Your father’s diet before you were conceived plays an enormous role in your health today. New research has shown that a man’s folate level is just as important as a woman’s when it comes to the development of the spinal cord and nervous system of a baby. Traditionally, all of the preconception nutrition focus has been on a woman, but now doctors are starting to realize the critical importance of the father’s diet on the future health of the offspring. This is hardly surprising when you consider that half of the DNA a baby inherits comes from a father. Sperm production takes between 74 and 78 days, so a prospective father should clean up his diet and make sure he is not nutritionally deficient for at least this length of time before trying to conceive. Along with folate, other nutrients critical for healthy DNA and healthy sperm include selenium, vitamin D, zinc and co enzyme Q10. For more information on preconception care see our book Infertility: The Hidden Causes. How to overcome them naturally. Reference: R. Lambrot, C. Xu, S. Saint-Phar, G. Chountalos, T. Cohen, M. Paquet, M. Suderman, M. Hallett, S. Kimmins. Low paternal dietary folate alters the mouse sperm epigenome and is associated with negative pregnancy outcomes. Nature Communications, 2013; 4