If you are thinking about getting pregnant or maybe struggling to get pregnant, you may be wondering if you need to cut out sugar from your diet.
Of course, we all know that sugar (especially in large doses) isn’t healthy for our body. But, how much does it impact your odds of getting pregnant? And can eating too much sugar cause problems for a pregnancy?
In this article, we will dive into whether sugar is harmful for your fertility and whether you need to cut it out in order to get pregnant.
Sugar Intake and Your Fertility
Do you have any idea how much sugar you eat in a day?
A recent study reported that an average American ate more than 17 tsp of sugar per day (or a little over 1/3 cup per day). Put another way, this is about 13% of daily calories needs (1).
Because sugar takes up such a significant portion of American’s total calorie intake, the problem it presents to your fertility comes in the dose. Here’s are the 2 main reasons why eating a significant amount of sugar becomes a concern with your fertility (and quite honestly just overall wellness).
- Sugar is empty calories. Which means that sugar itself does not have many vitamins or minerals.
- Sugar leads to insulin resistance. Eating sugar triggers a hormonal cascade with insulin and glucose that disrupts hormones and fertility.
Let’s talk a little more about these 2 reasons why sugar is an issue and how this impacts your fertility.
Sugar Has Empty Calories
Sugar has very little nutritional value, aside from adding concentrated carbohydrate to our foods. In the next section, we will cover the concerns with concentrated carbohydrates. But here, let’s focus on the fact that sugar is a source of empty calories that displaces important nutrients in our diet.
We already discussed how we are eating sugar for a significant portion of our calories, according to the above cited study about 13% of our total calorie needs are coming from sugar. This means that instead of eating other foods that provide important vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, we are eating loads and loads of sugar.
According to NHANES data, Americans are undereating important nutrients. Here are a few nutrients that Americans are considerably undereating (2):
- 89% do not meet the daily requirement of vitamin E.
- 52% do not meet the daily requirement for magnesium.
- 92% do not meet the daily requirement for choline.
- 100% do not meet the daily requirement for potassium.
Now, there are several factors for why Americans aren’t getting enough overall vitamins and minerals. But the fact that we are eating so much sugar and it is displacing other nutrient dense foods is a big reason.
Fertility is a nutrient expensive process. And nutritional deficiencies can lead to hormonal imbalances, poor sperm and egg quality, and issues with early fetal development (3).
Now, you might be wondering where other forms of concentrated sugars fall — like honey and maple syrup. Much like white sugar, honey and maple syrup also have a lot of concentrated carbohydrates. But, unlike sugar, honey and maple syrup have some additional nutritional benefit.
Honey has small amounts of some vitamins and minerals. Some people also use local honey to help with seasonal allergies or as a natural remedy for sore throats and coughs.
Maple syrup also has some vitamins and minerals and a slightly lower glycemic index compared to table sugar. This means it converts to blood glucose slightly slower rate than sugar.
Now, there are some benefits to these natural forms of sugar. But they still do need to be consumed in small quantities because of the impact they will have on blood sugar and insulin which we will discuss in the next section.
High Sugar Leads to Insulin Resistance
When you eat a big load of concentrated sugar, our body sends out a hormonal cascade. As our body senses the sugar coming in, it releases insulin. Insulin is responsible for shuttling the blood sugar into our cells for processing and storage. Insulin also helps to make sure our blood glucose levels stays fairly stable even with big doses of sugar. So, after we eat sugar, our insulin levels rise to process that sugar.
Now, imagine someone who eats lots of sugar. The pancreas is always pumping out insulin to shuttle the sugar into cells and keep blood glucose stable.
But what’s interesting is that after a long time of high levels of insulin — our bodies start to ignore it. Which means we have to make more and more insulin but your cells just don’t react to it the same. The cells are less apt to take up the sugar. So your body makes more and more and more until the cells finally oblige and scoop up the sugar.
Here’s a common analogy — your neighbor knocks on your door. The first couple of times you answer and chat. But you have other things to do and eventually you start ignoring the knock because you are busy. The neighbor knocks louder and louder — eventually you answer but only after the knocking became so loud and obnoxious you can’t take it anymore.
In this analogy, the neighbor is insulin — knocking so loud and obnoxiously in order to get you to open the door, much like the cell has to open the door to allow the glucose into the cell.
This is called insulin resistance. Your body starts ignoring the insulin and as a result, you kick out more and more and more insulin in order to get the signal heard. In this scenario, a person would have normal blood sugar levels. But, if we measured their insulin levels, we’d likely see elevated insulin levels in the blood.
High Insulin and Your Fertility
High insulin levels as a result of insulin resistance are a big problem for your fertility. Specifically related to egg quality, inflammation, and hormone balance.
Let’s dive in a little further into each of these.
1. Blood sugar and egg quality.
High insulin levels caused by insulin resistance disrupts maturing eggs and leads to poorer quality eggs.
In a 2021 study, looked at women going through IVF and the impact of insulin resistance on their success. The study found that women with insulin resistance had lower numbers of mature eggs and blastocytes (4).
2. Blood sugar and inflammation.
Poorly regulated blood sugar and high insulin levels promote inflammation. And inflammation is known to poorly affect fertility by impacting egg and sperm health. Inflammation even impacts the health of the ovaries and uterus.
Aside from difficulty getting pregnant, inflammation caused by poorly regulated blood sugar can also lead to an increased risk of miscarriage and gestational hypertension (5).
3. Blood sugar and hormone balance.
Chronically high blood sugar disrupts hormone balance. Specifically, high insulin levels promotes high levels of androgens, specifically testosterone. And elevated testosterone interferes with ovulation – resulting in anovulatory cycles or unpredictable ovulation.
This is the most common root cause of PCOS and the reason that women with this condition struggle with irregular and missing periods. Getting blood sugar and insulin levels regulated is a really powerful approach to managing PCOS and getting the menstrual cycle back on track.
Wanna spot check your sugar intake?
So yes, sugar intake can be a big problem for fertility. Especially when taking in lots and lots of sugar. Are you wondering how your sugar intake stacks up? Here’s a few things you can try to see where you’re at:
1.) Try a 3 day food journal. Cronometer is a good free option. You might be surprised what you learn in a couple days tracking your food.
2.) Read the labels on your pantry staples. I mean, how often do you throw the same stuff in the cart without thinking about it. And how much of it has hidden sugar? Next time you are picking up staples, flip them over and see what the label says. FYI – 4 grams of “added sugar” = 1 tsp
3.) Get real with portions. Are there any things that you might be overestimating {in terms of portions}. Like, your 2 tsp of coffee creamer is more like 8 tsp… I hate measuring food because it makes eating become so mechanical. But if you feel like any of your portion estimations may be getting out of hand, using a measuring spoon for a few days might come in handy.
Enjoying Sugar Without Hurting Your Fertility
Excessive sugar is not helpful for your fertility.
But I also have some good news for those of you with a sweet tooth (me included!). You don’t need to eliminate sugar from your diet.
However, it would be wise to mindfully reduce how much sugar you are eating AND what you are eating your sugar with. When you combine a high sugar food with protein and/or fat food, it slows down how quickly the sugar hits your blood stream and lessens the crazy insulin roller coaster.
Here is an example:
Instead of opting for a light or low-fat ice cream, choose a full-fat ice cream. Not only does the extra fat make the ice cream extra delicious, it also will help to balance out the sugar and reduce the insulin spike that follows eating a sugary food.
So, here’s the bottom line. Eating a high sugar diet is not good for your fertility. But that doesn’t mean you need to cut out all sugar from your diet. Opting for concentrated sweets (in moderation) that have some nutritional value – like honey or maple syrup are better options. And pairing your sweet with a fat or protein will also help to lessen any negative effects.