Birth Month and Autism Risk

High-PUFA Holiday Foods May Damage Sperm

Today’s topic is brought to you by Deep Nutrition reader (listener) Candace Bohannon Reyes, who was kind enough to permit me to post her wonderful and thought-provoking letter, which I wish all moms-and-dads-to-be could read.

I want to thank you so much for your new version of Deep Nutrition, which I bought on Audible after hearing you as a guest on the [Dr. Drew and] Adam Corolla podcast. I had never read a book on nutrition before, and I find it incredible, a Godsend really, that this was the one I read. It blew me away! It was the opposite of almost everything I had ever learned about nutrition before, and was simply shocking. Though it wasn’t the typical “low fat, low sat. Fat, restrict calories and improve health regardless of what you eat” info I was used to, your words and scientific explanations rang SO TRUE, and I knew you must be right.

 

It was such a break from what I knew previously that I had a moment of doubt after finishing the book, wondering if I just drank some funky cool-aid, or was subscribing to funny medicine… so I did some research, and low and behold, all this information is out there, a groundswell of doctors, nutritionists and scientists sharing the truths you eloquently wrote about!!!

I am beginning a journey to better nutrition for me and my husband, and can’t thank you enough. It couldn’t have come at a better time in our lives as we were about to try and conceive our first child before I bought your book! Wow, I feel like we may have dodged an epigenetic bullet because of your book!!!! Thanks for everything, Candice

And here’s the coolest part:

PS. I was thinking about the last time we were eating a lot of really bad food, full of PUFA toxic oils and sugar, and it was Thanksgiving through Christmas/New Year. Then I thought about the 2.5-3 months it takes to create sperm, and calculated out that Feb and March must be the worst months to conceive a child, epigenetically. Low and behold, there is a study that shows that conception during those months are associated with a 6% increase in rates of autism. I know, correlation not causation, but it sure fits your theories about nutrition and health pretty well!!!! If you are interested, here is a link to that study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296777/#!po=43.8776

This idea about holidays and autism rates provide us yet another piece of evidence that, together with the rest of the evidence against a crummy diet, adds up to helping people make life-saving changes. Thank you!