Real Food for Gestational Diabetes: An Effective Alternative to the Conventional Nutrition Approach

This is the only book that exactly aligned with my goals, cleared my fears out of my own understanding of the correct low carb diet that worked for me.

I love this book and can't recommend it enough to anyone who is pregnant or struggling with their diet during pregnancy.There is a big misconception that if you fail a glucose test you automatically need to be put on medication and that is not true at all. This book helps guide your diet so your numbers are low after the test, and the majority of the time you can control your gestational diabetes with proper food and diet.I have been doing this along with light exercise, 10-15min walks and my at home glucose tests have been perfect everytime!Women need to understand that gestational diabetes is not a death sentence and that food and exercise play a huge part in your numbers. There are alternatives to medication that should be tried first!Give this book a chance, try it for a couple weeks, and monitor your glucose at home, and stop jumping on Big Pharma medications instantly.Some little changes could really help you and baby! ❤️

Si estás embarazada o planeas estarlo, es imprescindible leerlo. Tanto si tienes diabetes gestacional como si quieres prevenirla.

Questa dieta mi ha salvata a fine gravidanza quando la mia insulino resistenza era al massimo. Vorrei averlo letto al momento della diagnosi. Peccato che nel nostro belpaese del carboidrato non si possa parlare di questo nuovo approccio.

I purchased *Real Food For Pregnancy* when I was trying to conceive and I found it incredibly helpful. When I was diagnosed with GD I was terrified, but remembered this author had written this book. After reading it I felt so much more at ease. I have such a low tolerance for carbohydrates in this pregnancy and the NHS guidelines were telling me to pack in low fat dairy and add in MORE carbohydrates than my body could handle which was spiking my BS. So far I have stayed diet controlled, baby is measuring well, I haven't gained any weight, and I am so grateful to this book for giving me the tools to keep myself and my baby healthy.

Finally! I’m so glad someone has collected and printed evidence in support of a low carbohydrate diet in pregnancy. There is so little out there, and many health care practitioners remain in the dark.I was following a Keto diet (20g/day) prior to becoming pregnant, but was afraid to continue due to the lack of evidence I could find myself that it was ok for the baby (despite an anesthesiologist who I work with telling me that it was ok- he has been low carb/Keto for 10+ years). I planned to add more carbs in a healthy way, but things got out of hand and I was back to my old ways of eating after a couple months of being pregnant (didn’t help that my food aversions were all my healthy foods like broccoli etc).At 28 weeks I failed my 1-hr glucose test with an 8.6 (supposed to be below 7.8 here in Canada) after drinking their artificial sugar laden 50g orange drink. It scared me, but for the best. I immediately started on a low carb (75-100g/day), high fat, moderate protein diet and used my fitness pal to guide me in making sure I was meeting all daily nutritional requirements. As suspected, I failed my two hour glucose with readings of 12 and 9.4 after drinking their 75g sickly drink. I remained on my low carb diet but started testing my sugars 4x/day (I already had a meter that I used to test ketones while doing Keto). In the next week I didn’t have any high readings.At first I felt devastated and wondered how long I was exposing my baby to all this extra sugar. We used to laugh about how much he moved, which now looking back was probably too much because he was being bathed in sugar. Well, let’s just say my momma bear instincts kicked in high gear.I was sent to the diabetic clinic to see their dietician. I came armed with all my sugar readings and all my fitness pal logs of my daily meals and nutrition. She pretty much had a stroke when she seen how little carbs I was eating. I got the speech about how important the carbs are to babies and how I would gain too much eating all this fat (healthy fat I must add). She told me I needed to have 45g of carbs per meal! Plus 15g at every snack! She then proceeded to tell me, and I quote, “It is better for you to eat the carbs and take insulin than to not have the carbs”. .... what!? How can you tell me it’s better for me to load myself with sugar that I don’t need and to take a needle then to eat all this nutritious food that has been providing me better nutrition than I had before? And how can they say to make sure you are eating 45g/meal when you failed a 1hr glucose test drinking 50g of carbs? It just did not make sense.I listened to what she had to say, and even gave her way of eating a chance. Only one chance though, and that was to prove a point. That night I had supper according to her guidelines. I followed it exactly! She said I could have up to 1.5 cups of whole grain pasta cooked, as that would be my 45g for that meal, and the carbs in the other categories didn’t count. For supper I only had 1/2cup of cooked whole grain pasta and had other forms of carbs to fill the missing 30g she recommended. My 1 hr sugar was .... 9.1!!!!!!!!! If I were to eat the way she wanted me to, I’d be on insulin now at 30 weeks. Why would I eat this way if I can eat low carb, get more than enough nutrients for my baby, still enjoy some potatoes, and only have sugar readings no higher than 6.4! I was just astounded at everything!I double checked with the anaesthesiologist I work with who does low carb (he’s amazingly educated on low carb, and our guru on it where I work) and he said the recommendations I were given were absurd.I then bought this book, as it seems to be one of the very few that can be found to back up this healthy way of living. It gave me the extra knowledge and reassurance that I was not doing my baby harm, but rather doing both of us good. I can’t say thank you enough for this book. Very informative while not being too scientific. I plan to recommend this book to that dietician, not in a shove it in her face kind of way, but more so she may hopefully be intrigued and see that there is a truth waiting for much of the medical world to unravel. All you need to do is start a spark in one person.If you have gestational diabetes and are wondering if low carb is good for you, this book full of scientific evidence, good recipes, and excellent guidance will put you at ease. Don’t hesitate to buy it. Myself and my baby are very happy. He still moves a fair bit, but at a much more normal rate. I’d say I’ll have my hands full soon enough ;)**Update: when baby was born he was 6lbs, 12oz and healthy! First thing a nurse said to me was “Wow! You did really well controlling your gestational diabetes”. Staying low carb kept me and my baby healthy, and I didn’t need to go on insulin! This book was part of that, and was probably one of the main things that helped reassure me I was doing the right thing following my instincts and not listening to bad advice from ill informed, although well intentioned, dieticians during my pregnancy.