If you’re hoping to start a family this coming year, or want to add to your brood, these are the Christmas foods you need to eat to improve your chances of conceiving.

Nutrition and lifestyle is an important area to address when to trying to conceive, but the benefits of a healthy eating regime will not only increase fertility and improve energy and stress levels, it will also leave the body in a far stronger position when becoming pregnant in the New Year. Here are five Christmas foods to boost your fertility.

Five Christmas Foods to Boost Fertility

If you’re trying for a baby over the festive period, make sure these fertility-boosting foods are on the list for your Christmas shop.

Feast on sprouts to boost fertility

Sprouts are bursting with folic acid, which is essential for boosting fertility in both men and women. This vitamin-rich source also increases sperm levels and helps line the womb with the right amount of nutrients raising sperm survival chances. Another benefit of this folic rich food is that it helps to decrease the risk of miscarriages and birth defects.

Spruce up your Christmas roast veggies with some beetroot

This beautiful red vegetable increases blood flow to the muscles and contains nitric oxide, which dilates blood vessels allowing a rich supply of oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood to flow to the uterus and ovaries.

This ‘opening’ of the arteries allowing blood to flow more freely is also the reason why drinking beetroot juice regularly may help lower blood pressure and improve brain function. Some research has also shown that beetroot juice improves memory.

Tickle your taste buds with turkey

Turkey is a great Christmas food to boost fertility. Packed full of iron and zinc which are both important nutrients that help to increases fertility. In fact, zinc is crucial for conception as severe deficiencies can impair fertility. Iron is also central to fertility because it helps keep your reproductive health strong, especially if you have heavy periods – get your full share (about 15 mg a day) by eating turkey.

Snack on nuts

Nuts are bursting with fertility boosting properties. Chestnuts are one of the best sources of beta-carotene, which is crucial for enzyme production for egg fertilization. Beta-carotene is also essential for the healthy growth and development of the fetus. Chestnuts are also super rich in vitamin-C, which is known for enhancing sperm quality and protecting the DNA within it from damage, making conception more likely. If chestnuts don’t do it for you, walnuts are an equally fantastic alternative – eating around two handfuls of walnuts a day improves sperm health.

Foods to boost fertility: Asparagus

Asparagus is high in the potent antioxidant vitamin C and folate amongst other nutrients and a valuable addition to our diet. The importance of folate is well documented in research for both male and female fertility.