Your book offers very simple guidelines for what to eat during pregnancy. How did you figure it out?
Fatigue, constipation, lack of appetite, and to be totally blunt, the fear that I was somehow starving my baby—which is nonsense—is what inspired me to figure out what the fetus needs. When I looked at it that way, I was able to relax and pretty much eat what I wanted.
So what was your program?
I know this is oversimplified, but it's logical and useful. The baby is built from three things, in what I call three "acts": In the first trimester, you need micronutrients, which create all the little parts and prevent organ abnormality, and you can get them from a well-chosen prenatal supplement.
And act two?
You build your baby brick-by-brick in the second trimester, so you need protein and calcium; the skeleton is calcium, and everything else—the muscle, the skin, the fingernails—is protein.
And the third trimester?
The baby needs fat—lots and lots of fat for the brain, which grows so rapidly and then continues to grow through the first year. A lot of fish oil and omega-3 fats are good. Breast milk is full of DHAs [as in omega 3s] to build the brain after the baby is born.
In the book, you say that you ate just a little more that you usually do—but wouldn't a lot of pregnant women with their increased appetites find that almost impossible?
Well, every pregnancy is different. I wrote the book after my first, when I gained weight slowly and steadily. Now I am pregnant with twins, and I've had nausea and the only cure is food. So I am gaining more weight, and earlier.
Do you think all the information available—about what you need and what to avoid—tends to separate women from their intuition about what to eat?
There is an excess of information that gets gobbled up in a short amount of time, and it creates a lot of fears. All the information is in your brain and not in your gut. I think the old '70s advice, "Listen to your body," couldn't be better for pregnant women.
What if your body is telling you to eat barbeque potato chips?
Really, the only unhealthy weight to gain is from garbage. When you eat a lot of junk food and white flour, that's the weight women don't tend to lose. Refined carbohydrates aren't good for blood sugar or glucose delivery; they're nutrient-poor calories. If bread makes you feel better, eat whole grain. Get fiber with your nutrients.
Did you eat sushi?
I did, but I ate small fish, like mackerel and eel, and not sashimi. But I think everyone has to find her own place, what she's comfortable with, on the risk curve.
Were you comfortable drinking when you were pregnant?
I avoided alcohol in the first trimester, because it can cause birth defects. There are studies of chronic alcohol consumption, very few studies—mostly anecdotal, of light drinking, and nothing in between. And clinically speaking, there is no definition of light or moderate drinking. In the second and third trimester, I had the occasional glass of wine. A lot of women do this, and obstetricians guiltily condone it.
