mrsthrift's review against another edition
4.0
This book is driven by conclusions drawn from the Nurses Health Study. The NHS was a multi-decade study of over 120,000 female RN's, and tracked everything from diet and exercise to lifestyle choices. With all that data, patterns start to emerge, and a lot of people have been trying to make sense of it. So, here's a book that attempts to draw conclusions between certain lifestyle practices, and increased fertility, with all other factors being equal or accounted for (smoking, birth control use, relationship status, etc). There are several basic tenets that arise out of the swirling data clouds. Most are obvious to anyone with a pretty rudimentary understanding of the female reproductive system, but there are a few surprises. There is a lot of dietary advice - is caffeine really bad for your fertility? how much ice cream helps make a baby? (one serving per day!!) good carbs, good fats, staying hydrated, and plant proteins are recommended alongside exercise and losing 7.5% of your body weight. There's no magic bullet here, just some common sense ideas that, put together, likely culminate in a higher rate of fertility. The presentation is rooted in research, but mostly accessible, although some of the pedantic scientific reasoning is a yawnfest for someone who has baby fever. I don't think I need to read it again, but I did take pretty detailed notes while I was reading, so I absorbed most of the pertinent info.
wintermote's review against another edition
4.0
Really interesting research and clear guidance for improving health.
abbythompson's review against another edition
4.0
Basically a prenatal-focused regurgitation of Willet's earlier book. Still great information, though, and worth a read if you are family planning. It's a worthy read if you're just starting to think about getting pregnant and a must read if you've been trying for a while and haven't had much success. The information is accessible, without a ton of jargon, and the recommendations are easy to understand and follow. I share this book with all my prenatal students because it's never too late to make healthy changes.
bardicbear's review
Giving up on this not because it wasn't good information but because fertility treatments havn't been working for us and we are giving up to try adopting instead.
miss_fish's review against another edition
1.0
I really just skimmed through this, since it really could have been covered in an article rather than a whole book. Basically says "follow the food pyramid and eat lots of carbs." Totally lost faith when I saw "if you must drink soda, at least drink diet." The whole milk/dairy bit was the only interesting insight.
Perhaps this is a good starting point if you aren't familiar with nutrition and how the body processes food, as it does have some decent explanations of the digestive/endocrine system.
Perhaps this is a good starting point if you aren't familiar with nutrition and how the body processes food, as it does have some decent explanations of the digestive/endocrine system.
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