Last month I wrote a post stating my concern for the growing number of ”pregnancy” websites and blogs that promote ways in which women can conceive twins. Some of the advice is dangerous such as advocating progesterone creams and the prescription drug Clomid but other suggestions are just silly such as eating yams. Lots of yams.
According to the number of hits that post received, I think I hit a nerve. Lots of readers found the post not by accident but by searching for, “twins and yams,” or “what do I eat to conceive twins?” Obviously many women out there are strongly considering this as a viable solution to conceiving twins. And it made me wonder, “Well, just how many yams do you have to eat to conceive twins?” To get to the answer, we need to go back to where this fact/rumor/idea all began.
The rate of fraternal twins (or dizygotic) varies greatly from country to country, culture to culture, ethnic group to ethnic group. Although their rate of twinning has rapidly increased in the past few years along with many other developing countries, the Japanese have the lowest incidence of twinning. (Back in the late 1990s, it was estimated that the Japanese had six twin pairs per every 1,000 births.) On the other hand, the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, West Africa has the highest rate with 45 pairs per 1,000 births. That means that nearly one in 11 Yoruba is a twin! (These days in the United States, one in 33 births results in a twin.)
Researchers have long speculated that it’s the Yoruba diet that can help explain this Herculean statistic. Specifically, it’s the Yoruba’s daily diet of cassava (a type of yam). Although the Yoruba diet also includes plantains, taro, maize and beans, it’s the cassava that contains phytoestrogen, an estrogen compound that increases a woman’s follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and may induce a higher rate of ovulation.
Did you catch that? It’s a “daily diet.” Yoruba females consume a lot of cassava from the cradle to the grave. They eat the yam roasted, broiled, dried, or pounded into a paste to make iyan, a popular staple dish. The dried yam is often ground up and added to boiling water to create a porridge-like dish called amala and then eaten with a stew. They even mill the yam to create flour. But when Yoruba women move away from their villages and into cities where most likely their diets change (probably by including more variety of vegetables and meat, and less yams), their twinning rate decreases! This would further suggest that the estrogen effect from the yam is immediate rather than cumulative. Still, it would seem that you’d need to eat more than just one serving of the cassava to produce twins. But how much is still unknown.
And then there’s that one last burning question: Has anyone ever even seen a cassava in her local supermarket?
Yes, I’ve seen a cassava in my grocery store. It’s also known as yuca, a brown root that tastes very similar to a potato when baked. It’s rather tasty with a side of guacamole. :)
Interesting! I’ve looked but never found one. I also heard you can find them in Mexican grocery stores. I’d be curious to taste one.
what grocery store has them?
hello, i found them in a chinese store, fresh and frozen (frozen is easier to make) and it’s called cassava. one lady their told me its the same as the one’s they have in africa, but still don’t know if u can eat it before or after ovulation, its confusing me.
You can buy it on African online food stores too. No it’s not easy to get hold of, but I’ve bought a few kilos onlines, peeled them and chopped them and put them in my freezer. I’ve read that this same tribe also used eating this cassava yam to help prevent miscarriage in their first trimester. I’ve had two, so frankly, I permit my indulgence, even if it is ‘silly.’
Interesting information about preventing miscarriages. Can you remember where you read that? Would like to get my hands on it.
Hello,
Its not cassava, but Nigerian yam! Cassava does not make iyan or amala, YAM does! Cassava makes fufu, garri and others. Yam and cassava are very very different in Nigeria! Regular Nigerian yam is what is responsible for the high rate of twin births.
Hmmmm….interesting. I’ve also seen other research that suggests other types of yams. Guess I’ll have to fly to Nigeria to find out for myself. Interesting to also note that many researchers say that the real cause has not been medically determined. They just speculate that it’s the yam.
Where can i find these regular Nigerian Yams? Im desperate to know.
Love your post ! I think just regular yams ( sweet potatoes) would suffice if you could not get cassavas. I found this post through google. i am also trying to have twins.And coincidentally, I also have a wordpress page.
The yams being refered to is diffrent from Cassava, th toorubas eat Cassava in the form of Garri (roasted Cassavah flour) or Fufu (fermented Cassavah). Yams (Isu) is more commonly eatten it ia a root like cassavah but that is where the similarities end.
so eating yams or cassava may help to release two eggs?
I read somewhere that if you take Wild Yam Root it can increase your chances of having twins, Im just not sure if its in any way harmful to the body….they sell it @ Gmc.
I wouldn’t eat wild cassava roots because they are poisonous, so are wild potatoes. It’s safer to eat the cultivated ones sold in stores. I’m not sure about Wild Yam Root though.
Cassava gets a bit of a bad rap when it comes to toxicity. First, there are two types of cassava, sweet cassava and bitter cassava. The bitter cassava contains much higher amounts of cyanide precursors than the sweet cassava. Second, if the cassava is prepared correctly, the toxins are removed. Boiling of sweet cassava is enough to remove the toxins, rendering it safe to consume.
You can get sweet cassava in encapsulated from Amazon
Not sure that’s safe, Jenn. It’s something I personally wouldn’t mess with.
I grew up in south america where we grew the cassava in our backyard. In the US you can buy Cassava in local asian, hispanic or even in many local groceries stores nowadays. If they have an ethnic refrigerated section they will most likely have it under the better known name YUCA…
But again, I ask, why? You’d have to eat an enormous amount to even have a REMOTE chance of conceiving twins.
I disagree…Obviously these women have more twins than North American women do, and they don’t eat “enormous” amounts of them. I am certain they eat many other things as well, and have a varied diet.
In South America we are known for the growth plantation originally from Africa.and the cassava that is shown from Nigeria, I jumped up when I saw the picture because that’s the exact one I used to eat all the time in my country. Oh and they sell it in Walmart.in some stores, also in the African stores, and I like to believe in the Cuban and Mexican Stores.
Well, i have grown up eating yams and nothing bad has happened to me. My mom is a twin and so is her grandmother, so if my knowledge of diet and genetics is right, i might just have the twins i would like to have.
I’m not suggesting “something bad” will happen. I’m just suggesting it’s not a fool-proof way to try and have twins. Furthermore, some of the other suggestions on conceiving twins on other website are dangerous. That was the point of this post.
I think that it’s “silly” to antagonize women who are trying this method, eating a bunch of vegetables yams or any for that matter isn’t dangerous, in fact I think it’s better that so many women are opting to try something natrual from our earth than drugs. If the idea of trying to trick your body to have twins is what you truly think is silly, which certaintly seems to be where this whole topic/post truly originates from than that is your opinion, personally no ones dreams are silly and there are some women who grew up always dreaming to have twins, I had a twin who did not make it through birth, I have always wondered what it would be like if she was here, there is normally some sort of unexplainable connection between them. There is nothing silly about women wanting to find a way to create that miracle. Perhaps you should check your wording on your “silly” blog next time..
I fell in love with cassava in Trinidad and Tobago. We’ve made cassava fries many times. Yummy!! I’m planning to increase the cassava in my diet when we start trying. It’s worth a try.
I really love to have twins, and am going to start eating the yam and Cassava now, hope and praying is going to work for me…………
i want twins but cassava is not available in pakistan..what to do :(