In early 2009, I became aware of the raw diet and whole-heartedly integrated that philosophy into my family’s lifestyle.  A lot of what I read resonated with me and the more I tried the raw diet, the more I craved it.  For about one month, I was hard core — drinking cold-pressed vegetable and fruit juices; eating lots of avocados, nuts and seeds; switching to sprouted grains; and making other changes per the suggestions in “The Raw Food Detox Diet” and other books.  I genuinely enjoyed the food / meals.  I really felt amazing — I had unprecedented levels of energy and mental clarity.  It was addictive.

Then, I got pregnant.  And everything changed.

My Pregnancy Cravings

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always preferred “light” foods, such as vegetables, fruit, and seafood.  It’s just been my preference.  I never really cared for meat and fried foods.  With my pregnancy in 2009, however, I was horrified at what I was suddenly craving — steak, cheeseburgers and fries, grilled cheese sandwiches, Hot Tamales, Whoopers, … anything with high fructose corn syrup and white sugar — the WORST!

I became quite depressed as the cravings for these unhealthy things felt irresistible.  And the cold-pressed juices and any type of vegetable made me want to vomit.  At the same time, with all my recently acquired perspective on food and health, intellectually, I really wanted to eat 80 – 100% raw.  Physically, I wanted processed foods, fried foods, meat and dairy.

Then a friend (a nutritionist) who had heard about my funk called me.  (She started a lovely organization, BeamGreen, which is responsible for opening up my mind to the raw diet, among other things)  She called because she heard that I was depressed about my unhealthy cravings and wanted to assure me that my pregnancy cravings were not bad.  She recommended a book, “Clean Plates NYC”, to help me find healthier sources for my food cravings.  This phone call, coming from a nutritionist and raw foodie, led me to feel better.

Pregnancy and Raw Food

During the summer 2009, while pregnant, I received an email about an online ”raw mom summit.”  Moms who had been eating a raw food diet for decades came together online to share their experiences.  I was interested to hear that during their first trimesters, a number of them mentioned not being able to eat raw foods.  I became quite curious about this, as it wasn’t just me.

Some interesting sections from by Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. states the following:

From page 7: There are surprisingly many toxins in the food we eat, both natural and man-made.  Celery, basil, the common cultivated white mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus), chickpeas, and many other vegetables contain natural toxins; most, but not all, are destroyed by the heat of cooking, which is a strong argument against raw food diets…  Alfalfa sprouts, so loved by raw food enthusiasts, contain a natural toxin called canavanine, which is definitely not food for you.  Peanuts and peanut butter are usually contaminated with traces of aflatoxin, a very potent natural carcinogen found in a mold that grows on peanuts and other seeds.

From pages 44 – 45: Both raw and cooked vegetables should be in the diet, but you have to know which are good to eat raw and which are not.  As I mentioned earlier, always avoid raw legumes and legume sprouts, including alfalfa sprouts.  On the other hand, garlic loses some of its virtues when cooked.  It is still good to eat, but if you want to take advantage of its ability to fight germs, eat it raw.  A salad of different kinds of lettuce, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes is a good way to get some raw vegetables in your diet…

… many vegetables contain natural toxins.  The sprouts and green skins of potatoes are poisonous and should always be removed before cooking.  Celery, especially when affected by a very common fungus disease called pink rot, contains natural toxins that sensitize us to sunlight and may damage our immune systems.  Pink rot is responsible for the brownish patches that discolor many celery stalks.  Avoid these.

Most of the natural toxins in vegetables are heat-labile; that is, they are easily destroyed by the heat of cooking.  All cruciferous vegetables (the cabbage family), for example, contain such toxins.  Small amounts of raw cabbage and cauliflower will not hurt you, but they (and Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, mustard greens, and broccoli) are better for you when lightly cooked.  They may then offer some protection against colon cancer by affecting the chemical environment of the colon in a favorable way.  Raw spinach, chard, and beet greens contain oxalic acid, which removes calcium and iron from the body and may have other harmful effects; light cooking breaks down this compound.  Raw cultivated white mushrooms contain three natural carcinogens.  Two of them are destroyed by heat, but the third (agaritine) is not and is enough of a worry that I urge you to be cautious about including these mushrooms in the diet at all.

Here are some guidelines about how to eat vegetables:

NEVER EAT RAW: peas, beans alfalfa sprouts, lentil sprouts, mung bean sprouts, mushrooms, peanuts.

BEST WHEN COOKED A LONG TIME: beans, lentils, chickpeas, eggplant.

BETTER COOKED THAN RAW: beets and beet greens, chard, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collards, mustard greens, winter squash, green beans.  Do not overcook green vegetables.

GOOD BOTH RAW AND COOKED: carrots, celery, onions, garlic, chives, scallions, summer squash, turnips, endive, asparagus, sunflower sprouts, tomatoes, peppers.

BETTER RAW: lettuce, other salad greens (arugula, radicchio, watercress), cucumbers, radishes, buckwheat sprouts.

Conclusion

Confused about how to eat?  My husband was when I showed him the excerpts from Natural Health, Natural Medicine by Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D.  The key thing to remember is what the authors of Clean Plates NYC write in their book:

There is a dream diet for everyone — it’s just not the same for each person…  We’re all biochemically — genetically, hormonally and so on — different and the idea that this should guide our eating habits has recently begun to excite the leading-edge medical and nutrition community.  Experts are beginning to talk about the benefits of individualizing our diets rather than giving advice based on recommended daily allowances (RDA) or the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) food pyramid, both created with the “average” person in mind.

As nutrition pioneer Richard Williams writes in his groundbreaking 1950s book Biochemical Individuality, “If we continue to try to solve problems on the basis of the average man, we will be continually in a muddle.  Such a man does not exist.”

Women have especially unique needs since we experience menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, recovery of pregnancy / childbirth, and nursing.  Seasons also influence my cravings: I want raw food much less in the cold winter months than I do in the hot summer months.

During my pregnancy, I eventually let go of trying to force myself to eat based on what my intellect was telling me and just gave into my cravings more, which was very little raw food. After reading and hearing more about why a pregnant woman may have an aversion to raw food (to protect the baby from the naturally occurring toxins), I was reminded again at the brilliance of our bodies.

Funny enough, after my beautiful baby girl was born, I immediately (literally) craved cold-pressed vegetable / fruit juices!  I downed 16 ounces within the first half hour after the baby was born.  I craved this, and craved more (raw and cooked) vegetables and fruit immediately after the delivery.  My food preferences changed drastically and immediately.  Bizarre.  Yet another reminder to listen to my body because it knows what it needs.  (Disregarding the cravings for the Hot Tamales and Whoopers!)

Related Content:

• As Mom and Wife, Why I’ve been Exploring A Holistic Approach to Health…
• The Raw Diet: The Husband’s Perspective
• Got Milk?  You’ll Live Better Without It!
• The Raw Diet
• Juicing
• Grocery List of Staples

I love having just a few things that have lots of flexibility.  I also love soft, durable, practical fabrics.  My life is so crazy that I need to simplify whenever possible.  SO, I fell in love with a piece of clothing by Angel Rox.

Last year, I was staring at the picture below (which was blown up into a huge poster board) in the retail store of my yoga studio.  While standing there, trying to figure out what was going on, the founder of Angel Rox approached me and showed me all the different ways to wear the piece.

Click for Larger Image

I found the styles stunning.  I was further impressed that my pregnancy, at the time, would not prohibit me from wearing this piece.  As can be seen below, the versatile piece of clothing can be worn pregnant, nursing, or not pregnant!

As fate would have it, I ran into the founder of Angel Rox a few weeks ago at a Go Green Expo exhibit.  She has generously offered a 30% discount to readers of The S File.  Enter “SFile” at the checkout section on www.angelrox.com.  Check out a video demonstration of the different ways to wear one piece at: Angel Rox Video, as well as other beautiful pieces on her website!

As of the date of this write-up, I have nursed two children over the past 2.5 years (and am currently nursing my 10 week old daughter!).  In hindsight, the products that I found to be basic essentials for my successful breastfeeding experience may be found at the links below:

• Breastfeeding Mothers: My Must-Have Top!
• Essentials for Infant Meals (including essentials for the nursing mom)

As I write this, my youngest daughter is 10 weeks old.  Although I had already experienced childbirth about 2.5 years ago with my oldest daughter (and first child), I was very insecure with the delivery of my second daughter.  I was insecure about whether I would recognize the contractions and know when to head towards the hospital, since my contractions had not started on their own with my first pregnancy (they were induced).

I asked all my mommy friends about their personal experiences with contractions and I searched the Internet seeking descriptions that would help me recognize when it would be time to go to the hospital.  Even after all this, I was insecure until the end.  As a result, I thought it would help to share my personal experience in case it provides some comfort to an expectant mom.

Contractions

For me, the contractions felt very similar to constipation (excuse me for being so unpleasantly direct!) and the painful menstrual cramps that I had experienced in my teenage years.  My menstrual cramps had been so irregular and painful (they were handicapping) as a teenager that my father (an OB/GYN) put me on birth control pills so that the menstrual cycles would be regulated and more moderate.  Soon after my last delivery, I realized how much my menstrual cycles had prepared me for the pain of childbirth (and I’m sure in other ways as well).

The Delivery

When I arrived at the hospital this last time, I was already 9.5 cm dilated.  Much to my disappointment at the time, the nurses and doctor said that there wasn’t much point in getting an epidural (which I had with my first delivery) since I had already come so far and clearly had a high pain threshold.  (That was something I hadn’t known about myself: I have a high pain threshold.)

They said the actual childbirth experience wouldn’t be too different (in terms of the pain) from what I had experienced so far with the contractions.  (Even at 9.5 cm dilated, I wasn’t confident that I was in labor!)  So, I had to pass on the epidural because I couldn’t justify the potential complications of one.  Plus, the doctor said that by the time they do the epidural, the baby’s head may be poking out.

In the end, I pushed for 15 minutes and was lucky to deliver a healthy, beautiful girl.  I was surprised at how much my yoga practice helped me through the whole experience.

Pregnant Warrior 3

Yoga Was My Inadvertent Preparation

There are innumerable things that yoga can do but, among them, is finding peace, balance and harmony during uncomfortable positions or situations.  My whole natural childbirth experience was one major yoga practice!  I just focused on my yoga breathing through the whole ordeal and before I knew it, I was holding my baby girl.

Prenatal Yoga

What I Wish I Knew Sooner About Natural Childbirth

I tend to be as natural as possible.  I rarely take medications… I’ve never had even a minor surgery…  However, I was planning on opting for the epidural because I had grown up always hearing that childbirth was the most painful experience ever.  Even so, I was surprised at how afraid I was to experience the pain of childbirth because I’m generally a courageous person.

In hindsight, I’m so grateful that my circumstances where such that I had no reasonable choice but to give birth naturally.  As a result, I feel incredibly empowered for having done it.  I felt immediately connected to my second daughter as a result (with my first, I was happy to feel disconnected from the actual delivery since I knew I wanted more children and didn’t want to be traumatized away from having another child).

What I wish I knew sooner is that my body had been preparing me for the childbirth experience ever since I began my menstrual cycle.  The natural childbirth experience has provided me with a deeper appreciation for, and confidence in, our bodies’ natural intelligence.

Virasana

For weeks after my last delivery, I wasn’t sure if I would elect to do it naturally the next time.  The natural childbirth was both the worst and the most spectacular experience of my life.  However, the unpleasant part was pretty awful.

Now that more time has passed (by the way, the recovery has been AMAZING!), I hope to be able to do it naturally next time as well.  It’s definitely not for everyone.  But, for me, I’m so grateful for the awareness I have for the journey of my youngest girl into this world and for being so plugged into that moment, and for the moments soon after.  I would not elect to miss out on those moments with the next one!  It was undoubtedly worth it.

BPA, commonly found in plastics, is a potent hormone disruptor that is increasingly linked to health effects like brain and behavior changes, cancer, and reproductive system damages (Click on Plastics to read more.).  Furthermore, the CDC estimates that right now BPA is in the bodies of 93 percent of Americans, with higher levels in teens than in adults, and higher levels in children than in teens.

“Bisphenol A can easily pass through the placenta, where absorption and distribution in the fetus is rapid.”

– The Toxic Sandbox (2007) by Libby McDonald; page 86

Researchers at Duke University have shown that this early exposure affects the offspring’s epigenetics: it turns on and off different genes, resulting in the problems that we see.

Here’s the exciting part: They found that they could completely block BPA damage, even in the face of significant exposure, by giving pregnant animals extra folate (found mostly in green leafy vegetables – foliage – such as spinach) or extra genistein (found mostly in legumes such as soy). The amount of genistein given was comparable to what we would get in our diets if we ate soy foods regularly.

These nutrients switched the genes back the way they should be, and the BPA effect was completely nullified. The researchers describe this as compelling evidence that certain nutrients can counteract BPA when given during pregnancy.

Beyond this, the researchers propose that these nutrients could block the effects of chemical estrogen exposures, even if given later in childhood and possibly even in adulthood.

Click on Dr. Greene to read more about the latest research.

Click on Tips to Reduce BPA Exposure to learn how to further protect your family.

Epigenetics is a relatively new field of science that is discovering that what happens in the womb can influence which genes are turned on and off.  What you eat, breathe, and even feel can affect the long-term health of your child…  you decide how your child’s genes are expressed, even as early as conception.

Did you know that what you eat can affect your future generations?  Scientists are finding that you’re not only what you eat, but potentially what your mother ate, and possibly even what your grandparents ate.

Click on More on Epigenetics to read more and read some key things to avoid while pregnant.

As I write this, I am 9 months pregnant and due any second!  During this pregnancy, I have been able to reassess products and reference books that were helpful during my first pregnancy, as well as discover new products and books that I incorporated during my second pregnancy.  I wouldn’t replace any of the recommendations from the list from my first pregnancy, but I would add a few more items.  They are below.

• Skinny Bitch
• Clean Plates

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Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven

Having read The China Study, Disease-Proof Your Child and several other books that were based on scientific studies, I thought Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven did a good job of aggregating and summarizing a wide range of important content.  I was grateful to have read it during my pregnancy as it provided a good overview on how to live a healthy pregnancy.

Clean Plates NYC

About two months before I became pregnant, I started diving into a raw vegan diet.  Based on everything I had read about health and nutrition and a raw food diet, I wanted to consume as raw vegan a diet as possible.  So I was confused and depressed that once I became pregnant, all I wanted were cheeseburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, doughnuts, Hot Tamales, and other processed foods.  I was quite depressed by my overwhelming cravings for these things, things that offer no nutritional value to myself or the baby.

A dear woman — founder of BeamGreen, who heard about my experience called me to ask me not to feel bad about any of this and reminded me that none of my cravings during pregnancy were “wrong.”  During the same conversation, she recommended a wonderful, helpful book, , that helped me indulge my meat and dairy cravings using organic and/or seasonal ingredients — “cleaner” ingredients.  This book helped alleviate guilt I felt when “indulging” while being informative as well.  I recommend it to anyone who is looking for “cleaner” restaurants in NYC.

Related Content:

• Dietary Help During Pregnancy

Based on my experience with my first child — and building on the Shopping List for Essentials for My Pregnancy – below are additional products that would have helped me prepare for my first child.

Preparing for Baby’s Arrival

1) Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child provided a good understanding of, and good guidance on, baby sleep habits. I wish I had read this during my third trimester. This had an average of 4 stars from 1,1,58 customers.

Brain Development

1) What’s Going On In There? I really enjoyed this book and I picked it based on the popular customer reviews on Amazon.  Its focus is on the first 5 years of life, including the prenatal experience.

Other

I recently came across this Martha Stewart videos of products that moms must have. I don’t have any of them but they look quite interesting. I may be purchasing a few.

Please Note: All products with an image shown below can also be found at TSF SHOP, along with many other products not listed below.

Green Leafy Vegetables and Soy.  We all knew that green leafy vegetables and organic, non-genetically modified soy was good for us but researchers at Duke University have found that folate and genistein completely block BPA damage, even in the face of significant exposure.  Click on Dr. Greene to read more.

Salt. Use iodized salt, especially while pregnant and nursing, and take iodine-containing prenatal vitamins. Iodine buffers against chemicals like perchlorate, which can disrupt your thyroid system and affect brain development during pregnancy and infancy.

Eat good fats. Omega-3 fatty acids can offset toxic effects of lead and mercury. They’re in fish, eggs, nuts, oils, and produce. Choose low-mercury fish like salmon, tilapia and pollock, rather than high-mercury tuna and swordfish, especially if you’re pregnant.

Avoid Perfluorochemicals. (The Environmental Working Group)

They’re found in carpets and on clothes, on fast-food wrappers, and on the inner lining of pet food bags. You might know them as Teflon, Scotchgard, Stainmaster and Gore-Tex. They pollute water, are persistent in the environment, and remain in the human body for years. Companies that manufacture PFCs have agreed to phase out one variety, called PFOA, by 2015. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that the chemcials being used to replace it are any safer.

PFCs are associated with smaller birth weight and size in newborn babies, elevated cholesterol, abnormal thyroid hormone levels, liver inflammation, and weaker immune defense against disease — all good reasons to reduce your exposure.

To Avoid PFCs:

• Forgo the optional stain retreatment on new carpets and furniture. Find products that haven’t been pre-treated, and if the couch you own is treated, get a cover for it.
• Choose clothing that doesn’t carry Teflon or Scotchgard tags. This includes fabric labeled stain- or water- repellent. When possible, opt for untreated cotton and wool.
• Avoid non-stick pans and kitchen utensils. Opt for stainless steel or cast iron instead.
• Cut back on greasy packaged and fast foods. These foods often come in treated wrappers.
• Use real plates instead of paper.
• Pop popcorn the old-fashioned way on the stovetop. Microwaveable popcorn bags are often coated with PFCs on the inside.
• Choose personal care products without “PTFE” or “perfluoro” in the ingredients. Use EWG’s Skin Deep at cosmeticdatabse.com to find safer choices.

Based on my first pregnancy in 2007, below are the products that helped me during the pregnancy.

Prenatal Vitamins
New Chapter Perfect Prenatal Vitamins. It didn’t occur to me to get ORGANIC vitamins until I read an interview of Gwyneth Paltrow and she commented on how great these vitamins are and that she took them post-natally because it made her hair and skin look amazing. I didn’t notice a big impact on myself but I now believe in organic vitamins, after becoming more informed.

About Pregnancy and Nutrition

1) Great Expectations: Pregnancy and Childbirth. I bought 7-8 books about pregnancy but ended up referencing Great Expenctations and Your Pregnancy Week by Week the most, though I think Great Expectations is better. Great Expectations received 4.5 stars from 51 Amazon customers.

2) Your Pregnancy Week by Week. I received a copy of this book from my insurance company. I ended up frequently referencing this book pretty often. It received 3.5 stars from 366 Amazon customers.

3) The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating. I referenced this book often during my pregnancy to remind myself of how to make healthy choices. This received 4 stars from 5 Amazon customers.

How to be Green

1) Healthy Child, Health World. I just read this book and it’s wonderful. This book provides a great overview of how, and why, to provide a healthy environment for your family. This received 5 stars from 1 Amazon customer.

2) Squeaky Green. I liked this because it provided clear action item lists on how to green your home. Concise and not overwhelming, while covering major points.

Related Content:

• Second Pregnancy in 2009
• Surprising Health Suggestions For Pregnancy