Plant-Based Diet Helped Me Become Pregnant

I credit the whole-food, plant-based diet described in Forks Over Knives for helping me overcome infertility. I always believed that I ate a healthy diet with very little processed food and lots of fruits and vegetables, but I still did eat meat and dairy. I hadn't had monthly cycles in almost ten years, though no doctor could figure out why. It wasn't really a problem until my husband and I were ready to start a family.

Because of this problem, both my seven-year-old daughter and three-year-old son were conceived though through in-vitro fertilization (IVF). If you don't know much about IVF, let me assure you that it is emotionally, mentally, and physically draining and painful. Insurance doesn't cover it, and it is more expensive then you can imagine. To have our two children, we did eight rounds of IVF and went into debt for years. Our children are the lights of our lives and were worth everything we went through, but that time in our lives was a true challenge.

Sometime after my son was born, I decided to remove meat from our diets, because I was concerned over the antibiotics used in meat production. After watching Forks Over Knives, I decided to give up dairy as well. I thought it would be difficult, but it really wasn't. I think we all had more energy and slept better. We also rarely get sick.

Shorty after adopting a plant-based diet, my monthly cycles returned. I thought the dream of another child was out of my reach because of the years of infertility, but my husband and I decided to try for one more pregnancy without using fertility treatments. After two cycles, I was pregnant at the age of 41. I never thought I would know the joy of another child, but my baby, Leo Flynn, was born on July 20. He is now 7 weeks old and doing great!

Because of Forks Over Knives, my family is very healthy … and we are at peace knowing that our diets are not responsible for the suffering of animals. Thank you, FOK!

Ready to get started? Check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path. To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer.