Tips for a veg*n pregnancy.

[Lydiah]

Does anyone have any advice? I currently dont eat meat, dairy, and eggs. I still breastfeed my 19 month old and did not have any supply issues when I switched to this diet a couple months ago. This diet has been working really well for my crohns disease so I would like to keep it up. I have been doing so well that my DH and decided to ttc in the New Year. I want to keep this diet but I am also considering adding eggs back in to help me support a pregnancy and breastfeed. I have regular cycles so I really dont think it will take long to get pregnant once we start TTC.

Things I am concerned about.

Too much soy. I read a study about too much soy and a birth defect in baby boys. How much is too much?

Essential fatty acids. I know flax oil is a good source but I read an article that says it can cause premature birth. I dont know how true this is but some anectotal evidence would be nice.

[lotusblossom9]

I think it's possible to have a very healthy vegan pregnancy. When I was pregnant my diet consisted of vegetables, fruit, beans, nuts, seeds, and gluten-free grains. I tried to drink at least one large green smoothie a day. (Make sure to eat vitamin C with greens to absorb the nutrients better.) I based my diet on Dr. Joel Furman's plan.

Along with my multivitamin, I took a DHA supplement, and continued while I was breastfeeding. I also put 1-2 tablespoons of flaxseeds and at least 1 brazil nut a day into my smoothies. I have never heard of flax oil causing premature birth, maybe someone else on here knows something about that. I also tried to take a walk everyday to get some vitamin D, and drank calcium and vit D fortified OJ. I included 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast a day for B12.

I didn't give into "pregnancy cravings" too much. If I ate what I craved, I would have constantly eaten tons of junk food. I tried to choose the foods with the most nutrients. When I wanted something like candy, I'd make a almond, coconut water, banana, and date smoothie. The exception was eggs. I have never liked eggs in my life but craved them a lot when I was pregnant so I did eat a small amount of organic eggs.

I didn't eat much soy because I had read about the estrogens in soy causing defects as well. I focused on beans and nuts/seeds for concentrated protein. I think for my next pregnancy I'll include hempmilk.

I also got my bloodwork checked just to make sure I wasn't low on anything.

I think all of this paid off because I was able to give birth naturally and my son was a very healthy baby. He has been vegan since birth (eating similar to what I mentioned above) and has never been sick.

Hope that helps!

[GreenVariety]

Hey there! Good for you (on all accounts!!). I've been mostly vegan for a little over a year now. The reason I went vegan was health issues as well. It has been a HUGE help. I am mostly raw so I eat VERY little soy (miso and nama shoyu (sp?) are pretty much it). A number of vegan's choose to add eggs into their children's diet for their health but not their own. Theoretically you should be able to get everything that you need from your vegan diet. I find that I have been super healthy and putting on just the right amount of weight for myself as I progress through my pregnancy just by maintaining my diet. If I were breastfeeding I would listen to my body and possibly incorporate more nuts, seeds, and fatty fruits (coconut, avocado and olives). Coconut oil is AMAZING stuff!

I also use a lot of nuts and seeds (and mushrooms/olives) as replacements for soy. I really am not a fan of consuming a lot of soy. In traditional cultures it is not consumed as much as it is made out to be. Also it is consumed in a fermented form to get rid of a lot of the legume's estrogen. You can also make wonderful nut burgers and veggie burgers with other ingredients. Soy is surprisingly easy to get around, you just have to make a number of the products yourself (food processor to the rescue!).

That being said, this is what's been best for me. I would highly suggest listening to your own body. Really tune in and figure out what works best for you! No one knows your body better then you.

On another note, there is a ton of information in the raw vegan community on completely curing Crones disease. I am not familiar with the vegan community as a whole (I'm a part of a different aspect of it I suppose), but if it is anything like the raw vegan health benefits I think the best thing you can do for yourself is continue to explore those options to keep yourself as healthy as possible!

Good Luck!

[Lydiah]

I have been emailing Dr McDougall about my diet and crohns and he has been helping me a ton. Well I emailed him about being vegetarian with out eggs and dairy and he sent me to chapters from his womens book and I am totally not worried about being a strict vegetarian while pregnant. He has been really good to me. He answers every email promptly.

Thank you for sharing your experience ladies. It makes me feel good to know this is not only possible but easy enough as well.

[Jelinifer]

Soy is pretty easy to avoid. I'm not sure what you can/can't have with Crohn's but here's a typical day of food for me as a preggo vegan:

Breakfast: A smoothie- I vary between.... chocolate soy milk with a scoop of rice protein powder, a scoop of peanutbutter, and a banana and a smoothie made out of calcium and Vit D fortified OJ, a banana, vanilla flavored almond milk and a scoop of rice protein powder.

Morning snack: a big handful of fruit and nut trail mix or a hemp seed granola bar and a piece of fruit.

Lunch: some sort of leftovers.... Today's was a salad made of quinoa, sunflower seeds, a diced red and green bell pepper mixed up with enough garlic hummus to hold it all together

Afternoon snack: usually some plain air-popped popcorn or some whole grain crackers and cut up raw veggies

Dinner: For today...... still up in the air but I'm thinking it'll be some black bean soup with whole grain bread and more fruit for desert.

....If I go a few days without soy milk in my smoothie, I'll have tofu for dinner. Otherwise If I'm craving something "meaty" I'll make some seitan for dinner. I also make meatless-loaf with quinoa and lentils and all sorts of variations of rice/grains and beans for easy dinners.

[GreenVariety]

This is only one blip from an article I found on "Give it to me Raw" but I LOVE Dr. Gabriel Cousin's and this his work is brilliant so I had to share!

** No Need To Worry About The Oxalic Acid In Raw Spinach ** (Roger Haeske: Was popeye right ?)

"Some people are concerned that they'll leach calcium by
eating spinach. It turns out this is quite unlikely to be a
problem for most people. Here's a quote from Dr. Gabriel Cousens book "Conscious
Eating," on this very point. "In one extensive study on children put on a high-spinach
diet and other high-oxalate foods, no evidence of any
alteration of calcium, vitamin D, or phosphorous metabolism
was found. It is possible, however, if a person has a low
calcium intake or poor calcium metabolism, that a high-
oxalate diet could cause a calcium deficiency." Another factor is whether the spinach is cooked or raw. In
the raw form it's believed the oxalic acid will not bind
with the calcium. In other words, eat as much spinach as
you want as long as it's raw.

Did you know that many other raw foods naturally contain
oxalic acid? Foods like sesame seeds, nuts, citrus fruit,
tomatoes, asparagus, beets, Swiss chard, dandelion greens
and cranberries. So if you haven't been worrying about the
oxalic acid content in these foods, I don't think you need
to worry about it by increasing your consumption of spinach."

There are a couple other things there and there is a lot of controversial data but I thought I would share this one article. It is a quite controversial topic come to find out!

[ShadowMoon]

I had a great, easy, healthy vegan pregnancy. (I was vegan for 8 years prior as well). I loaded up on whole grains, veggies, beans, fruits, healthy oils, etc. I drank soy, almond and hemp milks. I did tend to consume quite a bit of non-dairy ice cream but whatever I also took a prenatal vitamin and continued to do so while bf'ing.

I didn't change anything while bf'ing except trying to eat more food and get more calories int my system. I also tend to eat a lot of soy (all types: tempeh, milk, tofu, mock meat, etc) but that's because I enjoy it and have never had negative effects from it. To each their own there.

There is a "Pregnant vegan" tribe in the Pregnancy forum you might want to check out too. Great ideas and advice in there as well.

Peace!

[crunchy_mommy]

I remained vegan throughout my whole pregnancy & it was picture-perfect. And yes I ate flax seeds, and my DS was born on his due date. There's an article I was just looking at today about EFA's: http://www.vegansociety.com/food/nut...atty_acids.php

I see no reason why you'd have to add eggs back unless you want to...

I was also soy-free & wheat free for my first trimester but the rest of my pg ate both 'cause I was HUNGRY!! I'm now back on my wheat-free diet with, I am concerned about soy but I don't think it's a problem to have one or 2 soy products a day (and could help you get over those cravings!) although others may disagree. I'd worry more if everything you ate contained soy...

The best part of a vegan pregnancy: everyone else is worrying about what they can & can't eat (no raw fish, no deli meat, etc.) but everything I ate was on the "safe" foods list, so I didn't have to change my diet one bit, just ate a lot more!!

[Lydiah]

I am looking forward to a vegan pregnancy (I am not a true vegan, i do eat honey). I think it will feel good growing a baby with good clean food. I ate like a horse last pregnancy so, it will be nice to know everything I eat is good for me and the baby. I was doing more research and I hear smoothies are a great way to get nutrients and protein. I think I will buy some rice or hemp protein powder and add a scoop here and there. I bought some rainbow light prenatals and some flax seed oil capsules.

Thanks ladies, I feel really positive about this.