Why Pregnant Mothers
Need to Avoid Junk Food, and What to Choose Instead
Pregnancy and cravings often go hand in hand. Find out how to curb
your cravings for junk food so that you AND your unborn baby can achieve
optimal health.
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Pregnancy is a time to celebrate the creation of life. And let's face it
cravings are often a part of the experience.
Often, these cravings are for "junk food:" food with little to
no nutritional value. But it's not just in pregnancy that the love of junk
food begins. These tantalizing treats have been tempting us all since as long
as most of us can remember. When we crave a particular food it is because
our cells have a memory for that food and are asking for nourishment. They
ask for what they know... not necessarily what they need.
Consumption of junk food and processed foods are out of control in our modern
culture and we're beginning to see the ramifications in our own health and
even more so in the health of our children.
The best way to protect our children is to change our own eating habits...
starting before conception. This article will explain how junk food affects
the health of mom and baby, plus steps you can take today to ensure greater
health for tomorrow.
Research On Junk Food & Pregnancy
A recent study confirms that what a woman chooses to eat during her pregnancy
and nursing periods affects whether or not her child will have a deep-rooted
weakness for junk food. 1
The Royal Veterinary College (RVC), London study investigated the effects
on offspring of pregnant rats that were fed a diet of junk foods like doughnuts,
muffins, chocolate, cheese crisps, and sweets.
According to the researchers, studying rats has implications for humans because
many species have similar appetite controlling mechanisms
The results showed that the offspring of rats whose prenatal nutrition
consisted of junk food:
- Put on weight more quickly.
- Had more cravings for unhealthy foods.
- Gorged themselves.
- Had poorly developed muscles.
- And showed signs of insulin resistance (a precedent to type-2 diabetes)
as early as 3 weeks of age.
While genetics play a large role in your child's health, there is great
news: creating healthy dietary habits can improve the health of your baby!
The new findings are some of the first to suggest that the quality of prenatal
nutrition can affect later eating habits and food choices. In fact, Professor
Neil Stickland says their study indicates that there is fetal programming
at work for food preferences and overeating.
A pregnant mother who eats junk food is stimulating the pleasure centers
of her child's developing brain, and affecting the way her child's complex
appetite control centers are developing.2
Overeating can be caused by the brain associating junk food with pleasure,
and needing increasing amounts of sugary foods to create the same level of
stimulation.
According to the researchers, exposure to junk food
during fetal life or suckling life, may help explain why some people find
it harder than others to control their intake of junk food even when they
have access to healthy foods.
Junk food And Your Inner Ecosystem During Pregnancy
The results of this study don't surprise me at all.
But there is more to this picture that you often don't hear about: how
junk food affects you inner ecosystem.
A healthy inner ecosystem is the key to your health and your baby's health.
If your inner ecosystem is healthy, it's thriving with beneficial microflora
(beneficial bacteria and yeast) that help you digest food, absorb nutrients,
build immunity, manufacture important vitamins and minerals, and regulate
blood sugar.
Although we all need to have a healthy inner ecosystem for good health, once
a woman becomes pregnant, natural changes take place in her body that make
the delicate balance of her inner ecosystem particularly vulnerable.
The Pregnancy-Junk Food-Candida Connection
Because of the natural hormone changes during pregnancy, candida is not uncommon.
Here's why:
- Progesterone levels rise. This is a hormone produced by the ovaries
and the adrenal
glands that is essential for retaining your fetus in the womb. Naturally
high progesterone levels also improve the IQ of a baby. But as progesterone
levels elevate as your pregnancy unfolds your blood sugar also climbs,
creating an acidic condition in your body. The extra sugar is also necessary
since it is important for your baby's developing brain.
- High blood sugar, and acidic blood conditions create the perfect environment
for the fungal infection, candidiasis.
A candida infection in the bloodstream and can also infect your birth canal
and your inner ecosystem. During her pregnancy a woman's immunity is naturally
suppressed so that her body will not reject her baby as a foreign invader.
A systemic infection like candida will lower mom's immunity even more, putting
both baby and mom at risk. A baby depends on his mother's strong immune
system to protect him while he is in the womb and shortly after birth
until his own immune system becomes strong.
- Adrenal fatigue can also set in. While mother's adrenals are already
working hard to create a new physical body for her child, they become even
more fatigued when candidiasis infection is in her body. The fungus literally
eats minerals right out of her bloodstream. Mineral-depleted blood is acidic
and allows the infections to become even more severe.
A pregnant mother who indulges in a nutrient deficient, junk food diet,
coupled with her already higher blood sugar levels, will worsen the acidic
blood condition in her body.
Exhaustion, adrenal fatigue, candida infection, and mineral deficiencies
create powerful cravings for more sugary, carbohydrate-rich foods for short-term
energy. A vicious cycle ensues as the blood becomes more and more acidic.
Body Ecology to the Rescue: Our Healthy Way of Life Can Create Beautiful,
Healthy, Happy Babies!
Let's face it, as parents and grandparents we very much want our children
and grandchildren to be healthy. Fortunately, the Body Ecology System of Health
and Healing is here just in time to help us reverse the current health crises
our children face. If our young women do not begin to create optimal
health in their own bodies before they conceive a child, and while
they are pregnant and nursing, the human race is heading for
extinction.
This is the message that children with autism illustrate so clearly. Let's
begin to learn from them and take action to prevent the tragedy ahead.
For more information read: What
Every Girl and Woman Needs to Know NOW If They Ever Want to Have a Baby
How Body Ecology Can Help You Stop the Junk Food Cycle
The key to ending cravings for junk food for yourself and your unborn baby
begins with healing your inner ecosystem and correcting your digestive function.
You also must rid your body of pathogenic bacteria and candida.
You will want to nourish and strengthen your adrenals and your thyroid by
feeding them the nutrients they thrive on (and a healthy inner ecosystem is
essential for this as well), and you want to stop those intense cravings for
junk food that nag at you throughout the day.
Some cravings during pregnancy are normal because of the increased nutrient
and energy demands brought on by higher progesterone levels and adrenal activity.
But healthy cravings are for important fats, proteins, dark green leafy veggies
and ocean veggies... the very foods we enjoy on the Body
Ecology Diet.
The stereotype of a pregnant woman craving pickles and ice cream is not
a joke!
It's her body's way of telling her that she needs to obtain certain nutrients
because her baby needs them.
For example, her ice cream craving is her body's way of saying, "feed
me more fat." It wants the kind of fatty acids that you obtain when you
eat raw butter, ghee and raw cream. This fat is vital for the developing brain
and for the bones and teeth to absorb minerals. (Of course the omega
- 3 fats like fish oil and cod liver oil are necessary also to make balance.)
If a mother eats these fats before, during and after the pregnancy her baby's
brain and nervous system and even the brain in his intestines will be well
developed. After birth, her milk will continue to nourish the still-developing
organs that are now growing rapidly since her baby is no longer contained
in the limited environment of her womb.
And if you are a BEDer you probably already know why a pregnant woman craves
sour foods. The sour foods, which in traditional diets were obtained from
healing, fermented
foods and drinks, are full of beneficial microflora.
But why the cravings for something sweet along with the sour? Eating the
right amount of sweets provides just a little bit of sugar necessary
for the microflora to colonize, grow and flourish.
The problem is that pickled foods in stores today are not the same as traditional
fermented foods that are so good for you. They are pasteurized and include
too much refined salt and vinegar. Basically, they're dead food and lack the
life force to create new life. .
Consuming delicious fermented
foods and drinks like cultured
vegetables, homemade young coconut kefir and milk kefir is the true solution.
(If dairy works for you, milk kefir is also an excellent food for pregnant
and nursing moms. It is also very easy to make at home from fresh, raw milk.)
Innergy
Biotic and CocoBiotic
are convenient ways to add more beneficial microflora to your diet, and they
are far more potent than a probiotic supplement. (A small amount each day
makes a big difference.) These foods will not only control cravings for junk
food, but will play a critical role in the well being of millions of pregnant
women and their infants.
In fact, fermented foods and drinks should become a staple of prenatal
nutrition!
Some other benefits of fermented foods and drinks are that they:
- Create A Healthy Inner Ecosystem: They lay down a foundation for
a healthy inner ecosystem in a pregnant mother, which is essential for inoculating
her baby with a healthy microflora at birth. This translates to a strong
hardy immune system.
- Provide More Nutrients: The nutrient content of food increases
hundreds of times when fermented, and the abundant microflora in them act
like enzymes to properly digest food, and utilize all the nutrients.
- Reduce Damage From Sugar: Microflora
in fermented foods enjoy sugars in foods and reduce the damage to you or
your fetus. They are excellent for controlling cravings. The sour foods
suppress desire for too many sweets. You baby will not crave them after
he is born either.
- Help Your Body Detoxify: A growing fetus is especially vulnerable
to toxins in the mother's body. The fermented foods are wonderful detoxifiers
but they cleanse in a gentle, consistent way. For example, cruciferous vegetables
found in cultured veggies (like cabbage and kale) contain calcium glucarate,
a powerful detoxifier. Sadly, today pregnant women are now told to avoid
fish... an excellent animal protein... because of the mercury. When fermented
foods are in your diet and especially when they are eaten in the same meal,
the microflora remove harmful chemical, heavy metals and toxins before they
can be absorbed. They are then eliminated in your stool.
- Protect You and Your Baby From Pathogens. Microflora in fermented
foods will attack toxins, parasites, and pathogens that are on the foods
you eat.
The Body Ecology program is the premier way to health not only for pregnant
mothers, but for anyone who wants to be free of disease, weight problems,
and unhealthy food cravings.
No matter who you are, getting the junk food "monkey" off your
back does not take as long as you would think either.
It may take about a week to ten to get to the point where you no longer find
yourself not even thinking about junk food anymore. Instead you'll start to
crave healthy, healing foods you and your baby really need.
Find out how one mother followed Body Ecology for her healthy pregnancy:
How Deborah Wieder's Body - and Her Baby - Thrived with Body
Ecology.
Choose Body Ecology for Good Overall Health
I believe that many of the symptoms of dis-ease that plague most people today
can be cured by a natural, wholesome diet that incorporates nature's forgotten
super-foods: fermented
foods and drinks. The Body
Ecology Diet is full of vital information you can't get anywhere else,
and is the only diet out there that focuses on understanding the complex workings
of your inner ecosystem and it's affects on your overall health.
You will learn can learn the nuts and bolts about the Body Ecology system
of health and healing by reading The Body Ecology Diet. And now, I've included
a special bonus report when you order The Body Ecology Diet from our site:
The Body Ecology Essential Health Guide for Expecting Mothers -- and Women
Who Will Someday be Mothers."
If you are planning on becoming a parent, or know someone who is, this report
contains insights and advice that you can't find anywhere else. I recommend
it as a must-read for anyone wanting a healthy baby.
Healthy babies begin with healthy parents. The answer to autism, ADD, ADHD,
juvenile obesity and all the many problems our children face today lies in
understanding what we teach.
Proper nutrition before and during your pregnancy, followed by setting a
good example for your children by continuing to eat healthy yourself, is the
most important step that you can take towards creating a future generation
of healthy adults.
Sources:
1 Scientists Reveal Eating Junk Food During Pregnancy Could Up Obesity Risk
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/53612.php
2 ibid.
Miranda Hitti, WebMD Medical News. Pregnancy Diet Tip: Limit Junk Food
http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20070815/pregnancy-diet-tip-limit-junk-food
Junk Food In Pregnancy Causes Overeating in Children
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-8-22/58945.html
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