Vegan for Life - Jack Norris [55]
• Eat plenty of foods high in the B-vitamin folic acid. If you don’t typically use refined enriched grain products, which are fortified with folic acid, make sure you are consuming plenty of folic acid–rich foods if there is a possibility you could become pregnant. Vegans generally have higher intakes of folic acid than omnivores, but they still aren’t high enough to meet pregnancy needs. A prenatal supplement that contains folic acid is a wise choice for all pregnant women.
• Some pregnant vegans don’t meet requirements for zinc, a nutrient that can fall short even in well-planned vegan diets. Be sure to include whole grains, legumes, and a serving or two of nuts or seeds in your meals. A supplement providing 15 to 25 milligrams of zinc can be a good choice for pregnant vegans. It should also supply 2 milligrams of copper since zinc can lower copper absorption.
• Because calcium absorption is more efficient during pregnancy, pregnant women don’t have increased needs for this nutrient. It’s important to get enough, though, so make sure you emphasize foods that are calcium-rich. Make it a daily habit to eat a serving or two of leafy green vegetables and choose calcium-fortified soymilk and orange juice. Recommendations for calcium intake are 1,000 milligrams per day.
• Supplement daily with vitamin B12 and, unless you are absolutely certain that you are getting adequate sun exposure, take a supplement of vitamin D as well.
• Although it is usually called morning sickness, nausea associated with early pregnancy can occur at any time of day. In addition to being unpleasant, nausea can keep you from eating healthfully. Here are a few tips to help you deal with pregnancy-induced nausea:
• Eat frequent small meals since an empty stomach can make nausea worse. (Small meals can also help with heartburn, which can be a problem for some pregnant women.)
• Eat something immediately upon waking, when your stomach is likely to be empty. Keep crackers or raisins or whatever appeals to you on the bedside table.
• Avoid liquids with meals if you find that this increases your nausea.
• Identify healthy foods that are less likely to make you feel sick. You’ll need to follow your own instincts, but good choices to consider include whole-grain breads, dry cereals, cooked or dried fruits, and white or sweet potatoes. Try adding small pieces of vegetables and tofu to miso soup to make them saltier and easier on your stomach.
VEGAN NUTRITION FOR NURSING MOMS
The rate of breast-feeding is higher among vegan mothers than in the general population. And that’s nice for their babies since breast milk is the ideal food for infants. Ideally, babies should be fed human milk for at least the first year of their lives and preferably throughout the second year as well.
Nursing mothers need extra calories for the process of synthesizing milk and to provide the calories that babies need for growth. Energy needs, therefore, are higher during lactation than in pregnancy. If you have post-pregnancy pounds to drop, a small reduction in calories can usually produce a gradual weight loss while still maintaining adequate milk volume. Don’t decrease calories too much, though, as it can cause the milk supply to decrease as well. Drinking plenty of fluids is also important for producing adequate milk.
Needs for some nutrients go up slightly, so keeping the emphasis on nutrient-rich foods is as important as ever. (One exception is iron: Since breast-feeding women don’t menstruate, iron needs drop to very low levels during lactation.) Diet affects the levels of all of the vitamins in breast milk as well as the type of fat.
The two nutrients that require the most attention in vegan diets are ones that nutrition-savvy vegans are already focusing on—vitamin D and vitamin B12. Deficiencies of these nutrients have been seen in babies whose mothers didn’t follow recommended guidelines