CHAPTER FIVE
Recipe for a Super Baby
Foods that heal, strengthen, protect, and nourish
We never have as much power over our health and the health of future generations as when we sit down to eat.
—MICHAEL POLLAN
This is the chapter where we put it all together to give you the ultimate plan for what to eat to improve your odds of conceiving.
We are what we eat because food feeds and ultimately creates our cells. That means food makes up our bones, our skin, our immune system, and our brain, and affects our emotions. We want you to nourish yourself with the best of the best so your body can run at optimal level, a level it potentially has never experienced before. We’ve talked about what to remove from your diet and cabinets, and now it’s time to fill them with delicious, exciting foods so you’ll never look back. It’s like giving someone the bad news before the good news: This chapter holds all the good news!
And since you don’t always get pregnant just by changing your diet and adding supplements, we close out the chapter by walking you through ideas on how a ceremony around conceiving can bring you and your partner closer, followed by our detailed 12-week Preconception Action Plan.
YOUR FERTILITY GODDESS DIET
Here we go! These are the foods to include in your preconception diet, and why you’d be crazy not to:
Top 6 Superfoods
• Top-quality, grass-fed, organic raw cow or goat dairy products
• Bone broth (and collagen/gelatin)
• Leafy green vegetables
• Healthy fats and oils
• Pasture-raised meat and eggs
• Thyroid-boosting foods
Top-Quality, Grass-Fed, Organic Raw Cow or Goat Dairy Products
There’s a lot of controversy out there about milk, and whether one should drink pasteurized milk or raw milk. Pasteurized dairy is actually a completely different food than raw dairy, and we are firm believers in the natural immune-boosting properties of raw milk. However, we want to address the concerns surrounding raw milk because they are valid and you’re probably hearing about them from a variety of sources.
Let’s start with the pasteurization process. For one, pasteurization isn’t just happening to our milk, but also to our juices, our almonds, our cheeses, and many more of our foods these days. It’s hard to find food that is truly raw, even if it says so on the package. And raw food contains lots of enzymes that contribute to the digestive process, so we are losing out when we can’t get the real, raw thing. In the pasteurization process, milk is heated up to high enough temperatures to kill off harmful bacteria. Pasteurization served a great purpose when some dairy farms were producing such unclean milk that they could no longer sell it safely without pasteurization. If we can get farming standards back to what they should be (or already are for some dairy farmers), this debate wouldn’t be so far out. Milk would just be milk.
If not handled correctly, raw milk, like raw fish, deli meat, and many more potential culprits, can pose a risk for bacterial contamination—the kind that can lead to serious complications. Of particular concern for pregnant women is the listeria bacteria that can be found in raw milk or dairy. Listeria can cause serious harm during pregnancy, including miscarriage, premature delivery, and even infant death. According to the CDC, this risk is very low, with listeriosis in pregnancy occurring at a rate of 12 in 100,000 pregnant women.1
We recommend that you continue reading. We quote the response of the owner of Organic Pastures regarding concerns about raw milk safety and then give our take on raw milk. You just may choose to include it in your diet once you hear about all the amazing things raw milk can do for your body and baby during preconception and pregnancy. Again, we always believe that a woman should listen to her heart, gut, and mind when making a decision of which she is uncertain and trust her decision.
The Case for Raw Milk
We know many American OB/GYNs will tell you to only consume pasteurized dairy and they would have our heads for recommending the raw stuff because of the potential (12 in 100,000) bacteria issue. But as we stated before, raw milk has amazing benefits.
Let’s first consider the fact that 90 percent of our cells are bacterial. Bacteria keep us alive and cover us in that invisible body armor we talked about earlier, protecting us from environmental insults. They help us digest our food and allow our bodies to make vitamins and minerals. Bacteria can teach us so much about preventing disease since they have been around for hundreds of thousands of years longer than humans. Thus we are not really humans having a bacterial experience, we are bacteria having a human experience.
Bacteria talk and respond to each other, which is how they control pathogenic activity in the body. This is such an important role of good bacteria, yet we are consistently killing all bacteria from our food supply by pasteurizing it (heating it up to kill all the bugs—even the good ones). According to Princeton University microbiologist Bonnie Bassler,2 through pasteurization we’ve consistently killed good bacteria in our food supply over the last one hundred years (to create shelf-stable products and prevent bad bacteria). We use antibacterial hand soap and disinfect everything. The human immune system needs some environmental challenges in order to develop resiliency and the ability to fight bad bacteria and to be able to distinguish good from bad. Less exposure to all the kinds of bacteria that make up a teeming microbiome has caused damage to our immune systems’ abilities to fight pathogens and respond to antigens in our bodies.
The process of pasteurization kills all bacteria in dairy products, including milk, cream, and cheese. Along with the bad bacteria, though, pasteurization kills the wonderful enzymes (lactase) that help us to digest it properly. Digestive enzymes break down bigger food molecules into smaller building blocks so that nutrients can be absorbed by the body. A healthy body secretes digestive enzymes in four places: the mouth (by way of chewing, which is why it’s so important to adequately chew your food), stomach, pancreas, and small intestine. Without these enzymes, we cannot absorb all the nutrients from our food and deficiencies and digestion problems ensue. This is a big reason so many people think they are lactose intolerant; they are not receiving the essential enzymes in the milk that allow them to process it. Truthfully, pasteurized dairy isn’t perfectly compatible with any digestive system because it requires the body to pull from its own reserves of enzymes to process what the body now sees as a foreign substance. Many people who are lactose intolerant actually have issues with pasteurized dairy (and tolerate grass-fed raw dairy just fine). They can face awful side effects, including constipation, bloating, gas, depression, sinus pressure, mucus buildup, and acne.
During a Weston A. Price Foundation lecture we attended a few years back, the speaker was Mark McAfee, who is the owner of Organic Pastures Dairy in Northern California. He said, “Pasteurization excuses filth.” Those three words hit us like a ton of bricks. He was right. When some milk is pasteurized, it doesn’t matter what that cow ate, how it was treated, the cleanliness of its environment, or what kind of bugs it collected because its milk will be heated to 160°F (or usually much higher) and within 15 seconds all bacteria, enzymes, proteins, and immune-boosting properties will be killed. He went on to read verified statistics of how Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) cows, or factory farm cows, whose milk fills the shelves of conventional grocery stores, eat completely unregulated foods such as old baked goods.3
Happy cows that eat what they would naturally choose to eat in nature (grass) really do make the healthiest, anti-inflammatory milk. This milk can, in turn, significantly boost our immunity (especially in children who are frequently sick). This is a tool you can use to build, or earn back, a strong immune system that allows your body to protect itself. Raw milk can be step one of this process.
Additionally, raw milk can help heal asthma, improve digestive function and the bioavailability of vitamins and minerals, as well as deliver essential fats for cell protection. Raw, whole milk provides the perfect blend of protein, carbohydrates, and fat (1:2:1) to perfectly feed the thyroid gland and turn off the stress response (for healthy adrenal function), plus it contains a peptide that supports restful sleep. We have many of our prenatal clients drink at least 12 ounces a day in a smoothie or before bed to help with blood sugar stabilization during sleep. Sourcing the highest-quality raw milk is essential here since that is your best protection from bad bacteria. We love the brand Organic Pastures, but if it isn’t available in your area, check with local farmers to see if raw milk is legal and available in your state. You can also call your local health food store to see if you can track down raw milk from good-quality cows that live in the sunshine and have eaten grass their whole lives.
If you don’t drink milk and don’t want to start, or are truly lactose intolerant, try goat’s milk, or unsweetened coconut milk, almond milk, or hemp milk.
Bone Broth (and Collagen/Gelatin)
Bone broth is seriously a magic healing elixir. In fact, we don’t know how we got along before we knew about it. Adding healing bone broth to your diet will skyrocket your health and the health of your baby.
Bone broth is chicken broth, but not the watery stuff found on grocery store shelves. This is the stuff your great-great-great-grandmothers used to make to cure everything. It’s playfully been called Jewish penicillin for its ability to nurse someone back to health during a cold. It is thick and gelatinous and will help you balance and boost your hormones 30 percent faster than with lifestyle changes alone.
You often hear that you should eat chicken soup when you’re sick, but maybe you thought it was an old wives’ tale, or just weren’t sure what it had to do with feeling better. It turns out it’s not so much the chicken soup that does the trick, but the bone broth where the magic lies. Traditional bone broth is still made and ingested today by people around the globe. Healing bone broth is made from organic, raw chicken bones (not roasted ones like the broth we buy in the store). The bones are simmered over a 24-hour period to give the broth time to absorb all of their minerals. Some people even use the feet, too, for a richer broth—we know that might sound gross, but all the collagen is found in the feet, which leads to better skin, hair, and nails, and also helps you synthesize protein better.
The benefits really are incredible. The following is a great list of what bone broth does to support your health:
1. Promotes gut healing: Bone broth has been used successfully to treat all kinds of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, including heartburn and acid reflux, colitis, Crohn’s disease, and even infant diarrhea. If you heal and boost your GI tract, you’ll be able to absorb more nutrients from food, making for more nutrients for your baby during pregnancy.
2. Helps digestion: Bone broth improves the digestibility of beans, grains, legumes, vegetables, and meat.
3. Provides macrominerals: Highly absorbable forms of calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and sulphur, as well as trace minerals, are abundant in bone broth and essential to baby’s growing bones.
4. Provides gelatin and collagen: The gelatin and collagen in bone broth promote bone and joint healing, in addition to supporting digestion and hormonal balance. They also improve your skin, hair, and nails, and your baby’s, too.
5. Provides protein: Bone broth adds easily digestible protein to your diet, which is great for those times when you need a lot of nutrition, but you just don’t want to eat or are too sick to eat because of morning sickness.
6. Supports joints: Glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and hyaluronic acid from bone broth provide additional muscle and joint support.
7. Supports the immune system: The assimilation of vitamins and minerals are enhanced by bone broth, thus supporting immunity.
On top of all of those benefits, it is also delicious and nutritious: Use it as your soup base, as a cooking liquid for grains and beans, in sauces—or simply enjoy a plain cup of warm broth with a pinch of sea salt and coconut oil.
How do you make bone broth? This mineral-rich elixir is made by simmering the bones of free-range organic chicken, herbs, and a small amount of raw apple cider vinegar in purified water. See here for our foolproof recipe. We love using it in our gut-repair protocols to strengthen immunity, and to balance and boost adrenal function. Don’t feel like cooking? Nationwide, you can buy it premade and have it shipped to your door at drinkbroth.com.
We recommend that during preconception you drink 1 cup of bone broth a day in a mug like tea. The perfect snack for a prenatal mama is a piece of fruit with 1 cup broth mixed with 2 tablespoons gelatin or collagen (see below), 1 teaspoon coconut oil, and a little salt. Do that every day as either your mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack, and you should notice a positive difference in how you feel.
If you want an added bang for your buck that will go the extra mile for your energy, skin, hair, and nails, then add 2 tablespoons organic, grass-fed beef collagen to your daily routine. Collagen is amazing for prenatal health and will help heal your gut (especially if you have leaky gut), improve your ability to use and absorb protein (which will boost your thyroid health and metabolism), and give you strong nails, shiny hair, and glowing skin—not to mention more energy, better mental clarity, and a calmer state of mind thanks to its high level of the amino acid glycine. Bulletproof is our favorite brand. Since collagen is tasteless, you can add it to smoothies or soups, mash it into an avocado or a sweet potato, or use it to make homemade Jell-O.
Leafy Green Vegetables
Green vegetables are the food missing most in modern American diets, so learning to cook and eat greens will be essential to creating your best health. When you regularly nourish yourself with greens, they help naturally crowd out the foods that make you sick. It’s interesting how nature makes it easy to recognize what is best for us by color-coding the fruits and vegetables to announce their health benefits: Green is associated with spring, the time of renewal, refreshment, and vital energy. And in traditional Chinese medicine, green is related to the liver, emotional stability, and creativity.
Nutritionally, greens are very high in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and vitamins A, C, E, and K. They are crammed with fiber, folate, chlorophyll, and many other micronutrients and phytochemicals. These are all essential nutrients for making a healthy baby and staying healthy yourself. Remember, the baby will take what it needs from you, even if that ends up leaving you depleted, so make sure to get enough nourishment for both of you!
Some of the many benefits from eating dark leafy greens are:
• Blood purification
• Cancer prevention4
• Improved circulation
• Strengthened immune and respiratory systems
• Promotion of healthy intestinal flora
• Supple, light, and flexible energy
• Lifted spirits and reduced feelings of depression
• Improved liver, gallbladder, and kidney function
• Clearing of congestion, especially in lungs, by reducing mucus
Green Goodness
According to the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, “Dark greens supply a significant amount of folate, a B vitamin that promotes heart health and helps prevent certain birth defects. Folate is also necessary for DNA duplication and repair, which protects against the development of cancer. Several large studies have shown that high intakes of folate may lower the risk of colon polyps by 30 to 40 percent compared to low intakes of this vitamin. Other research suggests that diets low in folate may increase the risk of cancers of the breast, cervix, and lung.
“The vitamin K contents of dark green leafy vegetables provide a number of health benefits including: protecting bones from osteoporosis and helping to prevent inflammatory diseases.
“Because of their high levels of antioxidants, green leafy vegetables may be one of the best cancer-preventing foods. Studies have shown that eating just 2 to 3 servings of green leafy vegetables per week may lower the risk of stomach, breast, and skin cancer. These same antioxidants have also been proven to decrease the risk of heart disease.”
There are many greens to choose from, so when you get bored with your regulars, branch out and try some new ones like:
• Arugula
• Bok choy
• Broccoli
• Broccoli rabe
• Chicory
• Collards
• Dandelion greens
• Endive
• Lettuce
• Mesclun
• Mustard greens
• Napa cabbage
• Watercress
• Wild greens
On your preconception plan, aim to include two servings of dark leafy greens per day. (A serving equals 1 cup cooked, 2 cups raw, or a green drink.) Try our greens recipes to get your creative (green) juices flowing and teach you how to cook up these life-enhancing, nutrient-dense foods. Incorporating your greens daily will also go a long way toward keeping your pH balanced in preconception and throughout pregnancy.
Note: Spinach, Swiss chard, and beet greens are best eaten cooked, or with a fat like oil or avocado, because when eaten raw they are high in oxalic acid, which can deplete calcium.
Healthy Fats and Oils
You can make or break your health with the fats and oils you consume, especially during pregnancy. Avoid canola, so-called vegetable, and soy oils as much as possible. Unfortunately, restaurants use these oils, so when you eat out, you’ll eat plenty of these lower-quality, pro-inflammatory, genetically modified oils, so it is important to keep your house as “clean” as possible.
We suggest cooking with ghee (clarified butter), grass-fed butter, avocado oil, or coconut oil. Butter and coconut oil are our top two favorites, but all can withstand high-heat cooking and are especially nutrient-dense.
During preconception, try to take at least 1 tablespoon of organic, raw coconut oil daily, as well as 1 full tablespoon of grass-fed butter or ghee (dairy-free). You can ingest it straight, melted into a soup, blended into a smoothie, spread on your favorite gluten-free toast or organic tortilla, or stirred into hot tea. For salads and non-cooking, we love and recommend organic extra virgin olive oil. All of our recipes will teach you how to use these fats and oils to extract their greatest benefits.
Essential Fatty Acids and Omega-3s
To improve the odds of conception and to help your baby’s brain fully develop, it is essential that you take in enough high-quality omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s help you get pregnant because they improve the quality of cervical mucus and increase blood flow to the reproductive organs (for men and women); they also reduce whole-body inflammation. Essential fatty acids (EFAs), like omega-3s, are the fatty acids that the body needs to be complete but cannot produce on its own—this is why we must get them through a well-balanced diet. Sufficient omega-3 fatty acids play a key role in maintaining good cardiovascular health and are essential for healthy implantation and fetal development and the prevention of miscarriage.
Signs of EFA deficiency:
• Fatigue
• Heart problems
• Dry skin, eczema, or hair loss
• Poor immunity
• Mood swings or depression
• Poor circulation
• Poor memory
• Reproductive problems (in men and women)
Foods that contain EFAs (shoot for one serving daily of one of these):
• Cold-water fish: 4 ounces
• Wild salmon: 4 ounces
• Sardines: 1 cup
• Mackerel: 1 ounce
• Anchovies: 1 ounce
• Cod liver oil: as directed on bottle
• Flax and chia seeds: 2 tablespoons
• Walnuts: 1 ounce, ¼ cup, or 12 to 14 walnut halves
Pasture-Raised Meat and Eggs
Despite what you may have heard, saturated fat can be great for you in the right amounts. We now know that saturated fat is crucial for cardiovascular health because it reduces levels of a substance called lipoprotein(a) that correlates with a strong risk of heart disease. Saturated fat is also required for mineral absorption (as we discussed when talking about vitamin A from pasture-raised animals). According to Mary Enig, PhD, one of the foremost research experts in dietary fats and human health, there’s a strong argument for saturated fat to make up as much as 50 percent of the fats in your diet. Saturated fat is also essential for a healthy brain, given that the brain is mostly made up of fat and cholesterol. Saturated fat provides the raw materials for both the brain and the nervous system to function optimally. For this reason, and because of the increased need for calcium during pregnancy, the case to include saturated fat in the diet in the form of pasture-raised beef and eggs is even stronger.5
Consuming the right amount of saturated fat—as we guide you to do in this book—will also keep your immune system strong during pregnancy and postpartum because studies show sufficient saturated fatty acids in white blood cells give them the ability to recognize and destroy foreign invaders such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi.
Your liver loves saturated fat, too. When given the right amount of healthy saturated fat, the liver can produce good cholesterol, a necessary life-giving molecule. From the good cholesterol that the liver produces, the body can then make the amount of estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone it needs for hormonal balance (and also brain protection). (If you don’t have a gallbladder, you can take ox bile to help you digest the extra fat you’ll be including in your diet.)
Remember that you eat what the animal eats, so thoughtful sourcing and quality is everything. If there is one thing that every American needs to know about our current food supply, it is what we have done to our animals and animal products. This is why when clients ask us what one thing they should buy organic, our answer is always animal products. It is true that organic animal products are more expensive, but food was never meant to be the cheapest part of our budget. We firmly believe that preventative health should be prioritized, because it will save you tremendously in doctor and hospital bills (and quality of life) in the long run.
Because the quality of what the animal eats determines the quality of the animal we consume, it is essential to know what your food ate. Meat from a cow that ate corn (or even worse if it was raised in a factory farm), for instance, is dramatically different from the meat from a cow that ate grass. Conventionally raised chickens are frequently fed soy. Chickens are not vegetarians by nature, so it doesn’t make sense to pay more for vegetarian-fed chickens or eggs. Ideally, they should be eating flies, bugs, and worms, which increases the fatty acid and protein content of their meat and eggs.
Conventionally raised chickens and cows are frequently injected with hormones to fatten them up for slaughter and sale. These hormones are destroying our collective hormonal health. Moreover, chickens and cows are given antibiotics in their feed to prevent them from getting sick from living in such close, inhumane quarters. Those antibiotics get absorbed into the animal that we end up buying and consuming. When we eat the “polluted” meat of an animal that regularly consumed antibiotics, we are consuming a low dose of antibiotics and killing the good flora in our guts, leading to a wide array of health and digestive issues, including a weak and ailing immune system and hormonal imbalance. Conventionally raised chickens and cows are also very stressed, and stress creates stress hormones. When we eat the meat of an animal who experienced a very poor quality of life in a stressful environment, we are then consuming a meat filled with those stress hormones.
There is a wonderful, must-see documentary called Food, Inc. that exposes the unflattering side of the commercial food industry and the inhumane treatment of animals that’s all too common in factory farms.
We are so grateful that places such as US Wellness Meats exist to offer sustainable, pasture-raised meats no matter where you live. They ship nationwide if you cannot find organic meat in your area. Visit cleanmeats.com to find out more. In addition, Whole Foods Markets carry high-quality, ethically sourced animal meats. Kudos to Whole Foods for shining consciousness and awareness around this pressing issue by implementing a five-step rating system for meat. They are major pioneers in imposing the standards we need to improve our food supply, decentralize farming, and get Americans back to a greater state of health and balance.
We always guide people to eat meat responsibly and with reverence. Here are some healthy options from which to choose:
• Grass-fed beef
• Free-range pork
• Lamb
• Free-range chicken
• Organ meats (especially liver and heart)
• Raw milk
• Raw cheese
• Raw butter and cream
• Wild-caught salmon and shrimp
• Oysters (cooked only)
Animal Products and Omega-6s
A big problem with conventional animal products—as well as chips, crackers, and salad dressings—is that they contain omega-6 fatty acids. (These acids are also found in the oils used in snack foods including corn oil, cottonseed oil, canola oil, safflower oil, and sunflower oil, as well as many nuts.) Having too much omega-6 in your diet can be problematic because the imbalance causes inflammation.
In contrast to omega-6 fatty acids, there’s a similar substance in the body called omega-3 (also a fatty acid), which we just talked about. Omega-3s, which are found in the fat of grass-fed and pastured meat products, have anti-inflammatory properties and can actually counteract the inflammation that overconsuming foods with omega-6 fats causes in the body.
Because the two kinds of fatty acids interact with one another, the recommended ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in the body is 2:1. But most Americans have a ratio of 20:1. If you follow the dietary recommendations in this book, you will automatically decrease the omega-6 fatty acids in your diet while simultaneously increasing the amount of omega-3 fatty acids in your body. That’s just a part of the reason why eating grass-fed, organic, and pastured meats can cause such a big change in how you feel.
Thyroid-Boosting Foods
Since the thyroid is such a key player in the role of our hormonal balance, we’ve got to show it some love by taking in the nutrients that support it. By eliminating gluten and soy, adding in bone broth, good-quality fat, and animal protein, you have already done a great service to your thyroid. Next, we’ll fill in with other nutrients that help it make the key hormones you need right now.
Five key nutrients and foods that support and heal the thyroid:
1. Iodine: Foods rich in iodine (not including iodized salt) help the thyroid make the hormones that regulate metabolism and therefore help with energy and weight loss or maintaining a healthy weight. Iodine-rich foods include:
• Artichokes
• Kelp/seaweed
• Onions
• Pineapple
2. Selenium: A deficiency in selenium is a major underlying factor in thyroid disorders because selenium maintains the production of various thyroid hormones. So we have nutrients such as iodine that help us make thyroid hormones, and then nutrients that help us sustain and maintain what we are producing. Selenium-rich foods include:
• Eggs (pasture-raised only)
• Shellfish (wild only—quality wild fish of all kinds can be found at cleanfishchoices.com)
• Mushrooms (maitake, shiitake, cremini)
• Garlic
• Sunflower seeds
• Brazil nuts (soaked to improve digestibility)
3. Essential fatty acids, omega-3s (hmm… these keep coming up!): These life-changing nutrients play a key role in maintaining good cardiovascular health, brain function, and are essential for healthy implantation and fetal development and the prevention of miscarriage. Get your EFAs from:
• Fish oil (fermented is our favorite)
• Leafy greens
• Flaxseed
• Chia seeds
4. Coconut butter and coconut oil: We could just do backflips over all things coconut. Coconut oil and coconut butter (made from the meat of the coconut once the oil is removed) are raw, saturated fats that contain essential fatty acids that promote thyroid health. The fat in these foods is quickly converted to energy, which helps regulate thyroid function.
5. Copper and iron: Having enough iron will help your body manufacture thyroid hormones. In one study, 15.7 percent of women with low thyroid function were iron deficient. Copper is another important mineral for the thyroid because it helps the hypothalamus (a master gland in your brain) regulate the thyroid more effectively. An August 2010 study with pregnant rats revealed copper-deficient mothers gave birth to rats that produced 48 percent less T3 (thyroid hormone responsible for making energy) than those born from healthy mothers.6 There is one caveat here to consider. If you used a copper IUD (ParaGard) for birth control prior to trying to conceive, you’re likely to have too much copper in your system and would want to remove any excess (using a healthy diet and a greens formula or chlorella) prior to conceiving. While studies show no increase in serum copper levels with an IUD for up to twenty-four months, the ParaGard prevents pregnancy for up to ten years. Christa has found after running lab tests for heavy metals that for 1 out of 2 women who’ve had the copper IUD for more than three years, some level of copper detoxification is prudent. Foods rich in copper and iron include:
• Beans (except kidney beans—because they can be difficult to digest)
• Clams
• Leafy greens
• Organ meats (liver and onions, anyone?)
• Oysters (cooked)
• Raw cashews
• Red meat
Bonus tip! When you add vitamin C—from foods like citrus, tomatoes, bell peppers, or berries—to these foods, you increase your iron absorption.
If you have a thyroid condition called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, please reference our favorite book on healing it. It’s called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause.
Oil Pulling
Oil pulling would be a great thing for both you and your partner to do during preconception. It is a safe, simple, inexpensive “do it yourself” method of cleansing the “bad” bacteria in your mouth, which also affects your gut. It has been touted as a restorative remedy in the East for thousands of years. (See Resources here for more information.)
It is completely safe and extremely effective, especially when you commit to it for 21 days in a row. How does it work? Put about 1½ tablespoons of either sesame oil or melted coconut oil in your mouth and then pull the oil through your teeth for 10 minutes. Don’t gargle with it or swish it, you must pull it through the teeth with a sucking action so that the oil can attach to and trap the bacteria in your mouth.
This is very important for anyone with gum disease, sleep disorders, or any manner of digestive complaints (because they are likely related to bad bacteria in some way).
Do this once a day for three weeks to a month for a gentle cleanse and tune-up to your health.
CONSCIOUS CONCEPTION
Whether you are feeling empowered or overwhelmed after reading this chapter, don’t worry: The only thing that matters is that you care enough to read this book to learn more about your own health and your future child’s health. Changing and improving your diet and health does not happen overnight. It takes time. Knowledge is power. Start wherever you feel comfortable and build from there, one step at a time. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, just get started. We suggest that every day you choose one to three things from this book that inspire or motivate you so you can start to feel and see changes a little bit at a time (and feel free to change it up as often as you like—there is a lot of good stuff to pick from).
It is a beautiful thing to have the luxury to prepare to create a new life, both physically and mentally. We often hear that people start “trying” when they feel emotionally, mentally, or even financially ready, but rarely when they are physically ready. Taking this opportunity to bring your physical well-being to the next level will dramatically improve the mental and the emotional aspects of your choice, truly making this one of the most beautiful experiences you can have.
And because it is important to us to be true to ourselves, we are going to get a little spiritual-emotional on you for a second.
Establishing thoughtful intention about conceiving a child can be just as important as celebrating other life milestones, such as weddings or bar mitzvahs. We recommend creating an event around this decision. This could be as simple as a candlelit dinner, when you and your partner dream about what it might be like to have a little girl or boy. The specifics of the event don’t matter as much as the act of preparing yourselves to welcome your child into the world and become parents. Another option is a heart-to-heart meditation. Place your hand on each other’s heart and stare into each other’s eyes for five minutes. It may feel as awkward as it sounds at first, with laughter and uncomfortable feelings. But taking a moment out of your busy lives to sit and “see” the other person can create connection, and a space for joint intention that is very powerful. So have fun with it, and enjoy preparing for baby.
Below is the 12-week plan that will get your body ready for baby. Feel free to incorporate these changes into your life at whatever pace feels comfortable, yet challenging to you. If any week feels overwhelming in any way, it’s okay to introduce each step in that action plan over two weeks, or even more gradually. (On the flip side, if you would like to fast-track the program, feel free to combine weeks.)
WEEK 1 Action Items
1. Test the pH of your urine and saliva for six days (see here). You can buy pH test strips at your local health food store or online. Download the “Food Effects on Acid-Alkaline Body Chemistry” handout from thewholejourney.com (or see Appendix C) and keep it on your fridge, so you can familiarize yourself with the properties of the foods you eat and begin to customize your diet accordingly. Incorporate three to five new foods from the alkaline side of the chart that you are not already consuming.
2. Drink 16 ounces of room-temperature water with the juice of half a lemon upon waking. If you have acid reflux (GERD), use 1 tablespoon of Bragg raw apple cider vinegar instead of lemon.
3. Eat breakfast with a minimum of 15 grams of protein and a healthy fat within one hour of waking daily. See here for recipes.
4. If you drink coffee, make sure it’s organic, try to drink it only every other day (swapping in green tea or yerba mate for the in-between days), and drink lemon water or a green drink before your coffee whenever possible.
5. Begin your prenatal supplement program, customized to you based upon our recommendations.
6. Have your partner read Chapter 10: Becoming a Super Dad, evaluate his health, and upgrade his food and supplements.
WEEKS 2 and 3 Action Items
1. Increase your high-quality water intake. Write it down to make sure that every day you are drinking 1 liter (34 ounces) of good-quality, mineralized water for every 50 pounds of body weight.
2. Go gluten-free. See our recipes and snack ideas (here) to help.
3. Eliminate pasteurized (not pastured) dairy products. Use avocados in place of cheese and either raw milk, unsweetened organic coconut milk, almond milk, or hemp milk in place of pasteurized milk and creamers.
4. Upgrade your healthy fats and oils. Use coconut oil, ghee, grass-fed butter, extra virgin olive oil, and/or avocado oil. Also, eliminate your intake of soybean, corn, canola, and cottonseed oils; read labels.
5. Eat two servings of leafy green vegetables daily. One serving is 1 cup cooked or 2 cups raw. Experiment with new greens or drink a green drink daily using our recipes here.
6. Shop and cook from Weekly Meal Plan 1 (here) for week 2 and either continue this plan for week 3 or use the upgrades and ideas to incorporate your own meals.
7. Balance your energy with lunch! We find for most women lunch is the hardest meal and the easiest to skip or just graze. Work on keeping your hormones balanced with lunch by including ½ to 1 cup complex carbohydrates every day. This will give you sustained energy, less cravings, and better moods. Examples of complex carbs include chickpeas (hummus), black beans, pinto beans, wild or black rice, quinoa, gluten-free oats, sweet potatoes/yams, butternut squash, parsnips, plantains, and acorn squash.
8. Add healthy snacks from our snack lists (here) or order them from thrivemarket.com, a discounted whole-food grocer.
9. Upgrade your physical activity and make sure you are moving your body for 45 minutes to 1 hour at least three times a week. Choose movement that you enjoy and look forward to and that is supportive to you.
10. Start a Food Mood Journal and write in it every day for seven days. Journal what you ate, the time, and how you felt before and after the meal/food. Did you feel dehydrated? Tired? Lonely? Bored? Stressed? Didn’t have enough carbs with lunch? Lacking in protein? Then look it over at the end of the week to deconstruct your cravings. Did you notice any consistent mood changes after consuming certain foods, positive or negative? This will help you prepare the best snacks and times to eat to maximize your energy and your mood.
WEEKS 4 and 5 Action Items
1. No “white stuff” or sugars! Naturally sweetened treats are allowed. We have given you a ton of alternatives here and a few recipes (here) to satisfy sweet cravings. If you like to bake, swap in coconut sugar cup for cup for another sweetener. And read labels for hidden sugar (see here)! For example, individualized fruit-flavored yogurt can have up to 25 grams of sugar!
2. Use and/or make Healing Bone Broth (here). For medicinal purposes, each day drink 1 cup as a tea mixed with 1 teaspoon coconut oil or ghee and ¼ teaspoon sea salt. Alternatively, cook veggies or grains in the broth. If you would rather purchase chicken bone broth, you can order it online at drinkbroth.com.
3. Know your Primary Foods, the things that feed you other than food. Create your own Nourishment List of the things that feed your soul, including hobbies, interests, and things you have been wanting to try or do. Do something from your Nourishment List once daily, even if it is only for fifteen minutes. This will help you slow down enough to “create space” for a baby and to get in touch with your intuitive, motherly side.
4. Avoid non-fermented soy! Clear out as many foods as you can that contain soybean oil, soy lecithin, soymilk, tofu, soy protein, and soy flour. Inquire at restaurants to see if they are cooking your food in soybean or canola oil. If so, politely ask if butter could be used as an option or ask for food steamed with a side of olive oil.
5. Downshift your caffeine intake from where you currently are. In a perfect world, go off it completely. For caffeine-free alternatives to coffee, see here.
6. Only consume clean animal protein, e.g., wild fish and shellfish, grass-fed and organic beef, pasture-raised (free-range/organic) chicken and turkey, and pasture-raised eggs. If these are hard to come by in your area, consider ordering from cleanmeats.com and cleanfishchoices.com.
7. Increase your intake of organic foods! Heed the Dirty Dozen (see here) and try to buy those twelve foods in organic form only these weeks.
WEEKS 6 and 7 Action Items
1. Increase your thyroid-boosting foods by adding at least five new foods from the list here.
2. Do everything within your power to be asleep by 11 p.m. every night for these two weeks. Create a nighttime ritual and turn off all technology thirty minutes before bedtime. Take a sea salt bath, stretch, read a magazine, breathe, meditate, write, or pray. And during the day, evaluate your energy level. Take a few minutes to rest before you reach the point of crashing.
3. Begin upgrading your bath and body products for natural ones. Start with swapping out three to five products over the next two weeks. Find tons of great alternatives (that work great and smell good) on thewholejourney.com/resources.
4. Oil pull (here) at least one time and preferably do it every day for three weeks in a row as a very gentle act of cleansing.
5. Get cooking with Weekly Meal Plan 2 (here) for weeks 6 and 7. In addition to the dinners, prepare a few snacks to have on hand since this is when we are usually the most hungry and willing to eat anything. Remember, when it comes to healthy eating, “failing to plan is planning to fail,” so take the time to actually do this.
WEEKS 8 and 9 Action Items
1. You should have had at least two weeks of being sugar-free by now and are reaping the benefits. Continue as best you can without the white stuff and see where else you can satisfy your cravings without succumbing to the spike and drop from sugar.
2. Love your liver! Try making our Turmeric Ginger Lemonade (here, either hot or cold) and drink 12 to 16 ounces a few times each week. This will help your liver produce a master antioxidant called glutathione.
3. Swap out three to five sugary condiments if you haven’t already. The most common culprits are ketchup, soy sauce, and salad dressings. Substitute low-sugar real organic ketchup, tamari, or coconut aminos, and homemade salad dressings from our recipes (here). If you are purchasing salad dressing, read the label for sugar content.
4. Have one mindful meal each day when you chew your food 30 times each bite and are not doing anything other than eating (no computer or TV).
5. Shop and cook from Weekly Meal Plans 3 (here) and 4 (here) for these two weeks.
6. Now that you’ve been eating clean for a while, decide if you want to run a food sensitivity (IgG) blood test (see here) based upon your new digestive health and energy.
WEEKS 10 and 11 Action Items
1. Continue with everything you have been doing and get back into writing in your journal.
2. Evaluate your relationship with technology and if you find it’s controlling you, find ways to have a healthier balance, like keeping your phone on silent. Consider simple things like lighting candles before dinner or giving yourself 10 to 20 percent more time to accomplish things to ease the “hurried” aspect of your life. Do your very best to cut off technology exposure thirty minutes before sleep and to be asleep by 11 p.m. at the latest.
3. Read back through the previous weeks’ Action Items. Make a new list from the things you have not yet done/tried or things you have stopped doing that you would like to start again. Evaluate the current level of health you have achieved from following this plan and your potential need for additional lab work.
WEEK 12
1. Truly celebrate yourself and congratulate yourself for how far you have come! Changing your lifestyle and habits is not easy!
YOUR SUPPLEMENT GUIDE RECAP
We’ve listed our favorite brands and supplements here to make it easier for you to get high-quality nutrients in the right amounts. This way you don’t have to do all the research yourself and make the process more complicated.
Always check back on the supplements section of our site (thewholejourney.com/supplements) because things are always changing and companies are always reformulating. The website will have the most up-to-date information.
Use the recommended dose on the bottle or follow our recommended doses below.
1. Prenatal vitamin: Take as directed on the bottle or by your clinician. Recommended brands include:
• Thorne Research’s Basic Prenatal
• Ortho Molecular’s Mitocore (good for those with MTHFR) or Prenatal Complete with DHA
• New Chapter’s Perfect Prenatal
• Garden of Life’s Vitamin Code Raw Prenatal
2. Probiotic: Take 1 to 2 at night or as directed on the bottle. Recommended brands include:
• Pure Encapsulations’ 50B, PureProbiotic, or Probiotic GI
• NutritionNow’s PB 8
• Garden of Life’s Raw Probiotic Women
• Ortho Molecular’s Orthobiotic
3. Fish oil: Take 1 per meal (start out with an extra one with breakfast if dealing with excessive inflammation). Recommended brands include:
• Pure Encapsulations’ Cod Liver Oil or O.N.E. Omega
• Thorne Research’s Omega Plus
• Green Pasture’s Blue Ice Fermented Cod Liver Oil or Royal Butter Oil/Fermented Cod Liver Oil Blend
• New Chapter’s Wholemega Whole Fish Oil
• Nordic Naturals’ Cod Liver Oil
4. Greens complex: Take as directed on the bottle. Recommended brands include:
• HealthForce’s Vitamineral Green
• Garden of Life’s Perfect Food Super Green
• Ortho Molecular’s Deeper Greens
• Amazing Grass’s Green SuperFood
• PaleoPro’s Paleo Greens Powder
5. Maca root (optional): Take as directed, or start out with one dose upon waking and one dose at mid-morning, twenty minutes away from food. If you are extremely tired and depleted, you can try taking two twice daily and then go down to one twice daily after three weeks. It is suggested to take it for 6 to 10 weeks, and then take a break from it. Recommended brand:
• Natural Health International’s Femmenessence MacaHarmony (for women) and Revolution Macacalibrum (for men)
6. Royal jelly (optional): Take ½ to 1 teaspoon daily for 4 to 6 weeks. Recommended brand:
• Premier Research Labs
7. Vitamin D3: Recommended brands include:
• Premier Research Labs
• Thorne Research’s
• Pure Encapsulations
• Garden of Life’s Vitamin Code RAW D3
Depending on your diet and lifestyle before starting this program, you might experience detoxification symptoms as your system resets. These symptoms can range from fatigue and cravings to skin breakouts, or mild flu-like achiness. If this happens, it’s actually a positive sign and the symptoms should resolve within 7 days of eating according to our meal plans. If you have any reason to believe adverse symptoms are not simply related to detoxification, stop supplements and consult your physician.
Most likely, you’ll be feeling super energized and empowered to keep going!