Book Review - Real Food for Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating for Two, and Baby's First Foods

When a mother you know who is gorgeous and healthy and smart with a gorgeous and healthy baby recommends a book to you you definitely read it. This is why I read real food for mother and baby by Nina Planck.

First of all in general I want to say that I really enjoyed the book because Nina has a very interesting voice. The way she presents her information is approachable, accessible, and informative. She uses a lot of science, which I love, but made it accessible, which is great, and she gave a lot of tips on how to specifically prepare for different parts of the baby creating process, which as you guys probably know by now that is something I am super into. I especially liked how she went through the different stages of development told which kinds of vitamins and minerals the baby will be using at each step in the pregnancy.

So, in general, Nina's philosophy on food is to eat when she calls 'real food', eating food that has been around in human evolution for a long time. Now, she's not totally paleo but the overall idea is at the longer humans have been eating a kind of food, the better it is for you. Nina is completely against processed foods and she is against refined sugar but it notes that even she can't resist it sometimes. One thing that I really liked about her approach is that she gives the information with some science to back it up and explains why she would recommends it but she even admitted she exercises all these things with some flexibility and moderation. She gives some fun examples of times when she breaks her own rules because its what she wants to do because it suits the situation that she's in.

I would recommend this book. It starts by giving you a general overview of conception diets and foods that have long been considered appropriate for potential mothers across many cultures. I really like her look back in history and anthropology at I think it's very interesting to learn about the diet of people in cultures around the world. I love the connection that she finds in cultures on opposite sides of the world when it comes to newlywed women who are expected to conceive soon.

I think that people who are vegan might not enjoy this book because Nina is definitely against a vegan diet and is a former vegan herself. She does over a lot of vitamins and nutrients that cannot be found naturally in a vegan diet and since she is a big advocate of natural vitamins, natural minerals, and natural eating she really cannot advocate a vegan diet because it requires a lot of supplements. However she does admit that many mothers are very nauseous when they are pregnant and supplements might be necessary because they can't keep food down anyway.

I also really enjoyed the section where she looked at how humans compare to other similar animals and how some of her opinions are backed up by biological research on other similar animals. I specially enjoy her section explaining how we should be nursing and caring for baby based on the fact that we are carrying animals not nesting animals. I thought that this is very interesting and helpful and will definitely inform some of my future decisions when it comes to how I will take care of my baby. Basically when you look at the level of competency of a newborn baby and you look at the composition of milk it is like that of other carrying animals not like that of nesting animal. I want to write a blog on this so I will leave it at that because I think the topic is well worth exploring.

I didn't agree with everything that she had to say, there are some risks said she takes that I don't think I would be willing to take (like raw milk and some alcohol consumption) but, on the whole, she gave really great advice. Again, I really respect the fact that she presented her information and says this what I have found but  I have broken my own rules and you have to do the best you can with your resources and your family.