[not_telling]

I know some of you mamas are eating a LGI diet because of GD, so I'm hoping to get some insight from you and anyone else who's trying to eat LGI foods.

I have no health issues related to food, but DS was 9 lbs 7 oz at birth and I expressed to my midwives that I'd love to have a slightly smaller kiddo this time around. Their recommendation was to follow a LGI diet. Well, I've been looking over some of the foods that are ok, and some of those that are not ok....and I really don't know if I can do this. I eat whole wheat sandwich bread, but apparently that's no good...and I'm worried that the ones that are recommended (Ezekial bread?) I just won't like. And I do like to eat bagels, english muffins and other so not LGI breads. And no watermelon?? During the summer? And peanut butter is high?

Basically, I'm worried that all my staple foods are out the window if I want to do an LGI diet. I'm wondering what folks who do LGI actually do eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert.

I'm lucky that doing an LGI diet is a choice I can make. The worst that could happen, I'm assuming, is that I don't follow it and have another large baby...which hopefully would still come out faster than last time since DS paved the way, so to speak. But, I figure if I can make at least some wiser choices, I might be better off.

Suggestions? Recommendations? Great menu ideas?

 

[Shonahsmom]

I can come back later when I have a bit more time and give you food suggestions, but I wanted to share with you that I know a few women who had a big first baby and followed a LGI diet with subsequent babies and still had big babies. There's a fair amount of research that indicates that fetal size has a lot to do with genetics.

 

[not_telling]

Shonahsmom - I look forward to hearing more from you. I did a very quick google search and did find one study that found that a LGI diet did contribute to smaller baby size. They compared women who did an LGI diet with women who did a low-sugar/high-fiber/mod-high GI diet. And they did control for a variety of maternal factors. Interestingly, there was no signif. difference between the 2 groups in terms of mother's weight gain during pregnancy.

My family is not a big/tall family. DH is tall (6'2") and slender...taller than most of his other family members...but his mom is a bit on the fluffy side. I started my pregnancy with DS at 122 lbs (5'6") and gained about 50 lbs. Everyone, midwives included, was surprised by how big DS was. He has since moved toward the other end of the spectrum...average for height, low end for weight. Maybe for someone with not so many genetic factors, the LGI diet is more effective...?

 

[NicaG]

I had GD with both my previous pregnancies. My dieticians have never stressed eating low GI foods as part of the GD diet, though my dieticians didn't necessarily seem totally up to speed on the most current research in their field. Last pregnancy, I was given a carb limit for each meal and each snack, and I was told not to eat refined sugar and I was told not to eat fruit in the morning. My dieticians were not all that interested in what I ate to reach my carb goal at each meal (I mean, besides avoiding obvious no-nos, like refined sugar); I ate watermelon, I sometimes ate white raisin toast with ricotta cheese for breakfast because it raised my blood sugar less than whole wheat toast, etc. etc. They encouraged a varied diet, so I think the benefits of eating something like watermelon occasionally outweighed the fact that they are considered high GI. Also, if you eat high GI foods with soemthing like fat or protein, it helps even out your blood sugar levels, so the total effect of the meal or snack is not high GI.

Having had experience with GD, I would probably be more concerned with the total number of carbs you're consuming at each meal, rather than the GI of all the foods you're eating. But honestly, like the other posters have said, maybe you just have big babies. If you don't have documented blood sugar issues, I'm not sure if it helps to be on a low-carb diet or not.

 

[elisheva]

DDCC...Nutritionally, I've always felt it never hurts to increase protein and veggies in our diet so I try to make an extra effort to do that in pregnancy...I ate what I felt was a LGI diet (high protein and veg - didn't abstain from peanut butter or dairy...) in my 2nd pregnancy and had a babe who was a full pound less than his brother (length and head circ were the same). By the time dd came along, eating lower-carb was a way of life for us and she was comparable in size to ds2. I've had lots more going on in my life this pregnancy and haven't had he wherewithall to focus as much on nutrition so it will be interesting to see what happens with this babe - I'm hoping our mostly-good low-carb habits have carried me through the binges

 

[emmaegbert]

yeah I had GD with my second, and after doing a lowish carb diet (ovo-lacto vegetarian and whole-foods based) I went back to eating that way at 8m PP and have felt good doing that every since, and am contiuning that now.

I don't eat much grains- at most maybe 1 serving per day (sometimes none). I eat about 2 servings of fruit per day, sometimes 3 (if that, I try to eat berries or cantaloupe). I eat very little sugar (though ice cream is my main treat if I am going to have something). No fruit, no liquid milk but I do eat plain yogurt (full-fat).

I eat lots of protein, veggies, and fat.

breakfast= 2 eggs, 1 serving fruit, coffee w/ half-and-half, and avocado or cheese.

lunch= something like veggies and hummos, maybe some plain yogurt with berries, sometimes cheese or PB.

dinner= veggies and protein.

I do eat beans and other legumes.

I get some inspiration from looking at paleo/primal blogs, but since I don't eat meat, only *some* inspiration. I like the baked goods and I LOVE the "nola" and the cauliflower crust pizza on "Girl Gone Primal" and I also make chia seed crackers. I make coconut flour muffins/bread when I feel like that stuff (also they are portable and very filling). I like the orange coconut flour cake as a basic recipe on the nourishing days blog (and she has some other stuff on there that might be inspiring). I make homemade almond milk too when I have time, and that is a very yummy treat IMO.

For now, since my blood sugar has been normal, I aim to eat less than about 100 carbs per day (not counting the fiber) and if I develop GD again I will be down to less than 50, or as much as needed to control it.

That said, I controlled my GD with diet last time, kept blood sugar control VERY tight, ate no sugar, no grains, no starchy veg, very little fruit, gained 17lbs total, and DD was 9lbs at 40w4d. The labor was under 3 hours and she was born with 3 "pushes" so that wasn't a problem for me, but just saying. It didn't make her small. (and we were actually worried about her being stunted...)

Hope that helps! Good luck.

 

[NicaG]

Emmaegbert: did your perinatologist actually approve only 50g of carbs daily during pregnancy? That seems so low. Both pregnancies (different perinatologists) I was told not to go that low, that it was dangerous.

 

[emmaegbert]

Nobody I was seeing cared what my carbs were if my blood glucose numbers were good. Actually the dietitician told us that after a career working with diabetics, she thinks that really blood sugar readings are more important than other numbers, and though this was nowhere on the literature I was given, this jibes with what I understand about the physiology of diabetes. I was overseen by a diabetes-in-pregnancy counselor (hospital based) who worked with a high-risk OB (who only saw me once, and looked at my chart, and agreed that I was "no higher risk than any other pregnant woman") and my HBMW. My HBMW was also having me spot check that my blood sugar was not falling below the 80s, but I have to say hospital people didn't care if it was. She had me add fat consciously to my diet b/c I was losing weight for several weeks (again, weight loss was never mentioned as any kind of problem to me by the hospital based practice). And then we started adding more carbs when I found my fastings were dropping. I did add things like legumes first (low GI, I think, right?)

And I was not counting fiber so fruit, veggies, coconut, nuts, etc all have carbs, but some is dietary fiber, so my overall carbs would have been higher numbers. I was actually not counting them that carefully, more counting servings. But I would estimate I was around 50-70 per day of carbs when you subtract fiber (closer to 100 counting the fiber?? or more?). I am pretty sure I was never under that b/c I did eat 2-3 modest servings of fruit a day (like, one tangerine or a half and apple counts as a serving) plus some legumes.

My current midwives want me to stay low/no grain, low/no sugar and moderate fruit (which is how I already eat) and to spot check my blood sugar readings. They don't seem to think this is dangerous at all, though when I logged my food for a week and checked, I am ranging 90-140 carbs per day (this # includes fiber) and that includes quite a bit of "cheats" (i/e one serving of grains a day, and some ocassional ice cream or dark chocolate).

So that is a long way of saying, the hospital-based people didn't seem to care what I was eating if my numbers were low, and the HBMW, who was a lot more comprehensive, thought that as long as I was gaining weight and keeping fasting numbers up at 80 and post-prandial numbers in the normal range, and getting plenty of protein, fat and greens in my diet, that this was very healthy.