Erica Hoke, an infertility mentor, shares three fall strategies to protect fertility: maintain vitamin D through sunlight and fatty fish, limit sugar around the holidays to preserve immune and hormonal health, and use fall spices like cinnamon and clove. She includes a recipe for a clean pumpkin spice latte.
Chapters
Happy fall! Fall is here and I love some cool fall temperatures. But what does having cool fall temperatures and supporting your immune system and your fertility have to do with what we're talking about today? I am going to let you know because I love doing me some research. And one of the things that I dug into was how people used to— I love like the historical context of like, what did people used to do 100 years ago or 2 or 5 to support their immune system in the fall? So if you guys don't know me, I am Erica Hoke. I am an infertility mentor and well empowerment coach. And, um, I love, I love all the things fall related. I love all the spices. I love all the foods that you get to consume mostly in fall. And I love doing research, like I just said, about how those things fit into what we used to do as a society and as, as a population to keep ourselves healthy. So top 3 things to boost your immune system and your fertility in the fall. Number 1, There's tons and tons and tons of talk about vitamin D. So we know that vitamin D is super important to your immune system health. So what happens in the fall? We get less sunlight, right? Our days are shorter, the sun is not as intense, and we get less vitamin D. So it's really pretty challenging unless, unless you just really, really love fish and eat it every day, twice a day to get good vitamin D levels without fortified foods. So why, uh, and when I talk about fortified foods, what am I talking about? Vitamin D in milk, vitamin D in orange juice, vitamin D in breads and things like that. Our family doesn't use fortified products, um, because we have the MTHFR mutation. So why does that matter? Well, synthetics, um, are not broken down in our body easily and create a lot of inflammation and a lot of problems in our system. So, you can get good amounts of vitamin D from sunlight. So try to spend some time outdoors. Fish and egg yolks specifically have good amounts of vitamin D, especially salmon. And you can take a vitamin D supplement. So if you're interested in what I recommend, go ahead and reach out to me personally. For my now, right now recommendations. It could be now, it could be 3 months from now, but I have a really good one that I like right now. So reach out to me for that. Okay, so vitamin D, super important for your immune system, super important for your reproductive health. There's been quite a few studies done, just Google it on PubMed, about how vitamin D affects your hormone levels and your chances of getting pregnant. So that's an important one for us. Okay, so sugar. Can we just talk about sugar? I can go almost the whole year without eating as much sugar as I consume between October, November, and December. Let's be real here, you guys. Between Halloween, Thanksgiving, all the pies, cookies, holiday parties, all the goodies around, um, Christmas time, It is a lot of sugar. So what we know about sugar is it decreases your immune function. And sugar, because of the interruption in your gut and your immune system, messes up your hormones too. So we need to be mindful about the amount of sugar that we're eating and do our best to not go crazy, right? Have some self-control. Over the amount of sugar. Have a plan, have some substitutes, be prepared, right, when you're going places. And that doesn't mean to not indulge in some goodies here and there and that sort of thing, but just know that you want to keep your sugar levels consistent more so with where you are for the rest of the year and not get sabotaged by indulging in a lot of sugar. Also, you know, extra pounds are not great for your fertility also. That was just a little bonus number 4. All right, so this is the part that I love. I love the fact that the fall spices that we use— cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, all those yummy fall spices that we use in our breads and cakes and muffins and, and pies and that sort of thing, um, have immune boosting properties to them. So they are fantastic for immune boosting. Cinnamon is an antioxidant and an antiviral, so that is great. So good ways to get cinnamon is like the cinnamon powder that you would get in your local grocery store as a spice. Cinnamon essential oil that's labeled for ingestion is an amazing way. I'm actually gonna drop a recipe here for a clean pumpkin spice latte that you can make at home and not feel guilty about and actually be doing your body some good. Cinnamon is also amazing for stabilizing your blood sugar too. So that's pretty cool. Clove is also an antioxidant, as is nutmeg. So this pumpkin spice latte, make at home. You can make it with, I prefer it with a coconut cream, non-dairy creamer because dairy is pretty inflammatory and just calorie-wise too, and all the things that we just talked about, the synthetic vitamins in the milk and that sort of thing. So those 3 tips, and I gave you a little bonus 4 went in there, um, are ways that you can boost your immune system and go through fall, um, improving your infertility chances and not sabotaging them. Okay, I'm gonna drop that recipe right below this video. If you're watching on YouTube and want more content like this, go ahead and hit that like and subscribe. I will see you here Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 12, uh, PM— 12 PM Eastern Standard Time. All right, health and blessings to you guys. Bye-bye.
