Pre-pregnancy diet is incredibly important for maintaining optimal health. If you are scraping by on the Standard American Diet (SAD – in more ways than one) then unfortunately you and babe are not going to be in an “ideal” scenario to say the least. Lack of nutrient dense whole food and a reliance on nutrient poor, convenience food could lead to future serious health problems. To give you a general idea, this is the type of diet I would consider to be “ideal”.
The Ideal Diet
Includes:
- 1-2 fist size portions of whole grains/day
- 5+ cups of veggies/day
- 1-2 servings of fruit/day
- 1-2 palm size portion of protein/day (meat only 3 times per week)
- Includes lots of fibre: fruit, veggies, seeds (like flax, chia, hemp)
- More alkalizing foods than acidifying foods – this deserves a post of its own, stay tuned!
- Whole foods – that look like they come from the earth and haven’t been overly processed or refined by man
- 2-3L water/day (ideally filtered or spring water)
Limits:
- Refined grains & sweets
- Processed foods
- Caffeine
- Deep fried & fast foods
- Artificial ingredients and chemical additives
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
There is a TON of confusion out there about which macronutrient is really the “bad guy” is it carbs? fat? animal protein? Here is my take on it, we need all of them! So which carbs, fats and proteins we choose are really what is most important.
Carbohydrates
- Good carbs: whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, whole wheat, spelt, brown rice pasta, steel cut oats), fresh & dried fruit, fresh veggies, sprouted grain bread
- Bad carbs: refined grains (anything white: bread, rice, sugar, etc), cookies, pastries, etc.
Fat
- Good fat: flax oil, hemp oil, olive oil (for salad dressings), butter, virgin coconut oil (for cooking), avocados, nuts, seeds
- Bad fat: anything deep fried, hydrogenated oils, margarine, cooking sprays
Protein
- Good sources of protein: cold water fish, free range, ideally organic, animal products (eggs, chicken, turkey, beef, bison), beans (chick peas, mung beans, lentils etc), nuts, seeds (especially hemp seed), quinoa, leafy greens, spirulina – a superfood algae!
- Bad sources of protein: commercial factory farm grain finished meats, hot dogs, deli meats with nitrates, fast food burgers
Most important – WHOLE FOODS CONTAIN HIGH LEVELS VITAMINS & MINERALS!! Vitamins and minerals run all the functions in the body. To determine whether or not a food is considered “healthy” think about if they are a good source vitamins and minerals, colors are usually a good judge of this. Oh yeah, and I don’t count Calories, here’s why.
Example: White bread has been stripped of its fibre, vitamins and minerals making it very hard to digest and spikes our blood sugar, this is usually followed by a crash in energy.
Hey Sam,
Would you consider a post on a breast feeding diet? I know its a bit ahead of time for you but….
Sara
Hey Sara, Yes for sure I can do that!! I will do my best to get it up soon. Until then, the pre-pregnancy diet gives good guidelines
[...] Eat as “clean” as you can. Eat organic and avoid as much packaged and refined food as possible. Try to avoid congesting foods like sugar, flour (especially gluten containing) and large quantities of dairy. [...]