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What should you eat during pregnancy?
I often feel like we are so over informed about what we should not eat during pregnancy and not informed enough about what we should eat during pregnancy. I happen to think it is more important to know what we should eat during pregnancy, than what we should not.
Your baby needs you, even before they are born. They need you to nourish their tiny growing bodies and reproducing cells. They need you for a healthy start even before you meet them.
If you missed it, go back and read part 1 of 10 Foods You Should Eat During Pregnancy. The previous post contains the first 5 foods!
The listed foods are not only great to grow a healthy child, but they are wonderful to increase fertility. I truly believe that a healthy mama will produce a healthy baby, so it is never too lately to get started when it comes for caring for your health or the health of your unborn child.
6. Coconut Oil – Extracted from the meat of the coconut fruit, this highly stable fat is known to boost the immune, nourish healthy bacteria in the colon, and it most likely provides healthy fat for baby’s growing brain. Coconut oil contains Lauric acid, which is the same fatty acid that is found in human breast milk. Lauric 
acid also contains antimicrobial properties which may boost immune health.
Coconut oil can be added to smoothies or tea. It can also be simply eaten raw or used in lotions and cosmetic products to reap the benefits of this nourishing oil.
7. Cod Liver Oil – A great source of vitamin A, D, E, Omega-3s, EPA, & DHA these powerful fats can provide brain power for sure. I haven’t researched the cause behind “mommy brain”, but I would speculate that it has something to do with the tiny life growing inside you and sucking your fat soluble vitamins away to provide nourishment to that growing body in your womb. Centuries ago Cod Liver Oil was highly prized by the Vikings and was known as a medicine. Now a-days it can be quite a beneficial to provide the much-needed nutrients for a growing child in the womb and for a mommy who needs to think clearly.
I recommend cold liver oil of high quality. The best you can get is the fermented cod liver oil from Green Pastures (affiliate link).
8. Salmon – According to ‘The Mood Cure‘, “The Rate of depression worldwide corresponds to the amount of fish consumed. The Japanese eat ten times more fish than we do, and they have ten times less depression.” Much like cod liver oil, salmon and other fatty fish provide many fat soluble vitamins and healthy fats that can provide both needed fat for mom and baby, but also these healthy fats are good for stabilizing hormones. Every woman who has been pregnant knows how important stabilized hormones are.
9. Fermented Foods – In order to promote healthy gut flora, including lacto-fermented foods can be a very important addition for a pregnant mom. Fermentation is a process that preserves foods and acts as an digestion aid. This digestion aid can populate the gut with good gut flora in order to help mom to properly digest all the vitamins and minerals both she and her baby need. It also helps strengthen the immune system and populate the birth canal for a healthy immune booster for baby during their entrance into the world.
Great fermented foods to get started with are buttermilk, yogurt, kefir, traditionally fermented pickles, sauerkraut, and beet kavvas.
10. Water – Ok, this may not be a food, but it is important that you stay hydrated during your pregnancy. Half of your body weight in ounces is a great rule of thumb. Staying hydrated will allow your cells to function as they should and help your body to naturally detox of any unwanted toxins that could stick around to bother you or the little bean growing in your belly.
Have you eaten any of these foods during pregnancy?
References/Resources
Know Your Fats. Enig, Mary. Bethesda Press. 2012
The Mood Cure. Ross, Julia. Penguin. 2002.
The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Childcare. Fallon, Sally. New Trends Publishing. 2013.
i keep my frozen liver pills in the freezer and when my energy plummets or i’ve been eating more muscle meat and less balanced animal products, i make sure to pop a few!
water is hard!
and finding good clean fish roe.
but i would also like to add that all these foods are GREAT for babies too!!! and they often have a taste for them if you start them early! my kids love such a great diversity of foods (fish, cod liver oil- my 5 kids LINE UP EVERY NIGHT for it and my 1 year old asks for 2nds b/c he loves it so much, sauerkraut/any fermented food, and they love my liver laced taco meat and chili!) and i do attribute it to early exposure and the great diversity of nutrient dense foods in our home!