The Brewer pregnancy diet - anyone followed it?

[LionsandBears]

it says eat liver if you like it. Liver has high levels of iron too. I don't like it, so will skip that.

[kungfubecca]

If it's a well balanced diet it has merit, but you shouldn't eat more than your body feels comfortable eating, as long as you are receiving a balance of the different nutirents to stay healthy, that is most important, and basically bubs will strip your body of what it needs before it goes without.

if you follw the diet, just leave some room for treats occasionally, even if your treat is a big bowl of fruit salad, make sure you don't sacrifice that craving for the diet.

[luna moth]

It might be a good start as a guideline. I looked at it, and it doesn't seem like that much to me - but as a vegan, I don't eat the meat, so would be looking at serves of beans or pulses. I defintiely have at least one a day, and often two.
Anyway, that's ramble.

Also, Heaven's right - liver is definitely not recommended in pregnancy these days - even if you like it. Maybe the plan is a little outdated?

Have you thought about reading What to Eat When You're Expecting? It's a bit long, but pretty good. Tash, I have a (slightly old but still good) copy that I can ship down to you if you like. Otherwise, consider going to your library (oh to be near a quality Melbourne library!) and borrow one of Rosemary Stanton's cookbooks - lots of them have great info in them, and mine has a section on pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Good luck!

[LionsandBears]

Audax - the plan was developed in the 50's, so probably has some outdated bits, but only the liver that I can see

I think I actually have that book - thanks for the offer. Unfortunately, I have to say I struggle with those "when you're expecting books", so it's on the bookshelf. A great book I have is Feeding the Bump, which has receipes for each trimester.

We've developed a basic meal plan and it seems to be working, except I still can't eat much at night. Last night all I could eat was a bowl of steamed vegies with some cheese on top. I just end up really bloated at the end of the day and if I eat too much, am too uncomfortable to sleep. Right now, I'm struggling to finish my yoghurt before I finish work and go home.

kungfubecca - there's still room for treats. I had a scoop of ice cream last night. Happily, I put it down as a tick for more dairy btw, 1 scoop is all I could eat - not like the normal portion of ice cream I'd be scoffing down pre-pregnancy.

It's a weird one. I don't think I'm starving bub, but my portions are so much smaller than pre-pregnancy out of necessity (it's all I can fit in). I think it's actually a good habit to learn for the future - hope I can keep it up later.