Prenatal nourishment

The best time to start eating well is BEFORE you even consider getting pregnant. Opps- what happens if you did not? well as soon as you think you are pregnant start getting good nutrition then...Immediately.

In the USA we have a long history of not taking care of pregnant women. Good nutrition during pregnancy would help solve many of the problems that newborns come into the world with. Decades ago I saw a film about the high costs associated with early prenatal care of infants born to malnourished mothers. Intensive care nurseries are very expensive - yet the cost of feeding a pregnant woman with good food is minimal...and it hasn't changed much in the ensuing years except that the hospitals charge more for the intensive care - so why do we still not feed pregnant women? Answer: Politics.....

Sometimes I think that the men who run this country really dislike most women and absolutely hate pregnant women. Yes there are women in congress these days but the ones who make it up the political ladder tend to copy the behaviors of their male counterparts. And of late the situation is even worse as the current administration keeps cutting back on money for real people in order to give more and more money to corporations... But enough of politics - we have to learn to care for ourselves while we wait for those in D.C. to understand.

A growing fetus needs protein - so the mother must eat that protein or the fetus does not get it. A long held myth is that babies will take what they need from the mother's body. Not true. The mother needs to ingest the nourishment while she is pregnant or it is not there for the fetus. Long term effects of poor nutrition during pregnant are problematic births, delayed physical and cognitive growth and ongoing illnesses. This is worsened if the child continues to be malnourished after it is born. And malnourishment, while found more often in poorer homes, is not absent from homes of the wealthy.

What is good nourishment? Protein is important as is a balanced diet. Junk food is not nutritious for anyone! Diet sodas and chemically doctored food that supposedly tastes good is not nourishing....Prepackaged "stuff" [I dare not call it food] is not nourishing. Look at the labels on the food you are buying next time you in a store. You might find words there that you cannot pronounce. I tend to use the reading/saying test when buying food - if I can't read the small print or I can't even pronounce the name of the ingredient - I don't want it in my body...and I'm past child bearing age : )

stay tuned

Lynn

Growing Children

Years ago I wrote a text book titled Growing Children. I liked the name as it has many levels of meaning....and that was before I was a parent....Growing Children is about early development and though I have been an advocate of nutrition for many years, nutrition never got into the book.

I am working on a newer edition of that book and this time around will include a chapter about nutrition - for the pregnant mom-to-be and children. Why? Because if you don't get good nutrition you start off with a less than optimal environment in which to develop. Growing children actually do a lot of work - mental and physical - and they need the fuel to do the work....

coming next - what's wrong with today's foods