Vegan Eating During Pregnancy
By Katrina Swenson
January 3, 2012My preference for veganism has always provided me with some challenges. Now that it’s not just my body, but my baby’s, too, the challenges have revved up. I love vegan food. While I will now eat a bite of meat occasionally, or indulge in some cheese here or there, meat and dairy products don’t sit too well with me most of the time. I am aware of the many health benefits of vegetarian/vegan diets during pregnancy or otherwise, such as typically getting more fruits, veggies, and fiber, lower cholesterol intake, and lower saturated fat intake. Yet, faced with my first pregnancy, I am also more aware than ever of my needs for protein, B12, calcium, iron…you know, those things people say that animal products are good for.
So when I first found out I was pregnant I did about three things:
1) Tell my husband.
2) Cry inconsolably for an extended length of time about the responsibility of building a brain.
3) Call a dietitian whom I trust can handle all my crazy and whom I knew could give me some pointers.
Do you know what the dietitian said? “There are a lot of healthy vegan babies out there.” Whew. Exhalation of relief. Of course there are. Why didn’t I think of that?
She confirmed for me that shooting for about 70 grams of protein daily would be good. And, she reminded me of that oh-so-important mineral: calcium, which I’m sure I would have forgotten about in my oh-my-god-I’m-pregnant haze. She suggested tofu: high in protein AND calcium. Winner! And like every provider I’ve talked to, she suggested Greek yogurt if I felt I could do some dairy.
So I have plodded forward, trusting myself and my body to provide for our little creature what (s)he needs. I do what I can, and let nature take care of the rest. Here is my list of what I believe I can do to ensure the best nutrition possible.
Educate Yourself
When any food group is cut from a diet, we ought to be mindful of what nutrients might go off with it. B12, vitamin D, iron, calcium, and protein are all nutrients that are found primarily (or most easily, in some cases) in animal products. If that’s the case, what do you need to do to ensure adequate consumption of these? This is my plan of attack:
Know your Nutrients
B12
I don’t know how I got through life as a pretty responsible vegetarian-type person without knowing that B12 is only found in animal products. I didn’t know this handy-dandy piece of info until I found myself without much Vitamin B12 in my system, and was rocking the consequences. Vitamin B12 is an important nutrient involved with the brain, nervous system, metabolism, and DNA synthesis and regulation. Sound useful? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how important it would be to have enough of this stuff when you’re building a life.
Some will say that B12 is produced in plants such as algae and seaweed; however, most of the research I have read suggests that this form of B12 is not the form that is readily absorbed by the body, and is altogether an unreliable source of the nutrient. The Vegetarian Resource Group suggests nutritional yeast as an alternative, and foods fortified with vitamin B12. Given my history of low B12, I take a supplement as well as looking for fortifications in my food.
Vitamin D
Ahh, the sunshine vitamin. Ideally, food would not be the primary source for this substance; rather, getting a bunchof sun would do the trick. Unfortunately, living up here in the Northwest seems to equal bad angles of rays, seriously impeding our ability to soak up the rays that are responsible for magically creating a vitamin D synthesis process in ourskin.
A small handful of foods naturally contain vitamin D, such as eggs, fatty fish, liver, and liver oils, which do not soundsuper yummy if you are choosing a vegetarian or vegan diet. Lots of dairy foods are fortified with vitamin D, but thewhole vegan thing would render that useless. Tanning can help if the tanning beds have the right kind of UV light…but itseems like tanning can be frowned upon during pregnancy.
So, you’re not a big meat or dairy eater. The sun disappeared. Can’t tan. What’s a momma to do? Seems to me that choosing a supplement would be a reasonable response. See if your provider agrees. Vitamin D is NOT a water-soluble vitamin. In fact, it’s not really a vitamin at all, but actually a prohormone. The important thing to know is that as vitaminD is a fat-soluble substance, you can overdose on the stuff or create toxic levels in your body. While I am personally kind of stubborn and stick to the belief that it’s harder to get too much vitamin D than some would lead you to believe, nobody has handed me a medical degree yet just for reading everything I can find on the internet. So, back to that checking withyour provider thing.
Iron
We know we can get iron from meat. But what if you don’t, won’t, or can’t eat meat? Never fear, my meat-eschewingfriends, iron is easily (and deliciously) found outside the animal kingdom. Spinach is a great source, along with beans, legumes , fortified cereals, many dried fruits (I was so pleased to discover this early on in pregnancy when nothingsounded good to eat), that amazing tofu substance, or other soy products. There are other iron-fantastic foods, too. Look it up! And don’t forget to remember that your prenatal vitamins typically contain 100% of your daily value of iron, as well.
Calcium
As we all know, calcium is easily found in dairy. But it’s also found in the cabbage family (cabbage, broccoli, and kale are great sources), in turnip/mustard/beet/collard greens, fortified orange juice, other fortified products, and tofu. Oh, and almonds! Almonds have calcium! (This makes me happy.) There are great supplements out there, and I have heard that the liquid ones contain the most readily absorbed and appropriate types of calcium.
Protein
What do pregnancy websites, prenatal appointments, prenatal yoga, and being around pregnant people in general have in common? Everyone is talking about getting enough protein. They talk about the second and third trimesters, growing muscles, birth weight, brain development…
Clearly, protein is important to the pregnant and non-pregnant alike, but is particularly useful when you are charged with the responsibility of creating a healthy human being inside of you. So important, in fact, that it deserves its own post. Look next week for another blog article about the ever-important protein, and how to get enough of it, even if meat and dairy are not a part of your everyday diet.
About Katrina Swenson
Katrina Swenson is expecting her first child this spring. She works as a mental health counselor with children and families. Katrina enjoys creative endeavors, good books, tall cups of tea, and good friends to share them with.
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Comments
Article author writes: “I don’t know how I got through life as a pretty responsible vegetarian-type person without knowing that B12 is only found in animal products.”(This is Scientifically False.)
ANSWER: The reason you didn’t “know this” IS BECAUSE IT IS MEDICALLY FALLACIOUS. It’s False. That is a myth. It has been scientifically and conclusively disproven. That is simply a false internet hoax that has been spread all over the place. (On too many places on the internet to correct them all) but it’s false. This line was once ‘believed’, and is similar to the ‘complete proteins’ myth. Scientists used to think this but that was outdated science from even before the time when cell-phones were the size of a brick. This is now the 21st century, and we now have Thin-Film Liquid Chromatography, and Mass Spectrometry to analyze B-12 corrinoids and it has proven genuine active human form B-12 in plants(proven).
This B-12 MYTH is not only in amateur blog articles (ahem), but is also posted unwittingly in less-educated user comments, and on chat boards, it’s even utilized by diet book forums such as lowcarb diets based on meat such as atkins to purposely and erroneously derail people from thinking about being vegetarian, it’s repeated by lesser educated authors on “baby” and “pregnancy sites”, parroted on athlete and sports sites, posted intentionally to erroneosly boost meat sales by meat-lobbyists such as the WAPF and the CCF, used meat-based diet book pushers, and individuals with paleo diet book agendas. But even some less-informed “doctors” and outdated medical institutions, and even vegans and vegan sites have been duped into believing it, due to the repetition and believing it since they ‘see’ it everywhere (Goebbels propaganda minister tactic: Repeat anything enough and they’ll all believe it’s true!). NEWS: It does not matter how many times it’s posted, or spread, it only takes 1 proper citation to disprove it, and medical science has already had that.
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