Real Food for Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating for Two, and Baby's First Foods » (Original)

Nina Planck, author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why and The Farmer’s Market Cookbook, is an expert on local and traditional food. I n London, England, she created the first farmers’ market, and in New York City she ran the legendary Greenmarkets. She lives in New York City with Rob Kaufelt and their son, Julian. They all eat real food.

Following the success of Real Food, Nina Planck’s Real Food for Mother and Baby explains why real food is better for woman and child.

Nina Planck, one of the great food activists, changed the way we view old-fashioned foods like butter with her groundbreaking Real Food. T hen she got pregnant. Never one to accept conventional wisdom blindly, Nina found the usual advice about pregnancy and baby food riddled with myths and misunderstandings. In Real Food for Mother and Baby, Nina explains why many modern ideas about pregnancy and infant nutrition are wrongheaded and why traditional foods are best. While Nina can be controversial—her op-ed in the New York Times on vegan diets for infants was one of the paper’s most e-mailed articles— she’s no contrarian. Readers applaud her candor; they also trust her research and welcome her advice.

Nina’s basic premise hasn’t changed—whole foods are best—but some of the details are surprising. Pregnant women need meat and salt, not iron supplements. Nursing will be easier if you act like the mammal you are. Delaying the introduction of certain solid foods doesn’t prevent allergies. Cereals are not the best foods for tiny eaters; meat and egg yolks are better. From conception to two years, the body’s overwhelming needs are for quality fat and protein, not for carrots and low-fat dairy. Even as she casts a skeptical eye on the conventional wisdom, Nina is reassuring. She shows you how to keep your baby healthy on good, simple food. Real Food for Mother and Baby will be the new classic on eating for two.

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 What is Real Food? 5

Real Food Defined 5

Real Milk 12

Real Meat, Poultry, and Eggs 17

Real Fish 21

Real Fruit and Vegetables 23

Real Fats 26

Real Bread 33

Real Food Rules 36

Chapter 2 The Fertility Diet 41

Traditional Fertility Foods 41

Four Fertility Rules 46

The Modern Fertility Diet 55

Five Easy Pieces 57

The Sperm Team 65

A Population of One 70

Chapter 3 Forty Weeks 78

Mother and Baby in the First Trimester 78

Knocked Out Loaded 79

More Blood 88

A Glass of Wine? 91

Green in the Gills 94

Red Meat Is Ironclad 98

Mother and Baby in the Second Trimester 101

Prenatal Scare 105

An Ounce of Prevention 110

The Day I Forgot I Was Pregnant 114

Mother and Baby in the Third Trimester 118

Brain Food 121

Not a Tax Return 124

Birth Day 128

Chapter 4 Nursing Your Baby 134

Very Soggy Indeed 134

Pro-Life 139

Your Milk and Your Diet 143

The Queen of Fats 152

Harder Than It Looks 158

When You Cannot Nurse Your Baby 165

Cache or Carry? 170

Tips and Myths 178

Chapter 5 First Foods 185

East of Eden 185

Readiness Is All 189

Baby Foods 190

The Scientific Feeding Method 203

Baby Drinks 207

I Get in Hot Water over Vegan Babies 212

Bread and Chocolate 215

Cod Liver Oil Comes Back 221

Bye Bye, Delicious Milk 224

The State of Real Food, Circa 1940 227

Acknowledgments 231

Resources 233

Notes 241

Bibliography 257

Index 261