My husband and I were very excited to find out a couple weeks ago that we are expecting our first kid! :-) Since then, I have been reading lists of all the eat and do not eat foods. Adding blood sugar spiking foods on top of that... and the ever shrinking window of what I should eat seems a little overwhelming at times.
I just wanted to reach out and see what you guys are eating. Are there any meals that you have found low postprandial numbers with? I know everyone is different and things change throughout pregnancy.. but I would love to hear what you are eating and if certain things worked better at different stages of your pregnancy!
Congratulations, and great question! People seem to have different foods that are most blood-sugar friendly to them, but for me, the best carbs to eat are lentils and beans of any kind, brown rice, peas, rice cakes, winter squash, sweet potatoes, Scandinavian-type crackers like Wasa or FinnCrisp, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and berries of any kind. In addition to those foods, I try to eat a lot of vegetables, eggs, cheese, nuts, seeds, nut butter, meat, and low-mercury fish. And make sure you're measuring quantities accurately and bolusing in advance of your meal (depending on you and the stage of your pregnancy, up to 20-30 min ahead).
Let me know if you need any suggestions or recipes for certain foods. Good luck!
Favorites of mine: for breakfast, I ate two eggs, cheese, veggies, and 25g of carb from whole grain toast every morning... for 9 months. Feeling full in the morning helped me get through the day I think.
for lunch/dinner: I ate 40g of carb from starch at every lunch/dinner. This meant
200g of potato (usually baked or fried), 150g of boiled pasta, 140g of rice, or 80g of whole grain bread, 350g of boiled lentils (with mustard).
I mixed up what I ate with it, but I pretty much kept the sources of carb predictable by weighing it each time. I ate a lot of meats and salads, meats baked in the oven with veggies and cheese on top etc.
I loved the lentils and made a bunch and froze them. I would eat it when I was high and hungry (i.e. didn't want to wait for my blood sugar to come down) as lentils raise my bg really slowly.
For snacks (10g of carb from whole grain, 10g from fruit/dairy 3 times per day), I ate apples with peanut butter, natural yogurt with high quality cocoa powder and Splenda (my chocolate pudding), a flax seed microwave cake with natural yogurt, Wasa/finn crisp with cheese or spreads.
This diet was pretty much assigned by my endo. I was skeptical at first about needing to be so strict, but in the end I appreciated the predictability.
I bought a mini-salter scale and if we ate out, I usually ordered only carb free things and brought my own pre-weighed whole grain roll OR ordered french fries or some potato that I could measure on the mini-scale.
Now we are getting ready to get ready for trying for #2. I can't imagine finding the time for all this again :) but it really helped me to be consistent and weigh during pregnancy. By bolusing early, as E. Louise suggested, and accurately carb counting most of the time my one hour postprandial numebrs were under 140.
Hi :) Seeing you list lentils first made me smile :) Did you bolus early for lentils too? I actually went LOW if I bolus early for lentils.
Sweet potatoes are hard to find where I live (Hungary) and was something that I was wishing for all pregnancy. I experimented with planting them in our yard and I decided that we will have a sweet potato garden in place for the next pregnancy :)
I agree, I often go a little low after eating beans or lentils. Or I compensate for that by eating a little more of them or something else with carbs. I often have my best postprandial numbers ever when the only carb I have in a meal is beans/lentils.
I should mention as well that I have been eating pretty low carb this pregnancy (around 75g a day plus any carbs I need to eat for lows). For me that's the only thing that really keeps my postprandial numbers under control. I'm in better control and have fewer up-down swings than I had in my first pregnancy, when I ate a much higher-carb diet. However, eating low-carb during pregnancy is controversial because of the possibility of increased ketones.
Glad that it is working better for you. I want to try lower carb next pregnancy, but my endo is against it (190/day is her plan, but she is strict that none of those carbs come from simple sugars only whole grains/ veggies/ dairy/ fruit).
Great suggestions, ladies! I try to follow these general guidelines as well. I did have a little hiccup in the plan, though, because I'm in the first trimester and am having lots of food aversions, especially in the morning. I also find that I have to do lower carb in the morning than the rest of the day, which became tricky since I can't stomach eggs/protein.
But the good news is I invented this porridge that is super mild and keeps me going and doesn't raise my sugars at all. I posted about it on another chat - but it's 1/3 c. canned pumpkin, 1/4 cup almond flour (or 2 tbsp chia seeds), 2 tbsp ground flax seed, almond milk, cinnamon, and stevia to taste. It's been such a lifesaver!
Also, a friend just made me these muffins the other day and they have been fantastic for my sugars and also help sneak in some veggies :) 30 carbs each w/ 4 grams fiber http://happyhealthymama.com/2013/08/whole-wheat-chocolate-zucchini-muffins.html I wouldn't have them for breakfast - but a great snack!
Thanks so much for all of your advice! I am adding some of these to my grocery list now. Can't wait to try out those recipes :-)
It's so encouraging to see that there are foods that work well for you guys! It gives me hope of getting closer to keeping that 120 postprandial blood sugar my obgyn wants :-o
No problem! I have found some good recipes on paleo websites or in paleo cookbooks (even though I don't eat paleo, since I eat beans and some grains and dairy). Here's my current breakfast, if you're interested. It's a microwave "bread" made from almond flour.
1/3 c almond meal or almond flour 1 Tb ground flaxseed
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt or to taste
a sprinkle of cinnamon if you like
Mix those up in a small bowl with a fork, then beat in: 1 egg
2 Tb oil (I use olive oil, but you could do coconut oil or melted butter)
1-2 Tb water
Grease either 2 small ramekins or a glass 2-cup measuring cup and put batter into whichever you choose. Microwave on high for approx 1 min 40 sec.
I eat 1/2 a recipe of this for breakfast with natural unsweetened peanut butter, and it's very satisfying. I usually slice and toast it the next day.
I hope you like it. I have really enjoyed it--have been eating it almost every day of my pregnancy! And I agree about peanut butter. I have to restrain myself from eating it several times a day! :)
PS if you like this recipe, I got it from a cookbook called Paleo Indulgences, which has great recipes. Many of them are sweet, but lots (like this bread) are not, or can be made less sweet. I made some killer walnut-meal "scones" from that book, and really good chocolate mini-cakes, too. Let me know if you want those recipes.
These recipes all look amazing - thanks for sharing! Speaking of peanut butter... My obsession this pregnancy are Sweet & Salty Peanut Butter Balance Bars. Completely addicted and chock full of some good stuff - e.g., 15g protein, 5g fiber. They have been both meeting my sweet craving and filling me up. AND, I bolus maybe 10 min before eating and my postprandials are always below 120.
E. Louise! I'm completely in love with this breakfast! I was a little skeptical when I put the batter in the microwave but this was so good. I'm totally going to order that book from Amazon right now. If you feel like posting some recipes I'd love to hear your suggestions.
I know what you mean about the microwave--but I'm so glad you like it. I'll try to post another recipe for you later. Glad you're getting the book, too!
