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Gyna

Eating for fertility

Which foods should I avoid while trying to conceive?

The short answer

You don't need a long fertility-food blacklist. Avoid the highest-mercury fish named in current guidance where you live, choose lower-mercury fish, and if pregnancy is possible, follow local food-safety guidance. That may add precautions for raw or undercooked animal foods, unpasteurized dairy, and certain fish.

Moderate confidence Sources are linked. Not yet reviewed by a clinician.

How we check answers

What can I do with this?

Use the short, current safety list where you live. Choose lower-mercury fish and follow pregnancy food-safety guidance when pregnancy is possible.

Don't turn that list into a broad restriction of ordinary foods without an individual reason.

But does this apply to me?

This answer covers general food-safety choices while trying to conceive. A diagnosed condition, allergy, previous surgery or medicine that changes what you can eat needs individual advice instead of a generic list.

Care and safety

When should I bring in a clinician?

Food-safety precautions protect a possible pregnancy. They don't prove that an ordinary food caused infertility.

Ask a clinician or dietitian before a broad exclusion that could make it harder to eat enough.

Understand the answer

So what does this mean for me?

What does the research actually say?

The sources separate pregnancy food safety from claims that ordinary foods cause infertility. The fertility-diet review used here doesn't support a universal rule to remove gluten, dairy, soy or carbohydrates while trying to conceive.

How does this compare with the official guidance?

The NHS, FDA and pre-pregnancy guidance provide the practical food-safety and fish boundaries. Exact lists differ by country, so this page points readers to current local guidance instead of presenting one permanent worldwide blacklist.

Why is this our answer?

Six sources sit behind this answer: five health-authority or professional-guidance pages and one systematic review read at abstract level.

Sources for each main claim

What else are you wondering?

Explore all eating for fertility questions

Check the evidence

How sure can I be?

See the full evidence snapshot and sources

Evidence snapshot

The same fields appear on every Gyna answer, including when the research did not report something reliably.

Question and decision
Which foods should someone avoid while trying to conceive? Separate food safety for a possible pregnancy from unsupported fertility-food exclusions.
Who was studied
People trying to conceive when pregnancy is possible.
What was compared
Not applicable to this question.
Outcome measured, and over what period
Food-safety protection for a possible pregnancy. The sources do not establish that ordinary foods caused infertility or that broad exclusions improve fertility.
Kinds of evidence included
Five health-authority or professional-guidance pages and one systematic review read at abstract level.
Studies and participants
Not reliably reported in the evidence.
What the evidence shows
Follow current local fish and food-safety guidance; no universal gluten, dairy, soy or carbohydrate exclusion is supported here.
Consistency and disagreement
The practical safety direction is consistent, while exact food and fish lists differ by country.
Confidence in this answer
Moderate confidence in food-safety guidance; low confidence in fertility food exclusions.
Strength of the sources
Authority guidance supports the safety actions. The fertility-diet review was read at abstract level and does not establish broad exclusions.
Review status
Sources are linked. Not yet reviewed by a clinician.
Who this does and does not describe
General guidance only; diagnosed conditions, medicines and other individual dietary restrictions can change it.
Harms, trade-offs and when to seek care
Avoid broad restrictions that make adequate intake harder. Use individual clinical or dietitian advice when it applies.
Last searched, and the records behind this
Last evidence search 2026-09-03. The source links are listed below.

Sources

Open the original guidance or study rather than taking our summary on trust.

  1. Optimizing natural fertility: a committee opinion (2022)

    ASRM · 2022 (Fertil Steril 2022;117:53-63; replaces 2013 version)

  2. Prepregnancy Counseling (Committee Opinion No. 762)

    ACOG · January 2019; Reaffirmed 2024

  3. Obesity and reproduction: a committee opinion (2021)

    ASRM · 2021 (Fertil Steril 2021;116:1266-85)

  4. Foods to avoid in pregnancy

    NHS · Page last reviewed 15 June 2026

  5. FDA
  6. Diet in assisted reproductive technology: what should we recommend? A systematic review from current evidence to tailored nutritional approaches for enhancing reproductive success

    Reprod Biomed Online · 2026

How we looked, and what we found

We searched the listed sources through September 3, 2026. The source list includes current authority guidance for food safety and fish, professional pre-pregnancy guidance and one fertility-diet review.

We only use the review as far as its abstract goes.

Who wrote this, and when will we revisit it?

Written by Gyna's evidence team from the sources listed on this page. The last evidence search was September 3, 2026.

Recheck this answer when the cited food-safety or fish guidance changes.

Last updated
2026-09-09

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