**This post has been entered in Works for Me Wednesdays at We are THAT Family and Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade.**
From Weston A. Price‘s website, here is their ideal pregnancy diet:
1 quart (or 32 ounces) whole milk daily, preferably raw and from pasture-fed cows (learn more about raw milk on our website, A Campaign for Real Milk, www.realmilk.com)
4 tablespoons butter daily, preferably from pasture-fed cows
2 or more eggs daily, preferably from pastured chickens
Additional egg yolks daily, added to smoothies, salad dressings, scrambled eggs, etc.
3-4 ounces fresh liver, once or twice per week (If you have been told to avoid liver for fear of getting “too much Vitamin A,” be sure to read Vitamin A Saga)
Fresh seafood, 2-4 times per week, particularly wild salmon, shellfish and fish eggs
Fresh beef or lamb daily, always consumed with the fat
Oily fish or lard daily, for vitamin D
2 tablespoons coconut oil daily, used in cooking or smoothies, etc.
Lacto-fermented condiments and beverages
Bone broths used in soups, stews and sauces
Soaked whole grains
Fresh vegetables and fruits
AVOID:
- Trans fatty acids (e.g., hydrogenated oils)
- Junk foods
- Commercial fried foods
- Sugar
- White flour
- Soft drinks
- Caffeine
- Alcohol
- Cigarettes
- Drugs (even prescription drugs)
I would change a few things here:
*Sometimes raw milk doesn’t work well for pregnant women, or having 32 oz. is a lot. I would recommend drinking SOME but perhaps not that much.
*Plenty of fresh, purified water each day
*16 – 32 oz. of pregnancy tea and/or red raspberry leaf tea (Traditional Medicinals makes a good one that I drank during my second pregnancy). Alfalfa, oatstraw, raspberry leaf, etc. are good.
*Kombucha (if tolerated and you’ve started prior to pregnancy)
* Water kefir, milk kefir, or other fermented drinks and foods (homemade yogurt is great in smoothies or made into frozen yogurt if you are averse to the texture like we are)
*2 – 4 eggs each day or more if desired; extra egg yolks if you desired (raw is good)
*At least 4 tbsp. saturated fat, in the form of butter, coconut oil, or whatever you can tolerate (lard, beef tallow, etc.)
*Soaked OR sprouted whole grains. I recommend sprouted, personally. I also would recommend not consuming grains that are NOT soaked or sprouted.
*Sunlight for plenty of vit. D instead of supplements
*A fresh salad everyday, and other raw vegetables and fruits (served with fat; try raw whipped cream with fruits and olive oil with a salad)
*Lots of soups made with homemade bone broth
*Plenty of grass-fed beef and other pastured meats
Try to avoid processed foods. I found during my second pregnancy that when I ate whole, fresh foods my morning sickness was minimal, but if I did eat any processed food (which is mostly what I ate during my first pregnancy) I felt worse. You also don’t need nearly as many grains as mainstream sources recommend. While some (sprouted) grains are good, you should mostly focus on nutrient-dense foods like milk, cheese, grass-fed meat, etc. These are MUCH more important than grains, which are just fillers in many cases.
If you DO feel bad and can’t stomach these, try drinking a glass of cool water (I liked mine ice cold, but for some people that makes it worse) with half a lemon squeezed into it. Peppermint oil can also help, in a diffuser.
What did you eat when you were pregnant? How does this compare to your diet? Does this seem doable?
Like what you've read? Subscribe so you never miss a post! You can also follow us on Facebook or Pinterest. Thanks for reading!
TESTING!
Quinoa is known for being an almost perfect food, and is excellent for pregnancy and preparing the body for conception.
When I was pregnant, I had gestational diabetes in which drinking cold milk (non-homogenized and whole, of course!) would send my blood sugar through the roof! But if I ate fermented dairy products or anything in which the milk had been heated first (hot chocolate sweetened with stevia, for example), the effect on my blood sugar was unnoticeable. I craved dairy during my pregnancy, so there was a lot of yoghurt (with wheat germ), cottage cheese, hot chocolate, and pudding in my life.
I am currently following the brewer diet which is pretty similar to what you listed but more general. For the first 5 months I had really bad morning sickness so my diet was awful. I pretty much lived on whole wheat bagels, bananas and peanut butter. I would leave tips on your post above but I don’t have anything, and I tried everything I had ever heard might help, especially once I started losing weight. Nothing worked for me except waiting it out.
My water kefir died while I was too sick to take care of it but I do still try and get at least one serving on my homemade yogurt everyday plus several glasses of milk. A quart sounded like a lot when I started but now it is my easiest category to reach each day. Eggs are my hardest. I normally like eggs, but now that I’m in my 8th month, I will admit that I am getting quite sick of them.
I second your recommendation for pregnancy tea. I’ve been using the traditional medicines one but just bought bulk herbs to make it more economical. Not only is the "tea" good for you but it helps ensure you don’t get dehydrated. I also take a walk each day so I do get sunlight but I also take cod liver oil for the healthy fats and vitamins.
FYI for pregnant mamas still nursing another kiddo, skip the peppermint oil (tip at the end of the article). I found out the hard way that it wreaks havoc on your supply.
Also, I just discovered Kombucha at 4 weeks along – should I avoid drinking it now?
Thanks!
THanks for this list! I have one baby (almost 13 months old) and I'm still nursing her. I had a wonderfully easy first pregnancy (no morning sickness at all), and I attribute that partially to eating non-processed foods and staying active. And that was before I discovered raw milk and traditional foods! I am looking forward to having another baby in a couple of years, and this is a great reminder of foods that I should be eating now and continue eating throughout the next pregnancy.
I wonder if anyone has done a study on morning sickness and diet? My own experience is anecdotal, but one of my coworkers had horrible nausea throughout both of her pregnancies, and she has an equally terrible diet. A co-worker of mine was pregnant at the same time as I was, and, like me, didn't suffer much morning sickness at all. She eats a better diet since her husband has celiac's so they have to limit the processed food that they eat. Interesting!
I'd like to point out that a lot of the recommended items can be combined into smoothies, which might be easier to consume, especially early in the pregnancy. This is a great way to knock out those daily eggs when you start to get tired of them! The greens, kefir/yogurt, eggs, coconut oil, even small amounts of raw liver can be blended for a nutrient dense meal!
We ate a low to no processed diet before getting preg with #2 and now #3 and I ended up with hyperemesis for all 3, though it was worse with #1. I'm 8 weeks in with #3 and have already been in hospital on a drip for rehydration and I've LOST 2kg in a month! I can't cook and can barely move without overwhelming nausea. Sometimes your body just doesn't handle it well no matter what happens with your diet :sigh: wish there were some magic cure though coz with a 4yo, an almost 2yo and very little support other than my husband who also works fulltime its hard yakka….
Bridie, I feel for you! I also ate extremely healthy and had bad morning sickness with my first and horrible morning sickness with my second! After losing over 10 pounds that I didn't have to lose (prepregnancy I was 110) and having to go to the emergency room twice for dehydration I finally tried a Vitamin B multivitamin. It helped a lot. I couldn't keep anything down before and afterwards was able to keep some stuff down. My husband is in the Army and when I was pregnant with the first was deployed and when I was pregnant with the second he worked 36 hours on, 12 hours off. Our firstborn was 15 months when I got pregnant. I feel your pain!! If your not against vitamins give the Vit B supplement a try! It helped me a lot!!
I drank Kombucha for a year or two, but got busy and stopped making it in March or April. I would like to start making/drinking it again. I got pregnant in late June/early July. Would it be bad to start on Kombucha again now that I’m pregnant and haven’t drank it for about 3 months?
If it hasn’t been that long, you are probably okay to start again. Just go slowly. A few ounces a day and see how you feel.
I’m a big fan of the Weston A Price foundation and base my diet around there recommendations. If any of you have good recipes for cooking liver let me me me know as I find it very hard to eat.
My favorite way so far has been to rinse it under water to reduce the taste, then chop it up really small and put it in spaghetti sauce. I also add grass-fed “regular” ground beef, veggies, and beef stock, so it’s super nourishing, and you can’t taste the liver (and I’m pretty sensitive and usually can tell, even when I put it in tacos — rinsing it is key).
I just made a chicken liver and butternut squash pate that I find to be really good. Previously my only experience with liver has been gagging on a bite or two of liver and onions or hiding it like Kate said in other ground beef dishes. But this pate is great spread on a toast or cracker or alongside eggs. I’m going to freeze ice-cube sized portions so I can have some every week as recommended.
Erin,
I’d be interested in a recipe for that pate if you have one. Freezing it is a great idea.
-Maria
I know it’s been a long time since anyone has commented, but I’m putting this out there in case it helps anyone else!. We were on GAPS for 10 months when I got pregnant with my third child. I was hoping that my morning sickness wouldn’t be as bad (it was pretty bad with my first two) after eating a whole foods diet, and for the fact that I was working closely with a nutritionalist and building up my body, adrenals, etc. Well, morning sickness hit me, BAD, at 5 weeks. It was way worse than with my first two. I was so sick and weak I couldn’t get off the couch and I was throwing up pretty much every day. We tried everything with my nutritionalist that is every recommended, including the highly-praised B vitamins and supplementing with magnesium oil, but my hormones were just so all over the place that I was so sick. I ended up going off all my B vitamins and starting with progesterone cream and in a week’s time I was feeling 90% better and I am still am. I’m almost 12 weeks pregnant and normally my sickness lasts till 16…it is so amazing to have so much relief this early after being so sick. So for myself, I want to say, “So much for the good diet”, I mean, I’m glad we eat like this, but for me this time it was more about my hormones.