Let me start by saying that this morning, in typical fashion, we got up and made a batch of banana-walnut pancakes with brown sugar syrup. In not-so-typical fashion, we got really fired up about making a batch of decaf.
I'll admit that Matt and I have always kind of derided decaf coffee as a waste of time, something enjoyed by those who were as likely to appreciate a cup of hot prune juice. Well, pregnancy changes a lot of things.
And while there are sources that say it's OK to enjoy the occasional cup of coffee during pregnancy, there are others that say it's probably not a good idea, and my instincts tell me that at least this early, it's probably best to abstain. So decaf it is, and it was actually very good.
Here's the rundown on what else we're avoiding during pregnancy:
1. BPA. We've talked about it before. Sadly, our shatterproof French press carafe is, you guessed it, plastic #7. Our stovetop espresso maker is aluminum, which may not be much better, so as soon as it's in the budget we'll probably get a glass carafe for the French press. In the meantime, we're sipping very lightly, but there are those times when a Saturday morning just cries out for a hot beverage. We were drinking a lot of chai, which has the benefit of an entire cup of milk per serving, but now I'm running low on spices.
2. Teflon. We've switched entirely to cooking in cast-iron or stainless steel, and while we've had some sticky moments, we've found that tips like preheating the pan and using a liberal amount of butter have allowed us to enjoy (practically) stick-free eggs, pancakes, and everything else.
3. High-fructose corn syrup. I haven't seen research stating this is specifically bad for developing embryos (if it exists, it's probably been suppressed by the AMA anyway!), but it's a nutritional void at best (and therefore displaces healthier foods I could be eating) and a contributor to chronic disease at worst. No thanks. And now that I think about it, it's been linked to diabetes, which contributes to all kinds of problems in pregnancy.
4. Ultrasounds. I'm not planning on one at all--we don't want to know the sex, if there was something "wrong" with the baby it wouldn't change our plans any, and they haven't been proven to be safe in pregnancy. They may even be harmful.
5. Pesticides. The link is to an article from the EU, but my uneducated guess is that they're probably using far FEWER pesticides than we are--they're just more open about it. And according to Maternal, Neonatal, and Women's Health Nursing, over fifty pesticides are known teratogens, and they're suspected to increase the rates of miscarriage, fetal death, and physical malformations such as cleft lip and extra fingers. So we're going organic whenever we can.
6. Cosmetics. A host of chemicals abound in these, but in particular phthalates (how could you trust a word spelled like that anyway?) chemicals found in MOST cosmetics and many soaps and shampoos, have been linked to cancer, birth defects, and the feminization of male fetuses. The only beauty product I still use is Pantene Pro-V shampoo, and I'm trying to wean myself. I use castile soap for everything else, and for moisturizer, I use a couple of drops of jojoba oil mixed with a drop of tea tree oil, and if I do say so myself, my skin has never looked better. And then you know about the deodorant and aluminum and all, but I'll say it again--these days, we're using a 50/50 blend of cornstarch and baking soda with a couple of drops of tea tree oil for its antibacterial and anti-odor properties. And I've been told I smell pretty good.
Typical pregnancy worries we're not really concerned about (and why):
1. Toxoplasmosis. Traditional pregnancy advice was to get rid of your cat; in recent years, that's softened to having someone else change the litterbox, in order to avoid contracting the parasite, which can adversely affect a developing fetus. But being that toxoplasma is ingested through eating infected prey, and our 100% indoor cats subsist entirely on a diet of dry food (supplemented with the occasional cricket), I'm not worried (though I don't argue with Matt when he offers to change the litter, either). (I'm also sort of confused as to why changing the cat litter is associated with "ingesting infected cat feces." I, uh, have never found that to be part of my litterbox-changing routine, but maybe I'm doing something wrong.)
2. Soft-cooked eggs. We know the farmer who provides our eggs and we've met the chickens, and as such we know they're kept in very clean, natural conditions. Hard-cooked eggs (or dry scrambled eggs) make me want to barf, so I'd rather just eat high-quality eggs that are unlikely to be infected with Salmonella.
3. The same goes for unpasteurized milk, cheese, and apple cider. Once again, I believe that if you know your supplier and he/she is following strict, safe practices, you're probably eating safer food than what is put into the general anonymous food supply under the assumption that "pasteurization will kill whatever gets in there anyway." I also believe that these foods have other health benefits that are destroyed by high heat. Yes, there are risks in life, but people have been eating these foods (pregnant or not) for centuries, and it appears they've only been hardier for it. If you want to see a robust bunch of babies and children (and women who don't appear to have any trouble carrying a pregnancy--or two, or ten--to full-term), just look at the Amish.
3. The occasional glass of wine--in my third trimester. For now, we're on the wagon.
4. Counting calories. Conventional wisdom says the average, normal-weight woman should gain 25-35 pounds during pregnancy, but some doctors have considered dropping that down to 15-20. This article has a breakdown of where the extra weight goes during pregnancy, for a total of 25 pounds--but you'll notice it has nothing allotted for a few pounds of fat storage, which your body puts on instinctively to provide calories that can be immediately released for breastfeeding. (It also assumes a 7-8lb baby; I was about 8-1/2 and Matt was close to ten, so I'm not anticipating much less than a nine-pounder.) If you strictly limit your weight in the hopes of avoiding putting on a few pounds of stored energy, your body will divert the resources it should be using toward your baby and your placenta. And I'm convinced this probably has something to do with why so many American women have trouble with their milk supply. I can't tell you how many women I've had deliver their babies, then when I offer them some juice or ginger ale afterwards, ask me if we carry "anything diet." I'm not advocating free-for-all weight gain, but I am saying that the priority in the immediate days postpartum is making enough milk to nourish your baby--NOT slipping back into your high-school jeans! The kicker? Women who follow a restrictive diet are more likely to gain large amounts of weight when pregnant than those who don't. As such, I'm loosely following the Brewer diet (which emphasizes high-protein, high-quality natural foods "to appetite," including a quart of milk and two eggs a day, as a means to give your body and your baby's body the building blocks they need for a healthy pregnancy), eating until I'm satisfied, and avoiding junk food.
On a similar note, Grist has a pretty rational checklist for avoiding toxins in pregnancy, and I was happy to see that most of what we're already doing matches right up with what they recommend, right down to avoiding Teflon pans (though they do still bang the drum against cat litter, and also list as safe a number of the products the Dr Bronner suit has proven to have unhealthy petrochemicals in them). In the end, I think every woman has to educate herself and follow her intuition about what's right for her and her baby--because this video, while inspiring, shows us where you can end up by having blind faith in the medical establishment.
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