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A new study found that drinking four or more cups of coffee a day decreases fertility by 25% for those women who are already having a tough go of getting pregnant. The study followed 9,000 women undergoing IVF, so you can safely bet that this news is reliable.

In addition, drinking alcohol three times a week also decreases fertility. Cigarettes and obesity are even worse for getting pregnant.

Worst-case scenario: "The researchers estimated that a 36-year-old woman who smoked, drank too much coffee and alcohol and was overweight, and who had been through three cycles of IVF, would have a 5% chance of a natural pregnancy."

In other words, life prefers healthy mothers. This makes sense from the Darwinian perspective of survival of the fittest--or in this case, reproduction for the fittest.

Moderation is what matters here. If you like coffee, more power to you. In fact, I have already written in this blog about the antioxidant effects of coffee, and how regular coffee intake can even decrease your risk of developing any kind of cardiovascular disease (heart disease, stroke, etc.) Same goes for moderate wine consumption.

Perhaps we can look at coffee and wine as an occasional treat that does little harm to you or your chances of fertilization. In fact, they can even help a little.

As for smoking, the study found that one cigarette a day had no noticeable effect on fertilization. I should probably tell you to not smoke at all, but I'm not big on dumbing down the truth. Still, I have never heard of anyone sustaining one cigarette a day, due to the massive addictive qualities of the nicotine and other chemicals found in cigarettes.

And the effect of obesity on getting pregnant? That's a whole other bucket of fish. In short, exercise and balanced, natural, unprocessed nutrition works wonders.