Pregnancy diets?

[Sarah Thompson]

Has anyone combined Brewer with WAPF? I am not taking prenatals this pregnancy, and I am really struggling with food aversions. If this doesn't fit with the forum, let me know, but I am looking for advice and support on dealing with food aversions and hypoglycemia, without supplements (other than sodium ascorbate, which does help me), during pregnancy. I want to make sure I get optimal nutrition for the next 8 months!

[Shannon]

What are your aversions? How about any cravings? I'm not familiar with the Brewer diet, but I do think what the specific aversions are can be a huge clue to nutrient deficiencies, and that addressing those can make the aversions go away.

[Sarah Thompson]

I'm just having a terrible time preparing and eating all the stuff I need. Like green shakes. Before I was pregnant, I made one every day. Now, I cannot bring myself to put stuff in the blender. I crave meat like mad, but not even good meat. Lunch meat and crap like that. I'd love to learn more about how it might be related to deficiencies.

[Shannon]

I don't exactly have much experience here, but one friend suddenly had a major aversion to eggs, and adding molybdenum foods and B6 helped her morning sickness go away, plus a bunch of her aversions. Someone else was feeling awful after eating leftover seafood soup, and I bet she was low on methyl groups and that folate and B12 would have helped.

If you're craving a bunch of meat, it's not as obvious to me, but my first guess would be the B12 and/or B6. Do you pass the beet test? Do you have morning sickness?

[Sarah Thompson]

No morning sickness. What's the beet test?

[Shannon]

http://heal-thyself.ning.com/forum/topics/the-beet-test

[Sarah Thompson]

wow, i had no idea that wasn't normal. i don't even know where to start. i am sure that my minerals are deficient because i get intense insomnia that seems to be hormonal. i just don't know how to change my diet any more, given time constraints and my husband's vegetarianism. it seems like all i do is think about my diet and feel overwhelmed by it (and by western standards we eat eat a gold star diet, too).

[Shannon]

I'm finding that for some of these things, supplements have been key. I'm looking at correcting life-long deficiencies, some of which were passed down from my mom when she was pregnant/nursing me. Just like I've now passed some of those same deficiencies down to dd. I'm not saying that it *can't* be done without supplements, or even that the supps are totally safe, just that in my case, the stress load that was relieved by supping instead of always eating choreographed meals has been a major part of the healing process.

All that said, for stomach acid, the first mineral to look at is zinc, and oysters are a fantastic source.

Sarah Thompson said:

wow, i had no idea that wasn't normal. i don't even know where to start. i am sure that my minerals are deficient because i get intense insomnia that seems to be hormonal. i just don't know how to change my diet any more, given time constraints and my husband's vegetarianism. it seems like all i do is think about my diet and feel overwhelmed by it (and by western standards we eat eat a gold star diet, too).

[Sarah Thompson]

In the past couple days, I made the following minor modifications, and my cravings have disappeared! I am also sleeping better. I started drinking several glasses of raw milk each day with molasses mixed in, and eating a few bowls of yogurt with honey, especially before bed. Trying to be conscientious about eating either sauerkraut or miso soup every day, as well, and minding that I get plenty of alkalizing foods. It's really helping!

[TanyaL]

Glad you're feeling better!

I don't know if it would come under the same category as green smoothies (and thus temporarily yucky) but I've recently discovered the world of herbal infusions. My first one, nettles with a couple tablespoons of peppermint, tastes okay (I'm not pregnant, not sure how that would change the dynamic), so it's a way to make sure you're getting enough liquids and get nutrients at the same time. I just got a copy of Mark Pederson's Nutritional Herbology which talks about a long list of nutrients in a huge number of herbs.

[Sarah Thompson]

I think I should probably try green drinks again, to see if the aversions are also passing.

TanyaL said:

Glad you're feeling better!

I don't know if it would come under the same category as green smoothies (and thus temporarily yucky) but I've recently discovered the world of herbal infusions. My first one, nettles with a couple tablespoons of peppermint, tastes okay (I'm not pregnant, not sure how that would change the dynamic), so it's a way to make sure you're getting enough liquids and get nutrients at the same time. I just got a copy of Mark Pederson's Nutritional Herbology which talks about a long list of nutrients in a huge number of herbs.

[Sarah Thompson]

Okay, I am still struggling with insomnia, which seems like an anxiety response. It seems like I should get more B6 and taurine? But I can't imagine how I am low - you should see my kale intake! Does anything interfere with B6? My diet feels so good, and yet I am still routinely awake for 4 hours during the night.

[Shannon]

Here are my notes on serotonin:
http://www.detoxpuzzle.com/serotonin.php

There are two forms of B6 in foods, and one is much more efficiently utilized than the other. The 'good' one is in animal products, bananas, avocado... And the 'bad' one is in most plant forms. When I started on adrenal support, I was taking 200+mg activated b6 (PLP) each day. After a few months of that, my body said that's enough! and if I took more than 50mg/day, I'd get nauseous - that's when I discovered the upper limit on how much you can take. Looking it up, B6 is used for processing amino acids. My explanation is that I'd created a backlog by being slightly deficient for a long time, and it was necessary to supplement to clear that out.

B6 is also used to convert between EFAs, so, along with biotin, it might be one that's really beneficial in cases of inflammation, which is likely pretty much anyone with reacting kids or chronic health issues.