Setting the Foundations Part I.
Welcome to the six pillars of health for your preconception, prenatal, postpartum, or just wanting to feel good journey.
The first and arguably most crucial step in this journey of optimizing your health is finding a nutrient-dense diet that works for your body. Unfortunately, the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health (2018) reported that only 12% of American adults are metabolically healthy. But the good news is that small shifts in your relationship with food can make you not only metabolically healthy but vibrant and ready to bring new life into this world. Food nourishing your body has a cascading effect on each of the following pillars.
Whole foods, more than just a grocery store chain.
The most accessible place to start is considering what kind of food you eat and where you are sourcing it. Real, whole foods mean food created by nature rather than in a lab. An easy way to seek out real, whole foods is by starting to read labels and, better yet, finding food without labels. Why is this important? As food is processed, it loses its nutritional value and becomes more inflammatory for your body. According to Kiecolt-Glaser (2010), diets that promote inflammation are high in refined starches, sugar, saturated and trans-fats, and low in omega-3 fatty acids, natural antioxidants, and fiber from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
One of the greatest gifts of considering pregnancy is a newfound awareness of what you are putting into your body. Whereas previously, choosing organic or non-GMO only affected you, now those choices affect your children and possibly your children's children. Many studies have found that higher prenatal exposure to insecticides and pesticides is associated with children's poorer neurological and cognitive development. One such study found that by consuming organic produce, moms-to-be could significantly reduce exposure to pyrethroid insecticides (Curl, 2019). You can find organic products and grass-fed, pasture-raised meats in many groceries and online, but your best bet is to find a local farmer's market. Get to know your farmers and learn about the love that goes into their farms. I swear it makes the food taste better.
Setting yourself up for digestive success.
Now you have delicious food sourced responsibly. Maybe you've even met some farmers and learned more about the origins of your food. This is when the body gets to show off its incredibly complex and robust digestive system. The ability to properly digest food is fundamental as every cell of the body depends on nutrients to function, and this is especially true in preconception, prenatal, and postpartum care. Despite being incredibly powerful, the modern world taxes our digestive system. Constant stress, highly processed foods, refined sugars, alcohol, and so many other variables cause our digestive process great distress, which reflects in how many people suffer from irritable bowels, a catchall diagnosis for digestive duress. Heartbreakingly, some studies have even drawn a connection between leaky guts and recurrent pregnancy loss (Tersigni, 2018). The situation is far from hopeless. By already being more mindful of the food you choose to consume, you are removing irritants and increasing the supply of nutrients to your body.
It is helpful to remember that the digestive system is a north-to-south process, beginning with your body's ability to shift into a parasympathetic state, often referred to as the rest and digest response. This means healthy digestion starts in the brain! By constantly eating our lunches at a desk in front of a screen or on the go, we rarely help our body switch into this mode, but small tricks like taking even a few minutes to sit outside and eat or practicing gratitude before eating can have a profound effect. Even taking the time to eat with others or practicing family meals can have long-term impacts on health (Fulkerson, 2015).
Starting with these two pillars, do you feel most of your food is whole and nutrient-dense? Personally, I noticed my anxiety, mood swings, and digestive issues started to fade when I was more intentional about the food I ate. It seems wildly obvious but sometimes when you feel like you’re in a funk, think back to what you’ve eaten. Have you had any fresh fruits or vegetables? Did any of your meals include protein? This is huge when considering our next two foundations, blood sugar regulation and healthy fats.
references
Joana Araújo, Jianwen Cai, and June Stevens. Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders. Feb 2019.46-52. Published in Volume: 17 Issue 1:February 8, 2019 Online Ahead of Print:November 27, 2018
Kiecolt-Glaser J. K. (2010). Stress, food, and inflammation: psychoneuroimmunology and nutrition at the cutting edge. Psychosomatic medicine, 72(4), 365–369.
Cynthia L. Curl, Jessica Porter, Ian Penwell, Rachel Phinney, Maria Ospina, Antonia M. Calafat. Effect of a 24-week randomized trial of an organic produce intervention on pyrethroid and organophosphate pesticide exposure among pregnant women. Environment International. Volume 132, 2019, 104957, ISSN 0160-4120
Tersigni, C., D'Ippolito, S., Di Nicuolo, F., Marana, R., Valenza, V., Masciullo, V., Scaldaferri, F., Malatacca, F., de Waure, C., Gasbarrini, A., Scambia, G., & Di Simone, N. (2018). Recurrent pregnancy loss is associated to leaky gut: a novel pathogenic model of endometrium inflammation?. Journal of translational medicine, 16(1), 102.
Fulkerson, J. A., Friend, S., Flattum, C., Horning, M., Draxten, M., Neumark-Sztainer, D., Gurvich, O., Story, M., Garwick, A., & Kubik, M. Y. (2015). Promoting healthful family meals to prevent obesity: HOME Plus, a randomized controlled trial. The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 12, 154.