A recent cross-sectional study published in Nutritional Journal found that a pro-inflammatory diet increases the probability of fertility challenges in women by 86%.

A total of 4,437 women (411 with fertility challenges and 4,026 without them) partook in this study. Women who followed a special diet, ate below 800 or above 4,200 calories in a day, or had conditions such as neurological, hepatic, and endocrine diseases that could interfere with the results were not included in the study. 

Each participant completed Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQs) to determine their Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) score. The DII score takes into account 45 food parameters, including things like fiber content, vitamin content, fat content1, etc. The higher the DII score, the higher percentage of pro-inflammatory foods in the participant’s everyday diet. 

The group was split into four quartiles: the first quartile with the lowest pro-inflammatory score and the fourth quartile with the highest. 

After analyzing the data, researchers concluded that those with higher DII scores were up to 86% more likely to have fertility challenges than those with low scores.

A possible explanation as to why this association exists could be that less inflammation in the body allows for enhanced ovarian cell (also called oocytes) quality and quantity, contributing to improved fertility.