help! Naturopath just said to avoid wheat, eggs, and dairy!

I don't want to go against your naturopath but that doesn't sound healthy when one is pregnant. I would do what your body tells you about those foods. The better vitamins, B6 and more sleep make sense. Our babies bones are growing and as far as I know, one of the best ways to get calcium is milk and dairy...

I have terrible acne right now too. It's weird because with ds my skin got better when I was pregnant. But I doubt that not eating dairy, eggs and wheat will clear up acne?

Anyone know better than me?

Ps. I'm 1/2 french. I was born in France (my mother's french). We moved here when I was 9. I SO get your husband's need for thos yummy french basics...

Cow's milk can actually leach calcium from our bodies... so I think removing it could benefit in many ways (there are some really great threads here with links to the Cow's Milk Question to help you inform youself further).

I don't know enough about wheat and eggs to make any recommendations there. I do know that the diet I'm supposed to follow has me eating 2 eggs a day and I can't even do that many eggs during the whole of most weeks!

good luck figuring her recs out... however, I would definitely call and her and tell her that I expect an explanation of her recommendations (at no further cost because she didn't do an adequate job the first time!). But I'm pretty demanding and some would say "bitchy" that way.

As a childbirth educator, we encourage people to eat 2 eggs a day (although I myself can't manage that either). As a European couple (Dutch/English), we eat cheese daily (and I don't mean American cheese slices!) Just had a French bread and brie sandwich for lunch! Yum! Personally, I'm a strong believer in listening to your own body. Maybe a second opinion would help? I'm especially loathe to follow someone's advice who doesn't take the time to explain to me their reasons for their recommendations. But I'm no medical expert and don't know your personal situation. I'd say listen to your body.

It's a perfect little package: an excellent, cheap and easily accessible source of protein, not to mention vitamins and minerals (including vitamin A), amino acids and necessary cholesterol. It's a nutrient-dense food, boosts energy and you can eat them in a variety of ways (hard boiled or added in other foods like French toast or something). In fact, now that I'm thinking about them, I think I'll go have one myself!

I eat eggs every morning for breakfast, I just didn't know they were that healthy...good to know!

Oh, and welcome to our DDC madigiam!!

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Thanks! Glad to be here and look forward to getting to know you all!

I would probably go back and ask if cultured dairy would be ok (yogurt,some kinds of butter,cottage cheese) because I had to go on a similar diet but was allowed these foods. as far as wheat there are many alternatives,spelt, rye etc. I am not sure why you have to cut out eggs I was unaware they were such an allergen but dairy and wheat i know are and it would probably do you good to get off of these for awhile it did me...good luck

I have been thinking about this post a lot since I first read it... and I have a few responses for you to kick around. i DO NOT agree with some of the pp in that you should just follow your body with regard to food choices, nor that pregnancy is a bad time to cut any potential allergens out. A little bit on that: Our bodies sometimes CRAVE things that it actually sholdn't have- for instance, if you have an overgrowth of yeast, then your body will move mountains for sugar. It is the thing you shouldn't have- it feeds the yeast. But you crave it because the yeast is hungry. Same with when your body truly needs protein, it is easy to desire sugars. Try protein first, and you most likely won't want the sugar food. And sometimes I get hungry- my body says eat- when really I am dehydrated. So, while I believe our bodies can tell us many many things, there are cravings that are not actually what is in the best interest for us. I craved Kraft mac and cheese, and McDonalds burgers. I didn't go eat them cause I also knew they would poison me.

Cutting out wheat will NOT threaten you or your baby. Wheat is not a needed food source, and instead is a MAJOR source of allergens and taxes our bodies. It is in everything, yes, and so is tough to ride the learning curve of how to cut it out. But there are so many people affected with celiac/gluten intolerance/wheat allergies these days that there are many many many choices to replace your wheat sources that are good and you won't notice the difference after a while. If you do decide to go wheat free, my suggestion would be listing all the foods that you feel you must eat that contain wheat... and find out how to replace them. There are great rice pasta's, flours, waffle mixes, cake recipies, crackers, breads, etc that are GF/WF.

After years and years of acne, my skin completely cleared up after giving up wheat. So did my headaches, my joint pain, and my chronic sluggishness. Many people have the same results. Oh, and I wasn't jet propelled any longer. I finally had no painful gas! If you are having skin stuff, I would also suggest you try throwing out the gluten/wheat.

I agree with littleteapot, that dairy can be a undesireable thing especially during pregnancy. There are certainly lots and lots of great calcium sources that are non-dairy. You can read up on the deal with dairy during pregnancy... there are a few schools of thought on it.

That all being said, I find the true underlying issue to be about your relationship with your care provider. I have no clue whether you need to eliminate certain foods. (I would look into muscle testing and what kinds are accurate and what kinds are a total hoax). Howevere, what is most importnat, in my mind, is that you can totally understand the advice you are given, why it is being given, and then you can make a decision on whether you are going to take it to heart or body. In this case, I would be on the phone first thing with the naturopath and say something like "I have been thinking- I really felt great about the appointment the other day, but I realize now that I don't understand the reasoning behind cutting out wheat. And dairy. And eggs. I am willing to consider it, I juts realize that I need more information. So, if I cut these things out, you would be looking for what sort of change? Do you recommend this to all pregnant women, or is it specific to me?" Questions along those line.

A naturopath is not a naturopath, and we can't at all figure out the accurate reason why she would have told you one thing or another. Go to her to find out.

Is your diet so worrisome that you really need to be spending a fortune on specialty nutrients and vitamins in a pill? Are you taking any nutritional herbs? Usually diet and herbal support can proveide your body with what it needs for pregnancy. I am always leary of pricey packaged stuff from chiro's, etc....

Also, are you willing to change your diet if need be?

Good luck- sorry for typos-

Thanks for all the info. I really found some thoughtful responses. To those of you who gave up wheat (Andrea, Java, Evergreen, Starlein, etc.) and dairy, did you give it up for life? I had heard that you could go off it for a time and then desensitize yourself enough to add back small amounts within moderation. That would be more promising to me at least. I have a weakness for pastry - but I don't have it all the time

Just to give you an idea - the prenatal vitamins, two types of homeopathic remedies, probiotic pills, and B6 pills came to $185 all together. If they are the right thing for me (and I don't have to spend that every month or anything), then I guess I can justify it as a way to get me back on my feet again.

I felt good about the physician - not that she was a hoax or anything. The muscle tests were kind of questionable though. She would hold my arm and ask me questions. Sometimes she would push my arm down and say it was weak - sometimes she would hold it and say it was strong. I didn't feel like I was doing anything with my arm at all. That is the only tool she used to diagnose my "allergies".

So far I have avoided wheat, but I accidentally had cheese in some indian food yesterday. Eggs are the one I'm stunned over. I've never heard that I've had an allergy to that - and that would mean I can't eat even gluten-free breads and scones and things (which I found at whole foods) that use eggs. The vegan things often have wheat. The three together - eggs, dairy, and wheat - are quite drastic. I only was able to reach her assistant yesterday - and she said no dairy at all (not even goat, sheep, or yogurt products).

Anyway, I am expecting a call back from her today and I'll give it a shot. I just want to feel like myself again. Oh - and I'm going to Texas in a week to stay with family over Easter holiday - it would be impossible to give up mom's cooking when I only see her twice a year

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Sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear enough when I wrote this. I meant you should listen to your body, not cave in to it at the first sign of any craving. I know pregnant women who have a strong desire to eat chalk or other bizarre things - I don't recommend they just go out and do this. I recommend they listen to their bodies, use some common sense, some education and think about what their body is trying to say. You can't do this without first listening to your body.

I consider another part of the body to be the heart and gut and these are very important to listen to, in my opinion. I totally agree with ariahsmum that the true issue here is about your relationship with the care provider. I personally am the type to seek second opinions and not hesitate to ask questions. And one of my pet peeves with health care providers is that many do not take the time to explain themselves or their diagnoses or to educate their patients adequately. If you're left with questions such as how much of the alleged allergens to cut out, for how long etc, that would bother me as a patient. Did she take into account your family situation and nutritional habits? Give you any guidelines for how to go about making such drastic changes? If you feel surprised or concerned or unconvinced, then - if it were me - I would listen to that and get a second opinion or insist on speaking with her in great depth about her recommendations.

Just my two cents!

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Google up 'kinesiology' and see if that's what she was doing, I bet it was. Kinesiology is good stuff!