With pregnancy came the necessity to increase my protein intake by more than double of what I would normally get in a day. In order to meet my protein quota I would eat two eggs for breakfast every single morning. At first I ate two fried eggs over medium with a piece of toast, but once morning sickness kicked in, I developed an aversion to toast (and I could not eat over medium eggs without toast). Because of my busy and early morning schedule, I would have two eggs scrambled. At about twelve weeks my midwife told be that I … Continue reading →

Eating is something I do every single day. Eating is something I think about all day long. Aside from the obvious affect my diet has on me, now that I am pregnant my diet also affects my growing baby. It is because of my baby that I think about food choices so frequently, but also why I am so willing to change what I am eating to better support my pregnancy which of course supports the health and development of my baby. Protein has become a dominating feature in my diet. Every food choice I make includes something that contains … Continue reading →

The first time I ever kept a food journal was when I was trying to lose the weight I had gained with my first baby. As I competed in a nine week “Biggest Loser” challenge at the school were I taught, I found the food journal to be an essential tool in my weekly success (I ended up winning the competition too). I started keeping a food journal again just before I became pregnant the second time. My husband and I were trying to get pregnant again and I wanted to make sure I was eating as healthy as possible … Continue reading →

Keeping a food journal during pregnancy is a really helpful tool to ensure that you are eating the right foods and avoiding the wrong foods. It is also a wonderful way to keep track of calories and where your daily calories are being spent, which in turn helps improve your eating habits. I began keeping a food journal while I was pregnant with our first baby. It revealed early on that I was not eating enough vegetables and that I was consuming too many sugary snacks. I quickly corrected this once I saw this disturbing pattern . Later in my … Continue reading →

Pregnancy has had a huge impact on what we buy at the grocery store. Before my first pregnancy we bought all of our food from one or two different grocery stores in town; the ones that were the closest to us. That slowly began to change with my first pregnancy as I researched nutritional needs of mom and baby in utero. I was astounded at how many items we bought regularly contained ingredients that were potentially detrimental to our health and my pregnancy (e.g. sugar-free gum and lunch meats). The more research I did the more foods we cut out … Continue reading →

It seems that most women experience aversions to a wide range of different foods at some point during their pregnancy. Most often these aversions surface in the first trimester but are also known to pop up without warning throughout the nine months of pregnancy. With my first pregnancy, I had aversions to lettuce, meat, onions, vegetables, and anything with a strong flavor or odor. The two things I could always eat without a problem were oranges and toast. While I seem to have fewer aversions with this pregnancy than the first, at seven weeks toast is the worst offender. I … Continue reading →

Some women experience a lack of appetite during pregnancy especially the first trimester because of morning sickness. It’s difficult to find the will to eat when you are plagued with nausea and perhaps many other morning sickness symptoms. Nonetheless, it is important to try to eat a healthy balanced diet despite the non-existent appetite. As my pregnancy slowly progress (I’m approaching week 7) my appetite seems to decrease more and more. The nausea persists. When I am nauseated I don’t want to eat. Food doesn’t sound good to me at all. The mere thought of food is mentally unpleasant, even … Continue reading →

I’m interested to see if my experience of morning sickness will differ with the second pregnancy. According to Marylin Shannon’s book, “Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition” it seems that morning sickness should be more manageable and less severe with a healthy diet, plenty of protein, and continued regular exercise (exercise helps balance the hormones). Considering that our regular diet is much healthier than it was at the beginning of my first pregnancy, I think and hope that my morning sickness symptoms won’t be nearly as bad as the first time. We discovered we were pregnant at just four weeks. At that … Continue reading →

It should be clear by now that protein is essential! Babies can’t develop without it. We’ve seen how many sources of protein are produced (or how they can be produced) and how this affects the overall nutritional value of these particular proteins (meat, eggs, and dairy). But these are not the only sources of protein (as any vegan will attest), there are many other foods that are also great sources of protein. Fish, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds and vegetables. Fish is an amazingly lean source of protein and most kinds of fish are also an excellent source of essential … Continue reading →

…. directly continued from Part IV Pasteurization is when the milk is heated to a specific temperature for certain amount of time and then immediately cooled. This process is said to kill any potentially harmful bacteria. There are two main types of pasteurization: low heat (just plain pasteurization) and high heat (ultra pasteurization). While, regular pasteurization, kills any potentially harmful bacteria it also destroys important and valuable nutrients like whey protein, enzymes that aid digestion, and its natural phosphates which are necessary to properly absorb its calcium. Ultra pasteurization kills all the nutrients in the milk that have a short … Continue reading →