Bradley diet...opinions?

we are going to our first bradley class tonight actually. but i have read the book and aware of the diet requirements. i try to eat two eggs a day, but if i don't i don't. i'm in agreement with the above attitude of not being too hard on yourself. otherwise we're just likely to get stressed out about whether we've had enough eggs or this or that, and that stress is probably worse than whether or not we got 100g of protein today or 60 yesterday. i counted protein in the beginning of pregnancy, but i don't anymore. i've thought a lot about protein requirements in pregnancy. i've worked in healthcare for awhile, and my understanding has always been that protein requirements for the population vary and depend on numerous factors, such as weight, muscle/fat, activity level, etc. so i was kind of curious to know why there is a set range for pregnant women. we are all pregnant, sure, but we are still all different in terms of weight, activity level, etc. just been curiously pondering that myself.

We just had our first Bradley class last night...I can already tell you I don't plan to follow this diet too closely. Heh. I'll track my protein for a week and see how much I'm getting, but there's no way I'm eating two eggs a day. I don't like eggs. I am vegetarian, and I eat a pretty balanced diet, and I'm happy with my diet the way it is....so...I am going to take the recommended diet with a huge grain of salt.

I am pg with #5 & have roughly followed the Brewster diet with my last 4~ It is not really hard even if you are a vegetarian~ I am not a big fan of eggs so I don't eat them but otherwise I aim for 80 grams of protein a day~ It is much easier than you think & once you get the hang of what has high protein & what doesn't it makes it easier~ I try to eat a big bowl of Grape nuts every morning(about 20 grams), make sure I have a yogurt snack(7grams) or peanut butter(10 grams) then I get a piece of chicken or steak for dinner(15-30 grams) depending on the size~ I have gotten more than 1/2 way there with 2 meals & a snack~ I do notice that I crave protein in the 1st trimester which really helps~ One thing I like to remember is that Protein is the building block of cells & I am doing some major cell building right now

HTH's
Melissa

Last preg, I alternated between scrambled eggs and french toast. That gave me something "different", but I was still getting the eggs (although yes, there was butter and syrup in there too ). I use the same amount of eggs either way, and if I had excess egg when making the french toast, I just cooked that excess and ate it as well.

My boy was a big, healthy 3 lbs 13.4 oz at 29w4d when he was born. Seems small, but that is big for that age. Of course, the fact that his daddy is 6'5" could also have something to do with that size. Protein or genetics? Who knows. But I'll stick with the protein since it seems to work well for me.

Anyway, I do try to get plenty of protein once I get past the m/s stage (I'm in the middle of it now, so whatever sounds good is what I eat!), and last preg was really easy with no complications until that little issue of my water breaking at 29 weeks. But once they let me deliver 4 days later, my labor was short (2.5 hours, and I was a first time mom), and baby was quite healthy. The NICU nurses kept forgetting how "young" he was, as did the NICU doctors. In fact, one of the doctors said "Hasn't this baby started a bottle yet?", and the nurse had to remind him that the boy wasn't 32 weeks gestation yet - that's when they start the bottle. Another doctor told me the first week that he was doing well and would probably go home the next week. Again, he was forgetting how young he was!!! The nurse came by and said no, he wasn't going home the next week. But he was doing very well. Ended up staying another 3 weeks, but was just feeding and growing (and did get on the breast fairly quickly after 32 weeks and went home with NO bottles).

If you don't eat eggs, don't sweat it. Even the Brewer diet itself mentions that you can do substitutes.

I did the Brewer (Bradley) diet with all three of my children. Eggs are recommended because they are like little bombs of nutrition - they are extremely nutrient dense, especially the yolk. They provide much more than protein. They provide iron and a wide range of vitamins and minerals.

I'm not a huge egg fan, but I stuck to that two eggs a day. My hubby was the "egg nazi" about making sure that I ate those eggs. Lucky for me he was also willing to serve them up in a wide variety of ways to make them more palatable. And on days when he didn't, hard boiled eggs and orange slices were one of my snacks.

I complained about eggs throughout all of my pregnancies, lol. But I had strong healthy babies. When my water didn't break until just before our last child was born my (vegan) midwife laughed and said "it was all those eggs that made your bag of waters so strong!"

I don't think eggs are essential, and after the first few weeks on the Brewer diet I stop counting grams. But I do think that it's a wonderful pregnancy diet. Dr. Brewer has vegetarian and vegan versions of the diet, but I didn't do either of those (though there were some days that I went pretty meatless).

I found the best way to get in everything on the list was to have 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. Earlier in pregnancy that's hard, but once I got to the second trimester I was hungry for it anyways. I just cut out all junk and replaced it with good stuff. And I had a snack before bed. Some nights I had a small high protein snack if I woke in the middle of the night too, especially if I'd had a tired or queasy day the day before.

nak...sorry!

I am a bradley teacher and one thing I know about why Dr. Brewer stressed the importance of eggs (and milk) is because they are loaded with nutrients and relatively cheap compared to other foods. He began using this diet on poverish, or low income women who were at risk or already dealing with toxemia and with 80-100 grams of protein added to their diet from these types of foods he saw 100% improvment in their condition. After the high protein and other important componants were added to their diets there were no more cases of eclampsia in the women at his clinic. There are other complicated ways of food combining etc, to get the same type of nutrition but nothing is as cheap and easy (especially if you have WIC! )

Eggs have:

Calcium (needed for bones, teeth and blood clotting, nerve, heart, muscle function)

Niacin or B3 (synthesis of sex hormones, nervous system, brain function)

Folic Acid (important in formation of red blood cells, needed for growth and reproduction of all body cells)

vitamin A (help repair body tissues, fights bacteria and infection)

Protein (helps with development of all parts of your baby!)

Choline ( necessary for keeping the cholesterol in the egg emulsified)

B2 or riboflavin (helps with carb, fat and protein metabolism)

Zinc (helps your body absorb and utilize vitamins better, heals wounds)

Iron (hemoglobin formation, promotes growth and oxygen transport)

Cholesterol (supplier of adrenal steroid hormones, nedded for babies brain development)

I have to say, too, that as soon as I started to up my protein in my pregnancy my morning sickness faded, my swelling improved and I had a lot more energy. Good luck to you and please PM me if you have any questions!

Protein helped my m/s as well. I couldn't even think about food without gagging. My Chiro suggested those Whey shakes and within an hour of the first shake I had an appetitie... I hadn't been able to eat in about 6 weeks and was so sick and weak I could barely walk. Protein is good stuff!

Lemme ask this though... someone on here on another thread mentioned that our bodies cannot metabolize more than 25 grams at a time? I get in 75 grams at once with my daily shake... am I wasting it?