Diet and Nutrition
Everything in your body is built from the food you eat. Every bite provides the raw materials your body uses to create hormones, grow healthy eggs, support a developing baby, repair tissues, and keep every cell working as it should. Food is so much more than calories. Yes, it gives us energy to get through busy days, but it also delivers the tiny nutrients our bodies rely on every second of every day. Those nutrients help carry out thousands of incredible jobs behind the scenes, from balancing hormones and supporting fertility to growing a healthy pregnancy and nourishing your baby after birth.
It’s not just about what you eat, either. It's also about how well your body digests, absorbs, and uses those nutrients. That's why true nourishment is about supporting the whole body, not simply counting calories or taking a handful of supplements.
Research has shown that many Americans (up to 80%) aren’t getting enough of the essential nutrients their bodies need each day. Modern diets, busy lifestyles, depleted soils, and highly processed foods have left many of us undernourished, even when we're eating enough calories.
The good news is that our bodies are incredibly resilient. When we consistently provide them with the nutrients they need, support healthy digestion, reduce our exposure to toxins, move our bodies regularly, and make lifestyle choices that promote healing, we give ourselves the best possible foundation for health.
This becomes especially important when you're trying to conceive or are already pregnant. Your nutritional status doesn’t just affect you; it helps shape the environment your baby grows in from the very beginning. Nourishing your body before and during pregnancy can support healthy fertility, a healthier pregnancy, a smoother birth, and give your baby the strongest possible start in life.
The reality is that even if you’re making an effort to eat well, you may still be missing key nutrients. It’s not because you're doing anything wrong… our food has changed dramatically over the last century.
Modern farming practices, depleted soils, long supply chains, food processing, and the convenience-driven way many of us shop and eat have all contributed to food that is often less nutrient-dense than it once was. Many foods are harvested before they're fully ripe, travel thousands of miles before reaching our plates, and are processed in ways that can reduce their nutritional value. Along the way, they may also be exposed to pesticides and other environmental contaminants. We've become accustomed to supermarket shelves stocked with perfectly shaped produce and packaged foods available every day of the year. While this convenience has many benefits, it has also distanced us from eating foods that are fresh, seasonal, and as close to their natural state as possible.
The encouraging news is that small, intentional changes can make a big difference. By choosing whole, nutrient-dense foods whenever you can and being mindful of where your food comes from, you can significantly improve the quality of the nutrients you're giving both your body and your growing baby.
Our food may contain:
Pesticides such as glyphosate, herbicides, insecticides, and antifungal agents.
Parasites, pathogenic bacteria, and molds.
Additives, artificial colorings, flavorings, and preservatives.
Components that nourish unhealthy gut bacteria, including certain sugars (refined), and phenols derived from specific foods and chemicals.
Growth hormones and antibiotics, commonly found in non-organic meat and fish.
Fluoride, chlorine, and heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and aluminum.
In addition to our food being nutrient-deficient, we acknowledge that our bodies require more nutrients today than ever before.
Why?
Increased exposure to pollution and chemicals exacerbates the situation. The more toxins you expose yourself to through the skin, lungs, and ingestion via foods and drinks, the harder your body must work to eliminate them, leading to increased nutrient depletion.
Stressful lifestyles also play a significant role. Increased stress, excessive exercise, inadequate sleep, and chronic illness deplete the body of more nutrients.
Certain foods deplete our nutrient reserves, such as caffeine, other stimulants, and refined sugar. Processing sugar demands high levels of nutrients to counteract its negative effects, including insulin production and anti-inflammatory responses, placing additional strain on the liver, which necessitates extra nutrients to store sugar as fat.
“But I’m consuming the RDA, surely that’s enough…”
To help prevent nutrient deficiencies, we have established recommendations for how much of each vitamin and mineral most healthy people need each day. These are known as the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs). They provide a starting point for understanding our basic nutritional needs. But here's what's important to remember: there is no one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition.
Your body's nutritional needs are as unique as your fingerprint. The amount of nutrients you need depends on many factors, including your age, genetics, health, stress levels, medications, lifestyle, digestive health, environmental toxin exposure, and the quality of the foods you eat.
While the RDAs are designed to help prevent deficiency diseases in the average person, they aren't the amounts needed for every individual to thrive. If your body isn't getting the nutrients it needs, it may not function at its best. Over time, nutrient insufficiencies can contribute to fatigue, poor immune function, hormonal imbalances, and other health challenges.
This is especially true during preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum, when your body is working harder than ever to nourish both you and your growing baby. During these seasons of life, your nutritional needs increase, making it even more important to build a strong foundation with a nutrient-dense diet and, when appropriate, targeted supplementation.
Nutrient Deficiency Symptom Assessment
Free Online Self Assessment
Our team of nutritionists have developed the Nutrient Deficiency Symptom Assessment (NDSA) to help you identify nutrients you may be deficient in. Increasing these nutrients in your diet may improve or rectify your symptoms and contribute to better health outcomes for you and baby.
The NDSA provides three pages of the essential 29 nutrients the body requires, each with associated deficiency symptoms for you to work through. Find out what nutrients you may be lacking and what you can do to reverse those deficiencies, support your symptoms, and lead to optimal health.
So What to Eat?
Nutrients derived from foods are found in different forms:
Proteins, carbohydrates and fats
Vitamins; for example, the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, and the water-soluble vitamins C and the B vitamins.
Trace elements, such as selenium, manganese, molybdenum, and chromium.
Plant chemicals, such as bioflavonoids, and antioxidants such as quercetin.
Fiber, both soluble and insoluble, to support gut health and the elimination of toxins.
Water for hydration (the body is approximately 72 percent water).
We strongly recommend the following food selections:
Organic, pasture-raised or grass-fed meats and poultry, including raw dairy.
Wild-caught fish.
Organic and seasonal fruits and vegetables.
Soaked and sprouted nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains, in moderation.
Some nutrient-dense food selections may be allergenic to some individuals, such as eggs, nuts and seeds, including peanuts. It is recommended that you work with a functional and integrative health practitioner and complete a food allergen screen prior to selecting foods or avoid that food if you have a known allergy to it.
Protein
Most of the human body consists of protein. It is used by the body for growth and development, for the manufacture of energy and enzymes, tissues such as muscle, skin, nails, and hair, as well as hormones and antibodies. Protein comes from the foods we consume and can be from plants, such as beans, nuts, and seeds, or from animals, such as eggs, meat, fish, and poultry. These proteins are made up of numbers of amino acids (the body’s building blocks). Some amino acids are more important than others because they cannot be made in the body and must therefore come from the food we eat, digest and absorb.
Our favorite protein sources:
Grass-finished, organic red meats and poultry
Grass-finished, organic organ meats
Pasture-raised eggs
Bone broth made with high-quality, organic bones
Organic and raw dairy products
Grass-fed gelatin and collagen
Grass-fed whey or bone broth protein powder can be supplemented when necessary (ensure third party testing for heavy metals)
Plants are not as abundant as meats, fish and eggs as examples of protein sources and supplementation may be required on vegan diets dependent on the individual requirements. If you are a vegan, please consult with one of our practitioners for further guidance and support through your pregnancy.
We recommend consuming 1.5g/kg minimum protein daily.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are starches and sugars found almost exclusively in plant foods such as fruit and vegetables, legumes, pulses and grains. They are broken down via digestion into glucose and absorbed into the blood system. The glucose is then transported via the blood system to the brain, the body’s cells, and the central nervous system where it is used as the main form of fuel to make energy in each of our body’s cells.
Carbohydrates come in two forms: “fast releasing” and “slow releasing”. Fast-releasing carbohydrates provide a quick release of glucose into the blood, producing what are known as blood-sugar spikes. These foods include sugar, refined foods, confectionary, and some fruits such as dates and raisins.
Slow-releasing carbohydrates produce a steadier release of glucose in the blood. These foods include starchy foods, including potato, whole grains, vegetables, and some fruits. Slow-releasing carbohydrates are the better foods to consume often because they do not create the rapid increases in blood sugar that is related to many conditions such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and many other related health conditions when overconsumed.
Our favorite carbohydrate sources:
Organic seasonal vegetables (non-starchy and starchy varieties)
Organic low-glycemic fresh seasonal fruits such as berries and green apples
Organic raw local honey, in moderation
Organic soaked and sprouted grains, in moderation
Fats
Fats are often perceived as the primary dietary culprits linked to diseases like heart disease, obesity, and cancer. However, it's crucial to understand that while certain fats, such as manufactured seed oils, hydrogenated fats, and trans fats, can harm our bodies, others are essential for our overall health and well-being.
Despite their negative reputation, the majority of natural fats are essential nutrients required by the body. Specific unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in foods such as nuts, seeds, oily fish, and high-quality olive oil provide essential fatty acids like omega-3, omega-6, omega-7, and omega-9, which are vital for proper bodily function.
Saturated fat has received a poor reputation and as a result of the Ancel Keys Study led the war against fat and the upsurge in low fat diets and an increase in refined carbohydrates and sugars. Saturated fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease, while processed vegetable oils, margarines and the advent of the low fat diet was the new rage.
Quality saturated fats have many important roles in health and body chemistry and are absolutely essential for keeping you healthy and for growing a healthy baby:
They help to build healthy cell membranes, cell growth and cell division.
They provide you and baby with fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.
They make important hormones like the sex hormones and prostaglandins that help regulate important body functions such as reducing inflammation in the body from omega-3 fatty acids.
Help elevate mood and lift depression.
Help support gut integrity by reducing inflammation.
Supports prenatal brain development in babies.
Help protect our genetic DNA and RNA.
Our favorite fat sources:
Organic pasture-raised fatty meats and wild-caught fatty fish
Organic pasture-raised egg yolk
High-quality, organic extra-virgin olive oil
Organic raw dairy products, including raw butter
Organic avocado
Organic soaked and sprouted nuts and seeds
Vitamins
There are 13 different vitamins, each with a specific role to play in the body. These are divided into two groups: water soluble vitamins, which include the B vitamins and Vitamin C, and the fat-soluble vitamins, which include vitamins A, D, E, and K.
Most vitamins are used as co-factors or ‘spark plugs’ that connect to an enzyme to make it work. Just one benefit of nutritional supplementation is that it can provide adequate nutrients to support enzyme functionality. Vitamins are needed to balance hormones, produce energy, support brain and nervous function, act as antioxidants to reduce cellular and genetic damage and premature aging, and support detoxification.
Minerals and Trace Minerals
Like vitamins, minerals and trace minerals are vitally important for most body functions and processes. They are essential for making body tissues such as the bones and teeth, and are involved in energy production, brain, nerve, and cell function, the transportation of oxygen and the management of blood sugar.
They are also needed for enzyme reactions to support the immune system. Minerals and trace minerals come from food that grows in the soil and the animals that eat that food.
Water
The body is composed of approximately 70% water. It is our most vital nutrient and is involved in every function of the body. It helps to transport nutrients and waste products in and out of our cells, it is necessary for digestion and the absorption of nutrients, and it provides the solution—or plasma—within our lymphatic and blood circulatory systems. Water supports the elimination of toxins via sweat and urine and carries vital nutrients such as vitamins and minerals around the body. It is also essential for managing body temperature and body pH.
Without water we would die within 3 to 5 days. Our minimum requirement for water is approximately 2 pints per day because we lose water through our lungs, gut, skin, and kidneys. Ideally we should drink half our body weight in fluid ounces per day. Alcohol cannot be classified as a drink containing water, as it dehydrates the body if consumed.
It is vital to select a quality source of water. Preferably choose filtered water or spring water in a glass bottle. The quality of tap water differs from area to area and may be full of harmful chemicals such as fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, industrial chemicals, fluoride, chlorine, arsenic, aluminium sulfate, soda ash, and inorganic minerals that are toxic and cannot be used by the body.
If you do not enjoy pure water, it is fine to flavor it using natural fruit juices, like lemon or lime, or herbal teas, such as ginger, spearmint, and green tea. When you feel thirsty it commonly indicates that you are dehydrated.
Dark-colored urine is also a sign of dehydration. (Please note that excessive Vitamin B2—riboflavin—in a supplement can discolor the urine making it orange in appearance.)
God has graciously provided us with the foods we consume, each meticulously designed. Through His creation, we find wonderful clues indicating which types of foods support specific parts of our body.
A sliced carrot looks like the human eye. It is known that carrots are high in vitamin A as beta carotene and this has been shown to support eye function and health.
A tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. Research shows tomatoes contain lycopene which is beneficial to heart function and cardiovascular disease.
A walnut looks like a brain with a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. Walnuts are high in essential fatty acids which are important for brain development and function.
Avocados target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female, and they look just like these organs. Research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it can help to balance hormones and prevent cervical cancers.
Mothers2B Recipes
Looking for a nutrient-packed meal that's perfect from preconception to postpartum, and even for baby-led weaning? Try these Organ Meat Burgers Lettuce Wraps! Rich in essential vitamins and minerals, organ meats are a powerhouse of nutrition that supports fertility, pregnancy health, postpartum recovery, and infant development.