Aight, yall, lets stir the pot. Yes, her diet is extreme. But lets break it down a little further: 1. During pregnancy, the phrase eating for two is positively incorrect. A womans pregnant body needs only 300-500 calories more per day than her non-pregnant body. 2. An 80:10:10 plan as far as proportions of carbs:protein:fat works for some non-pregnant women, but the protein needs of a pregnant woman are closer to 30% of her diet. So in this way, yes, her diet seems questionable, if not possibly a bit dangerous (but so were the trans fats I crammed in my face during both my pregnancies). 3. She was eating this way before she got pregnant. The rule of thumb for diet and exercise during pregnancy is that if its healthy, safe (like, no kickboxing...duh), huffingtonpost/2013/11/13/loni-jane-anthony-10-bananas_n_4266902.html and it worked well BEFORE you were pregnant, its very likely safe to continue your habits, as tolerated, through your pregnancy. Like I said, though, her protein intake should probably be bumped up. 4. A pregnant womans needs for iron, folic acid, calcium, and vitamin D increase considerably during pregnancy. If shes taking her prenatal vitamins (and she seems very health-conscious, so Im guessing she is), she is getting these. But GUESS WHAT. The best sources of most of these nutrients are the fruits and vegetables that are her dietary staples! 5. She did not adopt this diet for weight loss, according to her, and she is not attempting to lose weight while pregnant. And nobody tearing this woman apart for her extreme eating habits has any idea how many calories shes ACTUALLY getting every day. If her baby is gaining weight and thriving at six months in (again, thats an assumption; Im not her doctor or nutritionist), Id say shes doing an okay job. 6. Id be VERY interested to know what the other moms criticizing her (because you know how we absolutely LOVE tearing each other down) ate while THEY were pregnant. One time, Husband actually had to talk me out of buying a tub of Mrs. Ts margarita salt for a snack. Once, I went out and bought, baked, frosted, and ate most of a boxed lemon cake. In the middle of the night. Another, I ate spoonfuls of peanut butter with chocolate chips for dinner. Yet another time, I drank almost half a 64 ounce bottle of grape juice in one sitting. At least shes consuming fresh produce! 7. Really, I think this one is the only one that matters: None of her extremely loud, opinionated critics are HER OB/GYN OR HER NUTRITIONIST. And in the end, theyre basically the only ones whose opinions on this issue matter. My two cents - I give her kudos to eating so fresh and healthy, but advise an increase in whole proteins. -Kristen
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 09:40:54 +0000