Harvard researchers have found that a diet rich in low-fat dairy foods may make it harder for women to conceive. The Human Reproduction study used a database of 116,000 nurses over an eight year period. The database was regularly updated with lifestyle, diet, and health information on the subjects.

It was concluded that the risk of infertility due to an irregularity in the monthly cycle was 85% higher for women eating two or more portions of low-fat dairy a week. By contrast, women eating the same weekly portion of full-fat dairy foods cut their risk of this type of infertility by 27%.

UK experts doubt the study, saying that the only evidence of a link between diet and infertility involves obesity, which is linked to conception. Project leader Dr Jorge Chavarro, said that the apparent link should be researched further, but that women trying to conceive should swap the low-fat dairy foods in their diet for high-fat dairy foods. Chavarro believes that healthy ovarian function may dependent on the presence of fat.

source