The Better Baby Book (11 page)

Low-Mercury Fish

In a clean environment, fish is one of the healthiest foods for people to eat. Fish is rich in healthy protein, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids. Due to modern pollution, however, most fish contains levels of mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that aren't safe. That's why the last chapter recommended avoiding most seafood during pregnancy.

Fortunately, there are some types of fish that have a consistently low risk of mercury contamination. Short-lived fish like sardines and anchovies tend to be safe because they don't live long enough for mercury to build up in their bodies. Sardines are a great source of RNA and omega-3 and are very affordable. Although we usually don't eat canned foods, Lana ate about two cans of sardines each week during pregnancy because they're so healthy.

Wild caught sockeye salmon is another safe fish. Its mercury content is extremely low because it lives for a short time, and unlike other types of salmon, it eats only plankton—not other fish, which would expose it to the mercury that those fish absorbed. Many of the plankton that salmon eat are bright red (an indicator of high antioxidant content), which is why sockeye salmon has such a bright, deep orange color compared to other salmon.

Other lower-risk fish are summer flounder, haddock, Petrale sole, tilapia, and wild freshwater sport fish like trout. It's important to check the latest research on mercury contamination in fish published by organizations like the Environmental Working Group, because contamination levels do change over time. Fish that's been tested and verified to be clean of mercury and PCBs is healthy, too, but testing is rare and expensive.

Vegetables and Low-Sugar Fruits

Vegetables are certainly a valuable part of a diet that builds a healthy baby, and we eat lots of them every day. Nonetheless, the reputation vegetables have as health foods should not cause us to overemphasize their importance relative to other Better Baby building blocks.

You may have seen charts showing how many vitamins or minerals are in certain foods and made the conclusion that they should be a major part of your diet. That's reasonable, but clever marketing from food companies like the Whole Foods ANDI score will tell you that foods like kale are superior to eggs and meat.

Since vegetables are often relatively low in calories and high in water and indigestible fiber, this type of chart naturally understates the nutritional value of foods containing healthy fat and protein and overstates the nutritional value of vegetables. That's why, as we noted earlier, this book uses both a food pyramid and a pie chart.

If you buy into this type of food analysis, you'd have to literally eat a bucket full of the top-ranked foods in order to get enough food to support your body and a healthy baby, and you'd still be deficient in healthy fats and proteins.

Almost any green vegetable is going to be healthy for you, but different vegetables have different levels of the various essential minerals and nutrients. The nutrients that are found in most vegetables are folate, dietary fiber, potassium, and magnesium, but vitamin levels vary greatly depending on soil quality and how long ago the vegetable was picked.

We don't eat vegetables just for their nutrients. We also eat them for the protection they offer, because they have powerful preventative effects against cancer and other diseases. But the protective effect is not just for us.

A recent study conducted by the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University found that the mother's intake of cruciferous (the cabbage family) vegetables may provide her baby lifelong protection from cancer. We take this seriously, because cancer is the leading cause of childhood death in the United States today, second only to accidents. This study, one of the first of its kind, suggests that the fight against cancer begins with mother's diet, long before birth. Given what has been discovered about epigenetic effects in the last fifteen years, this makes a lot of sense.

Cruciferous vegetables are a significant part of our diet. They include broccoli, red and green cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, and radishes. Eating these and other fresh vegetables is one of the best ways to consume antioxidants and other compounds that protect both mother and baby from carcinogens. Our other favorite vegetables are asparagus, artichokes, celery, cucumbers, fennel, green beans, dark green lettuce, parsley, spinach, winter squash (like butternut), and summer squash (like zucchini).

All vegetables are not equally healthy, however, because some vegetables are high in sugar and carbohydrates. We recommend eating these infrequently, once a day or less, and having them for dinner not breakfast. Examples of high-sugar vegetables are beets, peas, plantains, potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams, and winter squash. Corn is another “vegetable” (it's really a grain) that's high in carbohydrates. We don't generally recommend corn, except for organic non-GMO corn on the cob as an occasional treat.

You may have noticed that the list of high-sugar vegetables is composed of mostly root vegetables. Carrots are a big exception among root vegetables. High in carotenoids and B vitamins, carrots have a number of well-documented health benefits. In our chapter on supplements, we discuss how the body uses carotenoids to make the perfect amount of vitamin A. The other reason we eat carrots is their ability to help the body eliminate mycotoxins. According to fetal toxicologist Jack Thrasher, “When eaten raw, carrots are efficient colon cleansers, which tone the bowel, reduce the reabsorption of estrogen, and lower cholesterol.” You may remember from chapter 4 that many mycotoxins are estrogenic hormone disrupters. Eating raw carrots is a great way to reduce the impact of unwanted estrogens in general, including mycotoxins. We feel a noticeable clarity of mind when we eat them.

Eggplant, peppers (both bell and hot), tomatoes, and potatoes are members of the nightshade family and contain lectins. Lectins are damaging to the lining of your joints and can exacerbate arthritis, and they are also known to cause gut inflammation. With the exception of hot peppers, nightshade vegetables are higher in carbohydrates, so it's better to eat them in smaller quantities. Sensitivity to nightshade vegetables varies from person to person. Lana tried eating them when she was pregnant and quickly learned that she felt better when she avoided eggplant and potatoes but that she felt fine eating peppers and tomatoes. For people who tolerate them well, they can be quite nutritious. For example, hot peppers and tomatoes have valuable nutrients like beta-carotene and lycopene. If you're sensitive, however, removing these from your diet while you're pregnant is a good idea.

Sweet potatoes and yams (there is a slight difference) are not members of the nightshade family, so the warnings about potatoes don't apply to them. However, like other root vegetables, they are high in starch and should not be a large part of your diet because they boost the blood insulin level. As an occasional starchy treat that has a lot of nutrients, try them with (you guessed it) lots of butter, or with protein, which will help to slow the carbohydrate absorption and reduce the insulin boost.

In general, we advise you to eat your vegetables with substantial amounts of healthy fat and protein. This not only makes the vegetables taste good and feel more filling, it also helps you to absorb more of the nutrients from the vegetables. That's why when we make salad, for example, we use chopped vegetables with a high-nutrient density and add salmon for protein along with avocado, nuts, and a dressing made with MCT oil or olive oil. Without the oils from the high-fat foods and the dressing, the salad simply wouldn't be nutritious enough to provide the vital nutrients a growing fetus needs. It wouldn't satisfy your hunger, either. You'd probably be craving another meal in no time.

Eat Plenty of Vegetables Raw

We advise you to eat a lot of your vegetables—we recommend 75 percent—raw. As the fetus goes through one critical developmental stage after another, there is a constant need for good nutrients, and in most cases these nutrients are more available in raw vegetables than in cooked ones.

Another reason we recommend eating more of your vegetables raw than cooked is that in addition to the fact that raw vegetables keep more of their vitamins and minerals intact, raw vegetables maintain more of their enzymes than do vegetables that are cooked (heated above 116 to 118 degrees Fahrenheit). Enzymes are proteins that make the chemical reactions in your body happen faster and more efficiently. The body uses enzymes not just to digest food but to repair itself.

Some of the enzymes we use we get from vegetables and other foods we eat. But others are manufactured by the pancreas, which makes twenty-two of the body's enzymes. One of the goals of eating raw vegetables is to allow your pancreas to devote more of the energy of its naturally occurring enzymes to keeping your body strong and in good repair, and less to digesting food, so that it can support the healthiest baby.

Many raw-food enthusiasts refer to the enzymes in raw vegetables as “living” enzymes. Enzymes are proteins, so, strictly speaking, they're not live organisms. Nonetheless, they are a strong force in sustaining life.

When we started eating more raw vegetables, we noticed that we felt much more energetic and had better digestion. Our skin improved noticeably. These are good signs of better overall health and are a clear indication that the enzymes are doing their job. Signs of an enzyme deficiency include bloating, belching, gas, bowel disorders, abdominal cramps, heartburn, and food allergies. If you experience any of these symptoms on a regular basis, eating more raw vegetables can help to alleviate them, provided you're not allergic to any of the vegetables and not suffering from a systemic yeast infection.

A German study concluded that “uncooked food is an integral component of human nutrition, and is a necessary precondition for an intact immune system.” The study found that raw food has antibiotic, antiallergenic, anti-inflammatory, tumor-protective, and other positive, immune-strengthening effects on the body. It also concluded that raw food should be viewed as a “useful adjunct to drugs in the treatment of allergic, rheumatic, and infectious diseases.” We would add that an intact immune system is particularly important for fertility, pregnancy, and the prevention of autism-related immune overreaction in babies.

Nevertheless, you will find that some recognized authorities (including many doctors) recommend that pregnant women avoid eating raw vegetables entirely because of the risk of bacteria (such as
Salmonella
) or parasites (usually parasite eggs). These can be harmful for the mother and the baby, and it's true that cooking kills most of them. Fortunately, you don't have to sacrifice the advantages of eating a lot of your vegetables raw, because there's an easy way to kill any bacteria and parasite eggs on the outside of vegetables without cooking them: you simply add about ten drops of Lugol's iodine or GSE (as we explained earlier with raw eggs) to about a quart of water and mix, and soak your raw vegetables in the solution for a minute or two. This will sterilize the vegetables without affecting their taste or destroying any enzymes or nutrients.

You can rinse the vegetables afterward or enjoy the health benefits of added iodine or GSE. If raw vegetables are washed properly, the benefits of eating them during pregnancy are far greater than the questionable benefits of avoiding them. There is no need to spend money on chemical vegetable-wash sprays from the store. Most won't disinfect as well as simple iodine.

Eat Some Vegetables Cooked

As we noted earlier, we try to eat at least 75 percent of our vegetables raw, but lightly cooking some vegetables can make their nutrients easier to digest. For example, the beta-carotene in broccoli, carrots, and spinach is more easily absorbed into the body if they've been steamed. Spinach and rhubarb are healthier when cooked, because cooking deactivates the unhealthy oxalic acid they contain. It's also easier for the body to get lycopene from tomatoes that have been cooked lightly.

When you do cook vegetables, baking, broiling, steaming, and boiling are better techniques than frying and grilling, because the risk for oxidation is much lower. We don't sauté vegetables in oil, because heated oils oxidize easily. When the vegetables are done cooking, we add either butter from grass-fed cows or a healthy oil like olive or coconut; this way, the oil won't oxidize.

The following plants should never be eaten raw, because they are toxic unless cooked: buckwheat greens, cassava (including cassava flour), legumes, and parsnips. Naming and discussing the toxins in each of these is beyond the scope of this book, but the evidence is clear that pregnant women should avoid them.