegetables than you will from canned vegetables. There's very little Qi left in canned vegetables. You will provide life force to your system when you eat a meal of baked chicken, sautéed vegetables and a dollop of brown rice than you would if you threw a Lean Cuisine in the microwave. The Lean Cuisine is dead. Thus, you will not only NOT be supplying your body with Qi, you will be asking your body to break down and deal with a dead meal, meaning you'll be spending Qi for nothing, for no nutritive Qi in exchange.
 
This is really important to understand. Eat food that is alive and has life force. You are trying to build your life force up in your body so that you can create a new life. To answer the question, "Is nutrition really important in trying to conceive?" I answer a resounding yes!

Is it a deal breaker for fertility if you eat yams or chaste berries, or avoid soy? The list goes on and on. I would say, "Deal breaker? I don't think so. Are they healthy to the system? Yes. Therefore, eat them."
 
Here is the best way I can guide you as to whether certain foods will work or not work for you. If you eat a meal that has a lot of wheat in it, and an hour later you don't feel energetic, and maybe you even feel bloated, then something you ate in your last meal needs adjusting. If you begin noticing that meals that don't contain wheat leave you feeling centered, clear headed, energetic and good an hour afterward, then you can deduce that your system and wheat aren't the best match. That will be true for some, but not all. There are no absolutes. Remember, you have to discover what serves you and what doesn't.
 
What about green tea? In my opinion, the benefits of green tea outweigh the small amount of caffeine in it. Thus, drinking green tea adds more to you than it takes away. That may not be true for a woman who is extremely sensitive to caffeine, but in general, it's more true than not. Try to remember that it's about moderation.
 
You see how individual (and not black and white) things are. We have gotten so outwardly focused in our fast-paced lives that we've completely stopped checking in with ourselves, noticing what works and what doesn't. We want blanket answers and we want them now. We want to be able to quickly implement these external answers, have it work for us and rush off to the next thing to do.
 
I must tell you that meeting up with the nutrition that serves you best will require you to be inwardly focused, engaged, and willing to listen and make the necessary adjustments, and mostly, to be patient. That kind of sounds like parenting! Could that be a coincidence?