Any mamas eating a Traditional Foods diet? « Back to Group Discussions

[CookAMH]

Wanted to see if anyone else out there is enjoying raw milk, grass fed butter, kombucha, pastured eggs and all those goodies that come with eating from a Traditional Foods point of view. I'm so thankful for the resources I have as I feel it's helping a healthy baby grow! I also feel that eating this way for a long time before this pregnancy (#3) has helped minimize morning sickness so far. I sure hope it stays that way.

If you're feeling tired, or as we feel more tired as the pregnancy progresses, are there shortcuts you think you'll make? I have given myself certain liberties in the past and made some short term convenience choices either because I was so tired or really needed to put my time into my family instead of a particular meal that day. 

What about freezer cooking? What have you liked to prepare for the freezer?

[RoseSweetie]

I have been trying to eat a Traditional Foods diet with varing degrees of success. I was trying to eat more paleo before becoming pregnant, but this past week I have been dying for carbs so I will probably try to incorporate natural grain preparation more often into our diet. Even though we tried paleo, I still ate dairy. I mostly try to cut back on the really processed stuff. We don't do raw milk because it is illegal here in Maryland :-( but every now and again I buy some raw cheese at Trader Joes. We do get our milk and other dairy from grass fed cows.

When I started down the serious paleo path this past fall, I decided to just call myself a "picky eater" more than any other food tribe going around right now.

[chispita]

I'd say that I don't eat Traditional Foods per se  - but I do incorporate a lot of things that could be considered as such: raw milk, cultured butter, pastured eggs, etc.

Freezer cooking is a no no for me, since our freezer space is pretty limited and mostly taken up by food for our cats (they're raw fed), though I do quite a bit of canning - in fact, I think we have enough chicken stock put up to last us through the year.

But I do enjoy cooking and making stuff from scratch as much as possible.

[nettlesoup]

I eat a primal diet, but am also interested in traditional foods. We can't get raw dairy as it's illegal in Scotland, which is really annoying. I do make my own milk kefir which makes a huge difference to my morning sickness.

I have been cheating a bit since becoming pregnant; I've been eating sugar which i don't normally do, and may have had a couple of gluten based foods, which I regret since I now have a massive mouth ulcer! I need to make some more chicken broth as I found that was really good.
 

[MsBe]

I don't really know the lingo (traditional, paleo, primal, etc) but we live on a small farm where we raise our own pastured chickens and pigs.  Lamb, buffalo, and raw milk we get from our neighbors.  I make my own cheese, yogurt, and some of our butter.  My stocks and broths are always homemade.  I don't know if it our diet makes a big difference with morning sickness, I was feeling pretty ravenous the first few weeks of this pregnancy, and went crazy on tropical fruits (pineapple, mango, kiwi, banana, pomegranate) and hearty greens (kale, collard, mustard, raddichio, endive, bok choy) last time I went shopping.  But at 6w, 5d a general feeling of nasuea has suddenly hit me hard.  I am still doing lots of teas (nettle, oatstraw, red clover, raspberry & dandelion) but l the last few days I have not felt like eating anything.

The chicken broth sounds like a good idea.   

[splath]

We eat pretty traditionally.  We're not be all end all about it, but we do raw dairy, all pasture or grass fed meat, bone broths, I soak a lot of our grains, make our own yogurt, cottage cheese, ricotta, water kefir, etc.  We do eat pasta though and some conventional cheese.

One thing I like to do in early pregnancy - I did it a lot with my second baby and it helped sooo much-- is to make double meals and freeze half.  For example, I already have homemade cheese enchiladas (the enchilada sauce made with homemade bone broth), a lasagna, meatballs and individual meatloaves in the freezer from the week before last.  I'm making meatloaf this week and will just make 2 and freeze one.  It's not really any extra trouble to make double, but it fills the freezer pretty quickly.  I like to do it in the first trimester on days I feel up to it because I know there will be days soon where I'm too sick to want to look at food.  Then I do it in the third trimester to prepare for baby.  I just put the cooking instructions on the package - that way dh can "cook" dinner after the baby comes.  I also cook double the ground meat for things like tacos or spaghetti sauce and freeze half.  Makes a super quick meal for an easy night.  It works well for pizza dough, too.

[nettlesoup]

Splath, that's such a good idea, I need to try it.

MsBe, farm life sounds great,it's something I'd love to do but just can't afford. We do have our own chickens and veg garden though.
 

[RoseSweetie]

I'm having trouble with the cooking ahead thing because of nausea. Last Sunday my husband had to attend a conference for work and would not be eating dinner with us for three days so the week before I made a lot so there would be leftovers. The Saturday before the conference is when my nausea hit and all of the food I made the week before looked soooo disgusting!

I plan to freeze a bunch of meals this summer but we have limited freezer space so we'll see how much gets frozen.

[CookAMH]

One thing I'd like to have more regularly this pregnancy is broth.  Chicken is my favorite to drink, and I always mean to make yummy soups from it that make it even nicer to drink -  my mom has a delicious cream of mushroom soup and the broth was pretty delicious to drink.

We do eat pasta from time to time, and Tillamook cheese is our regular cheese. Some things have to give because of cost or time, but we try where we can to pick the "good" options when we can't get the "best". It's been a while since I purchased grass fed beef - it's costly in the store here in Seattle, and I need to plan ahead to buy it from a truck delivery company.

Does anyone live in range of Azure Standard? (www.azurestandard.com) I love the stuff I can get from there, at great prices. I get: organic unfiltered olive oil by the gallon, raw honey, truly raw almonds, raw pecans, coconut milk, Charlie's soap, lye-free canned olives, balsamic vinegar, raw cheese and more. I can't believe how much they have.

[LLtheTinkerbell]

What are the benefits of broth in pregnancy? I love me a delicious home made broth.

[katalopolis]

This whole thread is making me seriously hungry. :)

[CookAMH]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LLtheTinkerbell 

What are the benefits of broth in pregnancy? I love me a delicious home made broth.

The gelatin and abundant minerals are excellent for growing a healthy baby especially their skeletal structure. It would encourage a healthy gut in both mama and baby as well, which is crucial for life after the womb.  I simmer mine for at least 12 hours, usually up to 24. Often, after I strain it, I'll boil it down to condense it some.

And then egg yolks are awesome too, to provide brain-building cholesterol to the baby.

[nettlesoup]

I've read it's also good for skin elasticity as well as being good for joints.
 

[KaliHekate]

I'm not eating a pure Traditional diet (too many cravings), but I'm definitely having raw milk, raw milk kefir, kombucha, nettles, broths, pastured eggs, cod liver oil, grass fed butter, ferments, etc.  

DF and I milk cows on a very small organic farm 2-4x a week and get lots of good food in exchange. :)

The farm owner is an herbalist and has recommended some different herbs for me too.

BTW, she swears that eating a little kelp everyday helps with an easy delivery, based on what she's seen with her cows.

[chispita]

Originally Posted by KaliHekate 

BTW, she swears that eating a little kelp everyday helps with an easy delivery, based on what she's seen with her cows.

Seaweed is supposed to be really nutritious and good, so why not give it a shot?

Which reminds me that it might be time to make miso soup (with the dashi, bonito flake stock, from scratch) .... mmmmhh

[splath]

I put seaweed in all my bone broths/stocks that I make :)

[haurelia]

Hi!
I'm just joining the DDC with baby #2, "due" Sept 23rd. 

We eat a pretty traditional foods diet, although some drift away from that in times of rough budget.  We have a raw milk share, pastured egg share, make our own yogurt and kombucha, eat mostly wild meats like venison and goose, along with pastured beef and chicken. We soak grains/legumes before cooking, usually.  I maintain a sourdough starter for bread and pancakes, although I've been avoiding most carbs while TTC due to a suspicion of PCOS (for which I've also not been drinking milk...just having small amounts of cheese and whole milk yogurt).  I keep a jar of "family tea" going almost always (nettle, RRL, rose hips, mint), but mostly I'm the only one that drinks my infusions.  DH and I love my sauerkraut, but DS, alas, cannot be coaxed. I'm thinking of putting it on a peanut butter sandwich to see if he'll eat it. 

My DS and I take fermented cod liver oil/butter oil combo, although DH won't touch it because his mom made him take CLO as a kid!  We do a lot of gardening/foraging/preserving, and have a lot of bone broth, berries, venison and tomatoes put up currently.  We generally avoid sugar, and use honey and maple syrup sparingly to sweeten things like baked oatmeal or a nut butter sandwich for DS.

I'm debating about whether or not to re-introduce raw whole milk and some properly prepared grains into my life.  I've had some slips and cheats here and there, of course! But, I want to have a really healthy pregnancy and avoid excess weight gain (as I'm starting out overweight to begin with).  The limitation/exclusion of refined carbs/milk helped me to lose 15 lbs while TTC.  I will start small, with some soaked oatmeal and bits of milk, and see how my body feels. 

So far, no nausea or MS.  Craving for meats! Tonight I had whitefish tacos on corn tortillas, guacamole and a lemon bar (sugar slip for DS's 4th bday today). 

We transitioned to this way of eating after DS was born, so I'm excited to see how this way of life can help with pregnancy. 

Cheers to all!