Felicia: Does real bread made from 100% freshly milled wheat actually help fertility to increase fertility in both men and women? And also, does it actually help produce better, healthier, stronger babies? Well, we're going to be diving into that today. So welcome back, y'all, to Grains and Grit podcast, where it is uned unedited, unfiltered. unsifted ultimately. So this is a place where ⁓ it's an extension from my YouTube channel over at Grains and Grit. And in these type of episodes, there's really no editing done. It's kind of me shooting from the hip. I don't even do like it's not extensive preparation. It's just basically where I like to sit down with some coffee here, y'all, and have a little chat with y'all about various subjects. We also are generally going to get a bit more ⁓ gritty in these type of episodes. ⁓ just to be far more honest with things and to go deeper, you know, in these podcasts that I can't necessarily do on typical YouTube videos. So if you're new here, hi, welcome. My name is Felicia, and I'm the creator behind the YouTube channel, Grains and Grit, where I teach you all about real whole grains, all from a biblical perspective. So milling your own grains, baking bread, using grains, feeding your family healthy whole grains, and also dispelling a lot of the myths. Okay, so that was a long intro there. So in this episode, I'm gonna be sharing with y'all thoughts. I actually thought about doing a full just video about this, but this is one of those topics where I really just want to have a conversation. I just want to sit down with you and have a conversation like you are my friend, because you are my virtual friend. ⁓ and this is concerning fertility and also healthy babies, giving birth to healthy babies. And I fully understand that this topic is extremely hot. ⁓ anytime you talk about babies, healthy babies, healthy children, fertility. ⁓ man, right up there with the vaccine issue. Yep, just the fact that I said the word is enough to get people riled. But it's just one of those very sensitive topics that have people with very, very extreme opinions. So I'm basically going to be sharing with y'all kind of just ⁓ my own. Journey in a way, ⁓ my experience, and especially with consuming 100% freshly held grains, kind of other things that I've heard from people, their testimonies in regards to fertility, as well as you know, giving birth to strong and healthy children, also raising those children fresh and milled grains. And I probably might do an episode, ⁓ this will probably be another episode about actually feeding children fresh and milled grains, like the babies, children, toddlers, whatever, whatever stage. ⁓ kind of my own experience because I see people asking questions about it. So, but that's probably gonna be another episode because this is already a huge topic. So, full disclaimer before we begin. Obviously, for those who know me, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a fertility specialist, I'm not a nurse, I'm not in the medical field. None of this is medical advice. This is just things that I'm explaining to you from my own personal experience, others' experiences, and a whole lot of research that I've done. In regards to grains, fertility, all those things. So none of this is medical advice. Again, I'm just I'm just wanting to give you a chat and just many and just things for you to think about. Okay. So not medical advice, FDA exclaim disclaimer there. Secondly, I also want to caution you if you are listening to this around a younger audience, maybe your children, and you aren't ready to ask to have specific questions asked to you about this. Anyone put in your earphones, you know, put on your earphones, put in your earbuds, ⁓ or watch this or listen to this, not around them, ⁓ because we are dealing with fertility. And so certain things are gonna be talked about. And ⁓ you know, just use your discretion as a parent. ⁓ because if a child listens to this, it may open up some questions. So I just want to let you know there. I'm not gonna be getting crude or graphic, but just, you know, it's a topic of fertility. You know, and if you're not ready to have those conversations. Just giving you for full warning. Okay. So what we're going to be doing, talking about is I'm first going to basically kind of give y'all ⁓ my ⁓ my experience with this, how long I've been consuming whole grains, ⁓ kind of mine and my husband's fertility, you know, that type of thing, kind of our experience with this as well as babies. And I'm through this gonna be giving you my my opinion, my thoughts about it, and kind of telling you. My thoughts of why I do believe 100% that whole grains can really, really help when it comes to your fertility, birthing strong babies, things like that. Again, so let's just dive into my experience. I will go ahead and tell you. I do not have fertility issues. I have never had fertility issues. My husband and I have been married for 15 years now, and having babies has never been a problem. ⁓ we are a large family, we have many children. Big van enough where you stare at us if you were to see us in public, and where I feel like we double the crowd wherever we go. ⁓ so we do keep our children and all that information private ⁓ on social media. That's why you don't see them. I don't give you your names or even how many I have, but just trust me, I have a big family, y'all. And those who know me in person are like, mm-hmm. ⁓ so that has never been the issue for us. Now, in saying that, I've also been milling my grains and consuming whole grains. pretty much from the beginning. ⁓ so I don't have anything to contrast. It's not like I was having issues. I started milling my grains and then I don't have issues. I don't have that. And maybe that is why I don't have that. It's because pretty early on we've been consuming real whole grains that's freshly milled, ⁓ so on and so forth. We started changing our diets ⁓ kind of earlier on in our marriage, this first couple of years, I feel like, you know, when you're figuring yourself out in a way. Your 20s, you're figuring yourself out. So we started researching diet and many, many things before we even became parents. And we started making those changes, which I do believe helps. ⁓ so I can't share with you some miracle type, you know, we were having, we were struggling, and then we weren't. However, I wish I will share some things that I have seen from others. ⁓ only recently on a Facebook post, which I this kind of inspired this to go ahead and make this video. Is someone had actually commented that they had given bread to three women that they knew that were struggling with fertility. And they've been consuming the real bread from freshly milled wheat and they're all now pregnant, which I think is absolutely amazing. Again, not a true legit scientific study, but I do find that very interesting. And again, I have my theories why. ⁓ yeah, you know what? We're gonna switch up the outline a little bit. So I'm first going to discuss to you why discuss discuss discuss with you why I do believe whole grains are so important to just your health overall, but especially when it comes to this. And I do believe that first of all, when wheat contains 40 out of 44 essential nutrients that we need, that's a superfood. Okay. Now that only comes from milling the wheat yourself and consuming that bread that you bake at home. Whenever as soon as remember, as soon as you mill that wheat, that grain cracks open, ⁓ within just three days, 90% of nutrients are lost just due to oxidation. And so that's why I just tell people like to get the full benefit, you need to be milling yourself and then baking that bread. So you can't tell me that something that contains that many nutrients is not important. There are things that we don't even know, like we don't even know everything about our bodies, fertility. Things like that. I mean, we know a lot. We definitely probably know more than they did thousands of years ago, but there's still so much mystery to our bodies. And so I think step one is just if you're consuming the foods that God gave us as foods, as close to the way that He gave it to us as possible, you're on the right track. But I do believe that real whole grains is a key part of that. And one of the main reasons why, especially with wheat, is a vitamin E. Vitamin E has been actually been studied for fertility. It actually is very important. I have a few sources. I will link these sources for y'all down below, where they're talking about the importance of the relationship between vitamin E and fertility. So things like there's different things that it does for both men and for women. And again, this is where if you have children in the room, this this may start some questions. So, first of all, for women, let's just talk about for women ⁓ that vitamin E. Helps thicken the uter ⁓ uterine lining, the lining of our uterus. And the important part of that is ⁓ if you have a thin lining, that can cause ⁓ miscarriages or infertility because the egg has to have something to attach to when it is fertilized. And if that, if your uterus is not healthy, you definitely can have problems. So, what vitamin E does is it increases blood flow to the arteries and thickens that lining. Which definitely helps support fertility. ⁓ it also does other things as well. ⁓ research has been done where it can address PCOS, the polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is a hormonal imbalance, which slows metabolism and like does a lot of other things, definitely causing infertility issues. And also it can help with your menstrual cycles to reduce, they call it menstrual discomfort. So it can also help menopausal women for those of you who might be in menopause. Where it can help reduce hot flashes and those, ⁓ it can also reduce menstrual irregularities, menstrual cramps, things like that. Now, personally, for me, I do not know if this is the vitamin, vitamin E or not, but I do know that so long as I'm consuming 100% freshly whole grains on a regular basis. I know for me, when it's that time of the month, my cravings are not insane. I mainly like crave dark chocolate. And salt. Those are kind of my two main cravings. ⁓ but my cravings aren't out of this world. And also my my mood is better. I do, I do believe that my hormones are actually pretty well balanced. ⁓ I do not have severe mood swings so long as I'm consuming healthy diet. I think that's just a healthy diet overall, getting rid of the processed junk, ⁓ processed foods that can definitely disrupt those hormones. And so for the sake of my family and my husband, I'm not as cray cray when it comes to that time of the month, ladies, you know, and husbands, you may know as well. So that's what it is for women as far as vitamin E goes. There again, there are other studies for that, but I found that very interesting. Now, as far as the men, it can certainly help you ⁓ to improve ⁓ basically the not only sperm count, it can increase sperm count. But because of course the lower sperm count can lead to infertility in men, but it can also improve the count as well as the motility, which is how fast they're going, the mobility of them. So vitamin E prevents free radical damage to the sperms, allowing them to move faster and more effectively to reach the fertilized egg. Again, this is biology 101. ⁓ so you definitely need that. And vitamin E certainly helps that. It also does. Other things as well. And one thing I found is it actually improves IVF success rates in vitro fertilization. And we will not get into that debate of whether that is good or not. Regardless, you know, it has been shown that men who regularly consume vitamin E rich foods, they say have a 29% higher success rate with IVF compared to others, which is absolutely fascinating. So especially because ⁓ vitamin E, you have to understand vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant and it's ⁓ it neutralizes harmful toxins like lead, mercury, and and other things. So if you have a lot of toxins in your body, you know, the for I do believe that the that the ⁓ what do you call it? A reproductive system, it's a very delicate system, especially with women. Like we've got a lot going on. Okay. We we've got a lot going on. There's a lot that can be attacked. And so those are things of where vitamin E can be really, really crucial. Specifically, they're being studied for fertility and overall reproductive health for women as well. So again, they're still working on studies of this. And I will list the studies that I have down for you below. ⁓ but the biggest thing is that it certainly helps your menstrual cycle. So even if you're not trying to get pregnant or anything like that, it's just gonna help your hormones, your menstrual cycles overall. It can even help again, menopausal women ⁓ for for those type of things. Because you know, you can have wacky stuff going on in menopause. I am not in menopause. I'm not even in what do you call it? Perimenopause. Technically, I'm still within my fertile years. I'm only 39 years old. I will be 40 in March of 2026. That's coming, y'all. So I am not experienced with the pre-menopause or menopause of women, but it kind of makes sense. If your hormones are regulated, if they're doing good, then I don't think menopause, perimenopause is going to be as insane as most people. ⁓ show it to be. At least I'm hoping not. I'm I'm in faith hoping not because I I'm not there yet. I'll I'll let you know when I do. But ⁓ yeah so these these are really things. ⁓ another one is that ⁓ another thing that ⁓ sorry wrong okay there it is. Sorry I'm looking at my notes but it can also protect ⁓ vitamin E also protects the amniotic fluid and prevents the risk of miscarriage. So when you're actually pregnant ⁓ you know you have that amniotic sac And the right addition, the right amount of vitamin E will help the amniotic sac to thicken, which avoids rupture. ⁓ so many things like that. So if you are having miscarriages, vitamin E, I mean, it's it's incredible. It's incredible to see. But here's the deal, y'all. Here's the key. Two keys. There are two keys to this. Is the highest source of any foods, where where can you find vitamin E and its highest source? And that is actually in wheat germ oil. The wheat germ has the highest amount of vitamin E than any other foods out there, period. And it blows number two out of the water. So, like number one, wheat germ oil, one tablespoon, which is 23, 20.3 milligrams per serving, excuse me, is 135% of the recommended daily value. Second place are sunflower seeds, dry roasted sunflower seeds, one ounce of that or 7.4 milligrams per serving is 49% of the daily recommended daily value. So wheat germ oil, 135%, second place, 49%. ⁓ now I unfortunately I do not know how much of the wheat germ oil is in, like when you mill your wheat and you bake that bread. I I have no idea. But I found it astounding that that's the highest concentration in any foods is in the wheat germ. And guess what is eliminated when you have white flour? The germ and the bran. So you're getting rid of the fiber and the bran. That's gone. That's gone. So our number one source of food for thousands of years, which were which was grains, wheat especially, ⁓ we've now pretty much eliminated for the most part. Our main source of vitamin E. And fertility is down like crazy. Now, I have theories about that. I'm gonna get into that later. But we all know that the birth rate is extremely low right now. And but I find it no coincidence that we are not consuming real whole grains like our ancestors did, and not saying that their fertility was perfect either, but still, I mean, we we obviously seen scripture, we see in the Bible that you know God opens and closes the womb and that you know. Even then women were infertile. So it's not, you know, some miracle drug, but there are just basic truths to this. And the fact is that we've gotten rid of our most concentrated source of vitamin E. On top of that. So even if you consume whole grains, like, okay, I'm going to consume whole grains and get the ⁓ that vitamin E in the wheat germ. But here's the thing is vitamin E is one of the first things to go. It is one of the first things to be oxidized when you are milling that wheat. So when you mill the wheat and you make it into flour, you mill it into flour, oxidation immediately starts to happen. And within three days, 90% of nutrients are gone. That's the vitamin E. It's it's highly oxidated. It oxidizes very quickly. ⁓ now don't stress out about this. If you're like, ⁓ I milled the day before, can I still use it? Still use it. Okay. This is just that's why I always say it like mill it, bake it, locks in those nutrients, and then you're good from there. So That's the thing is all the more important to be milling your wheat, consume and baking it, because that's the best, the highest amount of vitamin E that you are going to get. And frankly, it is much better than a supplement, in my opinion, because it's how God intended us to have vitamin E is through our food, not through a pill. ⁓ so it is, you know, definitely better. But I just I find that amazing coffee, coffee sip. I find that absolutely incredible. So yeah, that's what makes me think that grains are super important. Real whole grains are super important to fertility because vitamin E is so crucial to it. ⁓ and why people can possibly now have they're able to heal your bodies, you know, to be able to have children. Now, there are other factors that I do believe are involved. First of all, I think many times like they're just Many times where you're just not healthy, even though you might look healthy, you may not be healthy. And so just switching over to real whole foods. Like I've known people who, as soon as they just clean up their diet, like they start juicing vegetables more or things like that, they will heal their bodies that allow them to, you know, have babies. And women, this is, I think, even more important for us because we are the ones who carry the baby, who grows the baby. And if our body is not healthy enough, we're not even going to be able to. carry the pregnancy full term, but your body, I mean, because a pregnancy takes a lot out of a woman's body. And if it ain't there to take, then the baby's not going to survive or you're just may not have the ability to get pregnant in the first place. So absolutely diet, nutrition, keep being health as healthy as you possibly can. Yeah, I do think it makes a big difference. And again, y'all, I'm not saying like, I mean, it's funny because I would, I would joke with my husband, Like he just looks at me and I get pregnant. That's that's kind of what it feels like. ⁓ and so I can testify for us, I've never had a miscarriage. And statistically speaking, I should have. ⁓ but praise the Lord, praise the Lord, that I never have. Again, this is not a true scientific study because I can't give you a before like I was having issues before, now I don't, but I can say I haven't had issues. So there's something, there might be something to that. And again, statistically speaking, I should have had at least one, two. I I don't know the statistics, but I should have probably at least had one miscarriage. And thank the Lord I have not. ⁓ I've never had to suffer a loss. ⁓ and for those of you who are struggling with fertility, j I should have said this at the beginning. Just know that I I personally do not know the struggle, but I also cannot imagine having. That struggle. I know people who so desperately have wanted children or they wanted more children, but they keep having issues and my heart breaks for you. For them. It just we live in a fallen world. And I wish that I could say, hey, have this spread and all your problems will be solved. I can't guarantee that. But I can at least say. Hey, maybe, maybe possibly it will help. It's it's not gonna hurt you, most likely, so long as you're not a celiac. You know, it's not gonna hurt you, but maybe this will help. And maybe it will, and maybe it won't, because at the end of the day, the Bible does talk about God opening and closing the womb. And we also have to trust in his timing sometimes. And sometimes God's answer is no, no, not right now. And so I do encourage you that if you are struggling with this to. To trust in the Lord and trust in his timing, ⁓ to not stress out about it. That it's, I want to say it's okay. I know it doesn't feel like it's okay, but I do encourage you to just keep walking with the Lord and trusting in him. And if you were in person with me, I'd give you a big hug. I really would. So that's what I wanted to say about that. I'm not trying to downplay anyone who is having issues. Which leads me to the second point that I want to talk about is the fact that it is alarming to me how many people I see women, obviously, because we're the ones I think, you know, it's more obvious for us if we are having fertility issues, not obvious for men. But it's alarming to me how many people this day and age are having fertility issues. And I think that there are two factors involved into this. One, of course, is diet. ⁓ a lack of real whole grains, a lack of just real food overall. I mean, y'all, I'm a millennial. The things we grew up in the 90s, how are we alive? I I don't even know. So how how we're alive with the food that we ate. I who knows. ⁓ so I do believe that cleaning up your diet, living a healthier lifestyle is certainly important. The second thing, the second huge thing that for women I think have really messed us over is hormonal birth control. And you can jump down my throat all you want about this, but more and more studies are coming out. More and more doctors, ⁓ like OBGYN doctors, are speaking out about the dangers of hormonal birth control and how it has jacked us up. Okay. The hormones are such a delicate system. I again, Felicia opinion here. All the women who are having these thyroid issues, ⁓ you know, hormonal issues, ask yourself. Were you ever on hormonal birth control? Maybe you weren't. I have not asked every single woman, but I can't help but wonder with considering how they give that stuff out like candy to women, the hormonal birth control, and there's many different kinds. You can't tell me that that ain't jacking people's hormones up. And that's what's causing issue. I mean, whenever you are constantly telling your body to stop having babies, you know, ⁓ I, yeah, that's gonna, that's gonna freak your body out. Okay, you're training your body to reject fertility. And it's not surprising to me that it continues to reject it. But I also think it's just really messing up with women's with their hormones, ⁓ things like that. I have never in my life been on hormonal birth control, and that is of the Lord that I never was. And I thank God every single day that I never was on it because I do think that is a huge issue. For women is hormonal birth control just really messing us up. So I thank God every day that I was never on it. And I and quite possibly that might be the biggest reason why I haven't had fertility issues is because I never messed that up or interfered with that to begin with in a hormonal type aspect. And I'm not getting into the debate of whether it's fine to plan your children. This is not, this is we're not doing that. Okay. Just talking about the health side of this. ⁓ but I would really research this if you do not believe me at all and think that it's no problem whatsoever. ⁓ start researching into this because more and more doctors, more and more information and studies in the medical field are coming out where this is just not good for us. Okay. It's just not. Just just not. ⁓ again, I am a Bible believing Christian and I 100% believe that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. God made our bodies and we don't know what we don't know. We can try to separate things out and say, ⁓ so long as this happens, because we know about atoms and cells and DNA and vitamins and you know all this stuff, we still don't know what we don't know. I do believe that there are so many things we don't know about our bodies. So, how about we stop trying to play God and try to just live the way that He intended us to live? Now, again, I am not against. Our ⁓ health care, you know, ⁓ trust me, my when my husband was shot, we we needed trauma care, and I am so grateful for that. Okay. But other than that, the medical system ain't here to keep you healthy. It just not. You break your leg, you're good. You get shot, you're good. You have a heart attack, you're good. You know, we we have all these life-saving measures, which is absolutely wonderful. ⁓ but they are not there for your health. Okay. They They are not doctors are not taught nutrition. And even if they were, again, if it's not from a biblical base, from a biblical foundation, then that's when you start picking and choosing. That's when you can start saying that bread is bad and we should only be consuming meat or, you know, go on an all egg diet. I I don't know. But that's what happens. So if you don't have, if you can't stand firm on God's word, then good heavens, that's why you're all over the place. ⁓ with things and so confused. And this is such a rabbit trail from all of this. But I say all that to state that we don't know what we don't know. And so my advice certainly would be to anyone who wants to get who's trying to get pregnant. First of all, please be married. That is God's design. Please be married. Secondly, get off hormonal birth control. Like that's something you can do immediately. I mean, granted, consult your doctor. I don't know if some You can just cut cold turkey. I don't know. So consult your doctor before just dropping it just to make sure you don't freak out. ⁓ but definitely do that. And then third is you need to clean up your diet, you know, and absolutely be milling your grains, consuming that bread, consuming real whole grains, but also have a balanced diet. Your fruits, your vegetables, your good oils, fats, olive oil, avocados, eggs, butter, like real butter, not margarine. ⁓ all of these things, real whole foods, to give your body the best opportunity that it can. We need to heal ourselves. And ladies, we need to make sure that we have a body that is healthy before we can bring life into this world. Because that baby is going to take everything from you. Okay. It the baby, if I mean, they if they don't have enough calcium in, they they take it from your bones. Okay. Like it's. That's that's how God designed it. So you need to make sure you go in with as much as you possibly can, okay, to have a healthy, strong baby, which I will end with this. Do you does this make healthy babies? All I can say is my babies have always been extremely healthy when born. They have been great weights, they have been ⁓ maintained great weights, great weights. They are also just very healthy babies and children. And the past several that I've had, ⁓ I feel like that they were getting stronger as time went on, probably because my body was getting better nutritionally speaking as we went on, where my babies like they would be holding up their heads day one, day two of their birth, you know, very early on, they're able to hold up their heads. I've actually heard from other women. I think Sue Becker talks about this, where she actually started milling her grains like halfway through having her babies, and she noticed a difference with the health after. grain mill came into the home where they were stronger babies, they were healthier, ⁓ which that I definitely believe. I think Michael Gropp also mentioned ⁓ whenever she had her last baby, who's adorable. ⁓ and that was the first one that she had since she'd been milling her grains where like how strong he was, like holding his head up and everything. And that's my experience as well is my kids are like crazy healthy, very strong when they were born. They are not weak at all. And I certainly do believe that that is because we've given them the best start. And I think that grains are so crucial for that real whole grains. And so let me know in the comments if you can. If you want me to do an episode about, you know, raising whenever after they're born. So after you've conceived and birthed that child, raising babies, toddlers, children on fresh and mill grains, my opinions about that, and especially because large family mama, I've seen a thing or two. And talking about that. So let me know. And that would be a separate episode. But otherwise, y'all, I just I hope this helps. At least again, this was meant to kind of give y'all things to think about when it comes to fertility. And again, if you're not in your fertile years, this is still so crucial for you because ladies, we don't want to go cray cray when we hit menopause. Okay. We still need our hormones to be balanced ⁓ and and everything like that to just keep our bodies. as healthy as we can. And I do believe 100% real whole grains that God has given us for food should be one of the bases of our diet that is healthy and good for y'all. So let me know what you think in the comments below. And as always, I'll talk to you later on in another episode. Bye.