Why Parental Nutrition Is Essential for Fertility — and Your Future Child's Long-Term Health
- Shannon McKirdy
- Dec 3, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Nutrition is such a powerful tool when trying to conceive. It doesn’t just fuel reproduction — the nutrient status of both parents before conception helps shape embryo development, gene expression, and long-term health outcomes in the child. This is true for both mothers and fathers: paternal diet and nutrient status influence sperm epigenetics and can imprint on offspring health just as much as maternal nutrition.
How Parental Nutrition Before Conception Matters (not “just” during pregnancy)
Decades of research show that the nutrients a mother and father have before conception help shape their baby’s development and long-term health. This is because nutrition influences the way our DNA is “read” and expressed — a field known as epigenetics. Your genes don’t change, but the way they function can shift depending on the nutrient signals your body receives. Those changes can be passed directly to your baby at conception.
And this isn’t just about mothers. A father’s diet, lifestyle, and nutrient status can change the information carried in his sperm. Those changes influence how the embryo grows and can affect things like metabolic, immune and heart health but also behavioral, cognitive, and psychological outcomes. In other words, both egg and sperm contribute far more than just genetic code — they carry messages about the environment the parents were living in and pass it on to their babies.
There’s also a powerful generational piece to this: baby girls are born with all the eggs they will ever have. That means the health of a mother’s egg and a father’s sperm doesn’t just affect their child — it can influence the quality of their future daughter’s eggs as well. In this way, your preconception nutrition helps build the foundation for not only your baby’s lifelong health, but potentially your grandchildren’s too.
How Nutrition Impacts Fertility
Hormone balance. Macronutrient ratios, body fat, and key micronutrients influence estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid hormones and insulin. Stable blood sugar and adequate dietary fat are essential for healthy hormone synthesis and ovulation.
Blood sugar & insulin. Insulin dysregulation (common in PCOS) disrupts ovarian function and egg quality. Diets that stabilize glucose — sufficient protein, balanced carbs, healthy fats, and frequent nutrient-dense meals — help restore hormone balance.
Egg & sperm quality. Oocytes (egg cells) and sperm are vulnerable to oxidative stress (fancy word for inflammation). Antioxidants and adequate essential fatty acids support cell membrane integrity, DNA integrity, and mitochondrial function, which are critical for egg and sperm health.
Inflammation & immune function. Pro-inflammatory diets (high in processed foods, trans fats, excessive sugar) raise immune cell activity which causes systemic inflammation in the body. This can interfere with implantation and early embryo development and increase the risk of miscarriage. Inflammation and heightened immune activity are often drivers of Endometriosis.
Epigenetic programming. Nutrients like folate, choline, B12, and other methyl donors play a major role in how genes are turned “on” or “off” during the development of eggs, sperm, and early embryos. Methyl donors are nutrients that provide small chemical tags called methyl groups, which the body uses to regulate gene expression. This process helps guide healthy development from the very beginning — making parental nutrition a direct influence on a baby’s long-term health.
Top Fertility Nutrients: What They Do & Where to Get Them
When it comes to fertility, these nutrients make a meaningful difference.
Antioxidants
Why they matter: Eggs and sperm are extremely sensitive to oxidative stress. Antioxidants help protect them from damage, support DNA integrity, and create a healthier environment for conception. Think of them as your body’s “cleanup crew” that keeps inflammation and cellular stress in check.
Where to find them: Berries, citrus, leafy greens, colorful veggies, green tea, cacao, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, and extra virgin olive oil.
Choline
Why it matters: Choline is essential for healthy egg quality, early brain and neural tube development, and proper methylation (gene regulation) in early pregnancy. Most women don’t get enough, even with a good diet — and it’s especially powerful when paired with folate.
Where to find it: Egg yolks (the richest source), liver, salmon, chicken, beef, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and legumes.
Folate (Vitamin B9)
Why it matters: Folate is crucial for DNA synthesis, cell division, and healthy development of eggs, sperm, and early embryos. It also plays a major role in methylation — the process your body uses to turn genes on and off. Adequate folate before conception reduces the risk of neural tube defects and supports healthy fetal development from day one.
Where to find it: Leafy greens, avocado, asparagus, lentils, beans, citrus, and high-quality prenatal supplements containing folate or methylfolate.
Vitamin A (as Retinol)
Why it matters: Vitamin A is key for hormone production, cervical mucus quality, ovarian health, and embryo development. Retinol (the active form) is the form your body actually uses and is only found in animal products. It’s essential — but the dose matters, so it’s important to get it from food or supplements thoughtfully.
Where to find it: Egg yolks, liver, dairy, butter, and cod liver oil. (Provitamin A carotenoids from carrots, sweet potato, and leafy greens also help, but they must be converted into retinol inside the body— and not everyone converts efficiently.)
Omega-3 Fatty Acids (EPA & DHA)
Why they matter: Omega-3s reduce inflammation, support hormone balance, improve blood flow to the reproductive organs, and are critical for both egg and sperm membrane health. DHA also plays a major role in early brain development.
Where to find them: Fatty fish (salmon, sardines, trout, mackerel), pastured eggs, grass-fed meat, and algae-based DHA supplements.
Zinc
Why it matters: Zinc is essential for healthy ovulation, progesterone production, and egg development. It’s also one of the most important nutrients for sperm quality — supporting count, motility, and DNA stability.
Where to find it: Oysters, beef, pumpkin seeds, cashews, chickpeas, and whole grains.
Copper
Why it matters: Copper works closely with zinc and iron to support energy production, collagen formation, and ovulation. It’s also required for antioxidant enzymes that protect eggs and sperm from oxidative stress. Balance is everything — too little and too much can both cause issues — so food sources are usually the best place to start.
Where to find it: Shellfish, liver, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, and whole grains.
A Final Note—
Nutrition is not the only determinant of fertility. But it is among the most modifiable and has a "big bang for your buck" when you consider that will not just to improve the chances of conception, but to give your future child a healthier metabolic and developmental start.
If you knew you could support your future baby with a greater chance of a healthy life, would you?
If you know you should be choosing more nutritious foods, but the thought of meal planning sounds too daunting - let me help! All of my 1:1 clients receive updated fertility-focused meal plans so you don't have to worry about deciding what's for dinner each night! Plus on-going support and coaching so you actually learn how to build nutritious meals and maybe even start enjoying cooking, if its currently something you dread.
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