WOMEN on the Atkins diet or sportswomen on a high-protein diet might want to consider changing their eating habits if they are trying to conceive. Animal studies suggest protein-rich diets lower fertility. Whether human fertility is affected by a protein-rich diet has to be proved, says David Gardner of the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine in Englewood, who led the study. “But to err on the side of caution, I would suggest women who want to conceive get off a high-protein diet,” he says.
Eating protein-rich food increases the levels of a metabolic by-product, ammonium, in the reproductive tract of…
