Three Foods you may Want to Consider Trying During Pregnancy
/By Dr. Nikki
Pregnancy can bring about interesting dynamics when it comes to food. On one hand you may find yourself dealing with morning (or all day) sickness, the sense of smell of a blood hound, and/or food aversions, doing all that you can to get any type of food in your body. On the other hand, there is this strong awareness that you are growing a human and you want to give that little person every opportunity to be healthy and strong from the start.
First off, I want to say that if you find yourself in that first category and the only thing you can stomach is carbs, then by all means that’s what you should eat! Getting some form of calories in your body is always most important, especially during the first trimester.
I can be quite the research nerd, so when I learned that I was pregnant, I started reading multiple books at one time to learn as much as possible about growing a baby. One of the books I really enjoyed was Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols and there were a few foods she recommended that I had never tried before or hadn’t eaten in a very long time.
1) Liver
Liver is not something we ate growing up because, quite frankly, I think my parents were both traumatized from having to eat it when they were kids. While the thought of diving into a plate of liver and onions intimidated me, I (and luckily my husband) were open to the idea of sneaking pureed liver into certain meals. Per the suggestions in the book, I purchased some grass fed beef liver and pureed it in my Vitamix. *Warning* if you’re queasy or have a squeamish stomach, you may want to recruit some help for this step! You can also buy liver pate and skip this step all together. Two of our favorite ways to sneak in liver was in meatloaf and chili. I simply added it in with the other ground meat and cooked per usual!
At this point, you might find yourself asking why I would go through all of this effort to incorporate liver into my diet? For starters, organ meats are extremely rich in micronutrients, which are essentially vitamins and minerals that have a critical impact on the body, but are only needed in very small amounts [1]. Vitamin A (in a bioavailable form), B12, choline, iron, zinc, copper, selenium, riboflavin, niacin and folate [2] Choline is often over-looked but is extremely beneficial in neural tube and brain development. It is also helps optimize the function of the placenta, reduce the risk of preeclampsia, and improve cognitive development and reaction time in infants. According to one study “In children aged 7 years old, those born to mothers with the highest intake of choline during pregnancy have better visual memory compared to those with the lowest intake. Interestingly, this study found that maternal intake of related nutrients, like vitamin B12 and folate, did not have a significant influence on cognitive test performance. (Am J Epidemiology, 2012)” [3]. Knowing all of this, why wouldn’t we be trying to get more choline in our diets during pregnancy!?
2) Sardines
Sardines was another one of those foods that I never was exposed to growing up. In my mind, it was just automatically grouped into those “gross” foods that we are supposed to dislike. I initially tried a can that still had the skins and bones and I will admit that I thought that might be the end of my sardine-eating career. Per the suggestion of my stepdad, I tried another can that were boneless, skinless, and canned in olive oil. I put a little bit of sardine on an almond flour cracker, with a little dab of mustard and it was surprisingly delicious! Thanks to Costco, they soon became a go-to snack or light lunch.
During pregnancy, getting enough protein can feel like a constant challenge. Sardines are a great source of protein, in fact the cans I found at Costco had a whopping 22 g of protein each! They also are a great source of omega 3 fatty acids (which is important for a baby’s developing brain), Vitamin D, calcium, iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iodine, and are extremely low in mercury. [4]
3) Cottage Cheese
Unlike sardines and liver, cottage cheese is a food that I actually did grow up eating. My mom would serve it to us with some apple sauce and I typically really enjoyed it. The reason cottage cheese took me by surprise is that prior to pregnancy I didn’t typically tolerate large amounts of dairy very well. As I was reading Real Food for Pregnancy, Lily explained that often times women find that they are able to tolerate dairy, even if they typically hadn’t been able to prior to pregnancy. One theory behind this, is that our iodine needs increase during pregnancy and one of the greatest sources of iodine (besides seafood) is dairy. Iodine is essential for the health of thyroid and during pregnancy, our thyroid gland has to ramp up production of hormones by more than 50%. The baby is entirely reliant on a mother’s thyroid hormones until mid-pregnancy (week 16-20), when it’s thyroid gland is able to start producing it’s own hormones. [5] In addition to iodine, cottage is another incredible source of protein with 1 cup of cottage cheese containing 28 g of protein!
If the thought of eating a bowl of plain cottage cheese makes you cringe, try mixing in some fresh fruit! My favorites are some fresh pineapple or peaches.
At Renew and Restore Wellness we are always looking for ways to encourage and support pregnant and postpartum women. If you have questions about how chiropractic plays a role in a healthy pregnancy, please reach out! If you decide to give any of these foods a try, I would love to hear how you used them in the comments below!
Resources:
https://lilynicholsrdn.com/choline-pregnancy-folates-cousin/
https://www.pregnancyfoodchecker.com/sardines-good-pregnancy-canned-smoked/
https://lilynicholsrdn.com/thyroid-health-matters-pregnancy/