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!

[Sarah Thompson]

Hmm, so this past weekend, when we went to a friend's camp, and I ate (seriously) only meat for dinner because the sides were really 50s and unappealing to me, and I slept really well, that might have been the b6. I wonder if there is anything local and vegetarian that has it. Bananas and avocados don't really grow in Maine, and I get all my produce from a farm where I work. How do I know what are the "good" and "bad" forms? What do the "bad" forms do?

[Shannon]

There was an article in a recent Wise Traditions (the WAPF publication) by Chris Masterjohn. I forget the specifics, but the 'bad' form was bound to glucose or something, making it hard for the body to use. There was a table of the percent of each form for various plant foods, and it also talked about how cooked B6 is bad because not only does it not work, it competes with the good stuff. I can look it up when I'm not NAK :)

[Sarah Thompson]

I can't eat uncooked meat:)

[Sarah Thompson]

Hmm, so this makes me wonder about how to manage my diet. I rely heavily on what I can grow and get at the farm. Especially given the weather, the selection is pretty limited. Mostly I get a lot of cooking greens - I don't even think you are supposed to eat kale raw, right? I feel very frustrated, like I can't possibly do this without spending a fortune and putting in a greenhouse!

[Shannon]

Yeah... This is the point at which I caved and started synthetic vitamins. The B6 is in active form, and can be provided in high doses. If I were trying to make up that deficiency with food alone, it would have taken years and years of perfect food planning, and I decided the stress wasn't worth it. I'm impatient, lol. I justified it as synthetic vitamins are a heck of a lot better than prescription meds or other pharmaceuticals!

On the cooking thing, eating meat on the rarer side is supposed to help. Also, I keep coming across people talking about swallowing pill-sized chunks of frozen raw liver. Would that be more of an option?

And yeah, isn't kale a brassica so a goiterogen when raw?

[Sarah Thompson]

Yes, kale is a brassica. I wonder if cabbage is okay raw, in slaw? I should ask one of the women at the farm - she's a rawist.

I am beginning to think I may need to supplement with synthetics for a while, even if it is just to get in balance. A friend I talked to tonight thinks I should work with a professional and get some testing done, but I am not sure. What do you think of blood tests?

[Shannon]

I test myself for everything mainstream I can think of, since I have a friendly doc and my insurance seems to cover it. So far, it hasn't proven too terribly helpful, because either the tests aren't the right tests, or I just keep on showing up normal for EVERYTHING, or else I don't agree with the normal range. So take this with a grain of salt ;)

Some tests that are nice to have as a marker of detox stuff are homocysteine, B12/MMA, urine sulfite/sulfate... The tests that have been the most helpful to me are my MTHFR gene (though that one's expensive if insurance doesn't cover it), and lipoprotein A - that's a marker of inflammation. Oh, and of course, adrenal testing and all that fun stuff.

[Sarah Thompson]

I don't have insurance coverage for that stuff, so I would only do it if I felt it were necessary. I have started a B complex supplement with probiotics, taken right before bedtime, and it is helping so much! I think I was deficient in 6 and 12, so the taurine and the magnesium et. al couldn't do their chill-me-out-in-the-middle-of-the-night job. I hope to learn more about all these interactions.

[Sarah Thompson]

All right, an update and a cry for help! I'm a wreck! I'm starving constantly, waking up after about five hours and can't get back to sleep, now having trouble falling asleep. During my last pregnancy I tested as quite hypoglycemic (my fasting glucose was in the 40s), but I thought I had it under control. I feel severely hypoglycemic again, though, and I don't know what to do. I'm eating a lot, still supplementing with the B, and I'm careful about what I eat, but I just must not be eating the right things. It's hard, because my husband is a vegetarian and I get almost all my food from the farm and my garden, so my only regular animal products are raw milk and eggs. I eat almost no meat. I am in the kitchen constantly as it is, between baking bread (whole wheat, delayed fermentation) every three days, making yogurt, preparing food, what else can I do? I can't go on like this; I'm only in my second trimester!

[Shannon]

I'm pregnant right now too (13 weeks), and fighting blood sugar issues as well. What I'm doing is loading up on protein, making sure to eat a significant amount with any carbs. In addition, it seems to help a lot to get plenty of calcium - I'm shooting for 1500mg/day, with magnesium to balance constipation issues. Finally, I'm taking brewer's yeast (2 Tbsp/day) as a source of chromium. Chromium is supposed to be important for regulating blood sugar/insulin. I'm mostly worried about insulin resistance/gestational diabetes, but I've been well known to get more than my share of hypoglycemic symptoms as well. Chromium is supposed to help in both directions. Let me know if you want me to dig up some references for you!

[Sarah Thompson]

Congratulations! I think I need to suck it up and take the time to make the bone broths for just me, as well as maybe add more probiotics. My first baby was born so hungry! And this one seems to kick more when I'm hungry, so I worry that it's hungry too. How are you getting your protein?

[Shannon]

Thanks! I can't wait till I get some kicking feedback :) My protein is primarily meat, since we're off of dairy and eggs aren't that appealing right now. I've done a few days of mostly beans for protein, but that just doesn't seem to work well enouh for me. I'm not sure if the issue is me not having the carb balance figured out right, or just a lack of total calories, or what, but meat has been my friend lately. That, and really making sure I've eaten enough before bed. Last time I had trouble gaining weight and this time I'm having trouble getting full already!