Put Down the Edamame!

Since starting this blog, I have received many emails encouraging me to stay positive throughout this experience and I greatly appreciate it. But I have to admit, it’s the emails full of baby making advice that have me laughing ‘til I pee. B and I figure it can’t hurt to try them all, right? This month we’re focusing on Aunt Leslie’s “Get Drunk on Grasshoppers and Do It in the Kitchen” method. (Sorry, Leslie, I HAD to share that. The stuff you say is too damn funny to keep to myself) Of course, we need to look up how to make a grasshopper…

The other weekend B and I were babysitting for Jack, when our preggo neighbor across the street brought over a book for me to read. She only got through the first section before getting pregnant, so you know I read the entire book in warp speed. It’s called Fertility Facts: Hundreds of Tips for Getting Pregnant by Kim Hahn (you can get a $2 coupon for First Response with purchase!) and I learned some interesting little tidbits. I found out that cinnamon is a possible fertility boost and that iron you get from veggies is better for fertility than iron you get from meat.

However, nothing compares to my surprise when I read the page titled “Say No to Soy.” According to the book, a component of soy “can actually sabotage sperm as they swim in the female reproductive tract trying to fertilize the egg.” Ummm, edamame bad? I should mention that as I was reading this fun fact, I was inhaling a bowl of Mojitomame. (Edamame steamed with fresh mint and limes then sprinkled with kosher salt. Thank you Adam and Elizabeth for discovering this on your honeymoon!) I spit out the soy bean in my mouth and shoved the bowl to the other side of the coffee table. When B got home from work I told him all about what I learned from “The Book That Worked for M-“ as we call it in our house. So it was up to him to finish off the batch of edamame for lunch the following day.

The next day, after walking the dogs, I sat down to read some more Fertility Facts when I arrived at the chapter for men. Why not? I learned why getting it on every day is NOT good for fertilization (sorry, guys. You’ve got to come up with a new ploy). I also learned that men shouldn’t eat soy either when trying to conceive! SHIT! I just sent Bryan off with a whole container of sperm fighters! I quickly dialed his number and was relieved when he answered on the second ring. There was no time for “hellos” instead I shouted, “PUT DOWN THE EDAMAME!”
“What?” he replied?
“DON’T EAT THE EDAMAME! IT’LL MAKE US INFERTILE! THROW AWAY THE EDAMAME!”

Later that day I was talking to my pregnant sister-in-law, the doctah, and proudly told her what I had learned from Fertility Facts. She said not to believe everything I read in pregnancy books because she’s found that a lot of the information in them is not medically accurate. I argued that what I was saying from this book was TRUE, evidenced by my neighbor’s baby belly. She wasn’t having it.

“Really, the book quoted a study that found that soy is not good for fertility so I’m off the soy sauce.”
“Lauren, that’s ridiculous. Don’t believe everything you read in those books. That doesn’t even make sense.”
“Uh-huhuh. A medical study from London proved it.”
“Think about it for a minute. China is the most over-populated country in the world and their diet is based on soy – tofu, soy sauce, etc.”

Touché, Doctor, touché.