Perhaps you don't suffer from untreatable infertility, yet you always find it hard to successfully conceive a baby. What is really preventing you from becoming a mother or father? Experts point out that regularly consuming 7 types of food can be detrimental to conception.
Carrots
Carrots are rich in carotene, various vitamins, and other beneficial nutrients for the human body. Researchers from the obstetrics and gynecology department of Rutgers Medical School in New Jersey found that when women consume too many carrots, the large amount of carotene ingested can cause amenorrhea and inhibit the normal ovulatory function of the ovaries. Therefore, women who wish to conceive should not eat too many carrots.
Garlic
Excessive consumption of garlic can deplete a person's vital energy (Zheng Qi) and has a significant spermicidal effect. If young adults of childbearing age eat too much, it can adversely affect fertility, so it should not be consumed in large amounts.
Roasted Beef and Lamb
Eating roasted beef and lamb is a habit for residents in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and other regions. It was discovered that a few women who loved eating roasted mutton gave birth to children with intellectual disabilities, paralysis, or deformities. After investigation and modern medical research, these women and their deformed children were victims of *Toxoplasma gondii* infection. People can become infected when they come into contact with livestock and poultry infected with toxoplasmosis and eat undercooked meat from these animals.
Sunflower Seeds
The protein portion of sunflower seeds contains components that inhibit testicular function, which can cause testicular atrophy and affect normal fertility. Therefore, young adults of childbearing age should not eat too many.
Crude Cottonseed Oil
Long-term consumption of crude cottonseed oil can lead to a condition called "sun sickness," with symptoms that appear after sun exposure, including general weakness, little sweat, hot and flushed skin, palpitations and shortness of breath, dizziness, numbness in the limbs, and loss of appetite. More seriously, it damages the reproductive system. Experimental studies have shown that after rats were fed a diet containing crude cottonseed oil for about 4 months, their testes significantly shrank, with a marked decrease or even disappearance of sperm cells; their uteri shrank, with the endometrium and glands atrophying; their ovaries showed mild atrophy; and there was mild edema in the kidney parenchymal cells. In adult men, taking gossypol, an extract of cottonseed oil, at 60-70 mg per day for 40 days, kills all sperm in the short term, and they gradually disappear from the semen. In women, it can lead to amenorrhea or uterine atrophy. Therefore, young adults of childbearing age should not consume it long-term.
Alcohol
Scientific research has proven that the main component of alcohol is ethanol. Ethanol can increase the concentration of catecholamines in the body, causing vasoconstriction, underdevelopment or even atrophy of the testes. This leads to structural changes in spermatogenesis, insufficient secretion of androgens like testosterone, and feminine characteristics such as a higher-pitched voice and enlarged breasts. Such men are prone to infertility, and even if they conceive, there is a higher likelihood of birth defects in the next generation. In women, it can cause irregular menstruation, amenorrhea, abnormal egg production, loss of libido, or cessation of ovulation.
Coffee
Researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the US studied 104 women who wished to become pregnant and concluded that coffee has a direct impact on conception. Among these women, those who drank more than one cup of coffee a day had only half the chance of getting pregnant compared to those who did not drink this beverage. Therefore, they suggest that women who plan to become pregnant should reduce their coffee intake.