Wise Nutrition for Pregnancy
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today, Issue 114, Summer 2015.
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Eating healthy foods is one the greatest gifts we can give our unborn babies to insure their proper physical and mental development. Combined with fresh air, pure water, daily exercise, a gentle lifestyle and nurturing relationships, what we eat truly creates a body and baby who radiate health and happiness.
- Eat plenty of fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, grains, beans and peas.
- Eat a colorful diet, especially dark green.
- Eat lots of wet, light foods in the summer and dry, heavier foods in winter.
- Learn how to combine foods (e.g., grains and beans make a complete protein, fruits and heavy foods rot in the gut, and drinking with your meals waters down digestive juice).
- Eat fruits 1/2 to 1 hour before you eat heavier foods (veggies, nuts and grains).
- Eat sweet fruits separate from citrus fruits. Eat melons separate from other foods.
- Digestion begins in the mouth, so masticate your food slowly.
- Eliminate non-foods, processed foods, fast foods and junk foods.
- Eliminate alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, additives, artificial sweeteners, colorings, flavorings and street drugs.
- Decrease sugars, flours, addictive foods and foods you are allergic to.
- Trust your palate; eat what you hunger for.
- Discover the foods which grow natively in your land and grow some.
- Sprout your own seeds for mega vitamins and a powerful live food.
- Drink lots of clean water, pure juices, herbal teas and green drinks.
- Adjust your food quantity to match your activity level each day.
- Sleep deeply, nap and relax rhythmically.
- Salt your food to taste.
- Eat foods raw unless they taste better to you steamed.
- Eat fresh or dried before frozen; frozen before cooked; canned is useless. Enjoy the rich flavors of raw foods.
- Soak beans and grains with sea veggies and then slow-cook them.
- Read labels—if the ingredient list is more than three items or has words you don’t include in normal conversation, put it back.
- Shop on the outside aisles of the supermarket; avoid the middle.
- Try a new fruit, veggie, grain, and/or nut whenever you go marketing.
- Almonds are considered the king of nuts; make them a daily guest.
- Steam foods rather than boiling or frying; save the liquid for soup.
- Three to four stools each day tell you your diet is right for you.
- A 30- to 35-pound increase is minimally desirable; eat real food and you’ll gain the right amount for you and your baby.
For most women, a diet rich in earthy fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and seeds will prove satisfying and produce healthy well-being. Animal and dairy foods are mucus forming, thicken the blood and often carry toxins and fear to the cellular structure. Their protein chain is quite complex and difficult to break down. We need not eat the cow to get the nutrients she gets by eating herbs. If you doubt the ability of the plant kingdom to produce strength and wellness, remember the ape. She is an enormously strong herbivore who will kill to protect her young, but she does not kill to eat.
Getting what you and your baby need from the foods you eat is certainly the best form of nutrition. We are all affected by our world’s pollution and weakened foods, so here are some examples of the kinds of additions that I find helpful:
- Liquid chlorophyll, Green Magma or chlorella
- Beet powder
- Black strap molasses
- Lots of alfalfa
- Prunes and raisins
- Dried apricots soaked with prunes
- Echinacea on hand to build immunities
- A nervine on hand for unexpected stress or sleepless nights
- A botanically-based vitamin and mineral supplement
- Laughter